Illuminating the Future:

Want to Build Trust? Want to be a Market Leader? Be a Thought Leader

Why is thought leadership increasingly critical to the success of professional services firms? Why do market leaders also tend to be thought leaders? 

As a growing number of firms across the professional services spectrum have discovered, thought leadership can strengthen your market positioning, enhance your perceived value to clients and generate more business overall. 

Indeed, professionals can distinguish or differentiate themselves in a crowded field by becoming thought leaders. In their new book Professional Services Marketing, Mike Schultz and John Doerr contend that thought leaders can expect “greater recognition, demand and reach in the market.”

Thought leadership can be defined as the presentation of insightful, provocative and compelling perspectives that frame the way people think about key issues and even guide them to smarter decisions.

The reason that thought leadership is now so important to the performance of professional services firms can be traced to several factors.

The first factor is trust and authority. Considering the turbulent state of the economy and trepidation of today’s buyers, the premium on trust is higher than ever. In fact, research on “loss aversion” suggests the threat of losses looms far larger than the benefit of corresponding gains. As a result, prospects are unlikely to become clients unless a high level of trust has been established, particularly in this economy.  By presenting compelling perspectives and backing them up with convincing evidence, thought leaders become trusted authorities and earn the confidence of their prospective clients and other market influencers.   

The next factor is the changing dynamics of client buying decisions. In the past, buyers might have been more open to the unsolicited pitches of professional service firms. The seller once had a great deal of information that was not available to the buyer – and a seller’s offer might initiate a buying process. But now buyers are increasingly relying on the Internet to conduct their own research and facilitate their own decisions.  Firms that fail to provide relevant content on the Internet and in other forums are unlikely to be found much less respected. Even firms engaged in active outreach and business development efforts need to be able to point to resources that establish credibility.  

The final factor is competitive pressures. If one’s competitors are out to establish themselves as thought leaders, then you are vulnerable to being left behind if you don’t engage in similar pursuits. This is exactly what’s happening now. Firms are increasingly investing in content-rich marketing efforts that involve white papers, articles, case studies, presentations, published research, public relations and social media outreach.  The more firms engage in thought leadership initiatives, the more the market expects such efforts and evaluates its suppliers and service providers based on them.

Let’s take a look at a few firms – specialists in consulting, accounting and law – that are actively capitalizing on the power of thought leadership. By producing rich content and promoting it in various media and channels, they have become trusted authorities in their fields. They demonstrate why firms should be investing in thought leadership now.   

Thought Leadership: A Simple Formula

In research for my upcoming book on thought leadership, I recognized just how personal the issue has become.

While companies now want to be recognized for their insights and perspectives, the term "thought leadership" is perhaps most commonly used in press releases announcing the arrival of some new executive. In other words, your career elevation depends on being perceived as a thought leader. 

In a recent article, Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone, offers a simple formula: 1) build expertise and 2) get people to recognize it. He says he is living proof that the formula works.

At Deloitte Consulting, my rise from post-MBA consultant to chief marketing officer was accelerated by my "getting slightly famous" in the fields of re-engineering and customer relationship management. Then it was sharing my marketing acumen that helped me land jobs as CMO of Starwood Hotels and CEO of a computer games startup, as well as founding my own sales and marketing consultancy, Ferrazzi Greenlight.

He offers five simple steps (which he attributes to former Deloitte colleague Bo Manning) for becoming a thought leader:

1. Talk about your expertise with everyone you meet.
2. Prepare a formal, one-hour talk with a deck of slides.
3. Write an article.
4. Write more articles.
5. Write a book.

As Ferrazzi acknowledges, this is tough work. By doing the last four of those behind the scenes to help my clients become thought leaders, I have made it significantly less arduous on them. But it's still a tremendous commitment. One has to have the ambition, energy and courage to assume a role of leadership in the first place.

Of course, one of the best ways to elevate ourselves is by elevating others. Many of the people I work with are focused on turning the senior executives in their firms into thought leaders.

All that said, I share Ferrazzi's view that this is the best way to rise above the market noise and become a respected authority in one's field or industry. The rewards come in powerful new roles and promotions, escalating compensation, and the high esteem of one's colleagues and customers.