Thought leadership – sales new Trojan Horse

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This is the first in a series of articles on how thought leadership underpins the new sales approach. 

Customers no longer want to be sold to.

Instead they gather their own information through the web, social media and talking to friends and family – an approach that has fundamentally changed the way we sell.

As a result, our job as sales people should be focused on helping these customers and prospects find us when they search and then to engage them along the way with insightful, useful content that helps them manage their world and their business challenges better.  Done properly, when you do present your product or service, these customers or prospects are so vested in your brand that the sale is as good as done.

To achieve this, you first need to establish the customer at the centre of your universe.  As a starting point, you should establish a deep understanding of their needs and map out their buying personas.  Only then should you deliver the relevant insights and information this understanding has given you.

Do it properly and you will develop an intimacy with your prospects that goes well beyond the traditional sales conversations.  How?  Thought leadership is the way to achieve this.

But critically thought leadership is not about delivering your sales or marketing messages.  We all know how cold that turns us.

It’s the customer that matters not your product or service.

It is important to do everything possible to communicate your ideas in your customers’ language.  This means learning their language, their issues, their fears and their priorities.  Once you understand these you have a much better chance of delivering insights and knowledge that intersects your desire to sell with their desire to grow or find solutions to their business challenges. 

And thought leadership is the vehicle to achieve this.

Thought leadership needs to take the sales lead

To differentiate yourself from your competition and to underpin your future sales, thought leadership needs to take the lead in positioning the company as the go to source of expert information – and ultimately position you as the trusted advisor in your field.

In a paper entitled: “Thought Leadership is the New Sales Pitch”, Chad and Linda Nelson from The Basis Group point out that consumers actively seek experts who have answers or insights into their world and who, through these insights, help them manage better the world and issues they face.

Nelson says:  “When you begin your marketing efforts by establishing trust and demonstrating thought leadership, you create a new more effective entry point for your brand message.”

Thought leadership builds trust

The premise of thought leadership driving the sales lead is that customers eventually start seeking you out because of the trust they place in you based on the knowledge and insights you have shared which position you as a clear authority/trusted advisor in your field.

It is very difficult for sales people to generate a steady stream of qualified leads week in and week out but if your company or your service has been positioned as the expert in that field it becomes a lot easier to attract and nurture these leads.

It is at this point, however, that the sales person plays a critical role – converting that trust and interest in your brand or service into a sale.   

I’d love to hear about your sales experiences.  In particular I’d like to hear your stories about conversations you’ve had with customers or prospects when you were talking from a position of insight and knowledge about a challenge/issue or topic vs when you were trying to sell a product based only on the product specs? 

The next article in this series will cover how thought leadership can create an enticing value proposition and the tactics you can use to take this to market.

4 Responses to “Thought leadership – sales new Trojan Horse”

1. Tweets that mention Thought Leadership - Thought leadership - sales new Trojan Horse -- Topsy.com says:

   August 19, 2010 at 18:56

   [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jukka Mäntyjärvi, Craig Pearce. Craig Pearce said: It’s the customer that matters not your product or service. Thought leadership thru sales http://bit.ly/awNvcf @thoughtstrategy [...]
2. Matt says:

   December 5, 2010 at 08:06

   I liked the comments you had around Nelson’s quote, “When you begin your marketing efforts by establishing trust and demonstrating thought leadership, you create a new more effective entry point for your brand message.”

   I agree marketing and sales is all about relationship and trust.

   It’s great to hear also that it’s this relationship that matters. Once business owners or sales team can pivot there attention off the features of their products and services and look to the customers they’ll find more sales. It’s about benefits. How will the product or services best help the customer? This thinking is new, but is basic human nature. For example, when we go to social gatherings, we don’t introduce our selves by telling others how great we are. If we want to be accepted into the gathering we need to buils a relationship of trust. This is best done by letting others talk about themselves and then add some information about us that relates with what they’re all about. This is about building relationships.
3. craig says:

   December 6, 2010 at 09:55

   Thanks Matt, the premise of all thought leadership should be about building relationships and trust.
4. “Content is Digital Bait” | OnliGence™ says:

   April 20, 2012 at 00:13

   [...] some years, Craig Badings says he has arguing that thought leadership is the new sales Trojan Horse, the way to equip sales teams with the game-changing insights they need to have the conversations [...]