In today's crowded market space, one of the best ways to stand out from the competition is by becoming a thought leader. What does this mean you need to do? Basically, thought leadership is about willingly sharing your ideas, insights and expertise with others who can benefit from them.
So many people are scared of revealing the secrets to their success or their indepth knowledge to the world. Because they have a "scarcity" mentality, they're sure they'll be ripped off or lose out financially.
In fact, quite the contrary can be true. When you freely share what you know people:
- Respect you more.
- Think you're smarter.
- Feel like you're more caring.
- Want to work with you.
- And, are willing to pay higher rates.
Go figure. Give it away and it comes back to you in greater abundance. And I know it's true from personal experience.
Brian Carroll, author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, has an excellent 14-page article on "How to Become a Thought Leader" on his B2B Lead Generation Blog. It's part of a special report on this same topic by Rain Today.
gawdluvya, Jill, for making this known. Now wouldn't it be great if marcom resources at corporate could redirect some of the funding away from sales support tactics that aren't utilized by the field and provide funding for tactics that matter? Like thought leadership stuff.
When sales folks send targets unbiased, compelling content about the targets industry and pain, that does so much more to engender respect and goodwill than a self-serving marketing piece...
When will we learn?
Posted by: Maureen Blandford | 10/28/2006 at 12:41 PM