Social Media and Thought Leadership, Part II
January 28, 2013 |Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
As a thought leader in your industry, you give away valuable information in your area of expertise and ask for nothing in return. In doing so, you wind up getting some amazing things in return. You Stop Selling on Price Congratulations, you are no longer part of the great unwashed masses. By separating yourself from those who used to be your peers, you get away from the cattle calls where nine manufacturers will be judged solely on price. You are no longer hearing “you’re all the same.” You Command Premium Prices and Higher Margins Why do customers buy from market leaders? The perceived risk, corporately and personally, is much lower when someone purchases from a thought leader. Early in my career as a sales representative, I would often lose to Hewlett Packard. My product was demonstrably better technically than the HP products I was up against and about 20% less expensive. I would lose and be told “no one gets fired for buying from Hewlett Packard” (although I believe this line was more often used in conjunction with IBM in the 70s and 80s). I had a better, less expensive product, but HP had the image as the leader and my potential customers would happily pay more to buy from that leader. You Have Easier Access to PeopleYou have interesting, thought provoking things to say and people want to hear them. If you are the thought leader, people will make time and clear their schedule to listen to what you have to say. You Get Included in Customer Plans Companies start coming to you and talking about their ideas and plans and asking for your input. And when they do, I really, really like your odds of getting some business in conjunction with those future products or services. Your cost of sales is lower and your average sales cycle gets shorter. It’s a lot quicker and easier having someone call you and include you in their plans than having to find someone--anyone--to buy your product through screening candidates and prospecting. You are no longer a vendor; you are now an advisor. And that is a distinction that is worth the effort to achieve. And yes, there will be effort. You’re a thought leader, but how do you get the word out so that you become recognized as such? You Write Your Own ContentTwo good reasons exist for writing your own content. The first is to show that you are an original thinker on your topic. It shows that you have thought deeply about this topic and feel the need to express yourself. Secondly, in doing so, you develop your own voice, your unique take on the subject, and your own style. You will become known for it, and your fans will look forward to it. You Share Other People’s Content You don’t have to do all the heavy lifting yourself. If there is a terrific article on the web on your area of expertise, share it with your followers. Articles that back your point of view only add to your credibility. You Get Content in the Right Place This is easy, yet often overlooked. Just because you are already using Facebook, don’t just put your content on Facebook. Put it where it will have an impact. Put it where your intended audience is. If your message is for the engineers and they are on Google +, then having wonderful content on Facebook is going to be a waste of time. Constantly seek to expand the circle of people you influence Just because 500 potential customers follow your blog doesn’t mean you should be satisfied. You could be contributing to user groups or discussion boards and exposing new people to your thinking. You Give it Away Freely Give it away and ask for nothing in return. Nothing. No “Put us on the approved vendor list” or “Can we make a sales presentation?” Nothing. Let the prospective customer make up their own mind. They will come to you. And when they do, you will have the advantage. They will have made up their mind that you are someone they should consider doing business with. This is now your business to lose. Hands up everybody that thinks this sounds like more fun than cold calling. You Stay Focused Don’t suffer from mission creep. Someone asks you about another area and all of a sudden you think ,“Well, we can be the experts there too.” You’re going to water-down your brand doing that. I see this all the time on company websites. “We’re the prototype specialists. Small, special purpose, extremely fast turn around orders are our speciality. And, also, extremely large mass production runs too!” Oops. The fear of losing out a possible mass production job leads to a loss of focus on their true speciality. There’s an old saying in advertising: When you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. Be a specialist. And be the best at that speciality. Be the thought leader.Bruce Johnston is a sales consultant specializing in social media. He has over 25 years' experience in high-tech sales and management, most recently as general manager of a PCB manufacturer. He can be reached through his website www.practicalsmm.com or through his profile on LinkedIn.