Thought Leadership Beyond Professional Services

Rob Leavitt (a Bloom Group affiliate) and I gave a presentation this morning to the Boston chapter of Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI), a professional group that assembles people from two camps, one of whom is often from Mars (sales) and the other from Venus (marketing).

The topic was thought leadership marketing outside of professional services -- in companies that sell products (e.g., software) and services (e.g., telecommunications) to other companies.

It was a small group. But our message seemed to resonate. We explained how showing customers that you know a great deal about a problem of theirs that your offering addresses wins many points -- especially if you can show how you solved the problem at other companies, with big ROI.

Despite the current hype, I don't see thought leadership as a panacea for all marketers -- only those whose customers are desperate for insights on issues that the marketer can address. I don't expect Dell or Lenovo to give me advice on how to write better articles on their laptop computers (nor would I listen to them if they did). I wouldn't expect a payroll service to advise me on how to structure pay packages for my employees. Those problems are just too far afield from what these companies do.

But I would listen to Dell or Lenovo advise my company on how to protect the security of my firm's laptops. And I would read advice from ADP or Paychex on how to make sure my firm is never out of compliance with payroll regulations.

At the same time, those firms still need good, old-fashioned marketing to tell me why their laptops are of better quality and why their payroll services are more cost effective. That marketing isn't thought leadership marketing.

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