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An investment in thought leadership and content marketing can build your B2B consulting firm. Just ask Eisha Tierney Armstrong, Co-Founder and Executive Board Member at Vecteris.
Eisha Tierney Armstrong, Founder and Executive Board Member, Vecteris
TL;DR:
- Thought leadership can be a huge engine for business development for consultancies, and especially small to mid-size firms.
- Thought leadership is a productization of your services: it's a one - to - many means of scaling your expertise. That means thought leadership can be both a driver of revenue, and a revenue stream in itself.
- Prolific production is the secret sauce: publishing often generates a virtuous circle of lead generation, client engagement, and both disciplinary and domain authority that positively influences revenue.
- Find success by aligning topics, deliverables, and campaigns with clients' urgent, expensive problems. Then deliver exceptional, value-driving content, every time.
It's no secret that consulting firms invest in thought leadership: when we think of Gartner, Deloitte, or McKinsey, we think best-in-class industry research that helps industries of all stripes make better strategic decisions - often delivered for the cost of an email contact. And that's just the tip of the iceberg: these firms also launch in-house publishing efforts, host conferences, curate podcasts, and the list goes on. Because of these examples, thought leadership and content marketing are table stakes for consulting firms today, and that makes sense: consulting work is knowledge work, and there is no better way to validate what your know-how with the clients you serve than by strategically helping them solve problems for free.
Small and mid-size consulting firms know this - they know, fundamentally, that marketing their organization beyond their existing network requires thought leadership. But when faced with small budgets and likely little marketing support, it's easy for these teams to see thought leadership marketing as simply a necessary, and painful, line item.
I want to suggest a mindset shift: when you think of thought leadership as a productization of your services, it's easier to justify your investment. What you produce becomes aligned with business outcomes that both market and generate revenue all at once - if you choose the right channels, and are ready to prolifically produce.
This month's inaugural guest on Thought Leaders Who Soar, Eisha Tierney Armstrong, sat down with me to share how her consulting firm, the Cincinnati-based, woman-owned company, Vecteris, has used thought leadership marketing as an incredible growth engine for her company. And when I say incredible, I mean it: 40% of Vecteris's new leads come from one their three best-selling books.
How did they do it? By approaching thought leadership through the lens of product strategy. Vecteris is an absolute authority on productizing professional services - so it makes sense that they brought that mindset to their own thought leadership strategy too. We chatted about how she got started in thought leadership marketing, how her team leveraged their knowledge into three lead-generating books, and how being a designated thought leader has changed the course of her career. Listen at the link below.
Delve into Vecteris's thought leadership by checking out Eisha's books (linked chronologically below) and visiting the Vecteris website
- Productize: The Ultimate Guide to Turning Professional Services into Scalable Products
- Fearless: How to Transform a Services Culture and Successfully Productize
- Commercialize: How to Monetize, Sell, and Market Productized Offerings in B2B Professional Services
Consultants - you have know-how and experience to share. It's time to make your mark. I hope this conversation inspires you to make a start on a thought leadership strategy that grows your influence and your business too.
-Kate
Thought Leaders Who Soar is a monthly podcast featuring incredible thought leaders and the strategies that helped their businesses take flight. Sign up for On the Wing, writing by Fledgling, to get new episodes delivered directly to your inbox. And look out for us on Apple podcasts, launching in 2025.
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