How Thought Leadership Has Been Driving My Business Development for 15+ Years

There is much research on the value of thought leadership to business growth. In this article, I’ll share some of the most relevant findings from such research.

However, when I started my thought leadership journey, it wasn’t because of any such findings. I wasn’t even aware of the existence of those studies. 

I did it because, in my daily work as a consultancy owner and senior expert, I had a vast amount of knowledge from which my extensive network could benefit. 

My simple goal was to provide value to my immediate network – people I manually added to my Outlook mailing list (mailing applications weren’t on my radar screen). 

I didn’t realise then that this urge to share case studies, learnings, advice, and observations would become the most impactful business development strategy I could ever have hoped for.

In this article, I’d like to explain why sharing expertise is a wise business development investment and how boutique consultancies can turn it into a win-win for their clients/prospects and their business growth.

Growing two consultancy businesses on the back of expertise-sharing

Consultancy #1: iNostix – Stumbling into the thought leadership-powered business development model

In 2008, I founded iNostix, a boutique consultancy that offered people analytics advisory services to large enterprises. As with any new business, we were eager to hit the ground running, which meant acquiring clients at all costs. 

I have to admit. At first, I let my ego get the best of me. I would say yes to almost any project that came our way. I loved bringing in big clients. I used to call the office with the message: you won’t believe what I just sold. The answer of the team: “damn, did you do that again?” 

I was proud to sell projects we had never done before. My ego wanted to crush every new opportunity that came my/our way.

Recommended reading: How a Consultancy Can Get Crushed by the Ego of Its Owners

While the business was growing nicely, I was finding myself increasingly overwhelmed. Unsurprisingly, I reached the inevitable—burnout. 

At that point, I decided to take a step back and reevaluate my business priorities. I realised that what I was doing daily – endless follow-ups, micromanaging my teams because I was constantly throwing them into the unknown with the new projects, spending hours looking at the financials, overseeing marketing, etc. – was not satisfying me or the entire team.

That’s when I started my thought leadership journey. For me, it was a reflective exercise. 

I looked back at the projects our consultancy had completed. I started documenting the experiences and learnings: what problems we solved, who we did this for, what triggered them to call us for help, what questions and objections they had, what we were able to achieve, what we had learned, and how that fitted in the larger picture of where those enterprises headed.

In no time, I had a library of content, and I started sharing my ‘wisdom from the consulting trenches’, insights I believed my network could benefit from. 

So, I compiled a mailing list with my (extensive) Outlook contact list and started sending my content without a particular schedule. I tried doing it regularly, but there was no specific format or design I adhered to and no testing of which day of the week and what time delivered the best response rates.

After a few months, I noticed a change: I started receiving emails and calls from people outside my network. “Hi, Luk, my former colleague Ben sent me an article you shared with him and the issue you helped Company X with is similar to what we’re struggling with. Do you think iNostix can assist?”

Due to the value of the content I was sharing, I didn’t realise it was getting re-shared a lot by my network. Prospects started seeking us out more and more. 

It seemed like the ultimate dream: large companies were reaching out to us to complete projects that big, international consultancies were desperately trying to win. We won proposal after proposal against the Big 4, who didn’t share similar ‘experiences from the trenches’ and never got to the visibility and reputation level we had (which ultimately resulted and the acquisition by Deloitte in 2016).

We found ourselves in the position that most boutique consultancies strive to be in: prospects came to us, and we had to make tough decisions about which projects to accept and which to decline politely.

In 2016, iNostix got acquired by Deloitte.The impressive client list we had built up by that point was an important factor. But not the only one. 

Here’s what Deloitte communicated to the press in 2016: “One of the main drivers behind the acquisition was Luk’s status as a well-known global thought leader in the people analytics consulting space. Luk has proven that amplifying visibility as a consultant is more than a feel-good marketing technique.”

Consultancy #2: TheVisibleAuthority.com – Developing a deliberate thought leadership-powered business development model

By the time I founded TheVisibleAuthority.com – in 2019 – I was a big thought leadership believer. I witnessed first-hand the amazing power of being generous with my knowledge. 

By now, I developed a set of best practices that I could use as a foundation to start building a consulting business from the ground up.

• I started building up a catalog of thought leadership pieces ahead of time;
• I actively researched my target audience – in fact, I hired an agency in 2019 to conduct surveys and in-depth interviews to help me understand what types of issues keep my prospects up at night, what they are looking to achieve, how they go about their decision-making process, etc.,
• I developed a preliminary editorial calendar that incorporated all the main themes I wanted to address,
• I purchased a subscription to Hubspot that would allow me to publish my pieces, distribute them, and track analytics in a single platform.

Recommended reading: How I Share My Expertise with My Audience of Consultancy Owners

I started TheVisibleAuthority.com right before the global pandemic paralyzed the world. “How unfortunate!” – many people told me. Their sentiment made sense. Established businesses were struggling to stay afloat and I was just closing the first year of my brand new business.

Thought leadership carried my business through the massive uncertainty that all of us – people and businesses – were facing. 

My new consulting business flourished, despite the pandemic. While face-to-face business development in consulting became impossible, my approach to business development and business growth through expertise sharing was becoming increasingly in-demand.

The pandemic had accelerated my visibility and reputation and I currently have more requests than I can take on, which means I am once again in a position to hand-pick my ideal clients.

More client education means more revenue. 

I’ve spent 20-30% of my time writing to educate my target audience the past 5 years. And when I write, I never think of generating revenue. Never. 

But the more I educate (and write), the more revenue it generates. 90% of new clients find me through the experiences I share. It’s like real estate: the more assets you buy, the more value you create. 

Business development in consulting is rooted in educating the target audience. Building trust at scale. 

Expertise-sharing: A data-backed business development strategy

As mentioned in the beginning of my article, back when I started my thought leadership journey, I was not aware of the studies on its business development impact. I am acutely aware of them now, however.

So for those boutique consultancy owners and leaders who need further proof of the transformational business power of putting in time and effort into consistently sharing knowledge, I’d like to share some of the most relevant findings of various studies conducted on the subject.

According to the Edelman-LinkedIn 2024 study:

• Thought leadership helps build trust with the target audience: 73% of decision-makers say that an organisation’s thought-leadership content is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities and competencies than its marketing materials and product sheets. 
  
  Furthermore, 54% say that an organisation that consistently produces high-quality thought-leadership content has prompted them to research the organisation’s offers or capabilities.
  
  
• Thought leadership has a direct impact on business development: 9 in 10 executives say say they are moderately or very likely to be more receptive to sales or marketing outreach from a company that consistently produces high-quality thought leadership. 
  
  86% of decision-makers say that they are moderately or very likely to invite organisations that consistently produce high-quality thought leadership to participate in the RFP process.
  
  Yet, only 38% of TL producers expect their organisation’s thought leadership content to get them invited to participate in an RFP process.

Furthermore, clients are less loyal than ever to their existing partners. The incumbent loss rate increased from 29% to 34% in the past two years, according to Dentsu. 

And what makes clients switch to other consultancies? Among other things, it’s the lack of thought leadership. Edelman-LinkedIn’s study discovered that 54% of decision-makers say the piece of thought leadership got them to realise there were other suppliers they could work with that had a better understanding of the challenges their organisation was facing

So what makes a thought leadership strategy successful? According to a study by the famous Content Marketing Institute:

• The top performers attribute their success mostly to understanding their audience – 82%.
• Other factors include:
  • Producing high-quality content – 77%
  • Possessing industry expertise – 70%

Finally, a study by Momentum ITSMA shows that those who derive high ROIs from their thought leadership are able to do so because they are proactive in their strategy:

• Leaders are more likely than laggards to monitor feedback from clients/readers – (62% vs 43%), brand value (52% vs 34%), sign-ups/subscribers (38% vs 16%), and brand trust (38% vs 13%).

In the face of such overwhelming proof, I am amazed to see how many boutique consultancy owners stubbornly refuse to allocate a sufficient amount of time on a regular basis to sharing their expertise! 

In conclusion

By focusing on delivering meaningful insights and engaging with my audience authentically, I was able to build trust and credibility, ultimately leading to two thriving consultancy businesses. 

The success of iNostix and TheVisibleAuthority.com – not to mention dozens of examples I have come across working with high-performing boutique consultancies – is proof of how thought leadership can organically drive growth and set a consultancy apart from its competitors.

Today, research provides compelling evidence supporting the impact of thought leadership on business development, with decision-makers favoring companies that consistently share high-quality insights. 

My experience aligns with this data, proving that being proactive and strategic about sharing expertise attracts prospects and positions consultancies as leaders in their field. 

For boutique consultancy owners, committing to a thought leadership strategy is no longer optional; it’s essential for long-term success.

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