Every year, Grist conducts research into thought leadership trends in the advisory industry. Hands down, this is one of the best thought leadership studies in the world.
I was able to get a sneak peek at the 2023 edition of the study. Without revealing too much information or all of the statistics, in this post, I’d like to comment on a few trends that consultancies MUST be aware of.
Over the years, I’ve heard every excuse imaginable. And with every single person – be it a consulting leader or an individual consultant on a large team – I went through the same thought exercise that inevitably led to the same conclusion: you have no choice!
In this day and age, consulting firms simply can’t afford to be stingy with their knowledge. They can’t afford not to allocate time towards creating and executing an education-driven content strategy as part of their marketing and business development efforts.
I compared the numbers between the 2023 edition of the Grist study and the 2020 edition. Three years. Not a lot of time. But the trend couldn’t be more obvious.
That’s a 10-point jump in just three years. Looking at the evolution of the market and buyers’ purchasing behavior changes in the last decade, I have absolutely no reason to believe that this upward trend will suddenly reverse itself in the next 5/10/15 years.
Recommended reading: Shaping Your Consultancy’s Thought Leadership To Accelerate Growth
Between the pandemic and the recession, decision makers have grown more cautious in the last few years. They are constantly looking for ways to reduce costs and maximize the value they get from outside partners.
As a result, there have been two major shifts in the purchasing behavior of decision-makers:
Consultancies that understand this shift in the way their prospects behave, do the following:
"Are you generous with your content? If you are not, you are losing! Generosity is an engine for going viral. The more you share, the more you will grow. Selfishness doesn’t spread”. (Josh Spector, social media expert)
This increased cautiousness about which consultancy to hire also has translated into significantly less loyalty from clients. If they don’t think they’re working with industry experts, they will not hesitate to drop their current consultancy and switch to the one they perceive to be experts.
As the 2023 Grist study found:
If this is not a reality check for consultancies that are stubborn about creating pain-resolution-driven educational content for their prospects AND current clients, I don’t know what is.
Recommended reading: How Consultancies Can Reach the Unconverted Audience in 4 Steps
There is a lot of content out there. The digital space is a massive landfill of content. However, when it comes to thought leadership, only a tiny percentage would qualify as such.
Consultancies that want their content to make an impact on prospects – and get noticed in the first place – can’t skimp on quality.
According to Grist’s 2023 study, senior executives are looking for the following qualities in thought leadership content:
The fact that there has been a drastic increase in buyers’ expectation for thought leadership pieces to have these qualities is not surprising.
Again, there is a ton of content senior executives can access within seconds. But the pieces they actually give the time a day inspire actions, present issues from a new perspective, and sound like they were written by an individual, not a corporate machine.
Consulting firms should strive to educate and inspire their prospects, and do so on a regular basis.
Because guess what, the moment one consultancy stops producing thought leadership content, this void will get very quickly filled up by the content of another firm.
Leading thinkers in consulting are fearless with their content. They write original, fresh content that inspires and educates. They convey their deep levels of expertise with their ability to identify patterns, to address very specific pain points, to predict trends, to offer practical advice.
Alright, so I covered why thought leadership is a critical business development tool for consultancies and I talked about the type of content that senior executives are looking for. Now let’s discuss distribution channels.
The 2023 Grist study reveals that:
Consultancies that do not utilize email marketing to the fullest are missing out on business opportunities. Plain and simple.
And I’m not talking about salesy “Look how awesome we are” emails. I’m talking about value-driven prospect-nurturing with high-end thought leadership content: articles, summaries from industry events, case studies, research, presentation slides, webinar summaries, etc.
Of course consultancies will not see the ROI of thought leadership if they do not organize it around a system that includes processes like:
Same goes for websites. I’m amazed to still be coming across dozens of consulting websites on a daily basis where the last blog post was 2 years ago or 6 months ago. The only info-capture form is the generic ‘contact us’ form. I wonder how far that gets them…
Decision-makers are hungry for authentic, action-driven, inspiring thought leadership content.
They expect that from their prospective partners. They expect that from their current advisors. They use it as a critical metric to assess prospective partners. They are willing to leave their contact information behind to gain access to valuable thought leadership.
Really, how much more straightforward can it be?
Thought leadership is the ultimate way to showcase a consultancy’s expertise and build trust. It’s the ultimate way to build up the reputational footprint. This is not a fluke. It’s a trend that’s been in the making for years, and is unlikely to go away.
The longer consultancies resist, the further behind they will be left by those who understand the business development possibilities of thought leadership in the digital age.
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