Why B2B Founders Struggle with Thought Leadership

I’ve got a wonderfully unique client. They work in the legal industry, as many of my clients do, and they are incredibly smart, driven, and above all, empathetic to the struggles that people go through. None of this makes them or their business unique, but the way in which they are challenging preconceptions of the industry, what it takes to be a lawyer, the way they support their employees and innovate for their clients is new and disruptive. Yet, when it comes to the recognition for this work, they struggle because they are one of the many founders who struggle with thought leadership.

It’s not unique to the legal profession. Founders across most industries have one thing in common that means their expertise doesn’t get the attention it deserves: time.

Founders have the weight of the business on their shoulders and need to make sure everyone gets paid each month and the lights are kept on. All while being the one person that everybody needs to talk to and meet with.

For my legal client, they have a huge opportunity with their story, and the potential for thought leadership goes beyond creating work for the business or getting shiny awards. It’s a chance to tell their story and shine a light on the motivation behind their business for both them and their employees.

Why is thought leadership so ruddy difficult for service-based businesses?

Founders of service-based businesses have a unique problem because they are the product. Even when they have a big team behind them, they are still the face of the business, and their clients usually want to have a word with them first. This is especially for services that need a serious investment. As a founder, you are part of the reason someone buys. This also means your time is taken up by so many priorities. Having time to think about your core ideas and arguments becomes pretty tricky.

Product businesses have something tangible that they can sell. People can see it, test it and know that it works for them. And while founders of product businesses can very much benefit from thought-leadership, it carries more weight for the service businesses because it builds that level of trust you need to get someone to work with you.

The burden of proof sits entirely on your expertise and your credibility, which makes thought leadership even more important because it can demonstrate both.

What about sharing too much?

There is an argument that you can give away too much in your content marketing, which makes your services less attractive. I’ve heard it described as though you’re feeding baby birds who expect more and more for free but never want to buy. I disagree with this.

Of course, there will be plenty of people who take your free content and run with it, solving their problems. They are not your customers. The people who use your free stuff to build trust are the ones you want to bring in more.

Most people haven’t got time to do the job. Take me as an example. You’re sitting here, reading this blog, thinking “yep, I’ve not got the time to do thought leadership, but I know I should”. I can tell you how to do it, but that doesn’t mean you will. You hire me and work through my system and, voila! You have a whole suite of thought leadership content.

It doesn’t matter how much I give away for free, gated or ungated, you still won’t do the work because you don’t have the time, and you never will. It’s the same for your clients. The problem is rarely that they can’t do it themselves; it’s that they either don’t want to, don’t have the time to or want it done well the first time around.

So what are the big blockers to getting started with thought leadership in the first place?

1. The Comparison Problem

The comparison problem is the first reason why founders struggle with thought leadership. For product-based businesses, creating comparisons is pretty straightforward: Here are the pros and cons of using product X and here are the pros and cons of using my product. Those pieces of content highlight who your product is built for and who needs something different.

But when you’re a service, those comparisons can feel a bit personal. Imagine if I started comparing my service to that of a peer? It wouldn’t be a good look. Not least because many of my peers are also within my network, and I like a lot of them. I’ve even worked with some.

It is because you are a founder and a service provider that creating points of comparison is so tricky. Instead, you need to focus on your unique approach and methodology. Again, this comes down to having a core thought leadership argument.

If we look at my process, I’ve developed what’s worked for clients over the years and formulated it into the PIMP system (purpose, impact, momentum and profit).

Getting to this point can be trial and error. For my legal client, this is something that we are in the beginning stages of working through. The work is already there and has been for some years, but articulating it in a way that makes sense outside of the industry is another matter. This might be something that rings true for you or that you don’t realise just how unique your approach is (but I promise you it is unique).

2. LinkedIn Posts Posing as Thought Leadership

The problem is that when you’re not fully articulating your core idea and unique approach, then you get left putting out substandard LinkedIn posts that don’t make a difference and hoping it’s thought leadership.

Or investing in blogs in the belief that they are thought leadership, but don’t communicate your strong position. The danger here is that you end up sounding just like everyone else out there. There is nothing to set you apart, and while people will buy from you, there is nothing for them to rally around. It’s about being the person who is known for doing a particular thing or running a business that gets results in a specific area because you are saying what others are not.

3. The credibility problem

There is nothing quite like an NDA to put your best performing work in a tightly sealed container at the bottom of a deep ocean of visibility. Working with clients in regulated industries can often feel like doing the job with both hands tied behind my back.

Not only does it mean client results have to be anonymised or not shared at all, but it is likely that a lot of your process also needs to stay behind the scenes. This can make any thought leadership content you create feel as though it’s lacking in depth.

One of the ways around this is to create your own body of research. Larger stats, which hide the individual stories, can create a story of their own. Plus, people love sharing research in their content or to back up their arguments, so it’s good for SEO as well.

Depending on your industry, working closely with clients who are happy to share their stories is crucial here because those case studies become even more compelling.

Your self-belief

For anyone else who isn’t tied up by regulation and NDA, your other blocker is yourself. Your confidence in what you do, the fear of being called out or told that you’re wrong. Or worse, finding out that all of your clients secretly hate you after all (they don’t, btw, they love you).

This is your self-belief that’s holding you back. It’s why a Thought Leadership Programme can help you past this block. I’ve taken everything I’ve developed while helping solopreneurs build blogging confidence and applied it to thought leadership. By knowing that your thought leadership is fully backed up with evidence, and you have a suite of tools that demonstrate your expertise, that fear is taken away. You might even find you want to add video to the mix and spread your message further.

4. The Long Sales Cycle

Service-based and B2B businesses have a long sales cycle that is getting ever longer. People want more reassurance that their investment is well spent as budgets get slashed. Staying top of mind during this stage is integral to making the sale. Part of this lands with your sale process, the other part lands with your content.

Part of the issue in the current online climate is that there is content fatigue. Not only are most people saying the same thing, but they are now doing it in the same way because everyone has access to AI. Now, I am not AI-bashing here, but if most of the content out there is based on AI, then it is all coming from what has been said before.

This is where your unique story helps you stand out. By sharing your ideas embedded in your story, you offer an alternative that no LLM can spit out. It won’t sound like the vast majority of content because it has come from you.

Thought leadership is more important than ever for creating that deeper connection and building trust within the long sales cycle.

5. Personal Brand vs Company Brand

Now, balancing your thought leadership with what the business is talking about is a tricky ridge to navigate. This is why it’s important that you, as the founder, embed your story and insights into the mission of the business.

If we look at Keartland & Co, a sustainability consultancy, you’ll find strong arguments across their founder content to embed purpose within the operations of the business and that this is the only way to truly grow both the business and the impact. Without this, Keartland argues, both are falling short.

When you are the business, it’s much easier to align the two, but I’d argue that you should be doing this anyway, especially if you are purpose-led and your core argument supports that purpose.

This is more of an issue of making sure your wider marketing plan is working towards the same north star goal.

However, you may have other motivations for building your personal brand through effective thought leadership. This could be to publish a book, build a secondary speaking career, or get recognition for your expertise. Each of these is a valid reason to get a core argument together, and this can sit outside of the business content.

6. Measuring ROI

Perhaps the biggest issue with investing in thought leadership is understanding the return for you and the business. How do you attribute your sales to articles that are expected to last far longer than a social media post? Here, we need to employ proper tracking to make sure we’re seeing the impact of thought leadership articles beyond their initial publication.

Let’s say you’ve written a signature thought leadership article. You will want a helpful content upgrade on there, such as a free tool, calculator or quiz. Whether you gate these or not, you can track the traffic from the page, to the tools and onwards through to sale. If set up correctly, you can have an interactive dashboard that specifically pulls through the stats of your thought leadership content and demonstrates the links to sales.

Granted, no single piece of content will ever be responsible for sales, but it will be a culmination of multiple touchpoints. That said, if you have a core argument, then this should run through everything.

But sales are not the only outcomes from having effective thought leadership. As I’ve touched on earlier, it can lead to speaking engagements, PR, and book deals. This can be another avenue for your career and help promote your business to new audiences.

Let’s be clear, thought leadership – like SEO – is not a quick win. It’s a long-term strategy that will bring dividends over time. The trick is not to publish your articles and then move on. It’s about coming back to them time and time again. Repeating the same message across many formats and being known for your ideas. But when it does start to pay off, it will make a difference.

How long does it take for through leadership to start seeing results?

I can tell you from my experience that when I put effort into developing my core argument, within six months I had a keynote speaker slot and within 18 months a book deal. It has put me on stage multiple times, delivering training sessions and creating work.

For my clients, they have seen similar outcomes, and I am currently working on book proposals for several of them. It’s worth pointing out that everyone’s motivations are different. Some want to win awards as recognition, others want to stand out, while some, like my legal client, want to make deep social changes.

Whatever your motivation, taking this route to being heard builds a strong foundation.

Why service-based businesses need a different approach

A lot of the advice out there is based on product businesses. The idea that the same approach should work for two different businesses boggles my mind, let alone two very different ways of operating.

Let’s look at some common approaches that should be avoided.

Posting daily – if you’re selling FMCG goods, then this makes sense. You need a big audience, strong brand awareness, and to be ever-present. For service-based businesses? Less so. Remember that long sales cycle. You don’t need to post every day across multiple channels. If you do, you or your marketing team will start to lose the plot. Instead, you need depth and to connect with a few, not many. You’re not trying to build an audience of millions. You probably need 10-20 sales a year. Focus on that.

Share your wins – Great if you have lots of outgoing clients, but for many service businesses, people start to feel nervous about this. Even coaches get people whose clients don’t want people to know they are using the service. Instead, share the bigger story; the data behind the wins.

Be controversial – there is a difference between saying what others are not and being controversial. Despite what we’re told, there is plenty of evidence that positivity is a better selling point than controversy. Sure, we all love a bit of drama, but what we love more are human interest stories where good conquers evil. Instead, fully develop your core argument and share that.

Thought Leadership for B2B Founders

Thought leadership takes a lot of time and effort, but if you get the foundations right, the payoff for you and your business can be huge. It helps you stand out against the AI slop and connect with potential new clients.

Above all, good thought leadership helps you articulate why you are different, the outcomes you get, and builds on your reputation.

If you’re ready to take the next step in thought leadership, let’s have a conversation.