Thought leadership is widely recognised as a powerful (if complex!) tool to differentiate your B2B brand and engage audiences. But its deployment has typically been focused at top or mid-funnel, and opportunities to leverage its power within sales conversations have been missed or not optimised. It’s a classic example of misalignment between sales and marketing, and risks dragging out already protracted sales cycles, or worse still, resulting in deals not converted.
So how do B2B marketers maximise the potential of thought leadership within revenue conversations, in turn generating maximum return on investment in these often resource-intensive programmes? That was what I was seeking to understand in a recent roundtable which I moderated, organised by CogniClick Sales Enablement , which works in partnership with FT Longitude to deliver thought leadership programmes.
The event was attended by marketers from a host of prominent B2B organisations from professional services, technology, financial services, and beyond.
So what did we learn? Well, lots! I’ve summarised the implications at different states of thought leadership programme development and execution below, with some anonymised comments from attendees. But together with Helen Kensett from Cogniclick, we’ve also created a much more detailed playbook, specifying all the different subtasks and considerations at each stage.
1. Scoping and planning
The planning phase often determines whether thought leadership will drive commercial value or become another marketing exercise. Organizations are moving away from isolated marketing initiatives toward more collaborative approaches that engage commercial teams from the start.
One tech company’s approach stood out: their head of pre-sales approached marketing with specific market observations, creating what they called a “pull rather than push” dynamic. Instead of marketing pushing content to sales teams, the commercial need pulled the content into existence. This resulted in thought leadership that directly supported sales conversations and addressed real market challenges.
Another participant shared how their organization created an editorial board of handpicked thought leaders from across the business. This not only improved content quality but created automatic buy-in and helped navigate internal politics – a persistent challenge in larger organizations.
2. Methodology
The research approach emerged as a critical differentiator between thought leadership that drives commercial value and content that merely fills a marketing calendar. However, participants highlighted an interesting tension between the need for robust research and the desire to challenge conventional thinking.
One fintech marketer described their struggle with research that merely validated their product offerings. “We get pushed towards safe finding data that basically backs up the product we’re trying to sell,” they explained. This led to a broader discussion about the courage needed to pursue genuinely surprising insights.
A powerful insight emerged around the concept of “mirroring” customer experiences. As one participant put it, “Good marketing should act as a mirror. When you see something, the person goes, ‘that’s me.'” They found that content incorporating peer benchmarking consistently outperformed other formats, as it allowed customers to see themselves and their challenges reflected in the research.
3. Activation and Execution
The discussion revealed that many organizations struggle not with creating thought leadership, but with activating it effectively across their commercial teams. This challenge is particularly acute in professional services firms where the “sales team” might comprise hundreds of partners or client-facing professionals.
One consulting firm shared how they transformed their annual CEO survey into multiple formats – from brand-level reports to interactive sales tools. More importantly, they maintained its relevance throughout the year by regularly adding new analysis and insights to the core data. “People would usually move on by spring,” they noted, “but this year we made it to autumn with people still actively using the content.”
A particularly innovative approach came from a participant who described creating “thought communities” rather than just thought leadership. They focused on facilitating peer-to-peer discussions around their research, finding that this approach drove deeper engagement and more meaningful commercial conversations than traditional content distribution.
4. Measurement
Measurement emerged as the most challenging aspect of commercial thought leadership, with participants acknowledging the difficulty of attributing direct commercial impact. However, several organizations had found creative ways to assess their success.
One organization measured impact through their CEO’s use of the content in customer meetings, tracking how often key insights were cited in high-level discussions. While not a direct commercial metric, this indicated the content’s value in strategic conversations.
Another participant emphasized measuring success through fundamental changes in stakeholder relationships, noting how effective thought leadership had elevated their organization’s role from vendor to trusted advisor. As they put it, “The transaction may happen, but do you have that ongoing impact on the way that a particular stakeholder thinks about you?”
This more nuanced approach to measurement reflects a broader understanding that thought leadership’s commercial impact often manifests in ways that traditional metrics might miss. The focus is increasingly on tracking patterns of influence rather than direct attribution of sales results.
As you can see, this only scratches the surface of the insights covered in this session – we’ve also produced a deeper report exploring the processes required at each different stage.
