Thought leadership is a popular term that has frequented the B2B world recently, but what does it actually mean to you as a sales person? Becoming a thought leader is now an indispensable tool to gain more prospects and make more sales. Join us to learn about the science behind B2B thought leadership and how you can use it to boost your sales. With this webinar, you will learn: - About thought leadership in B2B sales - Why you should become a thought leader - How you can become a thought leader in your industry and use it to boost your sales Webinar: http://livehive.com/resources/b2b-thought-leadership-webinar/

1. The Science of B2B
Thought Leadership:
How Building Thought Leadership
Can Boost Your Sales

2. #B2BThoughtLeader
Meet Your Hosts
Lindsay Brothers
@LindsayBro
Ricardo Arguello
@Ric_Arguello
@LiveHive

3. Brought To You By LiveHive
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Today’s Agenda
1. Evolution of B2B Sales
2. What Is Thought Leadership
3. How to Become a Thought Leader
4. Helpful Tools To Consider
5. Q & A

5. #B2BThoughtLeader
Selling Process Has Evolved
● Prospects want to buy from
experts in their field
● Buyers purchase based on
trust and thought leadership
● 73% of Salespeople believe
that selling will be radically
different in 5 years

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Today’s Buyer
• Needs expertise
• Needs preparation
• Needs innovation

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How Do You Leverage These Needs?
Thought Leadership

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What is Thought Leadership?
• Buzzword that is often misused
• More than one definition
• Some believe its about building
brand recognition
• Others about getting more
revenue

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What is Thought Leadership?
• The Expert
• Someone who profits significantly from being recognized

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Why is Thought Leadership Important To You?
● According to The Aberdeen Group, thought leadership
content can generate 3 times as many leads
● Thought Leaders can have 6 times more revenue than
those who do not have that reputation

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Thought Leadership Overview
● Not just for individuals
● Requires consistency and diligent effort
● About big ideas
○ Changes how people perceive the
world
● About relationships
○ Inspire and intrigue those already
familiar with you and your work
○ Start new relationships

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Thought Leaders Today

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Richard Branson
• Founder of The Virgin Group: comprised of
400 companies around the world
• 6th richest person in UK, net worth of US$4.6
Billion
• 5 million LinkedIn followers
• Author of 6 books
• Latest: Like a Virgin: Secrets They
Won’t Teach You at Business School

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Sheryl Sandberg
• Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer as of
2013
• Author of Lean In: Women, Work, and The
Will To Lead
• Net worth of over $1 Billion
• 2011: #5 of Forbes World’s Most Powerful
Women
• 2012: Time’s 100 Most Influential People in
The World

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Lori Richardson
● Founder and CEO of Score More Sales
● B2B mid-market sales growth expert & social
selling trainer
● Top 12 Social Sales influencer according to
Forbes

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Lori Richardson

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Lori Richardson

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Jill Konrath

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Steps To Becoming a Thought Leader

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1. Understand Your Buyer
• Get in their head
• Research your buyers
• Find out what they are talking about,
their needs and problems
• What social networks are they using?

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2. Identify Questions and Prioritize
What are your customers asking?
What are the most unanswered
questions?

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3. Answer The Questions
Multiple Formats Multiple Channels
● Tweets
● Blogging
● Ebooks
● Webinars
● Networking
events

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4. Focus
● Especially important for companies
● Need to have a specialty
● The more specialized the better
● Make a professional twitter
● Focus your tweets on one subject
● Twitter chats are a great tool to build thought
leadership

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5. Give to Get
● Don’t put registration
holds or costs on your
content
○ Free webinars
○ Free ebooks

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6. Keep it Interesting
• Educate your audience
• Entertain your audience

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7. Encourage Participation
● Interviewing customers to create
content
● Curate content from other sources
and combine with your perspective

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What Else Can You Do?
● Offline
○ Finding networking events
and speaking at them
○ Apply for local awards
○ Contribute content to local
magazines or guest blog
online
○ Salesforce Guest
Blogging

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Salesforce
• Considered thought leaders in sales and
CRM
• Excellent following on Twitter and
LinkedIn
• Blog is widely read and respected

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More Tools You Can Use
• Brand Yourself
• Klout
• Hootsuite

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How To Raise The Bar
● Thought leadership is growing in popularity
● Excel through cooperation:
● Partnering up with other thought leaders

31. Q&A
#B2BThoughtLeader

32. Thank You
#B2BThoughtLeader