How Long Does It Take for Thought Leadership to Work?
Last week, I spoke with a friend in private equity who had just finished reading our eGuide, “Beyond Thought Leadership: Becoming a Subject Matter Unicorn.” She told me she found it incredibly well done and valuable.
(You should grab it here!)
And then she asked the big question: Does it work?
Yowzers. Well now, that is a big question, isn’t it?
The short answer is yes. Creating a steady stream of high-quality, thought-provoking thought leadership will attract attention, will begin to develop trust with potential clients, and will make your sales process easier and quicker.
The not-so-short answer is that, yes it works, but it requires commitment and patience. Sadly, there is no crash diet to get your sales and marketing efforts in shape—this is a lifestyle change for your business.
Applying the 7-11-4 formula
Fourteen years ago, Google issued an eBook entitled, “Winning the Zero Moment of Truth,” which detailed the psychological shift that had happened with the buying audience, and the need for a business to be well-positioned (on Google, naturally) when the customer decided it was time to buy. In that eBook, they presented the 7-11-4 formula. The concept is that, before feeling comfortable enough to buy from you, your audience needs to:
Seven hours? Eleven touches? Four different locations?
That’s a lot! Which means, among other things, that the tsunami of new clients we all want is not happening this quarter.?
But … this was 14 years ago—surely, in a faster-paced, more content-intensive and less attentive world, those numbers are low in 2025. Let’s break down those numbers from 2011.
Spending seven hours with your brand
To start, consider that reading this will take you approximately five minutes. I’d have to send you 84 posts to reach seven hours. That’s a lot of work, although we’d argue that it’s worth it—we are invested in getting you thinking, building trust with you so that, someday, you’ll email and say, “Hey let’s talk business” (not opposed to you doing that right now).
It’s a good reason to not rely on one channel to deliver your message; it’s important to have a primary channel, but you need to get in front of your audience in other ways, too. More on that in a sec.
Interacting with your brand 11 times
There are some people in business who expect to send an email, or have a lunch meeting, and be rewarded with a contract.?
These people are doomed to fail. They are apparently unaware of another numerical rule—the 95:5 rule, which states that only 5 percent of your potential audience is actively buying at any given time, while the other 95 percent is simply trying to stay educated. If you act as if everyone is in the 5 percent, you will lose the 95 percent, who become annoyed at your relentless salesiness. Oh, and you’ll also lose a big chunk of the 5 percent, because you never bothered to earn their trust when they weren’t “in market.”
Focus on the 95 percent. Trust always comes before the sale, so focus on building trust. It will take time, but it will work.
Meeting your brand in four different locations
It’s kind of funny when you think that Google recommended encountering your prospects in four different venues, and then SEO pros decided that Your Website was the only one that mattered. And—aye caramba!—we listened!?
You want to surround your prospects with your thinking. When they see your firm in different venues, it creates a heightened level of comfort.
There are plenty of options for distribution channels, so whatever suits your team and gets you in front of potential future clients. Think about:
It’s important that, wherever you’re sharing content, it feels native to that venue. In other words, don’t autopublish your tweets to LinkedIn. Don’t copy and post your LinkedIn post into Slack. Don’t read your bylined article to a roomful of people. Respect the tone and context of each specific channel, or you risk doing more harm than good.
The multi-channel approach future-proofs your thought leadership strategy—think about all those companies that relied upon blog traffic and what has happened to them over the last 12 months. Platforms change, and algorithms change. You need to bake some flexibility into your approach so you don’t get trapped.
Your focus should not be about being everywhere, it should be about being helpful wherever you are. Be purposeful about delivering value with each touchpoint.?
Focusing on thought leadership to grow your firm demands a lifestyle shift for your business; it can’t be an occasional thing or something you turn off and on.?
This is the way we do business moving forward.