Sep 10, 2026 · 52 min · 12 segments
Research shows that ***92% of people trust individuals over what a company says***. So the real question isn't whether your company has a good reputation — it's whether you do. In this episode…
Bob BatchelorGuest
Jackie FergusonHost
Most executives believe that if the work is good enough, recognition follows.
Well, we like to think that we live in a world where if you're good enough, you're smart enough, that you've had accomplishments that everybody's just going to find out.
And so when there's that much competition for ideas and for awareness, then the challenge becomes, how do you stick out? And so my contention is that awareness should be everybody's primary objective, because without awareness, expertise dies on the vine.
So one of the things that allows me to give good context is I've been selling to enterprises for 20, 25 years of my career.
And the big dynamic change that Bob alluded to, I simply will say this, machines are now picking the winners.
And so if you don't have AI discoverability as a part of your marketing strategy, number one, you become invisible.
Number two, how do you create and stand out in your thought leadership with all of the commoditized content that's available? And that is where those of us who have some business experience have some hard won battle scars.
Our judgment, our experience, our real live examples will allow our comments and our commentaries to stand out.
But it absolutely matters to growing your business and accelerating your sales cycle.
When you treat thought leadership as a business strategy, not just a content calendar to be checked off or a vanity exercise, what is the business impact of that?
So one of the things I alluded to in the previous answer that we're all fighting for is that we want to continue to be able to charge for the value that we deliver, where most transactional conversations are a race to the bottom on price.
The reason that thought leadership is so strategic to your business strategy is you have to create the evidence of your long-term value to a client before you're asking for the order.
Most executives believe that if the work is good enough, recognition follows.
Well, we like to think that we live in a world where if you're good enough, you're smart enough, that you've had accomplishments that everybody's just going to find out.
And so when there's that much competition for ideas and for awareness, then the challenge becomes, how do you stick out? And so my contention is that awareness should be everybody's primary objective, because without awareness, expertise dies on the vine.
So one of the things that allows me to give good context is I've been selling to enterprises for 20, 25 years of my career.
And the big dynamic change that Bob alluded to, I simply will say this, machines are now picking the winners.
And so if you don't have AI discoverability as a part of your marketing strategy, number one, you become invisible.
Number two, how do you create and stand out in your thought leadership with all of the commoditized content that's available? And that is where those of us who have some business experience have some hard won battle scars.
Our judgment, our experience, our real live examples will allow our comments and our commentaries to stand out.
But it absolutely matters to growing your business and accelerating your sales cycle.
When you treat thought leadership as a business strategy, not just a content calendar to be checked off or a vanity exercise, what is the business impact of that?
So one of the things I alluded to in the previous answer that we're all fighting for is that we want to continue to be able to charge for the value that we deliver, where most transactional conversations are a race to the bottom on price.
The reason that thought leadership is so strategic to your business strategy is you have to create the evidence of your long-term value to a client before you're asking for the order.
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