Tag Archives: B2B

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Level Up Your Thought Leader Cred

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Being a thought leader is a vital ingredient in a Freelancer’s recipe for a B2B content marketing strategy that moves the needle. In fact, establishing yourself as a credible thought leader is foundational to building a thriving Freelance client list. Freelancers must recognize that business acumen, lived experience and data you share with content followers, some of whom are prospects and clients, is a valuable strategic asset. What you know and how you express your knowledge is the core of your Unique Selling Proposition and the engine that drives your ability to deliver solutions that produce results and convert prospects into paying clients.

Many independently employed professionals label themselves an “expert in the field and thought leader,” but few do so with a carefully considered sense of purpose that leads to an actionable outcome—like persuading a hesitant prospect to become a client. In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace that’s populated with cautious prospects who’ve lengthened B2B sales cycles and pushed your next paid invoice farther into the future, it is imperative to distinguish yourself from those whose “thought leadership” amounts to checking the box and calling it done.

Tickling a handful of marketing metrics doesn’t prove that you’re a credible thought leader, either; click bait posts and articles are only eye wash and audiences recognize it. True connaisseurs of thought leader content track business impact (vs. 63% overall) and 51% track brand authority (vs. 38% overall) to assess how audiences really feel about their content. They measure the relevance of their thought leadership with insightful metrics:

  • Audience engagement — views, downloads, shares (80%)
  • Business impact — lead generation, pipeline influence (63%)
  • Audience feedback — client/prospect feedback, sentiment analysis (40%)
  • Brand authority — speaking/media opportunities, publication citations (38%)

Furthermore, connaisseurs publish their thought leadership on marketing channels that provide an audience of B2B prospects who are serious about obtaining useful information. If you are not currently publishing on these channels, as well as getting out in front of a live audience every once in a while, add these items to your thought leadership promotional activities.

  • LinkedIn (76%)
  • Email newsletters (54%)
  • Speaking events, webinars (52%)

Those who “get” the power of thought leadership know that the information they present may be used by audience members who are either familiar with or contending with a particular challenge. The insights and info you present as a thought leader is used to support responsible decision-making, whether in the moment or in the near future. Therefore, the goal of savvy Freelancers is to produce credible, possibly innovative and reliably useful thought leadership content that followers and other readers or viewers will notice and remember. Below are thought leadership ingredients you can use to develop your recipe for success.

1. Solve a problem readers will recognize

Effective thought leadership is born of a vexing problem that is urgent—an emerging risk, a stubborn and mysterious challenge or failing, or even a misunderstood opportunity. The most perceptive and confident thought leaders will dare to step outside the usual narrative or practice and provide a perspective the audience hasn’t heard before and use it as a launchpad for potentially effective solutions. Does your thought leadership content inspire your audience make smarter, braver, decisions, or help them to avoid a potentially costly error, or problem they may not have considered?

Thought-leadership content that presents insights and information that helps decision-makers perform not as mere functionaries but as leaders who know how to keep the mission-driven goals of their organization in the forefront builds trust and separates you from competitors. To achieve that, thought-leaders must be aware of what audience members need to know now—before a competitor tells them first.

2. Present thought leadership content with an out-of-the-box idea

Defining the problem is where thought leadership starts and proposing an innovative way to perceive and address it is what gets thought leader content noticed. A true thought leader is provocative, one who reveals an “aha” moment that makes a new way of looking at things both credible and memorable. Create thought leadership content that challenges conventional wisdom or reframes a common problem in an unexpected way—and show your audience that you understand the problem and how it can be solved.

To stimulate your creative spirit, you may want to employ an Artificial Intelligence tool to rev up your brainstorming. You’ll have to experiment to find the right prompts that help you discover intriguing, but credible, possibilities for topics that answer questions for readers and reveal what they consider to be an emerging concern. AI can also help you frame your approach to the topic and provide suggestions as to which narrative threads might be included in your content. Also, use storytelling to shape your content, as it is usually the most relatable way to communicate with your audience—and they’re more likely to retain the info you deliver.

A concise overview of a case study or references to insights gleaned from user generated content that’s appeared on your company’s social media accounts are excellent sources of lived experiences that are provided by your very own followers. You can also discover topics to explore as well. Let AI help you start the brainstorming process by showing you topics that your audience are likely to find relevant and then build your case with real time source material that might reflect both your own experiences and that of your clients.

3. The best thought leadership content is in the trenches

When scouting for source material, keep in mind that residents of the C-Suite may not give you boots-on-the-ground perspectives or stories that reveal out-of-the-box perspectives or possible solutions that bring “street cred” to your thought leader content. Clients and colleagues who have a customer-facing role are better positioned to provide you with the most interesting topics, experiences and insights that bring authenticity to your narratives. You want reports from those who notice shifting customer behavior, for example, and other grass-roots experiences that bring a rawness and depth to your thought leader content and makes it relevant to a wide audience.

4. Thought leader content is considered useful

Good thought-leader content earns attention by delivering relevant information. That doesn’t mean checklists or how-tos—but it does mean clarity and ideas that make a subject that is complex feel as if it can be navigated and understood. When your followers and other readers finish your article and let the information you provided and hit the save and/or the forward button, that will verify your status as a thought leader. Useful content helps readers do things like:

  • See a risk they hadn’t considered
  • Argue for a decision internally
  • Convince the audience to take action
  • Shift the mental model audience members were using

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©nobelprize.org (L-R) Daron Acemoglu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, Simon Johnson of MIT and James Robinson of University of Chicago in Chicago, IL

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Two To Tango: Freelance Strategic Partnerships

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Tango dancers in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Freelance professionals are survivors by nature—savvy, proactive and ambitious. You are forward-thinking and grasp the big-picture, characteristics that led you to be realistic about current business conditions and respond to the risk-averse spending habits of many B2B prospects. You recognize that a defensive strategy is needed to stabilize the ground beneath your feet and make it possible to at least maintain, and preferably increase, your client roster and bottom-line sales revenue. A perusal of articles in the business press and resourceful brainstorming have led you to consider pursuing a partnership with a Freelance colleague. Owners of business entities large and small have long recognized that a good partnership creates competitive advantages, whether the goal is to help the partners stimulate revenue during periods of marketplace fluctuation, or maximize revenue and profit during a booming economy. Bringing in partner is meant to bring additional value—clients, investment capital, business skills, brand recognition, for example— and strengthen the position of the partners.

Recent research suggests that successful business entities often rely on their relationships—de facto partnerships— with peers whose services or products are complementary to one’s own and whose target customers have data-supported potential to become a promising source of new leads for your entity. In fact, within the Software as a Service community, partnerships and event participation are described as among the highest impact growth channels for warm leads.

The Freelance economy holds numerous sources of potential partnership opportunities— vendors, co-working site colleagues, Freelancing colleagues you meet at conferences, business accountants and attorneys. Even your SCORE mentor could suggest that you meet with a fellow Freelancer who s/he also mentors and discuss the possibility of partnering on certain types of projects. If you find the possibility of introducing a partnership to your Freelance business entity intriguing, here are some things to consider.

1. View the partnership as a strategic asset, not as the cure for a problem.

First, why do you want to form a partnership? What do you hope to gain and what assets can you bring to the table that might persuade a Freelance colleague to engage in a partnership with you? In order for the partnership to be useful and produce the outcomes that you (and the partner) want, you must be honest about your motivations. So, what are you looking for in a partnership? Start the decision-making process by clarifying your partnership wish list. Next, make an inventory of the resources you can offer to a partner and use that list to articulate your Unique Selling Proposition to a Freelance colleague you hope will become your business partner. Keep in mind that a successful partnership is about sharing resources and is not a rescue mission to save a failing enterprise.

  • Do you want occasional collaborators—say, extra help on certain projects—or an ongoing partnership?
  • A partner whose clients are potential prospects for your services and your clients are potential prospects for the partner’s services? Ideally, you and the partner would see a growing client list.
  • A partner whose services are suitable for co-promotion opportunities, such as the McDonald’s and Coca-Cola #Better Together campaign and the Apple Watch Nike+? Co-promotion is meant to introduce your brand to a wider audience and result in enhanced brand awareness and recognition, with the expectation of increased lead generation, sales revenue growth and market share.
  • A partner whose services, when offered in tandem to your own, will result in the capacity to provide solutions that prospects will perceive as delivering more valuable than your current offering.
  • A partner who will share certain business expenses, such as co-promotion advertising costs and/or office space rental.

2. Goals that align and a cultural fit.

In a functioning and mutually beneficial partnership agreement, there are only winners and there are no losers. A partnership is never a zero sum game where only one person wins. Honest, respectfully expressed communication and transparency are demonstrations of respect and the foundation of authenticity. In a recent McKinsey report, alignment on objectives, effective communication and trust were most often present when partnerships and other joint ventures succeeded and most often absent when partnerships failed.

As well, a mutually accepted definition of good work ethic should be agreed-upon and include a shared understanding of how to handle relevant business practices, such as what constitutes timely and appropriate follow-up regarding client referrals, for example. In this way one develops a reputation as a good partner and the partnership can deliver on its intended purpose.

3. Clearly define roles, responsibilities and money.

Establish and clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each partner and that includes money. Discussing payment protocols upfront will prevent ugly misunderstandings. Will the partner who handles the design work on a website project be paid at the same rate as the tech person who perfects SEO and the speed of page loading—or will you each bill at your usual rate? Put everything in writing to avoid conflicts later. Depending on the state in which you operate, your partnership may require a written agreement.

Regarding roles and responsibilities, will there be a quarterly or semi-annual performance quota for client referrals generated, networking events attended, or other work-related activities? A discussion of what constitutes good work ethic and productivity metrics will be helpful.

4. Start small and work out the kinks. 

Where possible, start small and avoid diving into a big project until the partners become familiar with one another’s working style. Instead, rehearse your partnership by taking on a small project. Creating a story board to describe how the partners together will collaborate successfully on a project can be very useful. Remember what Avatar creator James Cameron and others remind us: “A vision without a plan for execution is just an hallucination.”

5. Frequent, honest, feedback.

Misunderstandings and disagreements are best acknowledged and managed in an environment of regular, honest, feedback and discussion. partnership problems are potentially costly. Scheduling regular check-ins for the partners, even if there is little to discuss and the meeting ends quickly, is cheap and easy insurance for dealing with problems the right way and at the right time.

6. Move quickly and collaboratively when partnership problems arise. 

The land of lost partnerships is littered with avoidance, denial, broken promises, unresolved conflict and denial. Especially if the expectations of an important client have not been delivered, immediate action to correct the lapse and protect the relationship must be taken. Remember what Warren Buffett continually tells himself: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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2026 Tech Trends Whisper in Your Ear

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Freelance professional are not only happily engrossed in performing paid client work; you must simultaneously perform labor that is unpaid—not yet— searching for more work. Ambitious Freelancers are networking to maintain visibility and participating in activities that showcase your professional chops, such as appearing on webinars and podcasts and publishing a blog or newsletter. Your core business development strategy is to convince prospects of your ability to consistently produce the deliverables they need when planning to hire a Freelance worker in your professional category. But in addition to carrying out your revenue producing strategies, the often unspoken role of a Freelance professional is that of small business owner.

As you work both hard and smart to develop and maintain a thriving client roster that generates your preferred number of billable hours and bottom-line revenue, you can never lose sight of the responsibility for managing and optimizing all aspects of business operations. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that staying abreast of major developments in the constantly evolving B2B technology sector is a significant portion of your business management obligations. Dozens of technology tools have been brought to market over the past three or four years and it is certain that one or more potential is capable of creating operational efficiencies in the back-office operations that support your accounting, contract management, lead generation, email marketing, or client onboarding, for example. Time and/or money could be saved, clients will become more satisfied with the after-sales support and other customer service functions you will seamlessly deliver. Even if you are by nature a late adopter, let 2026 be the year that you introduce at least one innovate and undeniably practical technology tools to make a positive impact on your business operations.

Responsible decision-making can only take place when trustworthy information is available; you can keep up with emerging technologies by simply paying attention. Speed read articles and watch videos to learn about new tech products so that you can assess their potential relevance for your organization. You may already be familiar with the sites TechCrunch and Wired and may also find them informative.

While researching, keep this question in mind—does it appear that incorporating this technology will enable you to expand your business success by capitalizing on the outcomes and results it is expected to produce? You already know that most newly released tech products are outside the scope of your needs and budget but as a new year approaches, consider that late adopters often find that they’re leaving money on the table by ignoring technology advancements. Your perspective must always be big-picture and long-term.

Finally, to fully access the intended usefulness of your new technology tool, it must be integrated into your workflow. If you have an employee, develop a strategy to encourage buy-in of the tech tool’s purpose and benefits, so that this new resource will become part of your company culture—how things are done now. Be strategic as you evaluate tech-enabled upgrades you might like to introduce. Below are areas where recently released technology tools could enhance your business operations.

Use emerging tech for leadgen and marketing

The days of cold calling have all but faded away. The gold standard of B2B lead generation in 2026 and beyond is powered by AI-driven tools that enable targeted personalization and feature text, audio and video marketing content, product demos, case studies or testimonials and even live streaming that allows prospects to interact with your company in real time. AI has transformed B2B leadgen to enable marketing campaign activities to deeply engage prospects, a capability that results in higher sales conversion rates.

AI-powered leadgen tools enhance your marketing funnel by analyzing prospect behavior and interaction data to identify to identify and nurture top-quality leads—while complying with current privacy regulations and best practices. By addressing prospects’ specific needs and challenges, you will be able to design marketing campaigns that truly resonate and deliver. As marketplace competition intensifies and customer demands become more exacting, Freelancers in the B2B sector may discover promising benefits in tech innovations.

Account-based marketing has revolutionized the way B2B leadgen by identifying a more narrow swath of high-value prospective client leads rather than reaching out to a less dicrete audience. ABM delivers customized information to key decision-makers, which often leads to better sales conversion rates and smarter use of your resources. ABM uses a precise, data-driven strategy and takes a deep dive into target lead profiles, cross-department priorities and key insights. ABM tactics include:

  • Personalized Outreach: Creating tailored marketing campaigns for individual accounts based on the industry, whose messages will acknowledge client pain points, business goals and other priorities.
  • Custom Content: Developing case studies and presentations that address the challenges of target accounts. Providing relevant educational content, which is one of the most effective ways to attract and nurture B2B leads. Instead of pushing a sales message, content marketing educates by providing useful insights, industry best practices and potential solutions that facilitate informed decisions that yield good results. By addressing typical pain points and offering effective solutions, Freelancers can build trust and position themselves as a partner and go-to resource.
  • AI-powered opportunity identification: Growth leaders in B2B sales are using AI to find new niche, potentially lucrative markets.
  • Value-based AI-enabled pricing: B2B companies are using tech innovations to more comprehensively define value, as they gravitate toward dynamic models that can automate pricing models that are personalized to attract discrete customer segments.
  • Customer Relations Management: Automation software tools will help you analyze customer data, industry trends and competitor behavior to identify accounts that have the most sales potential for you.
  • Search Engine Optimization: SEO is a foundational lead generation strategy that helps B2B companies attract high-quality leads by improving their visibility in search results. When potential customers search for industry solutions, thought leadership content, or service providers, for example, a robust SEO strategy can ensure that your business appears at the right time. By consistently optimizing for search engines and user experience, your Freelance entity can attract a steady flow of organic leads who are actively seeking solutions, thus making SEO one of the most cost-effective B2B leadgen strategies. By optimizing website content, technical website structure and backlink profiles, your business can drive organic traffic and generate leads that convert to paying customers. SEO tactics for B2B lead generation include Keyword Optimization, that is, targeting high-intent search terms that align with buyer needs and search behavior and On-Page and Technical SEO, that is, improving page speed, site structure and mobile usability to enhance search performance.

Use emerging tech to improve the customer experience

Customer experience can be defined as the impression that customers and prospects have of your brand—the company, its products and services and, by extension, you—as they move through your company’s buyer’s journey. Each touchpoint on the journey is an opportunity to create a confidence-building impression that contributes to a satisfying and memorable customer experience. The presentation of an excellent customer experience has for some customers become non-negotiable and in fact, a customer experience that’s perceived as exceptional for some customers outweighs the importance of pricing. B2B customers are responding more like B2C shoppers and adopting many more consumer-like behaviors, e.g., seeking more robust buying experiences.

Include operating with a thoughtful strategy, delivering effective value propositions, optimizing for a wide variety of channels, and sustaining growth. But to stay on the front foot, B2B sales organizations can leverage technology to find the right markets while discovering, retaining, and delighting customers across all channels. Today’s leaders understand the value of embracing innovation and using cutting-edge technology to execute strategies. McKinsey’s latest B2B Pulse Survey reveals a widespread willingness to adopt advanced digital solutions,  yet only 20 % of respondents say they have consistently implemented technologies that fuel outsize growth. 

An exceptionally positive customer experience is a powerful differentiator that can drive revenue and brand loyalty. According to a 2025 Zendesk CX Trends Report, 60% of customers have purchased a service or product from one brand rather than another based on the customer experience they expect to encounter. A 2017 World Economic Forum report predicts that your customers will obtain “more choices and control than ever before” over the next decade thanks to technological advances.

To distinguish your company from competitors in the crowd, Freelancers would be wise to explore and evaluate tech innovations as a way to optimize your operations and appeal to the evolving demands of your clients and prospects. An exceptional customer experience will prioritize:

  • Personalization–Tailor services and communications to respond to individual customer preferences and purchase history
  • Efficiency–streamlined, fast and accurate delivery of service
  • Consistency–Provide a predictable and comforting level of product performance and service
  • Empathy–Show customers that you feel genuine concern for their needs and perspective by actively listening and recommending solutions that your services or products can provide
  • Communication–Provide customers with accurate and timely information
  • Feedback–Provide methods for customers to comment or request assistance and demonstrate that you value their input

Use the new technology to make available a customer experience platform for your company so that you can account for all client and prospect interactions with your company, from the first viewings of your website to advancing through your buyer’s journey to become a qualified lead, to making a purchase and becoming a full-fledged customer and culminating with post-sale support activities. Click here to view options.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Gamutstockimagespvtltd

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Create Content That Delivers

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You will agree that the internet is the leading source of information and entertainment for everyone on Earth who has connectivity. The global data and business intelligence platform Statista reports that in 2025 5.56 billion, approximately 65% of the world’s population, has internet access. To nearly every business entity on the planet, that means about 5.34 billion potential customers—many of whom are too young to launch a buyer’s journey, but some of whom might influence purchases their parents make—are available to receive online marketing information.

While the vast majority of the world’s internet users will become the customers of only a select few brands, the wide acceptance of digital communications gives marketers everywhere the green light to create and post a vast amount of marketing information and the digital space is now awash in content of every type—audio, video, images and text. Audience appetite for content, whether information or entertainment, shows no signs of abating. The number of digital content websites and platforms continues to proliferate and invite contributors to produce still more content, all of which beckons viewers, listeners and readers to show some love and click here, please!

Content saturation of the internet is an inevitable phenomenon. According to the nationally known content marketing expert Neil Patel, nearly 40 % of enterprise companies plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year. Freelance solopreneurs and smaller business entities will likewise continue, or perhaps increase, their content marketing activity as well, but the dominance of content presented by the multinationals can easily cause the comparatively modest content produced by small entities to be overwhelmed as if by a riptide. Freelancers are understandably frustrated with this occurrence. How can you become more visible when your content must swim with the whales—and sharks?

It’s a vexing problem for sure but there is a commonsense strategy, one that plays to your strengths and demonstrates resourcefulness and creativity. The best response to content saturation is to activate your problem-solving ability and devise a strategy that guides you to create content that not only resonates with your audience, but also positions you to gain and maintain the attention and loyalty of your target audience. Whether your information is intended for social media posts, or focuses on developing and promoting content featured in your webinars, weekly blogs, or monthly newsletters, be reassured that content perceived as valuable will be acknowledged and followed by your target audience. It’s just about guaranteed that content featuring information that is specific, practical and actionable will result in a loyal and thriving audience who will regard you as a trusted expert. So, your mission as a content producer is to learn what is meaningful to your readers, listeners and/or viewers and let their priorities guide your content development and distribution strategies.

Educate yourself by reading articles that discuss from local and national perspectives developing trends, pending legislation, competition, opportunities and other updates in your field. Producers of relevant content must also be consumers of relevant content! If producing content figures prominently in your marketing strategies (and I know that it does), you may find one or more of the following five suggestions able to enhance the value of your marketing content and also position your content to bring in a healthy ROI—which might include establishing you as a thought leader.

Relevant, realistic and relatable information

Content that your audience considers to be relevant and practical is more likely to be valued, implemented and shared. Gaining a reputation as a reliable and respected source of content by your audience will incline them to become your followers or subscribers. Content that your viewers, listeners, or readers consider potentially actionable and known to be trustworthy can also encourage loyalty to you, your content and your organization and may persuade some to become your customers. To create content that’s considered useful and trustworthy, and resonates with your audience, you must stay ahead of emerging trends in your industry and be aware of and responsive to the evolving preferences, priorities and concerns of your customers.

Actions are easy to implement and afford

Your audience should be able to envision the usefulness of the actions or strategies your content recommends, even if only a minority of them is prepared to implement your ideas now or in the near future. Individual circumstances will dictate what audience members decide to do, but any advice put forth in your content must inspire confidence.

Furthermore, your content should not recommend actions or strategies that involve implementation costs that many would consider expensive. I’ll go so far as to say that the average B2B content viewer is looking for ideas that can, with a minimum of time and fuss, be used to grow their customer list, streamline business operations and either save or make money—practical advice that can be implemented at no cost or low cost. While business expenses are inescapable, content creators win more fans by recommending actions that demonstrate recognizable value and are accessible and affordable to the majority of the audience.

Your content is your own creation

Rather than doing a copy/paste of another’s work, content creators should value their lived experience—victories won and battles lost, resilience found, the worries of sleepless nights and sudden inspirations—and share those stories with your audience in ways that will be interesting and useful to them. Producing content is usually time-consuming, but that is the price of authenticity and it is worth it. To give yourself a starting point for your creative process, search for trending topics in your field, or comment on an aspect of the most frequent internet search questions related to your marketplace sector that were made over the past week.

Links to expert 3rd party support

In this post I’ve referenced marketing expert Neil Patel and the global business information platform Statista. Demonstrating to your readers/listeners/viewers that key points of your content are supported by recognized nationally or globally respected thought leaders gives them reasons to trust and value the recommendations and insights offered in your content.

Avoid confirmation bias

Content that is valued and popular is shaped not by the creator’s preferences, but by the readers/viewers/listeners in the audience. A common tactic used to help creators avoid confirmation bias is to simply ask audience members what they want to see and hear now, so that you can ensure the relevance of your content. Every few months, you might create a short survey that encourages content viewers to express what matters to them. In a four or five question survey, you can also slip in one or two audience demographic questions—Are you self-employed or an employee? What is your main area of expertise?—and begin to build an audience persona, which will enable you to heighten your responsiveness to your audience.

  • Social media polls Your preferred platforms provide a convenient means to create and send a survey that will help you learn more about your audience. Social media platforms make it easy for you to engage and more effectively communicate with audience members by providing fully customizable forms that help you expand your reach and even grow your base of followers. Polls are equipped with analytical tools that will give you information on your audience’s age group, location, profession and more.
  • Online and email surveys. The most important part of conducting online surveys is knowing what you want to learn from each question, and to keep questions short and easy to answer. You can also create email campaigns to survey your existing client base and gain valuable insight about them. For a very basic customer survey, ClickInsights sets up a one-question, one-click email survey; create a more extensive survey at Survey Monkey.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © A Tokyo soba noodle delivery in 1956. Bettmann Archive/ Getty Images

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Lemons into Lemonade: When the Prospect Says No

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Unless you’re selling iPhones and iPads or another hot product, you know that sales is a tough business (I speak from lived experience). It’s a fact that prospects usually decline to buy. According to 2024 data compiled by researchers at Hubspot, the inbound marketing company based in Cambridge, MA, the average B2B sale has a success rate of 29%. https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-statistics

Selling is a complex and intimate form of communication, a skill that’s impacted by luck (good or bad), timing, money, relationships, serendipitous trends and the needs or wants of prospective customers. Is it possible to crack the 29% close rate? Maybe if you’re an especially gifted talker and luck is on your side. For the rest of us, though, a lost sale means trying to get past disappointment as you pick up the pieces and move on.

When you think about it, you may agree that the best outcome of a sales presentation is to get an honest answer from your prospect. The worse possible outcome is when the prospect ghosts you, gives you the silent treatment. According to research by Matt Dixon and Ted McKenna, co-founders of DCM Insights, a B2B sales training company, and co-authors of The Jolt Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision (2022), 40% – 60% of B2B sales are lost to no decision—ghosting by another name. Yes is always the favorite answer but even no feels better than being ghosted.

If selling is integral to your business, you’ll do well to focus on just getting an answer from your prospect, even if it’s not the one you hope for. In the competitive terrain of B2B sales, the pressure to extract yes from prospects can lead to frustration and stress. But those whose livelihood depends on successful sales—Freelancers, business owners and sales reps working for a company they don’t own—cannot continually chase down prospects, especially when it’s obvious they’ve slipped away. That’s a losing strategy, both time-wasting and corrosive to self-esteem.

There is a sliver of bright side, however, because when the prospect says no, it doesn’t always mean that you leave the scene empty-handed. The less experienced or confident salesperson will automatically assume that no means never. That could be true, but those who’ve been around the block a couple of times know that a prospect who declines to buy today might mean, “let’s talk at another time.” Those who sell should be aware that a third option can exist beyond the yes/ no paradigm.

The often neglected third option can lead prospects to revisit, reassess and sometimes redo a rejected sales decision. If you enable the process, you and your prospect together can access the third option and expand the meaning of a successful sale. It’s good sales strategy and respects the power you’ve earned as a professional who creates value.

So, when preparing for the next sales meeting, why not adjust expectations of potential outcomes and re-frame your definition of a “lost” sale? Like describing whether your glass is half-empty or half-full, allow yourself to reclassify no and redefine it as another type of opportunity—kind of like turning lemons into lemonade. Many prospective customers are not completely forthcoming when discussing a potential sale. As noted by Dixon and McKenna (above), roughly half of B2B sales are lost because no decision is made.

That all-too-common lapse should be the biggest motivation for those who sell for a living to ask probing questions when meeting with prospects. You need to tease out any unspoken agenda items and get the cards on the table. You set the stage for a candid discussion during sales meetings by showing that you care: listen well, take notes and repeat key phrases to confirm what needs to be resolved, achieved and/or avoided. Do that and you’ll earn trust and make it comfortable for the prospect to tell you what’s up, instead of ghosting you because s/he can’t figure out how to talk about things.

Yes, no, next steps

To encourage yes (and discourage a future no), make sure you and the prospect establish and agree on whatever next steps will continue the positive momentum of your conversation and facilitate ongoing engagement. In other words, do what you can to keep the prospect talking and keep alive the possibility of a sale, even if the timing will be later rather than sooner. Make the lemonade.

For best results, propose a specific time-frame for follow-up actions that lead to the next conversation. The follow-up will be an action plan that functions to promote the chances of converting the prospect into a yes in the future. Still, remember that your reassessment of a win should mean that you focus on getting a well-considered answer. If the answer is based on a thorough evaluation of your proposal by the prospect’s decision team, then call it a win, whether s/he says yes or no. Ghosting is what you want to avoid. Here are rewards you’ll get when you re-frame the meaning of successful selling:

  • Yes: Always the favorite answer. Your talking points and proposal convinced the prospect.
  • No: An unequivocal no does not always represent failure, as it tells you to move forward and pursue potentially more promising leads. The earlier in the sales process that no arrives the better it is for you. Then, you can redirect your time and energy on opportunities that may get you to yes.
  • Next steps: This option is based on specific follow-up actions and a scheduled time to meet with your prospect. Next steps is a win because it confirms potential interest and outlines a roadmap to a possible “yes.” The key to next steps is a specific follow-up time-frame.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Getty images. Children Selling Lemonade, 1945

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Survey: Freelancing in America 2023

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Upwork, the global marketplace that connects businesses in need of capable and reliable Freelance professionals and talented independent workers who are looking to generate billable hours, has just released the results of “Freelance Forward: 2023,” the 10th annual comprehensive study of the U.S. independent workforce. The study found that 64 million Americans participated in Freelance work during the past year, adding 4 million more self-employed workers over 2022. Freelance workers now comprise 38% of the nation’s workforce and contributed nearly $1.27 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2023.

Highly skilled professionals

Most Freelancers perform highly skilled professional work. Nearly half (47%) work in the knowledge economy and provide B2B services such as computer programming, marketing, IT, graphic arts and business consulting. Another 23% of Freelancers create influencer and other marketing content that fuels livestreams, social media videos and images, blogs and newsletters. 

Freelancers are also at the forefront of embracing new technologies. When asked about generative Artificial Intelligence use in the past three months, Freelancers were 2.2 times more than traditionally employed workers to say that they frequently use generative AI tools. In total, 20%, approximately 12.8 million Freelancers, use generative AI tools regularly (multiple times per week), compared to just 9% of traditionally employed professionals. When asked the functions for which Freelancers use generative AI, research (46%), brainstorming and ideation (35%), translation (33%), proposal writing (32%) and coding (28%) ranked at the top. 

Why we Freelance

Results of Freelance Forward studies produced over the the study’s 10 year history show that respondents enter Freelancing for various reasons, but flexibility and control consistently emerge as prime motivators. Beyond earning a living, when asked about reasons for Freelancing, “to have flexibility in my schedule,” “to be in control of my own financial future” and “to work from the location of my choosing” top the list. This is mainly because unlike traditional employees, whose work schedules are largely imposed by the company, Freelancers are our own bosses. We determine when, where and for whom we will work and therefore, we are able to control our schedules and lives.

The evidence of this freedom is apparent in where Freelancers perform our work. Although return-to-office mandates have brought many professionals back to their cubicle, the majority of Freelancers work from home, at a co-working space, or in another location of their choosing. In fact, 60% of Freelancers work remotely, as compared to just 32% of traditionally employed professionals who work remotely. Furthermore, Freelancers also choose the hours and amount of work they’ll do at a given time. While 77% of Freelancers say they work consistently, they do so based on a schedule that best suits their lifestyles.

The future is Freelance

Freelancing continues to grow as a viable career choice for professionals and according to survey participants, the future of Freelancing remains bright. To understand the future of Freelancing, survey respondents were asked to assess their feelings of optimism, or pessimism, ahead of 2024. Overwhelmingly, Freelancers are optimistic about prospects for their professional growth (80%), personal income and revenue increases (76%), opportunities to earn billable hours (74%) and personal development (84%). When asked about the future, 85% of Freelancers say the best days for Freelancing are ahead. Key findings of Freelance Forward 2023 include:

  • Freelancing remains a significant part of the U.S. labor market and economy: Freelancers contributed $1.27 trillion in annual earnings to the U.S. economy in 2023. This was a 78% increase from the estimated $715 billion contributed to the economy in 2014, the first year of Freelance Forward.
  • Freelancing hits a new all-time high: The number of professionals Freelancing increased to 64 million Americans, or 38% of the U.S workforce, an increase of 4 million from 2022.
  • Freelancers are 2.2 times more likely to regularly use generative AI frequently in their work: 20% of Freelancers use generative AI tools on a regular basis (multiple times per week), which compares to just 9% of traditionally employed professionals.
  • Nearly half of Freelancers provide skilled knowledge services: 47% of all Freelancers, or nearly 30 million professionals, provided knowledge services such as computer programming, marketing, IT, and business consulting in 2023.
  • A quarter of Freelancers are creating influencer-style content: 23% of all Freelancers, or 14.7 million professionals, created influencer content including livestream services, social media videos, images or blogs in 2023.
  • Generation Z and Millennials are the most likely to explore Freelancing: In 2023, 52% of all Gen Z professionals and 44% of all Millennial professionals performed Freelance work.
  • Older Americans continue to be part of the Freelance market: In 2023, nearly 8.3 million professionals, or 13% of all U.S. Freelancers, were aged 59 or above.
  • The future is bright, according to Freelancers: Over 85% of Freelancers say the best days are ahead for Freelancing.

Happy New Year and thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Frontal Lobe Coworking, located in the Nationally Registered historic downtown of Howell, MI, opened in 2013 with the intention of attracting workers to a shared office space while also utilizing empty downtown buildings.

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Getting Serious About Social Media

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What criteria guide your approach to social media? With few exceptions, your marketing strategy can’t be called comprehensive unless at least one social media platform is in the mix. It’s a highly effective tool and not only that— using social media doesn’t cost money (it does require time) and it has the power to amplify your traditional marketing tactics by re-posting text, audio and image content onto your chosen platforms. But like all marketing initiatives, social media requires thought and planning. To make success possible you must develop a credible strategy, starting with choosing (maybe three or four?) objectives you’d like to achieve.

Along with your objectives, you’ll also want to be mindful that certain audiences have an affinity for certain platforms and certain platforms are more suitable for some types of products or services and not so much for others. Moreover, it makes sense to assess the amount of time you can reasonably expect to devote to your social media updates, because fresh and relevant content are key. It will be much more favorable to establish a presence on one or two platforms and make it all pop with engaging and timely content instead of wading into multiple platforms on which you post only sporadically.

Once you launch your campaign, it’s advisable to continually monitor your performance analytics and watch for feedback. Be certain to respond quickly to customer service needs or comments and second, you want to measure visitor response to your content. Both metrics can inform your content topics, plus encourage customer engagement and feelings of loyalty. Focus your efforts where they’ll reap the greatest return on investment (ROI).

Finally, social media audiences on every platform are viewing content creators with increasing skepticism. Content consumers now demand authenticity from the influencers and brands they follow. Be genuine in your approach to social media (and all) marketing so that you’ll earn the trust, respect, loyalty—and business!— of your target audience. Below are common drivers of B2B social media objectives:

  • Website traffic
  • Brand awareness
  • Lead generation
  • PR mentions

Strategy

Devise an overall strategy that keeps your social media presence on-message and active. Establish your brand on platforms whose audience demographics and content style best showcases the products or services you promote. Every few months, you might want to color outside the lines, maybe with a fun collaboration with a complementary (and never competing) brand, a contest, or a (non-controversial) social or health awareness initiative that can stimulate positive customer engagement and even expand your audience.

Brand identity

A strong brand identity provides a consistent, dependable and ultimately reassuring experience for your social media audience. By establishing a recognizable brand identity, (you and) your business will be positioned to cultivate a loyal following that remains engaged across your selected platforms. Your unique brand voice, image style and relatable, consistent messaging across all social media platforms will enhance your authenticity and build the respect and trust of your audience.

Relevant content

Focus on creating meaningful and high quality content that resonates with your target audience. Authentic and relevant content helps the audience feel connected to your brand, encouraging engagement and promoting brand loyalty. 

Personal communication

Facilitating direct communication between you/ the brand and your target audience is the great advantage of social media. The communication is personal and unfiltered, allowing you to learn a great deal about how those who do business with you feel about doing business with you. Social media helps you learn fast about what works and what doesn’t, giving you the luxury of responding personally and quickly and making a timely course correction if necessary.

Focus On Your Audience/ Build A Community

Social media isn’t just a method that lets you speak to your audience in a monologue that promotes your business. It’s about building a community. When you introduce practices that enable a community—meaningful content, regular updates, responding to questions, complaints and compliments and keeping it authentic (real) you will over time build and sustain an engaged audience that’s truly interested in your brand (and you).

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Jean Arthur in Easy Living, written by Preston Sturges. Paramount Pictures (1937)

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Unspoken Desires: What B2B Clients Really Want

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The punchline of today’s story is that your clients say one thing and mean another. Surprise! Those of you who sell or provide B2B products or services know that prospects present themselves to Freelancers and sales reps as dispassionate decision-makers who demand value and aim to minimize costs as they operate in the harsh realities of tech company lay-offs, bank failures, inflation, war and the lingering aftershocks of the coronavirus shutdown. Oh, and they’d also like the products or services they buy to save them time, because time is money.

However Ron Friedman, PhD, a psychologist who studies human motivation, surveyed 2,128 office workers in the U.S, U.K, France, Germany, Spain and Italy discovered some additional, unspoken, motivations of office workers who purchase B2B products or services.

Friedman and his team found that B2B customers favor interactions that cater to certain psychological needs, even when satisfying those needs costs the company more money and time. The findings suggest that what humans really want are choice (control, power), meaningful connections with others (relatedness) and opportunities to grow skills that are important to them (mastery).

Let’s dive in to get more insights and understand how you can leverage these unspoken motivations as you and your prospective clients discuss your products and services.

Choice trumps problem-solving

When Friedman’s study subjects were asked if they prefer to discuss and potentially buy from a B2B services provider a single solution that can solve their problem or help achieve their goal, or be offered two or more potential solutions that they must evaluate and then select their preferred remedy, the ability to choose won out.

When a prospect is presented with a single, presumably effective, solution that’s expected to resolve the goal or problem at issue, time is automatically saved. Still, 58% of Friedman’s study subjects preferred the opportunity to choose and, it seems, the power that came with it. The ability to choose was considered desirable, even when going through the selection process did not provide additional benefits, e.g., better results or money and time saved.

Connection overrules time

Most prospects didn’t mind that extra time was spent to review and evaluate the available options that guide their choice of a solution. Although waiting for a human being to reply to an email or pick up the phone might require twice the time and provided no other benefits (in either case, participants were assured their problem would be solved), waiting twice as long to speak with a human being was preferred by nearly three-quarters of participants (74%).

Furthermore, respondents much prefer to know who they’re doing business with. When asked to rate what they consider to be satisfactory or unsatisfactory customer service delivered by the sales reps and other service providers they interact with, study subjects rated just 33% of vendors they didn’t really know as providing “satisfactory” service, but 70% of vendors who received “satisfactory” ratings were known personally by the respondents. In other words, the experience of close connection and impressions of good service are linked.

Experiences that expand horizons

Human beings enjoy learning new skills and being exposed to new experiences. It makes life interesting and expands our horizons. It’s good for self-esteem. Keep that affinity for learning in mind as you discuss your product or service with prospects as you simultaneously show respect for their expertise.

The process of acknowledging the prospect’s skill set, I.e., mastery, and providing a learning opportunity starts when you offer the choice of potential solutions to the problem or pathways to achieving the goal, as noted above.

When you are hired to work on a project (another empowering choice that the prospect, now a client, gets to make) and carrying out the client’s preferred solution, you can as well satisfy the (unspoken) desire to learn by giving him/her an inside look at how you apply the solution and make it work. For your client, this can appeal to the desire to keep his/her skills up to date in a rapidly changing economy and workplace.

What might these findings tell us about the rising popularity of marketing automation? Freelancers and other business owners have used the software to facilitate engagement and bring in point-of- service online sales. New and returning clients have gravitated to contactless interactions where, other than choice, psychological motives are not addressed.

Since 70% of Friedman’s survey respondents feel positively about customer service interactions when they are handled by someone they know, that does leave 30% who are OK working with someone they don’t know (contactless engagement). Also, the power of choice remains, which is an important factor for most.

Finally, prospects who explore your products and services on your website or social media platforms always have the option to contact you (or your team) and initiate direct conversations when choice, connection that may lead to relatedness and learning opportunities that expand mastery can take place.

Thanks for reading and welcome spring!

Kim

Image: © Netflix/ Mark Bourdillon. L-R Matt Lucas, Prue Leith, Paul Hollywood and Noel Fielding of The Great British Baking Show illustrate our unspoken desires.

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Full Frontal LinkedIn

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For B2B firms, Freelance consultants and corporate or not-for-profit professionals, LinkedIn is the preferred social media platform because it is strictly business. Members create a profile that is essentially an expanded resume. There are opportunities to receive recommendations from colleagues with whom one has worked. One can create and upload a SlideShare presentation to provide an overview of company products and services and describe how they benefit customers.

A portfolio that showcases examples of one’s best work can be created and uploaded.  The company blog and/or newsletter can be added to the profile and all connections will receive notice of publishings. If that’s not enough, LinkedIn ProFinder helps to match prospective clients with Freelancers in search of project work (I’ve had a couple of almosts but no contract yet, after 6-8 months of sporadic follow-up to prospect inquiries).

There are those members who claim to make money directly from their LinkedIn connections (other than the ProFinder feature), but I don’t know anyone who’s done so. Still, LinkedIn seems to be a worthwhile investment.  I think presence on the site lends legitimacy and I suspect that prospective clients who are evaluating whether to hire a Freelancer (me!) for a project visit the LinkedIn profile as an element of due diligence.

LinkedIn users

According to the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog, of the 500 million LinkedIn profile owners, 61 million are senior-level influencers and 24.5 million are in decision-making positions.  Millennials are also well-represented on LinkedIn. Globally, 87 million members are Millennial generation and 11 million are in decision-making positions.

Content Marketing

LinkedIn’s Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn  reports that LinkedIn is the top choice for B2B content marketing and that every week, LinkedIn content is viewed 9 billion times. While 94% of B2B marketers (including Freelancers) use LikedIn to distribute content, 89% use Twitter, 77% use Facebook, 77% use YouTube and 61% use Google + for B2B content distribution. Surprisingly, only 3 million LinkedIn members post content once a week or more.

When marketing executives (i.e., the Freelancer’s prospective clients) were asked their choice sites to search for relevant, high-quality B2B content, 91% voted for LinkedIn, blowing away Twitter (29%) and Facebook (27%). Decision-makers who have the authority to green-light projects and send billable hours your way trust LinkedIn.  How-to posts and lists receive the best reader response, according to OKDork.com.

About 45% of LinkedIn article readers are managers, directors, vice presidents and C-suite dwellers. Have you published articles in legitimate media outlets, or written white papers or case studies? If so, upload examples of your writing to your profile, since nearly half of LinkedIn article readers are senior level decision-makers. Furthermore, OKDork.com investigated LinkedIn viral posts and discovered that the sweet spot for content length is 1900 words. Don’t shy away from long-form content.

In your articles, be certain to include images (photos, graphs, charts); eight images emerged as the magic number.  Yet videos do not impress LinkedIn readers as they do visitors to other platforms and OKDork.com recommends that article writers avoid videos.

I’ve made this blog available to my LinkedIn connections for the 10 years of its existence and I’ve gained followers and regular readers as a result. Get busy, people! If you think about it, you’ll find that you have relevant content to share with your community every two or three weeks, at least.

As mentioned earlier, LinkedIn encourages members to take advantage of SlideShare as a storytelling and sales tool. According to TechCrunch, 70 million LinkedIn members visit SlideShare each month and 18 million pieces of content have been uploaded (does that mean there are 18 million SlideShare presentations on LinkedIn? I guess so.)

I have a SlideShare presentation that was uploaded some time ago and it’s a good way to tell the story of your company, or to detail why, when and how customers can benefit from using your products or services. But LinkedIn won’t allow edits to existing presentations and it’s aggravating.  I’d like to do an update.

Lead generation 

When tallying B2B leads generated by social media, LinkedIn outperforms all contenders, with 80% of B2B leads derived from LinkedIn and only 13% through Twitter and 7% through Facebook. Moreover, HubSpot reports that LinkedIn produces the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate of all platforms, 2.74%, almost three times higher than Facebook, which produces a 0.77% visitor-to-lead conversion rate, and Twitter, which clocks in with a 0.69% visitor-to-lead rate.

In short, LinkedIn delivers more prospects who are more willing to do business.  The ultimate validation is that 65% of B2B companies have acquired a customer through LinkedIn (I’m still waiting. I should go back to ProFinder ASAP, because I do receive bidding invitations).

So here is my call-to-action. You’ve read the post (thank you!) and I hope you are inspired to step up your LinkedIn activity. It’s OK to start small. Do you have a profile photo? Add a photo and attract 21 times more profile views and receive 36 times more messages. I added a new photo today.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph: John Pilkington (2006) Loading salt at the Taoudenni salt mines in northern Mali, 400 miles north of Timbuktu and approaching the Algerian border. The mines have operated since at least the 1500s.

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Content Marketing Survey Findings

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In 2016 the PA based marketing services company Clutch surveyed 300+ producers of online B2B content to obtain insight into how readers find, engage with and act on digital business-themed content.

The Clutch Content Marketing Survey 2016 interviewed 300+ expert content marketing writers from across the U.S. to determine how those who produce B2B content can most effectively create, publish and promote content for their organizations.  Key findings were:

  • 88% of online B2B content consumers read business content at least once a week
  • 45% of online B2B content consumers read content to stay current with trends in their respective industries
  • 20% of online B2B content readers use content to help make decisions about whether to purchase products or services
  • 45% of online B2B content consumers read about technology, 24% read about small
    business and 21% read about workplace/ HR topics
  • 87% of online B2B content readers visit search engines to look for business content
  • 85% of online B2B content readers commonly find business content on social media

Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Officer at the Content Marketing Institute in New York City, emphasizes that “Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable information to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience, with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” In other words, the goal of your content marketing posts, videos, podcasts and images should be to develop a relationship with your customers, using relevant content to win them over.

main goals for content marketing

Furthermore, the expert content marketers surveyed advised that target audience personas are the most important attributes to consider when developing your content marketing strategy. “Most businesses have an idea about their audience and how it is segmented but, when it comes to taking those audiences into a content marketing strategy, they often flounder,” said Quinn Whissen, Marketing Director at Vertical Measures, a content marketing agency in Phoenix, AZ.

types of content enterprise companies create most frequently

Although challenging, clearly identifying and defining target audience personas is the foundation of an effective content strategy.  Understanding who will read the content determines the information to include and the best platforms for presentation.

content that performs best

Content marketing can be an effective tool for creating brand awareness and generating leads that convert to sales or billable hours, but realize also that it can generate benefits that go beyond a page one article ranking in Google or driving traffic to your website. Consider how content might help your organization to meet key business objectives.  How can your content increase sales?”

HubSpot, a marketing services firm based near Boston, MA, found that the more marketing content a potential customer reads on the company website, the more likely s/he is to buy their software.  Jeffrey Vocell, Senior Manager of Product Marketing, reports that HubSpot follows up with a customized email after a user reads three or four articles.

Metrics matter

  • Expert content marketing writers prioritize their brand story, mission statement and content types when creating their content strategy
  • 49% say that brand awareness is their main goal for content marketing
  • Research/original data, infographics, product reviews and blog posts are the most effective types of content
  • Metrics that reflect sales (32%), content readership (29%) and lead generation (29%) are more important than content sharing metrics (10%)
  • Paid advertisements outperform organic efforts when promoting and distributing content

content marketing metrics

Survey findings yield three core recommendations for content marketing:

  1. Tailor all marketing content to specific audiences.  First identify the different reader personas, then create content that matches their needs, interests, aspirations and behaviors.
  2. Identify the business goals you aim to achieve and consider how your content can enable that. For example, if you want to obtain more links back to your website, be sure to generate research/original data, infographics, product reviews, videos, blog posts and case studies.
  3. Spend less money on content creation and more on distribution.  Creating high-quality content is useless if you don’t dedicate enough effort or resources to getting it in front of your target audience.  If you can’t afford paid advertising, focus on media outreach, such as traditional journalists and influencers.

tactics used to distribute content

Regarding the most effective content distribution methods, the survey found that expert content marketers most often use paid advertisements  including pay-per-click (71%), organic social media (70%) and traditional marketing channels (69%), i.e. print media, TV, radio and direct mail.

Distribution and promotion of the content must be customized to the target audience.  For example, “If content distribution and promotion is done for recent college graduates, it has completely different channels and focuses, compared to content aimed at executives,” explains Andrea Fryrear, Chief Content Officer at Fox Content of Boulder, CO.

Finally, remember that content marketing can deliver benefits to your company that go beyond achieving a page one Google listing for an article you’ve posted or driving traffic to your website. “We don’t simply want to have an impact on marketing, but rather on the entire business unit within that organization,” said Chad Pollitt, Vice President of Audience at Relevance, an online content marketing publication based in MD.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph: Vaudeville and film star W.C. Fields as a carnival sideshow barker in Two Flaming Youths (Paramount Pictures, 1927)