Yesterday I shared my article from 2011 about how today, there's a huge danger that your clients see you as simply a commodity vendor because they've already decided what they think they need way before they ever speak to you.

Recent research by the CEB in “The Challenger Customer” backs this up: clients don't call in suppliers until, on average, they're 57% of the way through their decision-making process.

That's after they've decided what their problem is and what they think the solution needs to be – traditionally areas where a good supplier will work with them to help inform and shape their thinking and establish themselves as an expert and preferred provider in the process.  

And, of course, since they haven't got near the level of experience or expertise as you, there's a good chance they've settled on the wrong solution. Or at best, a sub-optimal one.

In the article, I talked about how, when you meet potential clients, you might well need to challenge their thinking to get them on the right track (and re-establish yourself as the expert).

But that process applies to so much more than just meetings with clients.

It has to start with your marketing.

With your marketing, you have a chance to inform and shape the thinking of potential clients long before you ever meet them. So that when you do meet, you're not positioned as a commodity vendor but instead as the person who gave them a “lightbulb moment” that helped them understand what they really had to do.

But how much of your marketing really does create “lightbulb moments”?

Speaking for myself, not enough.

And looking out there at the oceans of articles, blog posts, videos and podcasts I see very little that offers new insight.

If your next blog post simply summarises the same best practices that everyone else is talking about then what's the point really?

Even if it's a really good summary and is useful in its own right, it's not advancing your cause with your clients. 

Sure, it means potential clients know that you know that stuff as well as your competitors. But that just reinforces their view of you as a commodity vendor.

To work to generate real leads, your content needs to challenge, not just replicate what everyone else is saying. It needs to help your potential clients see the mistakes they're making or opportunities they're missing. It needs to lay out your own unique vision or point of view on how things should be done.

Risky. Because they might not agree with you.

But not as risky, in my view, as having them agree but see you as a commodity.