Over the years, I’ve had countless conversations with CMOs of technology companies.
Almost every one of them says some version of the same thing.
“We have brilliant subject matter experts. We just can’t get them to write.”
My response is usually the same.
Maybe they shouldn’t.
Because I don’t believe the best thought leadership starts with writing.
It starts with listening.
Think about where the most valuable insights in your organization are created.
They’re rarely born in the marketing department.
They’re created in customer workshops.
In solution design sessions.
During implementation reviews.
In post-project retrospectives.
On pre-sales calls.
Sometimes even during customer escalations.
That’s where your architects hear the questions customers are afraid to ask.
That’s where your consultants discover why a transformation project succeeded—or why it quietly failed.
That’s where your customer success teams uncover the organisational and cultural roadblocks that no product brochure ever mentions.
Those conversations are gold.
Unfortunately, they rarely leave the meeting room.
Instead, marketing teams often begin with a blank document and ask, “What should we write about this month?”
I think that’s the wrong question.
A better question is:
What have we learned from our customers this month?
Because thought leadership isn’t created by inventing opinions.
It’s created by capturing experience.
One of the reasons I enjoy working with technology companies is that they’re overflowing with expertise.
Product managers know why customers request certain features.
Solution engineers know the objections that surface in almost every deal.
Professional services teams know where implementation projects stall.
Support teams see recurring issues months before they become industry talking points.
Collectively, they possess an extraordinary understanding of the market.
The challenge isn’t a lack of expertise.
It’s that expertise remains trapped inside conversations.
This is where I believe marketing plays a very different role than we sometimes imagine.
Marketing doesn’t have to be the source of every idea.
Its role is to identify the ideas worth amplifying.
To ask better questions.
To connect patterns across customer conversations.
To transform expertise into stories that educate the market.
The latest Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report found that decision-makers increasingly value thought leadership because it demonstrates an organisation’s expertise and understanding of customer challenges. Notice the emphasis isn’t on publishing more content. It’s on demonstrating genuine expertise.
That expertise already exists inside most technology companies.
The opportunity is to uncover it.
I’ve often found that the best interviews with subject matter experts don’t begin with, “Can you write a blog?”
They begin with questions like:
“What’s changing in your customers’ world?”
“What’s one misconception you hear all the time?”
“What’s something you’ve learned recently that surprised you?”
The answers are rarely polished.
They’re not meant to be.
But they’re authentic.
And authenticity is the raw material of great thought leadership.
Perhaps that’s the shift I see happening.
The best marketing teams are spending less time creating opinions.
And more time discovering them.
Because your next great thought leadership article probably isn’t sitting in a content calendar.
It’s sitting in a conversation that happened this morning.
The question is:
Did anyone capture it?
Sources
Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report
https://www.edelman.com/expertise/business-marketing/b2b-thought-leadership
LinkedIn B2B Institute
https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/b2b-institute
McKinsey & Company – Growth, Marketing & Sales Insights
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights
Harvard Business Review – Leadership
https://hbr.org/topic/leadership