Latest news with #HenryMcIntosh
Forbes
7 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Buyers Trust Experts, Not Brands: Show Them Yours
Henry McIntosh is founder of Twenty One Twelve Marketing - specialists in ideal client acquisition for tech, SaaS and financial firms. Many businesses are sitting on a goldmine of influence. Their brightest minds are solving complex problems, steering strategy and delivering real results, yet when you look online, you'd never know they exist. And while that might seem like a branding issue, it's actually a growth problem. Because in today's B2B landscape, consistently making your credibility visible is key to marketing success. I see it constantly: Companies with depth, credibility and track records that most would envy, yet none of it is visible to the market. The result? Cold leads, longer sales cycles and a brand that feels flatter than it should. The solution isn't to turn every expert into a content creator. It's to create a system that extracts and scales their thinking, so that insight becomes influence—and influence drives growth. Modern B2B Buyers Don't Wait to Be Sold To In complex sales environments, trust isn't built in one meeting. It's built in touchpoints, lots of them. Recent studies suggest that B2B buyers may interact with a brand more than 100 times before making a purchase. And most of those interactions happen long before they speak to a salesperson. They're browsing LinkedIn, YouTube and even Reddit. They're attending industry events and reading trade publications. They are quietly qualifying you, and they're basing it on what you share, how you think and how consistently you show up. If the only content they find is broad brand messaging or generic white papers, they tune out. But if they discover sharp, commercially relevant insights from the people behind the business? That's when they start paying attention. Which brings us to the missed opportunity: The people who could build the most trust, your domain experts, are often the least visible. Expert-Led Content Is Your First Impression There's a sequence to trust-building in B2B. You don't start with hard pitches or polished brand ads. You start by delivering value, showing that your team understands the buyer's world, speaks their language and has ideas worth listening to. That's what expert-led content does. It leads with perspective, not promotion. It opens doors. It creates context. And it gives all your other marketing and sales activities a better shot at landing. You still need the full mix of ads, nurture journeys and outbound sequences, but without visible expertise up front, you're trying to close deals before building credibility. In a long buying cycle, expert-led content is what makes your later-stage assets work harder. Why Aren't More Businesses Doing This? It's not for lack of experts. Most teams have people with powerful ideas and real-world insights. But those people are busy. They're not wired to create content. They don't think in headlines. They don't want to be influencers. And they certainly don't have time to write posts or polish articles every week. Even when marketers try to help, things often fall apart: Briefs get ignored, ghostwriting misses the nuance and content gets watered down through too many review cycles. So the insights stay locked in client calls and strategy docs, never making it into the market. The result is a brand that feels like a summary, not a signal. You Don't Need More Creators: You Need A Better System The key isn't asking your experts to create more. It's building a repeatable process to extract and amplify what they already know. That process looks like this: 1. Capture raw thinking. You can ensure it is in the expert's own voice by conducting an interview with them. 2. One interview equals cross-channel content. One 30-minute interview with an expert can produce 10 or more clips for social media as well as fuel blog posts and newsletters. It's 30 minutes for a month's worth of content. 3. Publish consistently. Publish across the platforms where your buyers are already researching. Done right, this kind of content doesn't just build awareness, it builds authority. And it doesn't require weeks of input or huge production budgets. There are tools designed to make this process ridiculously simple. Why This Matters Now AI has made it easier than ever to generate content. But that's not always a good thing. Every feed is saturated with look-alike posts and algorithm-chasing fluff. The result? Trust is harder to earn and easier to lose. The only content that cuts through now is content that feels real, lived and specific. Expert-led content wins because it shows how you think, not just what you offer. It creates a moat around your message because nobody else can replicate your team's perspective. In saturated industries where there is little product differentiation, you need to make your team your point of difference. This is especially powerful in high-consideration industries like finance, SaaS, consultancy and engineering, where trust is the true differentiator. What You're Leaving On The Table If your experts aren't visible, your business can be missing out on: • Early-stage influence that warms up the funnel. • Content that earns shares, not just impressions. • Shorter sales cycles built on pre-existing trust. • A stronger employer brand powered by credibility. • Opportunities you'll never even know you lost. This isn't about vanity metrics or "building a following." It's about commercial advantage. Visibility that compounds. Influence that opens doors. And it's entirely within reach—if you systemize it. Your Experts Are The Moat: Let People See Them Your smartest people shouldn't be your best-kept secret. For, in a market where everyone's shouting, the sharpest ideas, delivered clearly, consistently and credibly, are what cut through. Expert-led content won't replace your brand strategy or your media spend. But it will make everything else work harder. Because once buyers trust your people, they start trusting your business. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Forbes
27-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Silent Killer Of Growth: Weak Value Propositions
Henry McIntosh is founder of Twenty One Twelve Marketing - specialists in ideal client acquisition for tech, SaaS and financial firms. Most companies think their value proposition is fine. The brand feels modern, the sales deck looks good, but something's off. Growth is lumpy. Marketing is uncertain. Even your outsourced "expert" agencies are floundering. And nobody knows why. In many cases, the problem isn't the tactic but the foundation. A weak or unclear value proposition is the silent killer of growth. But it won't show up in board meetings or dashboards. It shows up in symptoms: inconsistent messaging, weak leads, high churn, ineffective campaigns and frustrated teams. If you're not confident in the difference you make to your customers, you can be sure your market isn't either. Here's how a faulty value proposition is holding your business back: 1. Your Brand Is Vague And Overly Emotive Most businesses fall into one of two traps: They either mimic corporate giants like Apple and Google, hoping that a sleek brand will build loyalty, or they bury their messaging in vague, emotional language that fails to resonate. For small to mid-sized companies, this doesn't work. You don't have the advertising budget to force-feed the market an abstract message. And, more importantly, nobody cares about your 'why' until they understand what's in it for them. Your brand must clearly convey the commercial value you deliver—not the feeling you want to evoke or the mission that excites your team but the value your customer receives from working with you. If you can't communicate this value in a few short sentences, your prospects will tune out. 2. Marketing Doesn't Know What To Say Marketing without positioning is just noise. Teams that don't have a firm grasp on the value proposition are left experimenting with campaigns that lack consistency or purpose. You see this in the form of fragmented content, inconsistent tone and scattergun messaging. These businesses often have smart, capable marketers who are doing their best, but without a clear strategic anchor, they're left guessing. This is especially true for companies led by ex-corporate leaders who are used to big-brand halo effects and enterprise-sized budgets. They assume a logo and a few taglines are enough. But in leaner teams, the message matters more. Great marketing doesn't require more content—it requires more clarity. 3. Your Digital Leads Are Weak When you don't understand why your best customers buy from you, the fallback is to chase quantity over quality. The result? Bloated customer relationship management systems (CRMs), disinterested leads and overworked sales teams. A long-time associate of Twenty One Twelve likes to use the following example: Real estate firms once used online property price calculators to generate leads. But most users just wanted to know their home value, not sell. These "leads" went nowhere. Reps burned time. Conversion plummeted. High volume, low intent. Now, imagine running digital campaigns with a precise value proposition—something tailored to your ideal client, speaking directly to their pain points, priorities and desired outcomes. Suddenly, you're not hunting for interest—you're creating it. In an age of AI and hyper-personalization, a broad value proposition isn't just lazy—it's expensive. 4. Sales Relies On Tactics, Not Value When value isn't clearly defined, sales teams default to tricks: discounts, urgency plays and gimmicky intros. It reduces a complex offering to a transactional pitch. This hurts in two ways. First, you lose margin. Second, you lose long-term trust. Arm your salespeople with a strong value proposition and everything changes. They move from dealmakers to advisors. They know their audience, what they need to highlight and when to walk away. A great value proposition creates space for better qualification, storytelling and, ultimately, conversions. It allows your sales team to stop improvising and start advising. 5. Agencies And Consultants Are Left Guessing If you're working with external partners, your value proposition is their launchpad. Without it, they're flying blind. We see this all the time: campaigns stall, messaging flops, creative feels off. The client blames the agency, the agency blames the brief, but under the surface, the real issue is a lack of clarity about what the business does best. The core narrative must be nailed down. Even the most talented agencies can't perform miracles. They need focus, direction and a defined promise to bring to life. If you're burning through agencies, the problem might not be them—but you. Build From The Core The difference between companies that grow sustainably and those that constantly restart is simple: Winners build from the core. They understand the value they bring, who benefits and how to articulate it. If you're seeing symptoms like poor leads, unclear messaging, sales under pressure or failed campaigns, don't start with tactics. Start with your proposition. Because if you don't know the value you bring, the market certainly won't figure it out for you. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
