I’m currently reading The Framemaker Sale by Brent Adamson, co-author of The Challenger Sale.

In the book, Brent makes a sharp observation about what happened to B2B buying over the past few years:

"Somewhere around 2018 we began to see problems … buying groups were getting bigger.
Broader solutions meant more stakeholders leading to increased buying complexity and exhausting, dysfunctional B2B buying journeys.
More-complex buying decisions also contributed to stakeholder struggles to align on objectives and predict outcomes.
But for suppliers seeking to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, perhaps the most dramatic problem was the rise of thought leadership leading to a smartness arms race where every supplier sounds smart, but no one sounds different.
Over time, competition between suppliers resulted in not only commoditizing solutions but eventually commoditizing insight.
And efforts to make up for that lack of differentiation through sheer volume of thought-leadership content has only exacerbated the problem.
That’s where we are now. Right back where we started: struggling to stand out."

Brent is right, and we’d argue the root of the issue is that the term “thought leadership” was misunderstood

When Brent and other sales and marketing experts called for thought leadership, what they meant was leading with new ideas and insights that shape how buyers think

What we actually got was a flood of brand-approved, journalist-written brochureware that all sounds the same:

“Here are our products. Buy them because we are great.”

As buyers, we can smell this content a mile away

It’s bland, self-promotional, and void of genuine insight, so we avoid it

Today, in a world dominated by social media, we don’t build relationships with logos or media outlets

We build relationships with people

We trust the voices that are real, that cut through the noise, and that help us make sense of a complex world

So, if you want your message to resonate at scale, stop relying solely on brand-led marketing

Empower your salespeople and employees to create content that inspires, educates, and builds trust

When you do this consistently, your team becomes trusted advisors, front of mind with your buyers and your company becomes the obvious choice when it’s time for buyers to act

Conclusion

The era of “corporate thought leadership” is over

The winning strategy is human-led insight: authentic voices, credible expertise, and real conversations

Brands that enable their employees to lead with insight will not just stand out, they’ll become the default choice in a crowded marketplace