2025年制造业思想领导力报告：思想领导力对制造业生态系统中长销售周期产品的影响

Insights gainedafter surveying300 executivesand managers in themanufacturing ecosystem involved INTRODUCTIONIn a business environment flooded with information, content that helps customers and prospects learn something new and valuablecuts throughthe noise and improves business outcomes.This is the finding from afirst-of-its kind report conducted by business-to-business (B2B) marketingfirm RHBlake. The study measured howthought leadershipcontent createdby sellers of productswith long sales cycles (LSC) influences Marketers oflong sales cycle (LSC)offerings haveseveral distinct challenges, including: business in making thewrong decision.Offerings with longsales cycles tend to behigh-investment, teams struggle to align,slowing sales cyclesand producing more “nodecisions.”The average B2B buyingteam today has 11Buyers spend moretime researchingindependently onlinethan they do meeting withpotential suppliers, today about marketinginformation.Googlereports a huge rise in thekeyword“legit”in thepast five years, meaningbuyers are increasingly attention in a worldflooded with information,exacerbated byAI-generatedcontent.Buyers have want a seller-freebuying experience.5This self-education meansmarketers have lessthe organization. Though daunting,these challengesalso present opportunitiestomarketers of LSC offerings. Marketing behaviors — and better support theirsalespeople — by convincing buyersof the value of the offerings with high- DEFINITIONS &METHODOLOGY For this report, we define“thought leadership”as content that delivers expertise, guidance,or a unique perspective on a professional topicor field(such as technology, business processes,industry trends, etc.). This content may be For the study, data was collected by a leading global researchfirm via asurvey of a random sample of B2B executives, managers and other decision-makers from various industries and company sizes. Participants physical or digital products— such for products or services in as capital equipment, software their company. and/or services -- to manufacturersand process industries. products that have sales cycles ofthree months or more.The salescycle was defined as the time fromthe point of first contact with a The margin of error is +/- 4.9%. KEYFINDINGS 1.Thought leadership openseyes, doors and wallets. Eyes. consider buying from an organization thatproduces thought leadership content.Fromthis, one can conclude that companies not Doors. The report found thatmore receptive to sales outreach from an organization that produces thought leadership content.We noted earlier that many buyers prefer not to meet with salespeople onsite. Good thought leadership helps mitigate thistrend and opens doors for salespeople. Top-line opportunities are thus Wallets. Good thought leadership can evenimprove bottom lines. This is basedon the report’s finding that76% ofdecision-makers say they are morelikely to pay a premiumto work 2.Buyers give thought leadershiptheir most precious gift:time. The study showed that 39% of decision-makersspend more than 6 hours a week reviewing thoughtleadership content. Six hours is a sizable amount oftime in a busy workweek, even a whole day of workby some standards.8If customers and prospects arespend more than6 hoursa week reviewing thought leadership content Time spent studying thoughtleadership content improvesa reader’s knowledge,and even changes their minds.This is based on the study’s said that thought leadershipcontent led them toresearch a product Use of thought leadership during the buying journey. The study revealed that decision-makers rely on thought leadershipthroughout the buying journey,with 72% indicating that they engage with thought leadership content during the decision-making stage. This finding shows High % of decision makers rely onthought leadership acrossthe buying journey 3.Thought leadership burnishes reputations,boosts market share and buoys buying. Marketers’ job descriptions often say, “build the brand” and “increaseawareness and preference.” Thought leadership content helps meetthese objectives. The study showed that92% of decision makers Preference is hard to earn, and often is a result of a buyer’s previousexperience with a supplier. If the experience was good, buyersare likely to buy from the supplier again. Good thought leadershipincreases the chances of repeat orders, and also increases the Thought leadership helps winattention, but does it help win the order?The answer appears to be yes, as 84% Marketers need to grow market share, whichrequires winning customers from competitors. Thought leadership helps here too: 83% ofdecision-makers said that thoughtleadership content helped them realizethat there are other suppliers who are of C-level said that they purchased orstarted working with an organization thatproduces thought leadership content 4.Good thought leadershipshows actual good thinking What is good thought leadership?(% decision-makers rat