In an increasingly competitive B2B world, standing out requires more than just great products or services. Those are now table stakes.
B2B brands must do more to demonstrate their quality and establish themselves as the go-to choice in their industry. Your work alone will not ‘do the talking’ as it might have done ten years ago. Getting noticed is not enough anymore either.
Brands must work harder than ever to turn the attention they generate into trust, and one tool stands out when it comes to building that trust: thought leadership.Today, the personal brand and reputation of senior leadership, particularly CEOs and founders, have become key factors influencing B2B purchasing decisions.
This report explores the growing role of personal branding and thought leadership in B2B buying behaviour. It highlights key personal branding stats from the study and offers advice on how CEOs and senior leaders can strategically use personal branding to build trust, grow their reputation, and ultimately drive business growth.
20 Personal Brand Stats for CEOs and Thought Leaders
32.7% of respondents consider the reputation of the CEO or senior leadership a key factor when choosing a service provider.
While quality of service (78.8%) and recommendations or reviews (52.2%) were the top considerations, nearly a third of decision-makers are heavily influenced by the leadership’s reputation. Personal branding isn't just a complementary factor—it directly impacts a company’s ability to win new business.
Our Advice: Invest in building the public profile of the CEO and senior leadership team. Regular engagement in thought leadership activities—such as publishing articles, speaking at events, or sharing insights on platforms like LinkedIn—can position them as credible industry authorities, enhancing the overall trust in the company.
42.5% of respondents said they purchased their last service based on a referral or recommendation, and 18.6% attributed their decision to the founder’s personal brand.
Referrals remain the most influential factor in service provider selection, but the founder’s personal brand influenced more purchases than company social media accounts (17.7%) and even Google search (14.2%). This reinforces the growing impact of personal branding in decision-making.
Our Advice: CEOs and founders should focus on growing their personal brand through networking, thought leadership, and customer advocacy in order to generate recommendations as well as build personal brand equity. Encouraging existing clients to share their positive experiences can lead to more referrals, while the founder’s visibility will create additional brand recognition that attracts new clients.
58.9% of respondents said they use Google search or referrals when actively searching for B2B services, while 50% turn to social media.
Search engines and recommendations remain the top methods for identifying potential vendors. Social media, however, plays a significant role as well.
Our Advice: A comprehensive strategy should include optimising for Google search visibility and maintaining an active presence on social media platforms. Senior leaders can amplify this effort by sharing thought leadership content that attracts both organic search traffic and social engagement. Look to publish a regular cadence of content on social media platforms like LinkedIn, as well as appearing in industry press, to ensure a strong first page of search results under your personal or brand name.
This guide has a detailed breakdown of how to build a content strategy for your personal brand, as well as a comprehensive breakdown on the 3-part system you need for establishing yourself as a thought leader.
71.7% of respondents said the CEO’s reputation moderately or greatly impacts their decision to work with a service provider, with 14.2% saying it slightly influences their decision.
A CEO's reputation can either create or close business opportunities. With 86% of people influenced by the CEO’s image, businesses that neglect personal branding are missing out on a competitive advantage, losing clients and customers to competitors.
Our Advice: CEOs must be active in managing their personal brand. Regularly engaging in public discussions, media appearances, and thought leadership initiatives on platforms like LinkedIn can significantly boost their perceived credibility, making them more attractive to potential clients. Whilst this may have been a nice to have 10 years ago, today it is a must.
61% of respondents said the reputation of the senior leadership team moderately or greatly impacts their decision, while 22.1% said it slightly influences their choice.
It’s not just the CEO—other senior leaders’ reputations also carry weight in the decision-making process. A strong leadership team, known for their expertise, significantly boosts the company’s overall reputation.
Our Advice: Encourage all members of the senior leadership team to engage in thought leadership. Distribute responsibilities for public speaking, content creation, and industry engagement across the leadership to maximise exposure and influence.
89.4% of respondents are somewhat or much more likely to trust a company’s services if a senior leader is recognised as an expert in their field.
When senior leaders are seen as industry experts, they inspire confidence in the quality of the company’s services. This expertise can be a key differentiator, particularly in competitive markets.
Our Advice: Senior leaders should consistently share insights and innovations within their industry, either through blogs, articles, webinars, or conference appearances. This will build their reputation as trusted experts, increasing the likelihood that prospects will view the business favourably.
If you want to measure the strength of your personal brand currently, take 3 minutes to complete our Personal Brand Assessment. It will identify your biggest strengths and personal brand potential in just 30 quick-fire questions, giving you tailored advice based on your score.
88.5% of respondents are more likely to choose a service provider if the CEO is known for strong thought leadership, assuming all other factors (price, quality, customer service) are equal.
Personal branding can be the deciding factor when everything else is balanced. A CEO with a strong reputation can tip the scale in a company’s favour when pitching against competitors.
Our Advice: A CEO should position themselves as a thought leader and demonstrate strong understanding of their industry and clients. This can be done through public speaking, content sharing, or even community involvement. The stronger and more positive their reputation, the more likely they are to win new business in competitive situations.
98.2% of respondents said the expertise of the senior leadership team influences their decision to purchase services, with 38.9% finding it very influential.
Senior leadership’s perceived expertise plays an overwhelming role in purchase decisions. Companies with strong thought leaders at the helm gain a significant competitive edge.
Our Advice: Demonstrating leadership expertise through a variety of content formats is crucial. Encourage the leadership team to write articles, host podcasts, and participate in interviews that showcase their expertise, reinforcing the business's credibility. The simplest and most effective way to get started though, is publish content regularly on platforms like LinkedIn.
77% of respondents said they are more likely to pay a premium for services if they perceive a senior leader as highly knowledgeable and experienced.
Expertise doesn’t just build trust—it can justify higher pricing. When senior leadership is seen as knowledgeable, clients are willing to pay more for services.
Our Advice: Highlight the leadership team’s expertise in marketing materials, proposals, and during sales conversations. The better prospects understand the value of working with experienced leaders, the more likely they are to accept premium pricing. What’s more, the extra they are willing to pay is staggering…
85.9% of respondents are willing to pay at least 2x more for services from a company seen as the leader in their space, with 51.3% willing to pay at least 5x more.
Leading businesses with recognised experts can command much higher prices. This demonstrates the significant financial impact of strong personal branding and thought leadership. This supports previous research from Hinge Marketing which shows people are willing to pay up to 13.7x more for industry elite experts.
Our Advice: Position your business as a market leader by having your senior team consistently deliver thought leadership content. As perceptions of expertise rise, pricing flexibility also increases, leading to higher profit margins. Ensure prospects and partners are aware of your thought leadership by creating a ‘lead nurture’ strategy that delivers high quality content at key touch points between meetings.
92% of respondents believe a strong personal brand reflects the quality of services offered by a business.
Personal branding is seen as a direct reflection of the business’s service quality. If a leader has a strong, well-developed personal brand, prospects assume the company offers premium services.
Our Advice: Make sure that personal branding aligns with the company’s messaging and service quality. Use testimonials, case studies, and media appearances to create social proof. Share your process and frameworks to consistently reinforce the reliability and quality of your product/services.
84.1% of respondents said they are more likely to engage a company if the senior leadership demonstrates thought leadership.
Thought leadership creates engagement. Senior leaders who consistently share valuable content are more likely to attract attention from prospective clients.
Our Advice: Commit to regular content creation across various channels. Whether through articles, podcasts, or social media posts, senior leaders should continuously demonstrate their expertise to maintain engagement with potential clients.
92% of respondents said LinkedIn is the most effective platform for communicating a senior leader’s expertise.
LinkedIn remains the top platform for sharing thought leadership and building a professional personal brand.
Our Advice: Focus your content strategy on LinkedIn, where professionals actively seek industry insights and business expertise. Regular content, commenting, and networking on LinkedIn will build a strong reputation and draw attention to both the leader and the company.
84.1% of respondents said they are more likely to engage a company if the senior leadership demonstrates thought leadership.
Thought leadership creates engagement. Senior leaders who consistently share valuable content are more likely to attract attention from prospective clients.
Our Advice: Commit to regular content creation across various channels. Whether through articles, podcasts, or social media posts, senior leaders should continuously demonstrate their expertise to maintain engagement with potential clients.
92% of respondents said LinkedIn is the most effective platform for communicating a senior leader’s expertise.
LinkedIn remains the top platform for sharing thought leadership and building a professional personal brand.
Our Advice: Focus your content strategy on LinkedIn, where professionals actively seek industry insights and business expertise. Regular content, commenting, and networking on LinkedIn will build a strong reputation and draw attention to both the leader and the company.
As part of this research, we also ran a second survey to investigate the most effective ways to establish thought leadership and the impact it has, interviewing service providers who were currently or had previously made conscious effort to build their personal brand. Here’s what we found:
100% of respondents who focus on building their personal brand saw an increase in new business opportunities.
Every leader who invested in personal branding reported a tangible boost in business opportunities. There is a direct connection between personal visibility and business growth.
Our Advice: Invest time and effort into establishing a strong personal brand. Start by defining your core message and areas of expertise, then consistently communicate these across multiple platforms. You can use this guide to build a comprehensive positioning and content strategy for your personal brand.
80% of those building their personal brand say prospects mention their LinkedIn content frequently or very frequently.
LinkedIn has proven to be a powerful platform for engaging with potential clients. Regular posting on LinkedIn not only increases visibility but also encourages prospects to reach out and engage in conversations based on the content shared. With over 1 billion users and over 65 million decision makers, LinkedIn is a non-negotiable for all B2B businesses.
Our Advice: Make LinkedIn a focal point of your personal branding strategy. Regularly post content that provides value to your audience—this could be insights, industry trends, or commentary on recent news. By consistently adding value, you will become a trusted voice in your field, drawing more prospects to you and building trust.
LinkedIn is most commonly voted as the most effective channel for attracting new clients using personal branding, with 80% of respondents saying so.
LinkedIn is overwhelmingly considered the top platform for client acquisition through personal branding, far outpacing other social channels. Its professional focus makes it an ideal environment for B2B leaders to showcase their expertise and build meaningful connections.
Our Advice: Prioritise LinkedIn over other platforms for your thought leadership efforts. Ensure your profile is optimised with clear information about your expertise and accomplishments, and engage regularly by posting content, commenting on relevant industry discussions, and connecting with peers and potential clients.
40% of respondents attributed over half of their new business in the past year directly to connections or visibility gained through personal branding efforts.
With the right strategy personal branding doesn’t just build awareness—it directly drives business. For nearly half of the respondents, more than 50% of their new business came from the exposure and relationships developed through their personal branding activities.
Our Advice: Actively nurture the connections you make through personal branding, whether on LinkedIn or other platforms. A full funnel content strategy will ensure your personal brand serves your business, not your ego. Follow up with new contacts, maintain engagement with your audience, and use your content to build deeper relationships that convert into business. The more visible and approachable you are, the more likely you are to see tangible business results.
65% of respondents agree personal branding will be ‘extremely critical’ for the future growth of their business.
The majority of respondents recognise that personal branding will be a key driver of future business success. As markets become more competitive, the leaders who are visible and trusted in their industries will have a significant advantage in attracting clients and expanding their businesses.
Our Advice: View personal branding as a long-term investment in the future growth of your company. Start now by building your brand on solid foundations—clearly define your expertise, maintain consistent visibility, and share insights that position you as a thought leader. By staying ahead of the curve, your personal brand will serve as a powerful growth engine for years to come.
Conclusions
Standing out and building trust is harder than ever, but also more profitable than ever. The evidence consistently and unequivocally points to a clear personal branding advantage. Senior leaders who engage in thought leadership activities and successfully build their personal brand are able to attract and nurture prospects more easily, win work over competitors and charge a premium for their work.
Quite simply, the more people that know, like, and trust you, the easier it is to do business.
And the best way to get people to like and trust you is through your own personal reputation. Human trust in brands has been eroded over the last 10-20 years and more and more people value personal connection with the people behind a business compared to a faceless logo.
Ultimately, when we do business, we do business with other people. Humans buy, humans sell, humans exchange ideas, and humans deliver.
Are you more likely to do business with a faceless brand you don’t like and don’t trust or a human you believe with 100% conviction will deliver the result you’re after?
Having a personal brand builds trust with your network before they speak to you. It creates gravitas before you walk into a room. It attracts opportunities like no other marketing tool. It helps you build influence with your audience.
So how do you get started?
Our P-A-C System For Thought Leaders
Having built over 200 personal brands for Entrepreneurs, Founders, and C-suite teams over the past 3 years, we’ve developed a proven model for becoming the most trusted and sought-after thought leader in your industry.
To become a recognised thought leader, you must do 3 things:
- Position
- Amplify
- Convert
All of the most successful personal brands we’ve built, studied and worked with share one thing. They do these 3 things well.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to tackle all of them instantly in one go. You will see much better progress and results if you take a phased approach and tackle these one at a time in order.
Positioning
Positioning sets the direction for your personal brand. It’s about defining how you want (and need) to be seen by your audience in order to achieve your business goals.
For example, if you’re a startup founder in the food and beverage industry and want to raise investment, you need to be positioned as someone who understands the food and beverage industry inside out, is a good operator, and has good leadership skills.
If you’re an agency founder/exec or consultant looking for clients, you need to be seen as an expert in the services you offer and the space you are offering them to. You need to be known for offering a solution that is different from the rest of the market, a track record of success, and an experienced and well-managed team.
These examples are surface-level for your understanding, but the point is, Positioning is the foundation of your personal brand. Everything else you do will be meaningless if you build on weak foundations.
💡 Reminder: This is not about forging a false representation of yourself. We’re not faking anything, just framing your existing skills, experience, expertise, etc. in the best way possible.
Amplification
Amplification is the process of demonstrating the positioning you develop in front of your target audience, at scale.
Put simply, it’s about getting as many of your target audience as possible to see you as the thought leader you want to be. It’s the vehicle for delivering your positioning and expertise.
Amplification is the engine of your personal brand. Your positioning is the foundation or chassis of your brand, but it won’t go anywhere if there isn’t an engine driving it.
There are hundreds of ways to amplify your brand - you could send cold emails, run a radio show, or buy a load of billboards.
However, most effective and accessible at the beginning of your personal brand journey, are publishing content on social media, appearing in the media, and paid advertising.
Conversion
Conversion is quite literally the business end of your personal brand.
With the right positioning and strong amplification, you’ll build an engaged audience that knows, likes, and trusts you, but there is an art and science to converting that attention into tangible opportunities.
This could be customers, clients, investment, talent, or speaking opportunities. Whatever it is you’re shooting for.
The trouble is that most people have no means of converting their audience. There is no funnel or user journey accompanying the content they are posting to follow up with customers and actually convince someone to buy, book, invest, or apply.
Want a complete breakdown of these 3 stages, with examples and frameworks to use? Read our Thought Leader’s Ultimate Guide To Personal Branding for free.
Summary
The findings of this survey show a clear link between personal branding and business growth. For B2B leaders, focusing on personal branding—particularly on LinkedIn—can yield significant returns, both in terms of client acquisition and overall business growth.
Senior leaders can stand out, build lasting trust, and drive business growth by positioning themselves strategically, amplifying their message to their target audience, and converting engagement into tangible opportunities.
Who are Kurogo?
Kurogo are a specialist personal branding agency for founders and CEOs who want to position themselves as thought leaders in their industry. We work closely with our clients to build a credible online presence, establish them as industry authorities, and turn that authority into meaningful business opportunities.
Over the past four years, we have worked with more than 200 clients, including leaders from Salesforce, KPMG, McKinsey & Co, The Telegraph and Lyca Group.
Our strategies have generated hundreds of millions of views on platforms like LinkedIn and helped drive millions in revenue for our clients. Our work has been featured by Sky News, Entrepreneur and Business Insider.
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