"The market landscape is shifting quite dramatically for what startups and incumbents need to be thinking about on behalf of their clients" - Dr. Paul Taffinder, Director Strategy and Innovation at Insurance firm MS Amlin.

Interestingly, this message reflects one of the key findings from Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson's book, The Challenger Sale.  Both advocate that in order to lead the discussion with your clients, you need to disrupt their assumptions, challenge the status quo, and get them to thinking about their businesses differently. 

In doing so and leading with genuine insight, you position yourself as their trusted advisor.  

Importantly if all you do is talk about your solutions and broadcast why you are great, then people will lose interest fairly quickly. 

If however you can teach your clients something about their business that they did not already know, then you can leverage that information to develop your connections and relationships.  

Knowing that 57% of the purchase decision process occurs before buyers contact solution providers (Source: CEB) the starting place is to ask your clients what they want to know from you.  You need to identify where you can add value.  Leading with insight and demonstrating capabilities, as Dr. Taffinder explains, will differentiate your positioning from the market.