The 1 Crucial Step You Must Take Before Expanding the Sales Team

In this post, you'll get a very tangible, actionable framework that you can use to build authority in your industry and set your new sales team up for success.

In the complex world of B2B tech, building authority is no longer a matter of simply being good at what you do. It requires deliberate, strategic use of symbols of authority—the kind that make people take notice, trust, and ultimately buy from you. If you’re struggling to get your customers to see you as the leader in your space, there’s one key thing you must do: leverage the right authority symbols. And not just any symbols, but the ones that resonate deeply, create real differentiation, and align perfectly with your company’s strengths.

Here’s the step-by-step guide on how to do it, plus a case study to show you how this methodology can be put into action.

Why Authority Symbols Matter More Than Transparency

It’s tempting to think that transparency is the key to winning over your prospects. You tell them everything about how your product works, every feature, every benefit. But the reality is that in many cases, transparency can undermine your authority, especially in an industry that values expertise and uniqueness.

Transparency can create trust, but authority builds belief. And in B2B tech—where buying decisions often hinge on perceived expertise and risk mitigation—it’s authority that ultimately drives buying decisions. When prospects feel they’re dealing with a credible, knowledgeable leader in the space, they’re far more likely to move forward.

Step 1: Identify Your Symbols of Authority

The first thing you need to do is identify which symbols of authority make sense for your industry and your company. This can include traditional symbols like awards, patents, and partnerships, but also less obvious ones like the narratives you use, your cultural capital, and how you shape industry conversations. To get started, consider both rational and emotional symbols of authority:

Rational Symbols of Authority

• Experienced Leaders: Do you have founders or team members who have been recognized in the industry?

• Degrees and Credentials: Are your team members highly qualified in ways that matter to your prospects?

• Prestigious Clients: Are there well-known brands you’ve worked with?

• Collaborative Networks: Are you at the center of an ecosystem that matters to your audience, such as partnerships with key industry players?

Emotional Symbols of Authority

• Narratives of Thought Leadership: Are you shaping discussions in your industry with new frameworks, thought-provoking articles, or by leading webinars and conferences? Thought leadership involves contributing original ideas and shaping the conversation, helping others see you as the go-to expert. It's about more than just sharing content; it's about setting the agenda in your field.

• Cultural Capital: Do your company values resonate with broader movements, like sustainability or diversity, which are important to your prospects? Or like in the case of the company I founded, the industry was moving toward human-centricity and a research technology company innovating in anthropology set the perfect stage to leverage this movement. 

Step 2: Evaluate and Select the Most Impactful Symbols

Not all symbols are created equal. You need to evaluate each potential symbol for relevance and alignment with your company’s strengths:

• Relevance: How important is this symbol to your prospects? Does it address their needs or concerns?

• Alignment: Does this symbol align with your company’s core strengths and narrative? Is it something that sets you apart from competitors?

The best authority symbols are those that score highly on both relevance and alignment. For example, if your competitors are leaning heavily into having PhDs on staff, you might differentiate by emphasizing the unique perspective you bring (your philosophy or approach) and how it connects to the overall betterment of the industry.

Step 3: Craft Your Authority Narrative

Now that you have identified your top symbols, it’s time to craft a compelling authority narrative. Your narrative should integrate these symbols in a way that tells a story about your company’s expertise, credibility, and ability to lead the industry forward. The narrative should include:

• Introduction: Briefly introduce your company and its mission.

• Highlight Key Symbols of Authority: Integrate your top symbols, explaining how they showcase your unique strengths.

• Differentiation: Clearly articulate how these symbols make you different from the competition.

Your narrative shouldn’t just be a list of credentials—it should be a story that creates an emotional connection with your prospects. It should make them believe that you are the right choice because of the unique value you bring.

Applying the Methodology: A Case Study

Let’s put this into practice with an example.

Imagine you’re a B2B SaaS company specializing in AI-driven analytics for supply chain optimization. Here’s how you could use this methodology to build an authority narrative:

1. Identifying Symbols of Authority:

   • Experienced Leaders: You have a leadership team that previously worked at Amazon and IBM in senior roles, contributing to major logistics initiatives.

   • Narratives of Expertise: Your company has developed a proprietary methodology for AI-based forecasting, which has been featured in several industry journals.

   • Collaborative Networks: You’re in partnership with a leading logistics industry association, helping define best practices for AI adoption in supply chains.

2. Evaluating and Selecting the Most Impactful Symbols:

   • The Amazon and IBM background scores highly on relevance since these companies are synonymous with logistics excellence.

   • The proprietary AI methodology is aligned with your company’s strength in technical expertise and contributes to shaping the industry conversation.

   • The partnership with the industry association helps position you at the center of the ecosystem that your clients care about.

3. Crafting the Authority Narrative:

   • Introduction: "At [Your Company], we’re on a mission to revolutionize supply chain management using AI-driven insights."

   • Highlight Symbols of Authority: "Our leadership team brings decades of experience from companies like Amazon and IBM, where they led groundbreaking logistics initiatives. Our proprietary AI methodology has redefined forecasting standards, and our partnership with [Industry Association] puts us at the center of the AI adoption movement in supply chains."

   • Differentiation: "I don't need to tell you about every nitty-gritty detail of how our technology works to prove its value—what's more important is that we're setting the next standard in AI-driven supply chain optimization. Our combination of industry experience, technical innovation, and strong partnerships means we can lead the way, offering unmatched expertise and impactful results."

Authority and Credibility Worksheet

The Takeaway

Before deciding to scale your sales team or bring in a new sales leader, you have to ask yourself: How much authority do we have? Have we taken the necessary steps to build a foundation that our sales team can leverage? One of the biggest reasons why scaling a sales team by adding bodies or creating sales documents does not lead to top-line growth is a lack of foundational authority. I've seen this time and time again, whether in startups after a seed or Series A round or in mid-sized growth companies trying to push beyond $30-50 million in revenue.

The next time you sit down to plan your market positioning, ask yourself: Are you leveraging the right symbols of authority? Are they clearly communicated in your messaging, and do they align with what your prospects care about most?

If you want to dive deeper or need help identifying the right authority symbols for your company, let’s connect. I’d love to help you sharpen your authority narrative and get you the recognition your expertise deserves.