The other day I was talking to a friend of mine. He and I are in similar businesses in that we both help our clients develop and articulate their POV (point of view).

As such, we indirectly compete with lead generation providers. Lead gen providers are not our main competition, but lead gen is on the minds of many of our clients, in that they want it.

In fact, often, at the same time they are paying us to help them articulate their POV, they are paying someone to do lead gen for them too.

A lead gen provider typically doesn’t help you much with POV. With a POV, your cost of conversion goes way down. Why? Because people know what you think. They know what your opinion is. They know whether they resonate with you or not. You are a known entity.

In the end, the two approaches have a similar goal. Talk to people. Establish a rapport with some of them. Sell stuff.

A key difference, though, is that our approach leads to fewer conversations but a higher conversion rate. The lead gen approach will typically get you more conversations but a lower conversion rate. So which one you go with depends largely on where in the development cycle you and your business are.

By the way, developing and being able to articulate a strong POV is not easy. In fact, I struggle to do it myself. When I do it for myself, I feel raw, vulnerable, uncomfortable. When I hit “publish” and send it to a few of the people I was writing for, I figure I am about to get my head torn off, but they tend to come back to me with their own stories, both personal and professional, things I would have never known about them if I hadn’t pushed my own envelope and then hit “publish.”

I want to hide, but the reward for not hiding is that I learn more about the world around me and the people in it.

The takeaway for you is this: The next time you stand at the precipice and wonder to yourself “should I say this or not,” err on the side of saying it. Chances are about 95% that you’ll be glad you did.