In the days of mainframe computing, there was a saying: “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.” The machines produced by Big Blue (as it was called) might be pricey, but they had a reputation for reliability. Their salesmen (and they were nearly always men) wore blue pin-striped suits that matched their company’s logo. The company’s reputation meant that any executive could defend the decision to choose IBM over its competition. IBM was the safe choice.

So, maybe you’ve been putting a lot of work in to blogging, social media, speaking engagements and other ways to get recognized as a thought-leader in your field. That’s time you can’t bill your clients for, and you can’t get that time back. And you may be wondering, is there actually money at the end of all of this effort?

Are you working hard on being recognized as a subject-matter expert or thought-leader in your field? And you haven’t yet been invited to address the Davos conference, write an opinion piece in The Economist, or give a TED talk?

Do you need to reach the top levels of your target clients, if you’re to sell your services successfully?

It could be that you do large, long-term projects with budgets that can only be signed off at the highest level. Or, you’re all about helping create strategic change, and that’s a top-level decision. Maybe you’re not targeting the top level yet in your work, but you want to be.

As I’ve found out in building my own business, reaching an organization’s top tier can be frustrating.