The ACE Framework: The Foundation of Your Executive-Led Marketing Strategy

In many B2B companies, sales is led from the top.

The CEO or founder is responsible for closing new clients. They often become the face of the company, a strategy I like to call executive-led marketing.

But executive-led marketing doesn’t fit neatly into traditional media models like PESO (paid, earned, shared, owned). PESO doesn’t tell you where a CEO should engage one-on-one with customers, how to build an audience based on trust, or what subjects work best on different platforms.

That’s why I created a new framework: ACE.

Defining the ACE framework

ACE stands for the three media distribution channels that matter in executive-led marketing: Authority media, conversational media, and earned media. Here’s how each channel breaks down:

1. Authority media

Authority media demonstrates that you’re not merely a participant in your industry, but that you’re leading it. You write the book on the subject, and blurb other books in your industry. You keynote major conferences. Your podcast or newsletter becomes an industry bible.

Authority media is the pinnacle of executive-led marketing. You don’t achieve it overnight or by accident. It’s the result of combining a high-achieving, public-facing career with storytelling and marketing savvy.

2. Conversational media

Conversational media demonstrates accessibility. The most common form is regular publishing on social media. Here, your content is lighter—shorter ideas, personal stories, real-time reactions.

It’s called conversational because you’re not just broadcasting. You can get real-time feedback by listening intently to your audience and peers. Social media is a testing ground for bigger ideas, a key source of material for future articles, posts, and media pitches. It’s where trust starts.

3. Earned media

The final component is the ability to show up regularly in the press and industry media. This could mean national business outlets or niche trade publications. The placement almost doesn’t matter—what matters is the borrowed credibility.

Earned media also includes digital publicity: podcast interviews, newsletters, industry roundups. The goal is to showcase your expertise using the credibility of trusted third-party voices.

Maximize authority by combining all three

You can execute a successful executive-led marketing strategy by doubling down on just one or two components above. But the true world-class industry leaders don’t settle for just one or two. They combine all three components of the ACE framework because they understand that the components build upon one another:

• Earning media and building a social audience creates leverage for book deals and speaking gigs.

• Appearing on stage and in media makes your social presence more credible. More people want to follow you.

• Publishing books, getting on stage, and building an audience makes you someone journalists seek out.

The ACE framework doesn’t tell you what to say, but where to say it. It’s your distribution map for showing the world your expertise.

So… what do you say?

What you publish

You’re selling complex products and services. That means building trust with your customers by challenging, teaching, and guiding them to the other side of complexity.

Let’s first discuss what doesn’t work today: generic industry adages and impersonal thought leadership. There was a time when you could wax eloquent about best practices and people might follow your ideas.

Today, with the pervasiveness of AI-generated content, people don’t want bland generic ideas. They want true stories. They want a glimpse into your thinking as an executive.

1. Challenge your followers: Introduce your followers to new ways of thinking about their businesses or industry. Some of the best executive-led marketing initiatives are centered around replacing old ideas about the world with new ones. You bring readers along to a new way of thinking. They’ve tried the old paths and it hasn’t helped them achieve their goals. Now, show them a new way by challenging their old assumptions.

2. Share true stories: People want to read stories from the top. Your executive team has been in the field. They see elements of the industry that others can’t. Executives are a window into the larger industry. Help us see what you’re seeing by sharing real stories from your role. Tell us about (anonymous) customer conversations. What trends have captured your attention?

3. Analyze the news: A lot is happening in your industry—or at least, a lot of things are happening in the world that impact your industry. Industry authorities often ride the viral waves of news by putting their ideas precisely at the center of what’s happening in the world. You can use the news to pitch journalists timely stories or participate in a viral moment by explaining something nuanced that you’re uniquely qualified to explain.

4. Take a position: Don’t be afraid to draw a line. Executive-led content isn’t about fence-sitting or trying to please everyone. It’s about being clear and decisive. Take a position on where your industry is headed. Stake out a controversial belief. Say something others are too cautious to say. When your ideas are sharp, they get shared—and remembered.

Executive-led marketing works by building long-term trust with your audience

I’ve made my career helping technical companies close more complex sales. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the years is that the art of the complex sale is built on trust.

The products and services you sell are expensive, often customized, and take weeks (if not years) to fully implement. These aren’t impulse buys—they’re trust buys. And that trust starts with the executive team.

In my experience, the best salespeople in an organization are often the executive team—especially founders and CEOs. Executives are natural salespeople, but many companies leave that power untapped. The ACE framework is how you start using it.

If you want to build a modern executive-led marketing strategy, don’t just think in terms of content. Think in terms of ACE—Authority, Conversational, and Earned attention. That’s how you build trust, scale your message, and close complex sales.