Content that sells services

Content sells services when a champion can forward it inside their company and it argues their case for them. Everything else is decoration.

Services buyers don't read your blog and then call you. But they do pass around a sharp piece of thinking when it helps them win an internal argument.

Write for the forward

In a $50K to $500K services deal, the person who reads your content is rarely the person who signs. A director finds it. A VP decides. A CFO approves.

So the job of a piece of content is to travel. The director should be able to send it up with a single line, "this is what I've been saying", and the VP should read it in four minutes and agree.

That changes what you write. Not "five trends in cloud". Instead, a clear argument about one problem your buyers have, with a point of view they could adopt as their own.

If a champion can't forward it without editing, it won't sell anything.

Pick problems, not topics

A topic is "data governance". A problem is "why the data team keeps rebuilding the same reports for finance".

Buyers search for and share problems. They feel problems at work every week. Topics are what marketers plan calendars around.

Go to your best recent deals. What was the buyer stuck on before they called you? Write that down in their words. Then write the piece that would have helped them make the case to their boss six months earlier.

Each of your firm's core services should have three or four of these. Not fifty. A handful of pieces that are clearly better than anything else on the problem.

Take a position

Most services content is safe. It lists considerations. It says "it depends". It reads like nobody at the firm has an opinion.

That content doesn't travel. Nobody forwards a list of considerations to make a point.

Say what you think. Say what most firms get wrong. Say what you'd do first. A reader who disagrees will still remember you. A reader who agrees will forward it.

And let the people who do the work write it, or at least shape it. A partner's real view, written plainly, beats a polished piece from someone who's never run the engagement.

Use it in the sales motion

Content shouldn't sit on a website waiting to be found. It should go out with sellers.

When a seller sends a Hypothesis Opening and the buyer replies, the follow-up can include a piece that goes deeper on that exact problem. When a champion says "I need to get my boss on board", the seller has something ready. When an account goes quiet, a relevant piece is a reason to reach back out that adds something.

That only works if sellers know what exists and what each piece argues. Keep the library small enough that every seller can name every piece. The follow-ups that add something post shows how this fits into a sequence.

What to skip

Skip the gated ebook. Senior buyers won't fill out a form, and the ones who do aren't buying.

Skip the volume plan. Posting three times a week with nothing to say makes your firm look like every other firm.

Skip the generic case study. A case study with a logo, a challenge, a solution and a results section reads like an ad. Turn your best engagement into an argument instead. What did you learn? What would you tell the next buyer facing the same problem?

And skip writing for search engines first. Write for the champion. If it helps them win the internal argument, it will find its way to the people who matter.

The test is simple. Would someone at a target account forward this to their boss? If yes, publish it. If not, rewrite it or drop it.