Many project descriptions are just-the-facts descriptions of what was done on a project. This format misses out on some huge opportunities to help sell the firm’s services. To do this, a project description needs to engage the reader, keep them reading, and by the end the reader has learned something useful.

Many of the business professionals I work with are deeply in love with their work. For example, I talked recently with an engineer in Montreal who is a firm believer that a chemical process called electrocoagulation (EC) is the next biggest thing in water purification.

Don Draper had it easy. The brilliant advertising executive of the 1960s-era series “Mad Men” would simply think about a client’s issue, scribble an idea on a table napkin, and his job was done.

Does your firm see greener pastures in other markets? Other industries, maybe, or other parts of the world? Your thought leadership strategy can help make that happen.

In his book “The Tipping Point,” Malcolm Gladwell raises the idea that 10,000 hours of practice makes one competent at a task – whether it’s Bill Gates learning to code, or The Beatles performing outside a Hamburg stripper bar.

Is your firm’s content an asset in the sales process for your firm’s services? In too many cases, I hear that the sales cycle is so long and multifaceted that it’s impossible to expect thought leadership content from actually having a noticeable impact.If it’s not impacting, why are you doing it?

“80 percent of our company’s business comes from existing clients.” I heard this recently from a senior member of the marketing team at one of my biggest and longest-duration clients (18 years!!!!). That proportion is true for my firm, and I expect it’s like that for your firm too.

How do you sell a new service that’s more expensive, slow and problematic, compared to the tried-and-true current method? You point out how your new solution helps deal with other, more pressing problems that your firm’s clients are facing.

Almost every business professional knows about clients asking for something that they can’t realistically have. Maybe that’s the “Rolls Royce” version of their service, but at “Nissan Micra” prices. Or it’s having an environmental report completed next week, when it will require a year’s worth of site-specific wildlife data.

Have you ever had a conversation like one I had recently? It was with an environmental scientist with a consulting firm I’ve worked with previously, and I was suggesting she might want to publish some articles that would show her expertise to potential clients.

In blog post #103, I presented the first half of this glossary of terms from the world of content marketing, and how they apply to professional services marketing. Here’s the second half.

Do you know what a squeeze page is? A lead magnet? How about newsjacking? All are terms from the fast-growing field of online marketing. Professional services marketing has grabbed the online marketing trend with both hands and both feet. But what passes for wisdom in online marketing sometimes doesn’t work in professional services. Or it works, but only if the ideas are adapted to professional services (see my definition of “Facebook pixel” below).

Does your firm need to reach the top levels within your target clients, if it’s to sell its services successfully? It could be that your firm does large, long-term projects with budgets that can only be signed off at the highest level. Or, it’s all about helping to create strategic change, and that’s a top-level decision. As I’ve found out in building my own business, reaching an organization’s top tier can be frustrating.

Is your firm seeking to become the dominant player in a particular market niche? Perhaps that includes designing spaces to host performances, creating retail environments that provide experiences unmatched by online shopping, or helping the mining sector walk more lightly on the planet.

One of the challenges of thought leadership marketing is around the amount of time it takes. Many marketing professionals have pointed this out to me – it’s not like creating an ad with a few words of text. It demands time from the marketing team, but more challenging – it demands time from the firm’s senior members, who are already too busy with client work, mentoring, supervising the work of juniors, and project management.