It feels like 90% of technical service firms describe their services as “bespoke” on their website and use similar wording in their communications.

Why is that a problem?

2 reasons:

1. It will always be better for someone to conclude that your service is bespoke rather than being told

   
   

2. If 90% of your competitors use the same language, you’ll blend into the background

   
   

Before working with me, my clients were no different.

In many cases, they’d be better than their competitors technically. Still, because their messaging was almost identical to every other firm in their industry, they were stuck relying on referrals and occasional trade shows for new contracts.

They struggled to gain any traction with new companies despite their expertise.

Worth saying upfront: you can have perfect messaging, but without a proper system to get in front of new target companies, you’re still relying on luck.

Here’s a quick TLDR of setting up that system before we get onto your messaging:

Create a list of target companies you would like to work with

We create a list of 50 target companies during the market presence build. We use the client’s best-performing contracts over the years and source the companies most similar to them.

If this is the first time you’ve done this, start with a smaller number. I’d recommend 20.

“What if I don’t know how to source new companies?” Easy, message me on LinkedIn, and I’ll show you an example of a custom Claude workflow that I’m currently using for a metocean consultancy. 

Map out the buying committee in the target companies and how they’re influenced

There are tools like Sales Nav if you want to do this manually, but I’ve created some Claude workflows that can do this.

The trick is finding the person who brings your solution to the table, who influences them, and then making sure the people who make the final decision are aware of you.

The goal is that your “in” brings your firm to the committee, and the other decision-makers think, “Oh, I know them.”

The “in” depends on your specific services, but I’ll give you an example: a current client specialises in independent hydrodynamic and metocean consultancy, and their most common “in” is a head of marine engineering, CTO, or a director with terms like “research and capabilities” or “engineering” in their title.

The specific job title will vary by industry, but that’s the nature of the beast.

Track interactions in a CRM

Self-explanatory, you will forget what you’ve done and who you’ve approached if you don’t, so it’s worth mentioning.

We set all of this up for clients.

Establish relevant intent triggers that show when your target companies could need your services

This is the most important one in 2026. Relevance and timing get you in front of buying committees.

Only 3% of the market is actively looking for your services at any given time.

So you can either reach out to 100 companies to find those 3, or you can target the 3% specifically while building a market presence that nurtures the other 97%, so when they’re in the market, you’re already front of mind.

I’ll use the same hydrodynamic and metocean consultancy client as the example. We have 10 intent triggers running for them.

Some are the obvious ones, like:

• A new offshore wind lease or development award,

  
  

• A port or terminal expansion is being announced or confirmed.

  
  

But we also have smaller ones set up:

• Senior execs at target companies engaging with social media posts related to my client's service area.

  
  

• Company (or their execs) publishing conference papers, reports, or studies in relevant technical fields.

  
  

Once you know the best triggers, you can use Claude Code to consistently monitor 10+ intent triggers across your target companies so you always know who’s in the market.

We cover all of this for our clients.

Because you can have perfect messaging and material, but without the right backend, you’re relying on luck.

The company hierarchy, specific company knowledge, and relevant intent triggers maximise your odds of generating new contracts.

Now that we have that covered, let’s get onto the messaging and communications:

The system gets you in front of the right people. The messaging is what makes buying committees consider your proposal in the first place. 

To start, we’re not trying to be influencers. These are detailed technical services with a long buying cycle. The goal is to build a market presence that keeps your firm front of mind during those long cycles so the deal closes sooner.

In simple terms, we want relevant decision makers to think, “yeah, I know them, they’re great at what they do and good people.”

That’s why our approach involves a lot of LinkedIn content.

We use the company page as the “home base” for the approach, sharing technical content designed to demonstrate expertise in a way that’s focused on the problems decision makers at your target companies are actively dealing with.

So much company content in technical services is just “we did XYZ, look at how good we are” with formatting that nobody reads in 2026.

I’ll use the same metocean client as the example. Instead of leading with “we did great metocean work,” we lead with messaging like:

“Your understanding of X model could be outdated.”

“Our recent work with Y shows Z.”

Content designed for the target audience, with messaging they actually find relevant.

(If you want to see the exact company content, email me or DM me on LinkedIn, and I’ll show you)

This is how you stop being one of the 90% that just say their company and their services are “bespoke.”

You let the content prove it instead.

This covers the “these guys are great at what they do” part.

Now onto the “they’re good people” part.

We use executive accounts to repost the company content with extra human context.

The buying committee will need to like you as people before they hire you, so we get a start on that early.

The vast majority of the executive reposts we write follow one of these formats:

• If the company post was a case study

  
  

  The repost is a story from that case study, further context on the findings, or how it relates to an industry opinion you hold.

  
  

• If the company post covers your process

  
  

  Use the exec repost to bring in live client examples and the relationship you had with those clients. They’ll see the expertise from the company post already, the repost is where you show you’re a good, knowledgeable person.

  
  

• If the company post is a little bit of PR (a published study, speaking at an event, etc)

  
  

  Use the exec repost to humanise it. Talk about your experience working on the study, the methodology, and why you wanted to publish it. 

  
  

You get the idea.

When you combine this content approach with:

• The systems we mentioned earlier

• Consistent outreach to companies showing relevant intent triggers

• Quality extra material like articles, whitepapers, and PDFs

  
  

You create a consistent market presence.

You’re left in a position where you don’t need to rely on referrals or trade shows for new contracts.

This isn’t something you can turn on and off.

Your average buying cycle is likely a minimum of 6 months, so implementing this approach for 3 weeks and then getting busy with delivery is pointless.

It’s something you need to commit to. Otherwise, you’ll be back to relying on referrals.

If you don’t have the expertise in-house, you’re left with 2 choices:

1. Hope the right people notice your bespoke services.

2. Outsource it to someone who does this every day and has been doing it for years. 

   
   

If your answer is the latter, you can book straight into my calendar below.

Or email me at Joe@JoeCarsonContentMarketing.com

Thank you for reading.

– Joe