Thought Leadership for IT Services Firms: How to Make Your Practice Leaders Visible (2026)

Short answer: IT services firms win enterprise deals on trust in the people who will deliver the work, so thought leadership should make 5 to 10 practice and industry leaders visible, not only the CEO. Give each leader one topic tied to what they sell, publish their views on publications enterprise buyers already read, and reuse every piece in proposals, RFPs and partner programs.

Full disclosure: this guide is written by Joseph Tannous, founder of Jamco PR, a tech PR agency that works with IT services and enterprise tech companies. We've kept it practical so it's useful whoever you work with.

Why practice leaders matter more than the brand

Enterprise buyers often see IT services firms as interchangeable: many are partners of the same cloud platforms and list similar services. What separates them on a shortlist is evidence that the people leading the work know the buyer's problem.

Before a call, buyers and procurement look up the leaders they'll meet. They search their names, check LinkedIn, and increasingly ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity which firms are credible for their need. Leaders who have been published or quoted on recognised outlets make the firm the safer choice.

Who to put forward

• The CEO or managing director: the firm's point of view on the market
• Practice leaders (cloud, data and AI, security, application modernisation): one topic each, tied to what they sell
• Industry leaders (financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail): how technology is changing their buyers' industry
• Regional heads for the markets you're entering, such as the US, UK or Gulf
• One delivery or engineering leader who can speak credibly about how projects actually run

What each leader should talk about

The best topics answer questions your buyers are already asking: why a migration stalls, what an AI project needs before it can go live, how to cut cloud costs without slowing teams, what regulators expect in their sector. Avoid product pitches; buyers and editors both screen them out.

Keep one clear topic per leader so each becomes known for something specific. Five leaders with five distinct topics beat one CEO talking about everything.

Where it should appear

A 90-day plan

• Weeks 1–2: choose 5 to 10 leaders, agree one topic each, and write short bios and talking points
• Weeks 2–4: first placements for the CEO and the two practice leaders closest to active deals
• Weeks 4–8: the remaining leaders, plus company stories such as partnerships, new regions and customer outcomes you can share
• Weeks 8–12: pitch earned commentary and interviews on the topics that landed, and add every piece to proposals, RFP responses and sales decks
• Every month: check what buyers and AI tools find when they search each leader's name

How to measure it

• Placements published per leader, and on which outlets
• Whether each leader's name now returns credible third-party coverage on Google and in AI answers
• Coverage used in proposals and RFPs, and mentioned by prospects on calls
• Inbound requests from journalists, event organisers and partners
• Pipeline from accounts where buyers engaged with the coverage

Doing it in-house or with an agency

In-house teams know the practices best but rarely have the media relationships or the time to run a program for several leaders. Many firms keep strategy and topics in-house and use an agency for writing, placement and follow-through.

If you compare agencies, ask how many executives they've run programs for at once, what is guaranteed and what is only pitched, and which IT services firms they've placed recently.