​Are you walking the fine line between information and advertising?
 
Whitepapers can be very helpful. They can inform potential clients—while cementing your reputation as an expert in your field. They can get passed around, shared, and even “go viral” in their own humble way.
 
They can also stagnate on your website.
 
What’s the difference between the good ones and the also-rans? Let’s take a look.
 
Be greedy. This is a harder-hitting—but perhaps easier to grasp—version of our omnipresent “empathize with the audience” mandate. Put yourself in their shoes. What information are you trying to get? Why would you search for a whitepaper in the first place?
 
The reasons are simple. You’re interested in learning about a similar organization in a similar dilemma, and how they overcame it. It’s a way of learning best practice.
 
Note the word dilemma above. That’s key. Once you can latch onto that, you’re on your way to crafting a killer whitepaper. Which gets back to our “Be greedy” subhead. If you put yourself in the place of your target audience, you’re living the life of someone who needs good information fast, and every false click, dead end, and advertising fluff stands in your way. “What’s in it for me? I need information now!” That’s the kind of “greedy” we’re talking about.
 
It’s not about you. Sure, your firm came to the rescue of some client in distress and saved the day. But the reader won’t empathize with you. They’ll empathize with your client. So portray all the initial daunting challenges from their perspective, not yours. Be detailed. Describe all their prior attempts, their almost-successes, and their failures. If you can paint a compelling picture of the situation, your reader will stay with you for the entire whitepaper—which you can’t assume otherwise. And that’s important, because you won’t sell until you get to the close.
 
Tell a story. What was the path that this client took? What was their challenge when you worked with them? What were the steps you took to help them? Why? Don’t make the ending—or for that matter, any part of the story—feel like a foregone conclusion. Every decision that was made was important. But it was also suspenseful. Any wrong decisions could have been costly. What were the stakes? As you can hopefully appreciate, your whitepaper’s tale is more exciting than you probably expected.
 
Avoid platitudes. “Costs were reduced and efficiencies were improved.” Snooze. Every whitepaper will make the same claim. Differentiation lies in the details.
 
Keep it short. We’ve seen 30-page whitepapers. Has anyone read them besides their author? Doubtful. Again, if you keep the “greedy” bias in mind, it will help you contain the length of the piece to a reasonable, single sitting.
 
Craft your CTA with care. By its very name—“whitepaper,” and not “advertorial” or “promotional brochure”—it’s supposedly not an overt sell-piece. That’s a conceit that everyone more or less buys into it. But don’t regard it as a constraint. See it as an opportunity. If you can humbly position your firm as the story’s savior, you’ll get a lot more respect—and business—than you would via chest-pounding. Respect the venue. If you turn off your reader with a hard-sell call-to-action (CTA), you may never get him or her back.
 
Consider using a cost-effective outside resource. Following the above best-practice guidelines will maximize your odds of success. But if the prospect seems daunting, consider feeding your thought-leading ideas to an expert writing source, and freeing up more of your time for core activities. Fortunately for you, we have the unique combination of consulting, marketing, and creative skills which have let us help independent consultants and boutique agencies to boost their billing for more than 15 years. Best of all, we’re fast, efficient, and surprisingly affordable, given the value we provide. Contact us right now and let’s talk about growing your business as quickly and productively as possible. 

Can you craft a closer? Use these tips to help.
 
You’ve got a product or service to sell. So your job in selling it is simply about telling how great it is, right? Wrong. Such a self-centered/customer-distant approach won’t get your foot in the door. It will get the door closed in your face.
 
A great sales presentation starts with a thorough and intuitive understanding of your prospect. Use the following guidelines to help you with that PowerPoint deck, RFP response, or in-person presentation:
 
Who are you presenting to? This question is harder than it seems. Sure, you may know who will be in the room, but whom do they report to? Promotions may be on the line here. If someone in that room recommends a winning vendor to his or her boss, good things will come their way. The opposite holds true, too: Make a wrong choice, and it will come back to bite you.
 
What does this mean for you and your sales presentation? Plenty. Sure, you’re going to describe how you’ll solve Problem A for the company. But if you understand the career trajectory of Person A in the room, you have better chances of success.
 
How can you do this? It’s not intrinsically difficult; it just requires a little work. Look them up on LinkedIn. Google them. See how they got their start, where they went to school, what companies they’ve worked at before, how they’ve risen through the ranks and roles at their current firm. Connect the dots. See where they lead… what’s the next dot? Creatively guessing at that will help you see the bigger picture—including how you can help them get there. You won’t be addressing this overtly in your presentation, but if you keep it in mind as you develop it, it will be significantly more effective.
 
Who’s upstairs? Unless you’re presenting directly to the CEO, the people you present to will, as we noted above, be encapsulating/summarizing/translating your presentation for their superior(s) afterward. Help them. Give them an executive summary they can use. Use the same process you used to chart their career trajectory for their superiors. What are the company’s stated strategic goals? How will your solution help to achieve them? The more you can state your case as a virtual insider, the stronger your odds of success. In other words, it’s worth the time to dig into the company and its needs before you present.
 
How much time will you have in the room? Although the answer to this question will be short (e.g., “an hour”), its importance cannot be overstated. Whatever slot you’re allotted, plan for less. If you’re given an hour, your pitch should last maybe 35 or 40 minutes. You want to allow not only for potential delays, but, more importantly, to allow time for follow-up/Q&A after your formal presentation is over. Shortchange that, and you shortchange yourself.
 
Work the phone. Who’s your current contact at the company? Call them—with a list of questions ready. Find out who else will be in the room. Ask about the politics and pecking order. If possible, discreetly inquire about the nature of the competition: any general weaknesses or biases that might work in your favor? The more upfront info you can gather, the better. Seeing a theme here? Note that we’ve not even mentioned “slides” or “talking points.” To quote Abraham Lincoln, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
 
What problem will you be solving? This is another deceptively easy-looking question. But think of it this way: 1) What’s the immediate problem you’ll be solving? and 2) What are the positive spillover effects the company will enjoy from your solution? Make it feel like you’re spending all your time and effort on 1), so that when you get to 2), your audience will be pleasantly blown away. It’s akin to Steve Jobs’ famous “One more thing…” product announcements at the end of his legendary Apple keynotes.
 
Why is your solution better? In the defense world, this is known as “ghosting” the competition. If you have a rough idea of who you’re competing against, lay a little FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) on their ability to deliver. If you have a good idea of who your rivals are, so much the better. Sharpen your focus. Keep it discreet and professional, but make it cogent and back your contentions with facts and counterpoints of how you would solve the same problem differently and better.
 
Tell a story. We’ve said it before: No one wants to be lectured to, but everyone wants to hear a story. Not only will a story-like presentation be easier and more engaging to follow, but it will also be easier for your prospect to remember and then compelling relate after your presentation is over.
 
The through-line is simple: Prospect Company is in peril. There’s not only the ostensible problem you’ve been called in to solve, but there are also the negative spillover effects that would invariably ensue if the problem were not solved (in the exact way you would you be solving it). You enter the story as the savior/fixer/guru who will solve the problem. And the story ends with the to-be life of the client (including all the positive spillover effects) that your solution has afforded them.
 
Dot your i’s. Avoid jargon as much as possible. Define every acronym at first occurrence—and redefine it periodically to help the audience along. Include all requirements of an RFP or RFI—but put them in their proper place. Often that’s the appendix.
 
Know when to stop. This is a tricky one. It’s a combination of numerous factors, such as how much time you have in the room, how much detail is optimum for your audience, how much you want to reveal/not reveal about your proposed solution, how talkative your audience is, and so on. Assuming you’re well-prepared, it’s better to err on the short side. They can ask you questions, and you can answer. That’s better than boring them. Remember: You’re asking them to commit to working with you in the future. Wouldn’t they rather choose someone they enjoy working with, rather than someone who puts them to sleep? Again, the more you regard the challenge through their eyes, the more effective you’ll be.
 
Consider tapping a cost-effective outside resource. Following the above best-practice guidelines will maximize your odds of success. But they require specialized skills which may not overlap your strengths. Fortunately for you, we have been helping independent and boutique consultants alike to turbocharge their closure rates for more than 15 years, on assignments big and small. We can work from your rough notes, a previous proposal, or even a late draft. Best of all, we’re fast, efficient, and surprisingly affordable, given the value we provide. Contact us right now and let’s discuss how we can quickly and easily make that next proposal a surefire win.