Along the path of your prospect’s buyer’s journey, it is important to provide a variety of resource types that answer the various questions someone would have about your product or service. These could be long or short form video, one-page sell sheets or technical documents, online calculators, or even site survey guides.
In this article, we will discuss the benefits of a sell sheet, sales slick, handout, or whatever you want to call it as compared to a technical white paper when it comes to the systems integration sales cycle. However, don’t stop halfway through…as with any good discussion, it’s important to know when to go against the grain.
Consumability
When your prospect is searching the internet for information or resources, their attraction to them will vary based on their timeline, readiness to purchase, and even position within their company or organization. Either way, the material needs to match their place in the process. Unfortunately, you never know where your company is going to cross paths with their journey. So, as a result, it’s important to have multiple resources in multiple formats for every step of the journey. With all of that said, the resource needs to be easy to consume, understand, and retain.
The Word Count War
More words on more pages isn’t always better, however it does have its place from time to time. In many cases, the best resource is what’s often referred to as a sales slick or one-sheet. A document like this can answer all the questions someone might have that works in the C-suite and can even provide initial qualifying information for a more technical stakeholder.
When it comes to the one-pager, it’s important to provide the bullet list and high-level details of top benefits and features that a product or service can deliver while still teasing the technical merits. Imagery should be included that adds to the story and doesn’t simply take up space. Original images your team has captured are ideal, however services like Shutterstock or Canva can be a lifesaver when your image library falls short.
Never an Information Dead End
Logically speaking, the one-pager will satisfy an initial inquiry as to whether your systems integration business can potentially solve a prospects challenge. It can also end with an invitation to click a link, image or QR code to obtain the technical whitepaper that you’ve been excited to write. For this reason, popular opinion is that if you need to choose which one to write first, go with the one-pager.
Technical for the Close
Once your one-pager passes the C-suite test, your whitepaper is going to be needed sooner than later. This will provide the more technical side of your prospect’s organization with the details they need to support the claims of your one-pager. So, essentially, the one-pager can’t reliably do the trick to close a complex sale, so be sure to have that additional documentation ready upon request.
Walk, Then Run
By creating the one-pager document first, you are clearly outlining the content for the supporting, longer and more technical whitepaper. However, don’t think that a great whitepaper is going to save a weak one-pager.
The Vector team can help with both document types. Developing quality content is a big part of the equation, however, not everyone is confident in the execution. If you need help with any aspect of content creation, message distribution, lead curation, or strategy development, contact Vector Firm today.
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