Cover of a white pager by Foxboro Tap into the expertise of your own organization to develop technical whitepapers.

Frequently, customers and prospects need help in solving problems, but don’t want to take their problem direct to a company sales representative.  They’re looking for perspective, trying to understand the range of possibilities before they invest their personal reputation, and their company’s time and resources, into a product selection process.

Here’s where you can do them a real favor: Tap into the expertise of your own organization to develop a technical whitepaper that crisply, professionally, and frankly discusses the solutions that your company can offer, the key technologies or innovations on which they are based, when and how they can be optimally used, and if appropriate, when they aren’t the best choice. Among the many reasons to pursue technology whitepapers are these:

Whitepapers offer trends and perspective.  One great reason to put together a whitepaper is that your company’s leading minds often are so busy developing, improving, or selling their work that they don’t take time put it into perspective.  Bring up the idea of a whitepaper and you’ll likely hear some resistance—“Sounds like a lot of work,” “Everybody knows that,” or “That’s part of the sales demo.”  A marketing-minded person might ask, “When was the last time that we presented the entire picture on this technology to the entire marketplace? When was the last time that we demonstrated to customers that we have this depth or breadth of experience beyond the line they’ve purchased?” or “How do we position our latest product/solution relative to the others that we offer?”

Whitepapers have staying power.  A whitepaper doesn’t just explain things once. It puts a marker in the book of your company’s offerings—a reference point that sales personnel, dealers or distributors, customers, prospects, and media members can visit and revisit to on the Web, in favorite publications, in reprints, discussion links, or even arguments for years to come. Sometimes,  whitepapers are just the thing to generate a lead or provide fulfillment for a lead-gen program. Yet, even when they don’t strike a chord immediately with a would-be customer, they’re remembered.  And when a need triggers memory, that reference point — your whitepaper – is just a Web search away.

Whitepapers “feel the customer’s pain.” The process of developing a whitepaper gets product developers and sales personnel talking about successes with the product. Thus, a whitepaper identifies the top problems or concerns that the product addresses, the markets in which successes are most likely, and specific applications where it’s a must have. It identifies the forces driving product innovations, and authoritatively explains changing market expectations or customer trends.  Prospects who see the care you’ve taken to provide this information will be convinced of your integrity.

Whitepapers aren’t designed to sell, but they do anyway. The best whitepapers speak authoritatively, always teaching, sometimes suggesting, but never selling.  They reflect the fact that the sharpest people are never “sold” anything — they acquire good information, think through their options, and ultimately convince themselves of the merits of a solution. When your whitepaper demonstrates early on that your company understands their problems and challenges, it establishes a credibility that invites them to learn more and to take their thought process one step further. That next step is the one you’re hoping for – the willingness to consider a new approach, evaluate a new feature or product, or ask for a demonstration.

By Dennis Grantham, Sr. Technical Writer

Click to view a sample of a whitepaper.