Are your B2B sell sheets effective?
You’ve probably seen some that are unfocused. Confusing. And crammed with unnecessary text.
The best sell sheets (often called “one-sheets”) give prospects just enough information to grab their attention and motivate them to act.
In other words, their brevity is their strength.
Sales reps need to be able to communicate core messages quickly. Customers don’t have time to read wordy documents.
So how do you create clear, concise B2B sell sheets that guide your prospects to conversion?
Here are three tips to help.
1.) Define your why
When creating a sell sheet, it’s natural to want to jump right into describing the product. And that leads to document bloat.
Before you write a word, decide on your objective. If you’re unsure why you’re creating the sheet, think about the customer’s pain points.
Maybe their software is outdated, but they fear transitioning to a new one. Or they had quality issues with a product that led to a costly recall.
Once you know the pain points, then you can decide what type of sell sheet best suits your needs.
B2B companies often create multiple versions of the same sell sheet.
Here are the broad categories:
- General Product Overview
- Application Specific
- Industry Specific
- Title Specific
- Client References and Testimonials
- “How It Works” or “Implementation”
- Technical Specifications
- FAQs
Say your product is a sales training program. A general product overview sell sheet would talk broadly about the program.
An application-specific sell sheet narrows the product down to a particular application, such as training in-house sales teams.
And an industry-specific sell sheet for the sales training program would target a distinct industry, such as commercial insurance.
2.) Align features with benefits
Some sell sheets include lots of features, but they lack meaningful benefits.
The features may be on the front of the sheet, while the benefits are on the back.
You should keep features and benefits together. Doing so will:
- Reduce reader confusion
- Put information in context
- Show customers you feel their pain
A sell sheet can be useful without a long list of features and benefits. Here’s an example of a concise product sell sheet for a medical app.
Because the sheet lists just four features (Doctor Tracking, Telemedicine Services, Pharmacy Suggestion, and Cloud-Based Medical History), the reader isn’t overwhelmed with too much information.
Underneath each feature is a clear and corresponding benefit.
For instance, “Doctor Tracking” means you will find the doctor with the best experience for your particular problem.
With one glance, you know exactly what the product will enable you to do. And why you should care.
3.) Include a testimonial
You may want to create entire sell sheets around testimonials. But every sell sheet you create should have at least one.
A testimonial is more trustworthy than anything you can say about yourself. It instills confidence in your reader.
Confidence makes the decision-making process easier. Just make sure that the testimonial intersects with the relevant benefits of your sell sheet.
Here’s a powerful testimonial from bamboohr, a human resources software solution.
"bamboohr saves us from having an entire team of HR people. It saves time in training employees or supervisors and managers - half-hour increments here and there versus days of compiling information."
Want to make your testimonial really stand out? Use numbers.
The following testimonial about Zendesk’s Agent Workspace tool is also about saving time. See how the numbers make the testimonial pop?
"Agent Workspace was a big win for us with ticket handle times. Before we implemented it, our average handle time was about 25 minutes. Using Agent Workspace we were able to get that down to right around 15 minutes."
Good testimonials tell a mini story with specificity. Two or three sentences is usually plenty.
The Bottom Line on B2B Sell Sheets
Concise sell sheets help your reps stay up to date on product details, making it easier to meet a buyer’s needs quickly.
Most buyers do a lot of research online before deciding to purchase. Your one-sheets may even interest them before their first contact with a rep.
All in all, tightly written B2B sell sheets lead to more knowledgeable salespeople. More satisfied customers. And ultimately, more sales.