The Sales Professional’s Guide to Effective Writing

Imagine your buyer—overwhelmed by competing demands, juggling multiple priorities, and stretched thin on time—pausing to read your message. This moment is a gift. How will you make it count?

The foundation of effective sales writing lies in recognizing the value of your reader’s time. Whether it’s an email, a proposal, a presentation, or a sales pitch, your writing must be concise, purposeful, and compelling. Every word should work toward capturing attention, conveying value, and driving action.

To draft an effective piece of writing a seller must be aware of these challenges and develop a plan to meet them. To help sellers face these challenges, we’ve developed a complete guide to effective business writing.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to craft messages that resonate with busy buyers, helping you to not just communicate, but to connect. We show sellers how to deliver written communication that appeals to the reader’s sense of practicality. This comes from two key areas that have the greatest impact on business writing:

•  Understanding Form and Content
•  Drafting a Persuasive Message

Understanding Form and Content

Persuasive writing can be distilled down to two parts: strong form and strong content.

Content is what you say. Form is how you say it. Effective writers carefully balance both, ensuring that their ideas—the content—are delivered with clarity and simplicity—the form.

Having only one without the other weakens your writing. Strong form without substantial content feels empty and unoriginal; the writing may be clear, but the ideas are obvious, offering little value to the reader.

Alternatively, strong content without proper form can come across as convoluted and pretentious. The reader may struggle to grasp the ideas, no matter how insightful, because they are buried in complex or overly elaborate sentences. Often, poor form suggests that the writer hasn’t fully developed their ideas, masking uncertainty with unnecessary complexity.

First drafts often reflect an imbalance between form and content, which is natural. The real issue arises when this imbalance is left uncorrected. It is the writer’s responsibility to refine both aspects during revision, ensuring that the final piece is both meaningful and accessible. As Nathaniel Hawthorne wisely observed, “easy reading is damn hard writing.” To write effectively, you must understand how form and content work together and commit to mastering both.

Strong Form’s Hinge on Simplicity

One of the greatest examples of the importance of simplicity comes from Edward Everett. If his name sounds unfamiliar, you’re not alone. He served as both a US senator and a US representative and addressed US soldiers during one of the most pivotal moments in American history. He spoke for two hours, and during his speech, his words were powerful and moving, but forgotten.

Following his speech, Abraham Lincoln approached the podium and used just two minutes to express his thoughts in less than 300 words. Those words formed the Gettysburg Address, the single most remembered speech in U.S. history.

Those two minutes are remembered because they were drafted with a consideration for simplicity and directness which is central to good form. In a letter to Lincoln, Everett understood the power of simplicity stating, “I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

A simple and direct tone communicates respect for the reader’s time. Good form recognizes that reading takes effort. Sellers are already vying for space in a buyer’s brain, and when the writing is simple less is asked of the reader. As a result, the reader is more likely to reach the end of the piece.

Tips for Strong Form:

• Express no more than one idea per sentence
• Use sentences of different lengths for variety
• Always use the shortest possible word
• Avoid clever similes, metaphors, and jargon
• Signpost content with subheadings
• Use active voice

Compelling Content Is About Answering “So What?”

At the heart of compelling writing is the ability to answer the question, “So what?” For sales professionals, this means clearly articulating how your solution and partnership align with the customer’s needs and goals. Your content should demonstrate a deep understanding of what matters most to the customer, making it clear why your offering is valuable to them.

Before you start drafting, you must have a clear answer to this question. If the answer isn’t clear to you, it will never be clear to your reader. The more tailored your content is to the specific needs and interests of the reader, the more likely they are to engage with your message. Customized content signals to the reader that you’ve written with them in mind, respecting their time and interests. It also fulfills the implicit promise that your writing will be worth their attention.

It requires creating a message that is not only clear and relevant but also insightful. This process demands substantial thought, which can be mentally taxing. Often, the temptation is to start writing prematurely, driven by the desire to feel productive. However, this can lead to content that feels unfocused, as if the writer is figuring things out as they go. Always remember, compelling content is the result of a lot of thinking and a little bit of writing.

Tips for Strong Content:

• Use outcome-oriented language
• Develop an outline in advance
• Keep the message ultra-focused on the customer’s needs
• Address the question “so what” early in the text
• Ensure all parts of the writing align to the central message
• Revise the content until the thesis can be delivered in one sentence

Drafting a Persuasive Message

The Opening: Earning the Reader’s Time

Without a strong opening, everything else you’ve written won’t matter to the reader. The opening is the most important part of the text because it needs to hook the reader in a meaningful way. Without this, the reader is likely to bypass your message entirely. In the first lines, the writer must communicate that they will:

1. Deliver on the premise of the title
2. Use the reader’s time wisely
3. Keep the focus on the reader’s interests

Committing to these rules means adopting a style of writing that is communicative rather than expressive. Communicative writing is characterized by text that has a clear goal does not deviate from its central message. Other topics may be introduced in support of the main message, but the piece, from beginning to end, consists of one core idea. Communicative writing focuses entirely on the reader and never on the writer.

In contrast, expressive writing aims to share the author’s feelings and beliefs. Generally, sellers are less effective when using expressive writing because it puts the writer at the center of the text. Expressive writing assumes that the ideas shared in the text are important simply because they come from the writer. When selling, however, it is the customer who matters most.

Sellers can maintain a communicative style by applying a simple three-part structure to their writing. That structure is: issue – action – value.  This approach means articulating the key challenge in the customer’s world, then citing the action to be taken, and finally the value of the outcomes.

While these three parts can be explored over the course of the text the seller must use the opening to address each one in brief.

The Body: Connecting Ideas for Clarity and Impact

Reading becomes much easier when each idea naturally leads to the next. This seamless flow not only keeps the reader engaged but also enhances the persuasiveness of your writing by making your logic clear and easy to follow.

One of the best ways to create this connection is by sharing only the most relevant information. When you overload your writing with too much detail, it becomes challenging for both you and your reader to see how everything fits together. Excessive information can blur the message, making it harder to convey your point effectively.

Psychologist Paul Slovic’s research illustrates this well. He found that more information doesn’t necessarily lead to better decision-making; it can actually hinder it. In one study, Slovic asked experts to predict the outcomes of horse races using ten variables. When he increased the number of variables to 20 and then 40, their predictions didn’t improve—but their confidence did. The takeaway? More information can inflate confidence without enhancing understanding.

To maintain clarity, focus on isolating the most pertinent details and presenting them in a logical sequence. For instance, when describing the capabilities of an IoT or SaaS solution, highlight only those features that are truly valuable to the customer’s specific situation. Present these features in an order that allows each point to build naturally on the previous one, creating a cohesive and compelling narrative.

The Conclusion: Using Distinction to Ensure Your Message Lasts

To make an impact, your message needs to be memorable. When drafting your conclusion, start by identifying the key point you want to emphasize. Ask yourself, “If the reader remembers just one thing, what should it be?” Given that most readers are pressed for time, your conclusion may be the only part they fully absorb, so this central idea must be clear and compelling.

A message becomes memorable when it stands out. This principle, known as the von Restorff effect, highlights how people are naturally inclined to remember what is unique. Sales professionals can leverage this by creating a striking contrast in their writing. For instance, you might describe the customer’s future as a mere extension of the status quo, then follow it with a bold vision of what their business could achieve with your solution. This sharp distinction makes your message distinct and memorable.

Customers need to vividly see how adopting your solution will transform their business. To achieve this, draw a clear contrast between their current state and the potential future state with your solution. Paint a compelling picture of how your offering will bring about significant change. This technique can also be applied by highlighting the unique aspects of your solution that set it apart from competitors.

Visual contrast can also be powerful. Consider using an unexpected graphic or image to distinguish your solution from the status quo or competing offerings. Most customers are used to seeing the same generic stock photos over and over. By choosing something unexpected and distinctive, you can leave a lasting impression.

10 Rules for Effective Writing

To ensure a successfully written piece is clear, distinct, and memorable to your reader, use the following rules:

1. Know what you are going to say before you say it by drafting an outline
2. Remain focused on a single core message throughout
3. Customize the content to the specifics of the customer
4. Use numbers and data judiciously otherwise their effect is blunted
5. Underscore your message with high-contrast, or unexpected content
6. Avoid jargon and all words that serve only to exaggerate
7. Ensure the core message appears first and last in the text
8. Provide an early overview of the content that follows
9. Ensure the content shares a compelling message in concise sentences
10. Allow time for at least one major revision which aims to cut 10-20%

Mastering effective writing skills is one of the pillars to becoming a successful seller. Learn more about how Richardson can help your sales organization thrive by visiting richardson.com.