How White Paper Writing Services Help Shorten SaaS Sales Cycles
Nov 22, 2024
Selling SaaS is a marathon, not a sprint…and sometimes, it feels like you’re running in circles. You’re a marketer, so your job is more than just generating leads. You’re on the hook to prove that marketing actually drives revenue.
But when 80% to 90% of buyers revisit their decisions with new information, delays in the sales cycle can make it harder to show your impact and fight for more budget. This is where white paper writing services come into play.
Where most marketers go wrong? Ignoring white papers. They aren’t just for top of the funnel expert positioning.
Want to move leads to SQLs faster? Align multiple stakeholders on a buying committee? Keep your pipeline flowing? Hit your quarterly KPIs? Yup, white paper writing services can help.
In this blog, I’ll break down how white paper writing services can help SaaS companies like yours create high impact content that shortens sales cycles and supports your sales team. After writing (award-winning) white papers for fast-growing SaaS brands, I’ve picked up a thing or two. Let’s dive in.
Why SaaS sales cycles are more complex today
B2B SaaS sales have always been complex. As Dan Tyre, former HubSpot Sales Director says, “Great leads generate reliable sales. Not-so-great leads can leave you hanging on for days or weeks while you put in the effort — only for them to go with another brand.”
But it’s no secret SaaS sales cycles are getting longer. Why? It’s not just about the complexity of your product or the buying process, it’s the way buyers behave today.
There are more people in the room
According to Gartner, the average B2B deal now involves 11 to 20 stakeholders. That’s a lot of opinions to manage and decision making has slowed to a crawl. Everyone wants their say, but no one wants to take the risk of saying “yes”.There’s a lot more choice
With 30,000+ SaaS tools on the market (and counting), your buyers are drowning in options. They’re jumping from demo to demo, trying to compare apples to oranges and your pitch is just one of many they’ve half-listened to.Integration
SaaS buyers aren’t just looking for features, they’re making an investment in a system that integrates seamlessly into their existing workflows. More products = larger, more complex tech stacks.
Longer sales cycles aren’t just a sales team headache, no doubt you’ve realised they’re a marketing challenge too.
As decision making drags on, it becomes harder to sustain engagement with your brand. Buyers need more information at every turn and without fresh, high value content, they may drift toward competitors who can answer their questions faster (or better).
Delays also complicate your KPIs. If MQLs aren’t moving through the funnel at a healthy pace, it’s harder to show leadership and sales teams that your efforts are driving revenue.
And as more stakeholders get involved, marketing is left to fill the gaps. The longer the cycle, the heavier the demands to produce content that educates, convinces and satisfies everyone from IT to finance. That’s where white paper writing services come in.
What kind of white papers are we talking about?
Not all white papers are built to close deals.
If it’s a broad, top of funnel explainer about a meaty topic, it might build awareness, but it won’t help you cut through the chaos of a complex SaaS sales process.
The best white paper writing services can create content that addresses the specific bottlenecks buyers face late in the journey. Think technical guides, ROI analyses and stakeholder-alignment documents.
More than 90% of tech buyers use white papers to inform their decisions – when done right, they’re decision driving tools that provide clarity, build confidence and move deals forward.
Here’s how they can fit into the decision making journey.
Initial education: clarifying solutions for IT/tech
At some point, you’ll have to convince IT. They’re the ones fielding endless integration concerns, worrying about security risks and calculating the impact of downtime.
This is where white papers shine. A technical white paper dives deep into compatibility, system architecture and case studies, giving IT the confidence they need to greenlight the solution.
By answering these questions upfront, you save your sales team from a painful round of “let me get back to you” emails.
Objection handling: proving ROI for finance
Finance approval hinges on one thing: the numbers. What’s the ROI? How does this investment stack up against alternatives?
A white paper can provide the hard data finance needs, all in one place. It quantifies efficiency gains, outlines cost savings and showcases real-world results from similar use cases.
Instead of letting deals stall while stakeholders justify the expense, this type of white paper accelerates decision making by equipping buyers with everything they need to say “yes”.
Alignment: securing buy-in from the entire committee
We know how many stakeholders are involved in the average SaaS deal, and it’s often higher if you’re talking to lawyers or finance people. Alignment is where deals go to die.
Every team has its own priorities – a single, comprehensive resource can help move internal discussions along. One decision maker passes it up the chain to another…until you have a conga line.
One white paper can address key priorities across IT, finance, ops and leadership, helping committees reach consensus faster. The result? Less second guessing, more momentum.
White papers as a catalyst for closing deals
Once alignment is achieved, the job isn’t done. Deals don’t magically close themselves, there’s still the delicate dance of final stage conversations, follow ups, and overcoming last minute doubts.
This is where white papers move from marketing tools to active sales assets.
I’m writing a white paper right now for a legal tech vendor breaking into the US market. It’s designed specifically for their business development team, giving them a high impact resource to introduce themselves to prospects and also for follow ups when an extra nudge is needed.
Tailored SaaS white papers can tackle multiple stakeholder concerns – think cost justification, adoption, implementation timelines and risk mitigation – and turn an educational piece into a decision driving tool.
Sales follow up that doesn’t feel like a chore
Picture the scene: your sales team had a promising first meeting with a prospect. Heads were nodding, questions were flowing – it was going well. But now? Silence. Absolute tumbleweed.
Instead of sending the dreaded “just following up” email (we’ve all cringed at those), your rep attaches a tailored white paper. It’s exactly what the buying committee needs to keep the conversation moving, packed full of useful info that fosters deeper engagement and helps them overcome their hesitations faster.
What’s in it?
A case study section to show how a similar-sized company solved their biggest pain point with your product.
A breakdown of integration timelines that reassures IT teams and ROI projections help the CFO make their case.
Helping internal champions advocate
Sometimes, the most important person in the decision process isn’t even on the Zoom call. They’re in a boardroom, or on the exec team, waiting for someone else to sell your solution for you.
This is where a killer white paper shines. It turns your internal champion into your best advocate.
Take the CIO prepping to ask the board for budget for their data strategy: they can walk in with your white paper, armed with ROI stats, adoption timelines and cost benefits, laid out in plain English. No garbled summaries. No guessing. Just a professionally crafted argument that does the heavy lifting for them.
Checklist: how to close faster with white paper writing services
Here’s how you can make sure your next white paper helps fast track sales.
Pinpoint bottlenecks in the sales process
Where are deals stalling? Is it stakeholder alignment, ROI concerns or last minute objections? Collaborate with your sales team to identify common delays that a white paper can help address.
Use white papers that drive decisions, not just educate
When hiring white paper writing services, give a solid brief that outlines your desire to focus on creating content that tackles buyer objections and aligns stakeholders. Skip the broad, top of the funnel pieces.
Collaborate with sales
The best white paper writing services will tailor your content to sales priorities. Share input from your sales team to ensure the white paper reflects real world objections and provides answers that resonate with decision makers.
Distribute proactively
Proactive distribution is key – check your sales reps are using the white papers created through white paper writing services at every stage. You want them to:
Attach it to follow up emails after calls or meetings.
Share it as part of final stage proposal materials.
Equip internal champions with the paper to pitch your solution internally.
And there you have it! This is how the smartest marketing people I know close deals faster and get a healthy pipeline using white paper writing services.
Use white papers to hit your KPIs in 2025
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