It happen to us all at a point in our sales life. I starred to the empty new word document not knowing what to write. Of course, I’ve had the subject, I’ve had the reasons, but still no ideas to put on paper. It’s called the writer’s block – you’re simply stacked and you can’t write a single line. It can happen when you need to write that sales email, the product presentation for the company site, or the presentation for the conference.
Well, there are 10 steps to avoid the writer’s block:
1. Write the subject down, it can be: “new version of our product x”. Doesn’t need to be fancy, you just have to know clearly what are you writing about in order to be able to focus on the job.
2. Once you’ve decided the subject think about the purpose of the document (like announcing a new feature or letting the clients know about your work). Based on the purpose write a list of keywords that are essential for the document’s purpose.
3. Think about the target: are they professionals? are they the average Joe browsing the WEB? List your target. Once you have decided about the target you already know how much of your document needs to be technical and how much sales. Also make a list with the target’s needs: are they web developers? They need to have tools to help the development. Are they managers? They need tools to make work more efficient. Are they sales? They need tools to sale more.
4. Look for older similar documents. Old documents could offer hints about writing the document quite easily. Sometimes by reading old documents you also discover old mistakes that you were not aware off at that moment. Make a mental note not to repeat the mistakes.
5. Look for the competition: do they have similar documents? What are they main points for this type of documents? What is your company market position in relation with your competitors? List the ideas that could be more interesting than the ones of the competition.
6. Open that old and forgotten company branding book. It usually offers templates and samples to be followed.
7. At this moment you already have the subject, the target, the old samples, the competition examples and the company sample. Start to write your ideas without any formatting, and without trying to make the text nice. Just add every idea as it comes…
8. Now you have the ideas in an unformatted way – go back to the company templates and the older similar documents and put together the ideas. You have the format, you have the ideas, you’re almost done.
9. Read several times the entire document. Check if the subject meets the content and if the target is identified with your ideas. Rewrite the phrases that need rewriting, you’re almost done. Spell check and write proof your document.
10. Ask someone else to read your document (could be your boss, or your colleague next door). If there are changes to be made go back to point 8.
After following these 10 steps several times, writing will come natural and without the usual blockage. Just remember, try to write they ideas as the come, you will make then nice later!