2 Words That Can Bring in New Leads and Writing Clients
By Lisa Christoffel

There’s a lot of buzz in one of AWAI’s Facebook groups right now …

Writers sharing success stories — surprised and delighted that adding just two words to their LinkedIn profiles has generated inbound leads and job opportunities for them.

For instance, Jeff J. got his first contract in this field less than four weeks after updating his LinkedIn profile with those two words.

Brad D. had a lead in his LinkedIn inbox before he was even done polishing his profile with his two new words.

What are those two words?

“Sales Enablement.”

What Is Sales Enablement Copywriting?

As a sales enablement copywriter, you work with the sales team to provide them with the tools they need to close the deal with their prospects — cold email templates, follow-up email templates, battlecards, sales decks, call scripts, and more.

You’re helping them by writing copy they can use when they’re meeting with or talking to prospects.

Why Would a Writer Want to Add This Skill to Their Toolkit?

Learning sales enablement can give you a profitable new service … and it can help you with your own sales pitches to clients. How?

Well, to talk about both reasons, let’s hear from a real live sales enablement copywriter!

I interviewed Steve Maurer recently about why he chose to add Sales Enablement services to his skill set.

If you’re not familiar with Steve’s story, he’s an industrial maintenance technician who built up his copywriting career while working full-time at his day job. He’s a Circle of Success member, with a reputation for helping his fellow AWAI colleagues so they can embrace the writer’s life too.

Prior to learning sales enablement, Steve had been doing mostly content in his industrial-focused copywriting business: case studies, blog posts, newsletters. In fact, Steve says he’d been avoiding writing sales copy.

So I asked him, “What made you decide to add sales enablement?”

Steve replied, “Well, for starters, Steve Slaunwhite [referred to in this article as Steve Slaunwhite] was teaching it — he and I had been talking about this program coming up … and I thought here's another tool I can add to my belt. And although I had avoided sales for a long time, all of a sudden, I realized, hey, this is not so bad. You know, sales enablement copy is not long copy. It's mostly template-type work. And, this is something I can offer to the clients I already have or market as something new I'm offering.”

Because the copy is short, straight-to-the-point kind of communication, Steve felt much more comfortable with it than typical long-form direct marketing sales letters.

Then I asked him …

“What were your biggest takeaways from the training Certification Steve Slaunwhite taught on sales enablement?”

His reply was almost exactly what I was thinking as I’d sat through the training sessions …

“People (companies) need it. And salespeople like to sell, they don't like to write … some can't. I've gotten emails from salespeople. And so this is something that will be valuable to them, to get them doing what they'd like to do most, which is selling one-on-one to people.

But my biggest takeaway is that everybody can use it … we can use it in our own businesses even. In fact, that's part of my marketing plan for this coming year … to write email templates for cold contacts, follow-up emails, and a battlecard for my own services.”

Battlecards are especially interesting because they involve writing an elevator pitch for the product or service, copy lines to highlight the benefits of the product or service, and copy lines to address any objections a prospect might have to the product or service.

According to Steve, “When it comes down to it, writers often get asked ‘why you?’ Well, there's an objection we need to overcome.” By writing our own battlecards for our own businesses, we don’t have to overcome those objections spur of the moment. We’ve thought about them and can answer with confidence.

After all, we are our own salespeople. Doesn’t it make sense for us to be able to effectively sell our products and services, just like we can help clients’ sales teams do?

Works for Clients … and Writers

Next, I asked Steve about something I’d seen him post in the class Facebook group. One sales enablement project, a follow-up email, has a very particular structure to it that makes it much more effective at getting the prospect to respond to it.

Steve posted that he’d used that specific structure in a follow-up email he’d sent to a potential lead he’d been trying to close.

Steve says, “I had an email from a prospect in Pennsylvania, a big national electrical components company. She had emailed me and said, ‘I came across your website, and you look exactly like the writer we need. We need somebody who has been in the industry to write for us.’ So I emailed her back some samples and information.

But then, communication slowed down. It wasn't because she wasn't interested. She just got really, really busy. And so the emails were kind of sporadic. And so during the class where we were learning how to do follow-up emails, I thought, I'll just use one of these email templates and give her one option and wait for the reply.

So at around six o'clock, I sent her an email and said looks like you’re busy again this week. I understand that, but that's a good thing, right? I said, how about I send you a one-page document about how I work with clients? Would that be helpful? That’s it — that was all the email said. I didn't attach the document, because we’d been taught not to do that, even though I already have a one-sheet for that.

And literally, within 20 minutes, I got a reply back. She said, yes, send it.

And she ended up scheduling a call for the next week. That’s when I knew what we were learning really works. It worked for me. It’ll work for my clients.”

And it’s another reason for your B2B clients to keep using you …

As B2B copywriters, we’re typically working with the marketing teams in our clients’ companies. These sales enablement projects may be requested by the marketing team, but they’re just as likely to be requested by the sales director, owner, or business development manager.

Regardless of who hires you, though, the one consistent thing across B2B companies is they like to stick with resources or vendors they’ve learned they can trust to deliver quality work on time … they like to keep going back to their trusted resources.

So, now, by adding sales enablement copywriting to your toolkit, you’ve increased the number of projects you can work on for a given company.

What did Steve think of the Sales Enablement Copywriting Mastery & Certification itself?

Steve’s answer was, “I think Steve Slaunwhite is just a great teacher. He's one of the first ones I had taken when I started out. I've taken just about every B2B class he's had. He's real easygoing. He takes the time to explain, not just the what, but the how and the why. Very patient. And he knows his stuff. And he knows how to explain it so I can understand it. I think that's one of the best things. He doesn't get in a rush. Goes at a good pace. And his slides are excellent.”

To wrap up our interview, I asked Steve what he’d say to anyone who asked him whether or not the Certification program was worth it …

Steve’s reply, “I think it's not a difficult program to take and it is a currently much-needed skill. That’s reason enough. But probably the one thing I found … just by taking it … it's not just something we can use for our clients but can use for ourselves to GET those clients.

And so it's not a skill that you're learning just for somebody else, as much as it is a skill you're learning for yourself. Yes, you will apply it to clients. But the sales enablement skills are something I can actually use to promote my own business first to get the clients and then use for my clients. In fact, I mentioned the one to the gal I sent an email to in Pennsylvania. When we did get on a call, I said, how did you like that email I sent you, by the way? She said oh, it was friendly. It was quick. I could just reply and click Yes. That's when I told her: yes, this sales enablement copy works. And by the way, that's one of the services I offer is sales enablement. And you can see that it works right here.”

Do you want to be able to add those two words to your LinkedIn profile too? Or use it to close the deal with your prospects? Now’s the time to get started. There’s plenty of business for all of us.

Working directly with an experienced expert like Steve Slaunwhite is the fastest way to get up and running as a Certified Sales Enablement Copywriter …

He’ll not only give you the skills, but he’ll also give you experience working on six individual projects you can get paid to write, his personal formulas for writing them faster, a professional portfolio you can show potential clients, AND his personal process and scripts for landing those clients.

Go here now to see exactly how Steve Slaunwhite will guide you step-by-step from zero to well-paid sales enablement writer in a matter of just four short weeks.

Do you have any questions about getting started as a sales enablement copywriter? Share with us in the comments.