White papers

What a white paper is

A white paper is a document of eight to fifteen pages that takes one position on a question your buyers are weighing, and supports it with evidence they can check. Its job is to be the most useful thing a buyer reads while deciding, so that when they are ready to buy, your firm is the one that helped. It persuades by being right, not by selling.

It is not a brochure set in a serious typeface, and it is not an ebook or guide, which explains a subject broadly for a wider reader. A white paper argues. If there is no position, and no evidence to hold it up, there is no white paper, and I will tell you that on the first call rather than write a brochure with footnotes.

Who this is for

A firm selling something a buyer researches before purchasing: software, engineering, consulting, finance, equipment with a long life. It suits a business that has a genuine view on how its buyers should decide, and evidence for it from its own work, its own records or sources it can cite. It also suits a firm that needs one substantial document to give a sales team something to send that is not a sales document.

It is not for a business that wants a downloadable to collect email addresses and has no particular argument to make. That is a lead magnet, and a checklist will do the job better and faster. And if the evidence is your own original data, an industry report is the stronger format, because other people will cite it.

What goes in it

The structure is fixed because readers of white papers expect it and skip anything that does not follow it.

The executive summary. One page. The position, the three strongest reasons, and what the reader should do differently. Most readers stop here, so it has to be complete.

The problem. What decision the reader faces and why the usual way of making it goes wrong. Described concretely, with the cost of getting it wrong.

The argument. Three to five sections, one reason each, each with its evidence: a source cited in full, a worked calculation, or an example from your own work described honestly. Where evidence is thin, the paper says so; a reader who catches one overstatement discounts the rest.

The objections. The two or three strongest reasons someone would disagree, stated fairly and answered. This is the section that earns trust, because it shows the writer has thought about it.

What to do. A short, practical closing: how to apply the argument, and how your firm fits, in one paragraph. Not more. A white paper that turns into a pitch on page twelve loses what it built on pages one to eleven.

What you get

The white paper. Eight to fifteen pages in an editable document, with every source cited in full and a reference list. Laid out as a PDF to your template, or with a clean plain layout if you have none.

The executive briefing. A separate two-page version for the reader who decides but will not read the whole thing. Same argument, same evidence, one-tenth the length.

The source file. One spreadsheet, one row per claim: the claim, the source, the page or table it came from, and the date it was checked. This is what lets you defend the paper a year later, and update it in an afternoon.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A firm that installs heat pumps in commercial buildings keeps losing bids to gas-boiler replacements because the buyer's finance person sees a higher capital cost and stops reading. The firm has installation records for 60 buildings over eight years, and the public utility tariff sheets for the same period.

The white paper takes one position: that a building owner comparing the two should compare fifteen-year cost, not day-one cost, and it shows how to do the calculation. Section one explains why the capital cost comparison misleads. Sections two to four walk through the fifteen-year sum using the utility's published tariffs, the firm's own maintenance records described in aggregate, and a worked example for a 2,000-square-metre office. Section five states the case for the boiler fairly: lower upfront cost, a familiar trade, faster installation. The closing page says how to get a fifteen-year comparison for a specific building. The sales team sends it to the finance person, not the facilities manager, and the two-page briefing goes on top.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What position you hold, who needs to hear it, and what evidence you have. No charge, and if the evidence is not there I say so.
2. A fixed price in writing. Scope, length and the number of expert interviews agreed before anything starts.
3. Research. Two weeks. I interview one or two people in your firm who know the subject, read the sources, and build the claim spreadsheet before writing a paragraph.
4. The outline. One page: the position, the sections, and the evidence for each. You approve it before the draft, because changing an argument is cheap at this stage and expensive later.
5. The draft and review. Full draft in two further weeks. Your expert checks it for accuracy; I check every citation again.
6. Delivery. The paper, the briefing and the source file, with a walkthrough for the people who will send it.

Four to six weeks from first call to final paper is typical, most of it research and review.

What it costs

White papers are not a published band on the pricing page, so each is quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call. The price depends on length, how much of the evidence already exists in usable form, how many interviews are needed, and whether you want the design handled or only the copy. A paper built on evidence you already hold sits at the lower end.

What happens next

A white paper earns its keep by being sent, so the usual next step is a short email sequence that delivers it to the right reader and follows up. The argument also splits well into three or four articles under your name, and the two-page briefing is the natural handout for a pitch deck built on the same case.