Persuasive Sales Writing
- Mike Pinkel
- Jun 9
- 17 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Being a good talker isn’t enough to win complex deals. Prospects usually make their decision during an internal conversation when you’re not in the room. Your champion might meet with their VP and their CFO to make the case for a purchase.
If you can’t influence that conversation, you’re leaving money on the table.
So how do you influence it? Start by mastering persuasive sales writing.
If you write well, their executives will engage with your written materials and your champion can use those materials as a guide for the conversation.
Good sales writing also moves the sales process forward even before it’s time for a decision. It helps you show why the next steps you're asking for are worth the prospect's time.
This post will help you master the art of persuasive sales writing by sharing a set of methods you can deploy as well as a collection of templates covering several critical sales situations.
If you'd like to skip straight to a specific template, you can use the links below:
If you'd like to see our full Sales Writing Templates Repository, drop us a line here.
Sales Writing Methods
The Four-Part Framework for Persuasive Sales Writing
Great writing comes down to four critical steps:
Define Purpose and Issues: What do you want your audience to do or believe? What issues will they consider in evaluating your request?
Use a Matching Structure: Choose a structure that matches the issues they'll consider
Make Powerful Points: Address the issues they'll consider with points that include supporting elements like reasons, examples, and applications
Follow a Strong Writing Process: Start with a clear outline, write a first draft, then edit effectively
Defining Purpose and Issues
Start by deciding why you're writing.
Most reps would say that their purpose is something functional. They want to "provide a recap of the call" or "share a proposal."
But scratch the surface and there's often a persuasive purpose lurking behind that functional objective. Your recap of the call is designed to set up the next call. Your email sharing a proposal is designed to get the prospect to say yes.
In other words, you're trying to convince your audience do something or believe something.
This "something" that you want your audience to do or believe is the main point of your writing. Everything flows from your main point.
After you've defined your main point, take your reader's perspective: What questions will they ask themselves (or should they ask themselves) in evaluating your main point?
These are the issues they'll consider.
Let's look at some examples. Your main point could be substantive in that it relates to a final decision. For instance, you might want your prospect to approve budget for your purchase. They'll consider issues like the product's benefits and its costs.
But more often, your main point is procedural: You want the prospect to agree to specific next steps that move the deal forward. Complex deals involve many steps that ultimately lead to a deal and the prospect agrees to one step at a time.
For instance, you might want your champion to bring their VP to the next sales call. They'll consider issues like how it would help them personally, how it would help the VP, and how it would help their company.
Building a Matching Structure
Think about structure before you start writing. The structure should match the issues that your audience will consider.
Good structures often follow a pattern, which you can think of as the basic structure. You'll use this basic structure again and again in different forms:
Include a Warm Up: Affirm the relationship or give context (optional)
State a Clear Main Point: Say exactly what you're asking them to do or believe
Give Reasons: Address the issues on their mind
Specify Next Steps: Say exactly what they should do next if it’s not obvious (optional)
Your structure should be apparent to anyone glancing at what you've written. In a short email, use paragraph breaks to separate out different sections. Your "next steps" should probably be in a different paragraph from your "reasons."
In a longer email, consider using section headings to separate the major parts. Each section might contain multiple paragraphs. Let's say that you have many well-developed reasons in support of your main point. You might group those reasons by category and put a section heading in front of each category.
One category might be "benefits" and another category might be "costs." Under benefits, you might have three distinct points: (1) more leads, (2) higher conversion rates, and (3) greater forecast accuracy. You'd have a section heading for "benefits" and three paragraphs under that heading with one paragraph for each of these three points.
Here are some examples of good structures. Each is essentially an application of the basic structure we defined at the start:
Structure 1: Affirm-Ask-Benefit Framework
This structure is designed to persuade prospects to take a next step that advances the sales process. It's very simple. You tell the prospect what you think they should do and why it's good for them.
Here's an example outline:
Affirm (i.e. Warm Up): I enjoyed meeting you
Ask (i.e. Main Point): Let’s meet for another call that includes your VP
Benefit (i.e. Reasons): This makes the best use of your time and lets the VP ask questions directly
Structure 2: Independent Reasons
This structure is useful when the prospect is making a relatively simple decision. There might be multiple issues, but each issue is basically separate from the others. You therefore need to offer reasons that correspond to each of the issues.
Here's an example outline:
Main Point: You should make a purchase
Reason 1: Benefits are high
Reason 2: Costs are low
Next Step: Sign contract by September 30th
Structure 3: Linked Reasons
This structure is useful for complex decisions where the issues at stake can't (or shouldn't) be separated from each other. In these situations, the reader's view on one issue necessarily shapes how they'll think about the next issue.
The P.S.I. flow is a great example. Imagine a thoughtful prospect considering a significant purchase. They wouldn't leap to saying yes or no, they'd start by asking themselves if they have a problem. No problem, no purchase!
If they do have a problem, they'll start looking for a solution. That search will be shaped by their understanding of the problem: defining the problem in a given way leads their search for a solution down a specific path.
If they find a solution, they'll evaluate the business impact. That evaluation depends on how they understand their problem and the way they view the solution. Defining an important problem and a powerful solution sets up a favorable evaluation of the business impact.
In other words, the issues are linked. Your reasons, therefore, need to be linked as well.
When done well, your reasons build on each other, gathering momentum as they go. In the P.S.I. flow, Problems lead to Solutions which lead to Impacts (P - S - I).
Here's an example outline:
Main Point: You should make a purchase
Problem: You're behind on lead generation because outbound response rates are too low
Solution: We help you raise response rates with AI-driven customized outreach
Impact: This drives 25% more pipeline, helping you hit annual revenue targets
Next Step: Sign contract by end of quarter
Structure 4: Issue-by-Issue Comparison
This structure is useful when your prospect is comparing two products against each other. In these situations, prospects will often decide on a set of criteria and then rate each vendor on those criteria.
The goal of this structure is to define the issues the prospect should consider, say which is most important, and explain why you win on the most important issues. It can be every bit as critical to shape the issues they'll consider as it is to say what's good about your product.
The issues the prospect should consider are often the same as the Problems your product solves.
Here's an example outline:
Main Point: Our product is better
Issue 1: We solve Problem 1 well; competitors don’t
Issue 2: We solve Problem 2 well; competitors don’t
Issue 3: We solve Problem 3 well; competitors don’t
Next Step: Sign contract by September 30th
Making Powerful Points
Points fill out your structure with substance and support your main point.
Too often, writers make points that are either unsupported marketing fluff ("We're the market leader!") or are backed up by litany of feature-related details.
Points deserve appropriate support. This doesn't always mean voluminous support: Readers have limited time and attention, so good writers use that attention strategically.
But important points should be supported by some or all of the following:
Reasons: Say why the point is true; imagine using the word "because"
Examples: Cite a case where the point was true; imagine using the phrase "for example"
Applications: Apply the principle to the reader’s own situation; imagine using phrase "in your situation, that would mean"
This short paragraph has a clear point backed up by a reason, example, and an application:
Our product will cut distribution costs (point) by shortening delivery times (reason). One comparable store chain saw distribution costs drop by 20% (example). In your situation, that would mean savings of $1 million per year (application).
Following an Effective Writing Process
Effective writing begins with an outline, progresses to drafting, and concludes with editing.
Outlining
Sketch an outline before you start writing. Great outlines do four things:
Define the main point: What do you want them to do or believe?
Identify the issues the reader will consider in evaluating the main point
Use a structure that matches those issues. Separate sections with paragraphs or headings.
Specify points that address the issues the reader will consider
Drafting
First drafts are always too long. That’s OK: Focus on making a clear main point and on providing strong support for your most important points.
Editing
Next, follow a clear editing process by focusing on these five things:
Make the main point obvious: Don’t bury it in the middle of a paragraph; consider putting it in its own paragraph so it stands out.
Use a structure that's obvious to the reader: Separate points belong in separate paragraphs so they’re easier to digest. If you have many points, break them up using section headings.
Be direct and specific: Bad: “We’re the premier solution!” Good: “We got the highest ratings from Gartner for lifetime value."
Cut out fluff: Don’t say this: “It was wonderful to see you! It was so much fun. Wasn't it great? That was just the best!"
Check tone: Clear writing can sound a little harsh; add back a little fluff if you find that what you’ve written seems harsh.
Making Writing Work
Good sales writing is about being clear, persuasive, and helpful. It makes sure that you can influence every important conversation, even the ones where you’re not in the room.
Sales Writing Templates
This section includes five template emails that cover critical sales situations from the start of a deal to the end. You can click on the links below to skip to a specific template:
Setting Next Steps
Imagine that you’ve had an initial call with a prospect and now need to keep the deal moving forward to the next step in the evaluation process.
Your email needs to state a clear next step and say why that next step is worthwhile for the prospect. This isn't so much about selling your product; that's hard to do with limited space (bear in mind that you can't count on your prospect reading a long email early in the deal).
Instead, focus on selling the next call. Often, the next call will show them how you address the Problems they've identified. The Problems are important, therefore the next call is important too.
What should you say about your product? One good approach is to include a set of Summary Slides as an attachment. Summary Slides are a three-slide sequence that summarizes your product’s value by identifying Problems you solve, the Solutions you offer, and the Impacts you deliver. These should be updated based on what you learned on the call.
That way, a motivated prospect can review your case for value and present it internally, but a prospect in a rush can quickly scan your email and see why they need to be sure to show up for the next call.
- - -
Hi Jane,
It was great to chat on Thursday for our introductory discussion!
Our next step is to meet for a software demo on the 16th at 2pm ET. I’ve sent over an invite for the call.
I’ll focus the demo on your goal of increasing outbound email response rates. We’ll cover how our platform drives additional sales pipeline with AI-driven targeting.
Attached to this email, you’ll find three slides that summarize the goals we can help you address, the solutions we provide, and the impacts we deliver. Those are a great tool for keeping your colleagues updated on our discussions.
Is there anyone else from your team that we should include in the demo?
See you on the 16th!
Best,
Tom
Complex Call Agenda
Imagine that you’ve gotten deep into the evaluation process and it’s now time to pitch to the prospect’s executive team.
Calls like these are hard to pull off well. You're often pressed for time and this will be your first conversation with many of the members of the audience. The call could go off on a tangent, causing the clock to run out without your getting to the most important parts. Or you might spend time on subjects that your audience doesn't care about because you don't fully understand their interests.
Setting the right agenda is key. Think of agenda setting as a process: Start by talking about it live with your champion but then write down your proposed agenda so you can get additional feedback and ensure that everyone is aligned.
That’s where good agenda emails come in. Try to share one with your champion and their team a week before the call so there's time to pivot if needed.
Agenda emails define the desired outcome of the call, the topics you’ll discuss, and the participants. Where appropriate, they also say what is not part of the agenda to avoid the conversation going off track.
This template is a good example:
- - -
Hi Jane,
Excited to connect for our presentation on June 1! I’m writing to share the goals, agenda, and participants.
Could you review the points below and confirm that everything looks right - or alternatively let me know if there’s anything we should change? I want to be sure we’re covering the points that will be most of interest given who we have attending the call.
Goal
Our goal is to give your executive team the information it needs to make a final decision on our proposal by April 1 so that we’re on track to hit your target launch date of June 1.
Agenda
We’ll cover the following topics:
Soft Corp’s Goals
We’ll primarily focus on generating additional pipeline and secondarily discuss better conversion rates and greater forecast visibility.
Contactify’s Solutions
We’ll provide a general overview of our platform and a sketch of how we’d deploy at Soft Corp, with particular focus on the AI targeting module.
Competitive Comparison
We’ll cover how Contactify compares to PipeGen, Ultra-Prospect, and Lead Genie.
Contactify’s Impacts
We’ll focus on driving both quantity and quality of pipeline.
Pricing Options
We’ll cover both the seat-license options and the enterprise-license option
We won’t be covering the technical integration as we have a separate call set up to discuss that. We’ll record the separate integration call and share it with anyone interested in that topic.
Participants
From your team, we’ll have:
Sally Smith, VP of Sales
Jill Jones, VP of Marketing
Bill Phillips, Director of Sales Operations
Jim Jeffries, Manager of Sales Operations
**Are all the attendees on your side confirmed?
From my team, we’ll have:
John Fletcher, VP of Sales
Tom Cooper, Account Executive
Alicia Jones, Sales Engineer
Let me know how this looks. Happy to hop on a call to discuss.
Looking forward to the call!
Tom
Competitive Comparison
Too many sales reps are reluctant to talk about the competition. If you ask them why, they'll say that they want to keep it classy and stay above the fray.
Those are fair points, but the reality is that your buyer is considering other options.
If you don’t help them choose, you’re leaving the outcome to chance.
Good competitive comparisons aren’t just about why your product is great. They help the prospect understand what criteria they should use and then help them apply those criteria.
Why focus on criteria instead of just giving them an answer?
Smart prospects know that good decisions don’t appear out of nowhere. They’re the result of a good decision process.
If you can help the prospect follow a good decision process, you can influence their decision.
Here's a good format: Define the issues the prospect should consider, explain how important each issue is, and then say how the vendors rank on each of the issues. Consider including a summary at the start that states the key points.
Usually, your main point will be that your product is superior on the factors that matter most. In other words, you're not trying to say that you are better at literally everything. Your competitor probably has some strong points and trying to ignore those will cost you credibility.
Instead, you're aiming to do a combination of showing why you're better at the things they need most and showing why they really need the things you're better at.
Here’s an example:
- - -
Hi Jane,
Great to chat yesterday!
Here’s a breakdown of the issues you should consider in making your decision on a new revenue platform and how each of the vendors stacks up:
Competitive Comparison: Revenue Platform Purchase
Overview
Contactify is superior to PipeGen on the issues that matter most: driving additional pipeline with outbound outreach and raising conversion rates with better deal coaching. These issues are critical because they relate to serious challenges facing Soft Corp that directly affect its ability to hit its revenue goals.
Contactify excels in these areas because we focus on email customization to create higher response rates and use our proprietary training data to provide better AI coaching. PipeGen focuses only on increasing outbound email volume and lacks a proprietary training data set.
The platforms have similar capabilities when it comes to management dashboards and integrations, which are less critical issues.
Issue 1: Pipeline Generation - Outbound Outreach
This is the most important issue for Soft Corp’s decision. Soft Corp is 20% below its pipeline generation targets, jeopardizing its ability to hit this year’s goal. This gap exists despite Soft Corp increasing the volume of prospecting activity, suggesting that just doing more of the same won’t address the issue.
Contactify is far ahead of PipeGen on this issue.
Contactify
Contactify drives higher response rates by using AI to help customize messaging so it appeals to prospects. It also uses automation to increase prospecting volume. This should result in 10% more pipeline generation.
PipeGen
PipeGen lacks our AI customization capabilities. It focuses solely on increasing prospecting volume. PipeGen is therefore likely to generate less pipeline and risks alienating your target market by sending them irrelevant communications.
Issue 2: Higher Conversion Rates - Automated Deal Coaching
This is the second most important issue for Soft Corp’s decision. Soft Corp is currently converting only 15% of opportunities to closed-won deals, which is 5 percentage points below goal. Soft Corp’s frontline managers are too overstretched to provide effective coaching support on every deal, lowering conversion rates.
Contactify has a significant advantage on this issue.
Contactify
Our AI copilot reviews the history of the account and uses its algorithm to recommend the right actions to move the deal forward. Our algorithm has been trained on a large proprietary data set, leading to very accurate coaching advice.
This typically results in a lift of 3 percentage points in closed-won rates.
PipeGen
PipeGen only recently developed AI coaching assistance and lacks access to a large proprietary data set, leading to less effective coaching recommendations. Your team may ignore PipeGen’s AI coaching recommendations because too many of them aren’t useful.
Issue 3: Management Visibility - Dashboards
This issue isn’t as critical as the first two given MegaCorp has other tools that provide forecasting assistance. The vendors have similar capabilities on this issue.
Contactify
Our dashboards display predictions for each deal and total revenue that are generated by our AI algorithm. These should be best-in-class given our proprietary training data.
PipeGen
PipeGen’s dashboards display similar information, though likely with less accuracy given the fact that they don’t have access to similar training data.
Issue 4: Integrations
This issue shouldn’t drive your decision. Both Contactify and PipeGen have native integrations with your CRM.
Next Step
We should aim for a final decision by May 15 to keep us on track to hit your target launch date.
Short Business Case
What do you want your prospect's decision team to refer to as they consider whether to purchase your product?
Surely not just an email from you with a price! You want to guide their deliberations to the right conclusion.
Ideally, you've created a proposal in the form of a slide deck that makes your case for value and shares your commercial terms. You should present that proposal live to your champion and as many other members of their team as possible. Your champion can then take that proposal and present it internally to the other members of their decision team.
Sometimes, however, it's worth writing out your business case in addition to sharing a deck. Senior decision makers may appreciate a written memo that they can refer to at their convenience. They may also like the fact that a written memo forces you to spell out your reasoning instead of hiding behind fancy graphics.
From your champion's perspective, it can be helpful to have a written business case that they can use as a guide for their internal conversations; after all, slide decks don't always speak for themselves.
Below is an example of a short business case memo that a senior stakeholder can review in just a few minutes. The full repository has an example of a more detailed memo that fleshes out every aspect of the case for action.
- - -
Hi Jane,
Great to connect yesterday!
I’m writing with the business case that we discussed that you can share with your CFO as we’re looking to get budget approved for the purchase:
Business Case for Contactify Purchase
Overview
Soft Corp has set ambitious revenue goals for 2025 that require upleveling its sales process without busting the budget by hiring large numbers of new staff. The Contactify Platform will help Soft Corp meet those goals by using AI to drive improvement across pipeline generation, deal management, and forecasting while keeping costs under control.
I. Soft Corp Goals
Soft Corp needs to modernize the way it generates pipeline, closes deals, and forecasts revenue.
Opportunity Generation: Soft Corp is 20% below its pipeline generation targets, creating the need to increase prospecting effectiveness.
Conversion Rates: Soft Corp is currently converting only 15% of opportunities to closed-won deals, which is 5 percentage points below goal.
Forecast Accuracy: Soft Corp’s last three quarterly forecasts have not been within 10% of the final number, impairing the ability to plan revenue and communicate to the board.
II. Contactify Solutions
Contactify offers an AI driven sales engagement platform that uses AI to drive more effective pipeline generation, deal followup, and revenue forecasting.
Scaled and Intelligent Outreach: Contactify’s AI algorithm drives better forecasting effectiveness by predicting the messaging, timing, and content types that will resonate with your audience.
AI-Driven Followup Recommendations: Contactify’s AI copilot recommends effective follow up that drives deals to completion by reviewing account histories and spotting neglected opportunities.
Insight Dashboards: Contactify’s insight-dashboards give managers the ability to predict future revenue by displaying the algorithm’s prediction for each deal and for total revenue.
III. Contactify Impacts
Soft Corp will realize more pipeline, higher conversion rates, and better forecast accuracy. Total direct ROI will be $7.4 million per year best-case and at least $3 million per year.
Increased Pipeline: Contactify will drive 10% more qualified opportunities, lifting revenue by $3 million per year current at win rates or $7.4 million per year if we also raise win rates as described below.
Higher Win-Rate: Contactify will raise closed-won rates by 2 percentage points to 17 percent, lifting revenue $4 million per year with current pipeline generation and by $7.4 million per year if we also increase pipeline generation as described above.
Better Forecasts and Planning: Better forecasting will allow your team to make better decisions, directing investment and effort to areas where it will have the largest return.
IV. Additional Requirements
Contactify meets Soft Corp’s additional requirements.
Integration: We have a native integration with your CRM that has been vetted by your IT team.
Security Review: We have the SOC 2 Type 2 certification and have passed your security screening process.
V. Investment
Contactify’s pricing is a seat-license model on a two–year committed contract.
Option 1: 50 Seats * $2,000/year = $100,000/year * 2 Years
Option 2: 100 Seats * $1,500/year = $150,000/year * 2 Years (Recommended)
We recommend Option 2 because it provides enough capacity to give the entire team access to the platform and has a much lower unit-price.
VI. Next Step
We should target budget approval by May 15 to keep us on track to hit your target launch date.
Sharing a Contract and a Deadline
An email sharing your contract template is a classic example of an email that seems purely functional but actually has a persuasive element.
You're not just sharing your contract template, you're trying to get their redlines back in time to stay on track to get the deal closed by the deadline.
This template therefore asks for comments back by a specific date and says why meeting that timeline benefits the prospect.
- - -
Hi Jane,
Great to connect earlier today! I’m writing to share our contract for your team’s review.
Could you ask your legal team to share their redlines (if any) by June 1?
That will allow us to stay on track to capture the discount we’ve offered for signing before June 30th. We want to leave plenty of time before that deadline in case there are several rounds of discussion on the contract.
Thanks!
Jim
- - -
Want more templates like these in Google Doc format so they're easy to cut, paste, and edit? The full templates repository is available as part of qualified conversation. Get in touch here.
You can also check out our video on Persuasive Sales Writing and have a look at the P.S.I. Selling Content Page for more insights on sales communication, strategy, and leadership.
For more about the author, check out Mike's bio.
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