Find Your First Writing Clients in This
$6.8 Trillion Marketplace
By Jen Phillips April

In the past few years, I’ve interviewed four or five veterinarians for a trade publication. One of them, a canine neurosurgeon, shared something that’s stuck with me.

He said he’d be bored if he were a general practitioner because he’d have to do the same things all the time.

It made me think about my own business. The longer I run my writing business, the more I enjoy working in the B2B (Business-to-Business) world. That’s because I get to learn about things I never thought about before, and that’s fun for me.

When you think about the vastness of the B2B world, it’s astonishing. I mean, it covers everything you can imagine.

For instance, have you ever bought a new product at the store? There’s an entire industry devoted to creating the packaging for consumer-based products. Not to mention the research and development that goes into creating those new products and their marketing.

No matter your interest or experience, there’s a B2B side to it. And B2B attracts smart and interesting people. It also has a steady stream of work for writers.

Three B2B Examples You May Not Have Imagined

• Human Resources — I know a few writers making well over six-figures writing about HR technology. It was a $24.04 billion industry in 2021 and poised to grow.
• Education — There is a tremendous market for people who have experience writing lesson plans. Or, if your interests lean more toward the future of education and the technology required, EdTech (Education Tech) was a $106.04 billion industry in 2021.
• Healthcare — There’s a whole world of writing for telehealth. Or work with organizations recruiting doctors and other health care workers. Again, these are billion-dollar industries.

Hopefully, your wheels are turning. From blog posts to video scripts, every industry looks to the internet for ways to connect with their customers. And the opportunities only keep getting bigger every year.

Take the effects of the pandemic.

COVID-19 impacted trade shows and business travel in a way that’s required companies to rethink how they make sales. I spoke with one CEO who said his company saved nearly a million dollars in travel expenses in 2020. As a result, he has no interest in returning to their former ways.

He’s not the only one. With trade shows canceled and in-person meetings moved to Zoom, organizations have had to rethink how they connect with potential customers.

Many turned to webinars and Zoom. Salespeople had to rethink how they connect with customers and find ways to make online feel personal.

These shifts have brought an area of B2B to the forefront …

For example, I've started noticing a new buzzword on my LinkedIn. A quick search for the title shows over 26,000 results in the U.S. alone — with big-name companies like The Walt Disney Company, LEGO, Staples, Amazon, and more … down to smaller companies and start-ups.

What’s the term? Sales enablement.

What Is Sales Enablement?

Research giant Gartner describes it as “the process of providing the sales organization with the information, content, and tools that help salespeople sell more effectively.”

Hmm, providing information and content? That sounds like writing, doesn’t it?

Better yet, content that’s directly tied to the sale? To my ears, that sounds like high-paying work.

To find out more, I started exploring.

It turns out there’s a growing copywriting specialty in this world of sales enablement. In fact, it’s part of a $6.8 trillion industry!

As a sales enablement copywriter, you write materials that support the salesperson — emails, slide decks, battlecards, one-sheets, case studies, specific types of blog posts, and scripts.

One large sales training group reports that companies using sales enablement content and technology can enjoy 15% more sales. I think you’ll agree that a 15% boost in sales sounds like a solid competitive advantage!

As a sales enablement writer, your job is simple. Write conversational content designed to make a connection with the prospective customer.

In the B2B world, sales are complex. B2B buyers don’t buy the first thing they see. They research their options and discuss them with colleagues. Input is normally required from multiple departments. The B2B buying cycle can be weeks or months from when prospects learn about a product to when they actually purchase it.

Let’s imagine the potential customer discovered the product via a blog post. Interested in more information, they shared their email address for a related e-book.

Yet, that doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy yet. They’re still gathering information. If a salesperson reached out and asked if they were ready to buy, it would feel too salesy.

However, if the prospective client never heard from the company again, they’d probably forget about them.

That’s where the sales enablement copywriter comes in … creating the much-needed support materials.

Since this role works with the sales team directly, you’ll be privy to the conversations that lead directly to sales. You may talk with the sales team or have access to customer surveys so you can address the prospect’s concerns.

With the right information, you can make your copy conversational and relevant to your prospect. As a sales enablement writer, you can write a few emails directly targeting a real person and lead them to booking a call or demo. If they buy, that could be worth thousands of dollars to the company.

Which means it’s worth it to pay their writers well.

Why doesn’t the salesperson write this material? Simple. Salespeople make money on sales. Few can carve out the time, and even fewer can write. Salespeople tend to be good with people, and they may have to make contact with a hundred people a day. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for thinking of supporting materials, much less creating them.

For this role, you’ll want to connect with the Sales Director and not the Marketing Manager, so you’ll want to reach out to companies who are big enough for both.

There aren’t that many writers calling themselves by this title yet — which means the opportunity is wide open for you. If this appeals to you, you can be one of the first and get your slice of this $6.8 trillion (and growing!) pie.

Now is the ideal time to get started as a sales enablement writer. Do you have any questions? Share with us below so we can get you the answers.