MarketingSherpa was kind enough to ask me to host a lunch table on white papers (surprise!).

One of the folks at the table mentioned the dilemma he faces. His white papers are all very “high level” thought leadership pieces and really contain no juicy information that readers are really interested in.

He explained, his team’s concern was that the competition would read what is in the white paper. Turns out his company is the 800 pound gorilla in its world.

What I said to him is very important.

I explained that all of his companies “confidential” PowerPoint presentations are already sitting on a desk at the competitor.

I repeated the above statement in front of a few hundred people a few hours later. They all laughed.

The fact is that your competition knows more than you realize.

So what’s stopping you from using the great knowledge you have locked inside the company and getting that out to prospects in white papers.

I relayed that my editor thought I was nuts when I wrote a paper called How to Write a White Paper: A White Paper on White Papers because I gave away some of my best trade secrets.

This much is true: Had I not written that paper, I would not have Microsoft, FedEx, Monster and many other companies as clients.

My question to you: Why are you holding back your secrets?