Indeed, I used to write specifications about my products and services which could be turned into an RFP and it was interesting to see our own capabilities retur

Indeed, I used to write specifications about my products and services which could be turned into an RFP and it was interesting to see our own capabilities returned to us in the form of a question. The downside in that small industry was that when a competitor saw a question that aligned with our unique product offering, they knew we were in the mix. As for white papers, on the networking and security side, we wrote our white papers with the IT and Security Professional in mind. We were respectful fo their knowledge, vocabulary, and spoke at a high level of complexity; i.e., we didn't dumb anything down. The introduction to the paper clearly indicated that we would be using terms and concepts familiar to such professionals and that they were free to contact us with questions. Generally the paper would be handed to someone in their engineering / IT department and when the time came, they would agree that having our service on their network was a non-issue. Know your audience and treat them with the respect they've earned and deserve.