The six documents a B2B buyer asks for

A one page document telling a government or enterprise buyer what your company does, what it has already delivered, why you rather than the next qualified bidder, and the identifiers they need to look you up and buy from you. It is a sales document with a procurement convention: nothing is filed anywhere and there is no single mandated layout.

Who reads it

Contracting officers and small business specialists in United States government contracting, primes screening subcontractors, and large private buyers running vendor onboarding.

When they ask

Asked for by name before a meeting, attached to a registration, or requested the moment a prime is assembling a team. It is read on a screen in a stack with other vendors, which is why the second page is reliably not opened.

What gets it binned. Explaining the differentiators instead of stating them, which turns the overview into a paragraph and pushes the document onto a second page nobody reads. Six blocks fit on one page: overview, core competencies, past performance, differentiators, the company data block with your identifiers and codes, and one named person with a direct line.

A one page document stating the measured facts about one product: what it is, its dimensions and materials, the performance figures buyers compare on, the standards and certifications it meets, and the part numbers used to order it. It carries no persuasion, and it carries a revision number and a date so a reader knows which version they are holding.

Who reads it

An engineer, a specifier or a buyer checking whether the product fits an application, without having to call you.

When they ask

During specification and during comparison, which is usually before you know the deal exists. In construction, lighting and plumbing the same document is called a cut sheet and goes into a submittal package.

What gets it binned. Shipping it with no revision number and no issue date, which is the field most often missing and the one that decides whether the copy in a buyer's downloads folder is still true. A safety data sheet is a different, regulated document and is never a substitute.

The document that turns a conversation into a decision. Eight sections, in this order: what you understood about their situation, what is in scope, what is not in scope, how the work runs and who does it, the timeline plus what you need from them, the price and what triggers a change to it, one relevant piece of proof, and one clear next step with a validity date.

Who reads it

The person who signs, and usually two or three people who read it before they do, at least one of whom only reads the price.

When they ask

After the walk, the discovery call or the RFP. By this point marketing has finished its job and the document carries the deal on its own.

What gets it binned. Burying the price and skipping the exclusions. Buyers read the price first, often out of order, then the scope and the exclusions, then the timeline, then who is doing the work. The work you did not price is the work that eats the margin, and writing down what is not included is the clearest signal in the document that you have done this before.

One piece of work, written so somebody who was not there can judge it: the situation, what you actually did, the numbers, and a sentence from the client. It is the only proof in the stack that a competitor cannot copy, because it happened to you.

Who reads it

The buyer deciding whether you have done this before, and the procurement reader filling in the past performance block of a screening form.

When they ask

Inside a proposal as the one relevant piece of proof, and on its own as something you publish. It is also the raw material for the past performance entries on a capability statement.

What gets it binned. Waiting for permission to use the client name and publishing nothing in the meantime. In most agreements the name is the only restricted part: the situation, the work, the constraint and the outcome are yours to describe.