Sales teams are under immense pressure to close deals and meet quotas. In the process, they often rely on content and collateral that may be outdated or no longer accurate. Old branding reflects poorly on the organization, and outdated product information confuses buyers.
Even worse, sellers often waste time looking for content and attempting to tailor old materials to current needs. This takes valuable time away from selling and can derail the sales cycle. To encourage reps to use the freshest and most up-to-date sales content, marketing teams need to have the right tools and processes in place. Follow these tips to ensure your sellers use materials that accurately showcase your products and value proposition.
1. Talk to your sellers
Sellers are on the front lines of the sales process, which gives them a unique perspective on what content is most useful to prospects. They can also provide insights into what content they find outdated or unhelpful.
Proactively talk to sellers to get their input on what content is most useful and what they need more of in order to have successful conversations with buyers. This feedback will help you create sales support materials and other sales enablement collateral that reps will be more likely to use.
Collect feedback through informal check-ins, surveys, or focus groups, taking action when necessary to ensure that your sellers have the resources they need. Be sure to ask pertinent questions that will help you provide useful content:
- What content do you use most often and why?
- What topics resonate well?
- What type of content formats do prospects prefer?
- Is it challenging to find the most up-to-date materials?
2. Organize content so it’s accessible
If your content is scattered in multiple locations, it’s difficult to track down the most recent versions. This makes it more likely that reps will use outdated content. Instead of housing content in disparate systems, marketing teams should use a sales content management system to organize content in one central location. This will help reps find what they need easily, encouraging them to look in the right place for content instead of falling into old habits like reusing content saved on their desktop.
To keep content fresh, create a process for regularly reviewing and updating content. Permission features such as content expiration dates also help marketing teams remove materials automatically without having to manually unpublish collateral.
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3. Give sales reps the ability to personalize content
One reason that some sales reps may continue to use outdated material is that it conveys the exact information they want or need. If you want sellers to use fresher content, create templates that include areas for personalization, making seamless the process of tailoring content. Additionally, consider offering training on how to personalize content effectively. Once sellers understand how fast and easy it is to customize approved collateral, they’ll be more likely to start with compliant materials instead of using the old information on their desktops.
4. Integrate tools to tell a full story
When making a sale, reps often need to tell a comprehensive story that includes multiple data points and touchpoints. This can be difficult if your content is spread out across different systems. To make it easier for sellers to create presentations with data or other customer details, consider a content tool that integrates with data from a customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence (BI) tool, and other data repositories.
5. Use analytics to see what’s working
Finally, use content analytics to review what sellers are sending most often and what collateral is most engaging to prospects. This information can help you identify which materials need refreshing and where there are gaps in your content library.
Content analytics can also help you understand which pieces of content are leading to closed business and why. This information can be used to inform your future content strategy and ensure that you’re always creating materials that address the needs of your sales team.
Sales enablement tools help marketers manage content
The common thread across these tips is that marketers need the right technology to effectively manage and deliver content to sales. A sales content management system addresses those needs and creates efficiencies for sales and marketing, enabling reps to go to market with the latest messaging and freeing up their time to focus on selling.
Seismic is more than just technology. It represents a new way to sell. While many tools can help organizations sell more efficiently, Seismic is unparalleled when it comes to selling more effectively. Instead of using outdated sales methods faster, Seismic enables truly transformative and intelligent management of the customer conversation.
In an upcoming webinar, Seismic President Hayden Stafford and Market-Partners Inc. CEO and Founder Martyn Lewis will explain why and how you should tap into the transformational capabilities of Seismic to meet the needs of today’s buyers. Register today to learn the five hurdles to overcome with your Seismic adoption, as well as the five must-do’s to drive sales enablement transformation.
