Approximately 90 percent of marketing deliverables are not used by sales. Salespeople spend 30 hours per month searching or creating selling tools to use in the field.
What’s wrong with this picture?
New findings in a report conducted by industry-leading insurance consultancy Strategy Meets Action shows that digital content is being used more than ever before, but companies still struggle to manage it. The disconnect between sales and marketing teams is becoming more evident each day.
“Although the digital content provides many new options for marketing and sales, managing the resulting deluge of documents and files is a huge and complex task,” writes author and SMA partner Mark Breading. “The advantages that are experienced by being able to customize documents for specific use are accompanied by the burden of managing enormous amounts of collateral.”
Picture Pandora’s box. The potential within it is huge – its benefits are obvious upon its opening, but how do you get it to stop? Is it possible to have too much of a good thing such as digital content?
Over-indulgence is not something to be proud of, but it’s hard to say no to a mountain of content that could potentially bring in more customers and deals. The key is to strike a balance – know what you’re going to do with the content before you create it.
Breading also goes on to state in his report that it’s important to introduce an enterprise solution that includes all of the following:
- Modern content management capabilities
- Interactive document assembly
- Dynamic data links
- Modern user interface
- Mobile enablement
- Flexible implementation options
- CRM integration
You may already be behind if you have digital sales and marketing collateral scattered throughout the Web – in the cloud, on various file sharing sites and content delivery platforms. However, there’s no better time than now to get organized and strengthen the bond between sales and marketing for a brighter future.
Revenue achievement is about 25 percent greater at companies where sales and marketing are working closely together.
When people are on the same page, they know where content is housed and how to use it effectively. They can confidently approach the same goals and drive revenue. As one team, the impossible task of managing digital content soon becomes possible.
