B2B sales content can be a fickle friend. There’s no denying content is an essential tool in today’s sales cycles, but many organizations struggle to wield it effectively.
Consider this: just 5% of a buyer’s time is spent with sellers. During the other 95% of the evaluation process, buyers are conducting their own research relying on content and other sources to inform their decision.
Not only do sellers need to make every second of facetime count, but they have to drive deals forward with relevant content. As we like to say here at Mediafly, your content is what continues to sell when you’re no longer in the room or on the Zoom. Content is what shapes buyers’ decisions, validates their potential purchase, curries favor with other stakeholders and ultimately guides them to “yes.”
And the stakes for content are high. According to Gartner, more than half of buyers (55%) encounter so much trustworthy information they actually feel overwhelmed! So even when sellers share informative content, it has to be the right content or else it can overwhelm your buyers. Needless to say, it’s more important than ever for sellers to deliver the right piece of content to the right person at the right moment.
Overcoming Sales Content Challenges
If you’re struggling to effectively manage and maximize the impact of your sales content – you aren’t alone. In fact, the 2023 State of Revenue Enablement Report identified five key challenges organizations face with sales content:
- “Our sellers spend too much time creating/personalizing content”
- “Our sales content is outdated”
- “We cannot govern our content to ensure brand and/or regulatory compliance”
- “We do not have the insights we need to understand what content works best and when”
- “Our sellers often send content that differs from our brand”
So how can you overcome these challenges to leverage content as an effective sales tool? Here are four steps to start maximizing the impact of your sales content.
Invest in a Content Management Solution
For many organizations, the content itself isn’t the problem – it’s how it’s delivered. If your sales content isn’t accessible, easy-to-find or searchable, sellers aren’t going to use it. Which is why many sellers end up using old materials or creating their own content! But having access to a well-managed content repository that makes it easy for sellers to find the content they need is table stakes.
Within that repository, sales reps need to know exactly which assets will perform best based on their audience and where they’re at in the sales cycle. An effective content management solution doesn’t wait for sellers to search for what they need. Instead, it will provide tailored recommendations for top-rated collateral, so reps can share with precision and avoid overwhelming the buyer.
When sellers are provided with the content they need, they’re much less likely to “go rogue” and much more likely to use up-to-date, on-brand, marketing-approved assets provided to them.
Track Content Engagement and Impact
Do you know which of your sales assets are driving deals forward, when and with whom? Leveraging content analytics is the key to unlocking success at scale. If you can pinpoint what content is working best in which situations, you can then coach your sellers to deliver that content in the right moment and thus increase their chance of success.
Our research shows high-performing organizations are 37% more likely to track the success of their sales content. Key analytics include which documents were viewed, how long stakeholders spent viewing those assets, individual page views, and shares.
Reduce Friction with Digital Sales Rooms
Just as the delivery mechanism of your sales content matters to sellers, buyers need a streamlined way to receive content as well. Instead of sending a pile of files as email attachments, consider leveraging a digital sales room (DSR). These personalized microsites act as an online hub where materials can be shared and stored for buyers.
With digitally-oriented buyers in the driver’s seat, digital sales rooms are slated to become the primary place for buyer-seller interactions: according to Gartner, “by 2026, 30% of B2B sales cycles will be primarily run through DSRs.”
Don’t Neglect the Power of Content Post-Sale
While buyers use content to establish themselves as trusted advisors during a sale, the role of content post-purchase is equally important. From how-tos and tutorials to troubleshooting help, there are plenty of opportunities to share valuable content during onboarding and adoption. Not only can these assets help customers get off on the right foot, they can also help you identify potential gaps and areas of friction in those crucial early days.
When it comes to content – it’s important to remember, more isn’t always better. The key is to get the right piece of content in front of the right person at the right moment. And if you want to nurture the relationship for the long haul, you’ll need to treat it with care long after the ink has dried.
This is the second in a series of posts breaking down the research from our 2023 State of Revenue Enablement report. Stay tuned as we unpack more ways to prepare for revenue excellence in the year ahead or check out the last chapter here: The Revenue Enablement Revolution Has Arrived.
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