This e-book is for you if: You are responsible for sales content creation, and you don’t have the resources to satisfy demand. OR You are a sales operations or
sales enablement professional, and you want to improve seller performance through better tools. OR You are a sales
leader, and you want to help marketing and product teams better understand how to build messages and content that align with your sales process.
Beginners Guide to TikTok for Search - Rachel Pearson - We are Tilt __ Bright...
6 Steps for Giving Your Sales Teams the Content They Need (and Want)
1. to Giving Your Sales Teams
the Content They Need
(and Want)
Steps
An E-book for Sales Content Creators and Sales Enablement Professionals
6
2. 6 steps to giving your sales teams the content they need (and want) | 2
This e-book is
for you if:
You get to work on one of the biggest
challenges in sales and marketing today:
Helping salespeople connect the dots between
your customers’ problems and the great things your
company does to solve them. There’s more pressure
than ever on salespeople to understand customer
issues, stay current on what they have to sell and,
most importantly, close deals.
Your target buyers are feeling the burden, too.
They face a more complicated procurement process,
demanding stakeholders and pressure to drive
the best bargain. They’re upping their game with
knowledge gained from social media outlets, analyst
relationships, publications and peers.
So, what are your salespeople doing to improve?
You can help them by defining, developing and
delivering better content and tools.
Congratulations!
How many times have you heard
comments like these?
You are responsible
for sales content
creation, and
you don’t have the
resources to satisfy
demand.
You are a sales
operations or
sales enablement
professional, and you
want to improve seller
performance through
better tools.
You are a sales
leader, and you want
to help marketing and
product teams better
understand how to build
messages and content
that align with your
sales process.
or
or
“We have too much content. We
don’t know what to use when!”
(Statistics say that over half of sales content isn’t being used.)
“Last-minute fire drills take up
most of my time!”(Marketers, product managers and subject matter
experts face frequent unplanned requests.)
“I need help creating a
presentation for a really
important meeting!”
(Sellers often think their customer situation is
unique and requires custom-built content.
All are symptoms of the same condition,
and it’s easier to treat than you might
think.
3. 6 steps to giving your sales teams the content they need (and want) | 3
The Sales Enablement Disconnect
Identifying the tools
that sellers really need
and will actually use
Creating maps that
match tools to selling
interactions
Distributing
easy-to-follow templates
that save time for
content creators
Prioritizing what
to create based on
impact and level of
effort
Salespeople face big challenges. They have to keep pace with new products, new messages and
new competitors. They also have to work with smarter buyers who now follow much more rigorous
processes. If that’s not bad enough, too many selling tools collect dust because salespeople don’t
find value in them.
The good news is that companies are successfully attacking this problem by:
Successful companies start by understanding what really happens between buyers and sellers in
the field. They develop content only after appreciating how it will be used. And at the center of that
effort is a sales enablement initiative keeping everyone – marketers, subject matter experts and
content producers – focused on the same goal: winning customers and keeping them for life.
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Sellers often complain that their tools are complicated, difficult to understand and irrelevant to the
meetings they are having. Speak to enough quota-carrying people, and you’ll hear about tools that
were “created in a vacuum,” “written in the ivory tower” or “thrown over the fence.” All speak to a
lack of coordination across the organization that results in wasted time and lost revenue. You have an
opportunity to orchestrate a better process that makes everyone happier. By following the six simple
steps below, you’ll be able to identify content and tools that salespeople and buyers will actually use:
The Six-Step Action Plan
Find Out
How Your
Customers Buy
Uncover
What Your
Salespeople are
Actually Doing
Understand
Your Own
Sales Team
Map Tools to
the Process
Analyze the
Sales Process
Prioritize and
Get Started
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The best salespeople don’t just find solutions to customer problems.
They help their customers navigate the buying process – which
becomes increasingly complex as more stakeholders and requirements
are added. Salespeople who become advisors not only in what to buy,
but also how to buy have a much better chance of winning. Your role
is to supply the tools and knowledge they need to do this, and your
first step should be to understand the typical buying process.
No two companies have identical processes, so you will have
to generalize. A few conversations with your most experienced
salespeople will help you identify the most common situations your
buyers face.
Here are a few simple questions to ask about buyer behavior:
1. Do your target customers have a well-defined
buying process? If so, describe it?
Why it’s important. If you can anticipate what the steps are on
the buyer side, you’ll know what supporting content is needed to
help accelerate the process and increase your chances of winning.
Content assets, such as standard RFP response paragraphs,
executive briefing kits and customizable demos, become a core
suite of available tools instead of fuel for daily fire drills.
2. What groups are in involved in the process?
Why it’s important. This helps you anticipate the types of
audiences that will get involved. Meetings with technical experts,
procurement professionals and executives vary by terminology
and topics covered. Your role is to create content that helps
salespeople become knowledgeable and conversant in what’s
on the minds of those key players.
Find Out How Your Customers Buy...
So You Can Help Sellers Become
Trusted Advisors.
A common refrain from the field: We need more case studies. That’s because buyers want to see
some proof of how you have solved similar problems elsewhere. Marketing’s response to that
request is to develop in-depth, expensive documents. But with so many solution scenarios,
there is never enough budget to satisfy demand.
Learn more about how buyers will use these proof points, and you could find that simple and
less expensive tools are better. Instead of a multi-page, branded document, the need could be as
simple as a conversational anecdote, a blurb in an email or a paragraph in an RFP response.
“We need more
case studies!”
Quick Tip
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3. Who leads the buying process?
Why it’s important. An old sales adage says that 90% of selling
happens when the salesperson isn’t there. Your firm’s key contacts
within the account (often referred to as sponsors or champions)
need to sell on your behalf. If you can equip them with the right
messages and tools – tailored to their abilities and expertise –
you’ve just given your company a much better chance of winning.
4. How does the buyer bring in competitors?
Why it’s important. Anticipating competitive behavior helps
you develop tools to differentiate and win. For example, if
buyers usually consult with an analyst firm, you can deduce the
competing solutions that they will consider. That way, you can
equip your sellers with the right messages to use even before that
competitor comes into play.
5. What causes the buyer situation to vary?
Why it’s important. You’ll probably hear that buying situations are
different based on such factors as the company’s industry, size and
business issues. Knowing these factors will help you figure out how
many versions of key tools (e.g., industry-specific presentations or
case studies) need to be available.
At this point you’ll have a solid understanding of the most common
customer buying patterns. You’ll also appreciate the hurdles that
sellers face and the need for them to evolve into trusted advisors. This
expertise will prove valuable for what you’ll be doing next: getting to
know your own sales teams.
Example Buying Process
Awareness Consideration Preference Purchase Achieve Business
Goal
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Most companies have several sales teams and a variety of roles
within them. A large technology firm might have a key accounts
team managing the largest clients, an enterprise team for the rest of
the Fortune 500 companies and a small business team. There might
also be specialist roles that help sellers with industry, technical and
solution expertise. Not surprisingly, these teams will have different
requirements for content. And within a single sales group, especially
ones that take a team-selling approach, there may be several roles
to evaluate. The account executive, sales engineer, value engineer,
telesales rep and overlay sales specialist are likely to use different
tools and content.
Your ability to recommend relevant content depends on your
understanding of what each team does, as well as the roles within
that team.
For each team, ask the following questions:
1. How big is the team?
Why it’s important. With a lot of sales teams, you may have to
focus based on size and amount of revenue in play. Size can also
be a factor in the kinds of content needed. For example, smaller,
centralized teams do a better job of sharing ideas in person, while
larger teams require more tools and content for knowledge and
best-practice sharing.
What do they sell?
Who do they sell to?
How big is the team?
What are the key rolesand characteristics?
Understand Your Own Sales Team(s)...
So That You Can Better Appreciate
the Kinds of Content They Need.2Step
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2. What are the key roles? What are their characteristics?
Why it’s important. Different sales positions have differing
content needs based on the role they play in a sales opportunity.
For example, generalist salespeople need to be proficient at
understanding business issues and steering buyers toward the right
set of solutions. Specialist salespeople need to have deep expertise
on a narrower set of solutions.
3. What do they sell?
Why it’s important. As the number of products and solutions in
a seller’s portfolio grows, the amount of knowledge retained on
any one item decreases. The level of detail in any piece of content
needs to directly correlate with the amount of information you
actually expect a seller to know.
4. Who do they sell to?
Why it’s important. If teams are created for specific customer
segments, those groups are likely to require different things from
your salespeople. For example, a global accounts team managing
your top ten clients will need different tools than your telesales
team calling on small businesses.
At this point, you’ll have a much more sophisticated understanding of
your sales team. Rather than a monolithic organization (which is how
many view sales), you’ll see it at a more detailed level as a collection
of groups, with each group having a unique combination of roles,
objectives and ways of selling. Knowing this about each team will
help you in the next phase: understanding the sales process.
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Before After
A common view of sales is one group where everyone uses
the same content.
Most sales teams are actually made up of several teams
with varying needs.
9. 6 steps to giving your sales teams the content they need (and want) | 9
It’s All About the Role
Sellers can have different needs depending on their roles. Here are some key titles, along with general
points about what they do and need.
Type of team
New business reps
Key/major/global accounts reps
Account managers
Small/mid-market reps
Specialized salespeople and
overlay reps
What they do
Develop new accounts within a pre-defined
territory or set of companies
Work with the largest accounts, often managing
complex relationships that span many
geographies, lines of business and solutions
Support ongoing relationships with standard-
sized accounts
Develop new business with smaller accounts;
may offer a simplified product suite; have
less support from specialists and tend to sell
remotely
Focus on smaller offerings (by solution,
industry); brought in to support an existing
opportunity; tend to create their own tools
Most common needs
Suites of tools for every step in the
sales process
Detailed, customized materials and
complex assets that support in-depth
meetings and cover many topics
Relationship review assets and
“what’s new” information to support
regular meetings
Simplified content for smaller product
sets and remote selling tools
In-depth solution and/or industry
information; help with upgrading
assets they’ve already created
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The next step in providing relevant content and tools is to understand what
salespeople are expected to do. Most companies institute a sales process that
may include everything from prescriptive-selling methodologies to simple ways to
categorize an opportunity.
Regardless of the process, sellers are under constant pressure to comply with the
“law of the land.” As such, sales content that helps salespeople do that will get
used.
To get started in your analysis, review training materials and talk to the sales
effectiveness, sales training and sales operations groups. Most importantly, talk
to sales leaders. You’ll learn first-hand what their vision is and show that you are
committed to making that vision a reality.
Some questions to askthem include:
– What is the biggest sales
effectiveness challenge you see?
– If you could improve one behavior,what would it be?
– What sales initiatives (within thenext year) will affect the contentthat is needed?
– What are the keys to getting
salespeople to adopt new ways ofselling or new content?
– How can we provide you with theright information and updates goingforward?
Analyze the Sales Process...
So You Can Speak the Language
of Selling.
3Step
Sellers are often classified as those who “hunt” new customers versus those who “farm” or manage the retention
and growth of existing accounts. Ask any sales leader if they perform the same way and the answer will be a
definitive “no.” Yet few organizations create sales tools that are specialized for hunting or farming situations.
For example, new business development tends to follow a linear, “left-to-right” series of steps from lead
development to a closed sale for a specific solution set. On the other hand, existing account management follows
a cycle of regular and predictable events where relationship is paramount and associated tools and activities work
toward growing both share of mind and wallet. Be sure the tools you create support the intended goal.
Quick Tip
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Example Buying and Selling Processes
Once you’ve collected the information, map out the process or sales stages for each team. For each sales stage, determine the following:
At this point, you’ll have a greater understanding of how the sales organization is designed and the processes that should be followed. And,
you’ll have a valuable foundation of knowledge for your next step: finding out what salespeople really do.
Goal
Is there an objective
or verifiable outcome?
Examples include meeting
with a decision maker or
the client agreeing to an
evaluation plan.
Activity
What is expected to happen
if you reach that goal? For
example, if the goal is to
meet with a specific decision
maker, the activity might be a
whiteboard conversation around
key business pains.
Tools
Is there a mandated set
of internal and customer-
facing materials? You may
modify or improve upon this
toolset as your investigation
continues, but it’s important
to document a baseline.
People
Who is involved? Review
who should be involved
both from your team and
the buying organization.
Buying Process
Selling Process
Awareness Consideration Preference Purchase Achieve Business
Goal
Plan Discover Prove Close Implement Grow
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12. 6 steps to giving your sales teams the content they need (and want) | 12
No process is detailed enough to capture the many things sellers
have to do to hit their revenue targets. Your goal is to become an
expert on the typical “week in the life” of each key role, so you
can pinpoint areas for improvement and suggest the right tools.
Understanding and documenting the most important activities
happening in the field will help you:
3Identify the items that salespeople know
they want
3Determine the tools they need but haven’t
been able to identify
3Prioritize the tools of highest impact
To begin, set up a series of conversations either by phone or in
person for each team or group. On average, the number can
range from two to three for a small team to six to eight for larger
groups (over 100 members). When interviewing sellers who focus
on net-new business, explore a typical opportunity from lead
to close. When interviewing sellers who focus on existing client
expansion, explore a year in the life of a customer relationship.
4
Step Uncover What the Sales Team is
Actually Doing...Because, Believe It
or Not, Salespeople Sometimes Do
Their Own Thing.
There is no standard set of definitions for sales assets One tool – a
playbook, for example – can take dozens of different forms depending
on who is creating it. You have to be specific when taking requests
for tools:
A few minutes spent zeroing in on the actual usage scenario can
save hundreds of hours creating content that doesn’t hit the mark.
Quick Tip: Be Specific When Defining Sales Tools
How will it
be used?
Who is the
audience?Will it be
shared with
prospects?
How detailed
does it need
to be?
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Now it’s time to take a deep breath and review what you’ve discovered because there is a lot to absorb. Hopefully you’ll find overlap between
the “ideal state” you learned about in steps two and three, and the “real world” of step four. If there are major inconsistencies, now is a good
time to sit with sales leadership and/or support teams to get their input before moving on to developing your sales content map.
?
Ask Both Types of Sellers About Their most important and frequent
interactions with Both Prospects and Customers:
If they do five executive pitches a month, are
they all the same? Explore examples of how a
presentation might vary based on the prospect’s
industry, the audience role and title, the size of
the company and the business needs.
How do they prepare for a meeting? What tools
do they use and where do they turn for support?
What are the objectives and what actually
happens?
Who is usually involved on your company’s side
and from the prospect company?
What do they use during the interaction? Where
do they find it (or do they create their own tools)?
What would they like to have?
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A majority of companies have attempted to formalize what content should be available in what selling situations.
This mapping activity often doesn’t work because it happens without full knowledge of what takes place in the
field between buyers and sellers. After completing steps one through four, you will have that knowledge.
But, you might be overwhelmed.
Fear not! The following three-step exercise brings it all together:
Document the buying/selling process based on the information you gathered in steps
one, two and three. Determine if more than one documented process is required, and if so, build
each process map. Next, overlay the actual “week-in-the-life” reality check from step four to see
what changes may be required, while still being consistent with your company’s official sales process.
Buying Process
Selling Process
Example Buying and Selling Processes
Awareness Consideration Preference Purchase Achieve Business
Goal
Plan Discover Prove Close Implement Grow
Map Tools to the Process...
So You Can Prove What Salespeople
Really Need and Want
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15. 6 steps to giving your sales teams the content they need (and want) | 15
Next, for each stage, document the following:
– What are the key goals, activities, tools and players involved?
– What are the content categories that drive variability? Examples include: industry, business needs, solutions under
consideration, etc.? Note: be careful to limit this to the most relevant categories of information.
– What type of content should be available based on what the official process says and what you’ve learned about buyer and
seller needs? (If you have trouble finding a good tool for a situation, consider asking peers in other industries or experts.)
2
3Review your findings with a working group made up of representatives from sales, sales operations, marketing and
product/solution teams.
Awareness
Awareness
consideration
consideration
Preference
Preference purchase
Current Tools
Needed Tools
Appointment
Setting Guide
White Space Tool,
Call Scripts,
Email Scripts
Cheat Sheets,
Mutual Activity Plan
Conversation
Guides, Objection
Handlers
Proposal Deck,
Competitive Guide
ROI Tool, Solution
Presentation
Implementation
Plan
Negotiation
Guide
Program Success
Plan, Communication
Templates
Quarterly
Review
Example Mapping of Tools to Stages
Selling and buying tools need to be relevant to the customer situation, and that relevance is driven by content
categories. For example, you may have a stage in the sales process where your seller needs to give a capabilities
presentation detailing your company’s experience in the buyer’s industry. From a content map perspective, that
means that you need to provide slides specific to each key industry. Examples of other categories that drive content
are the audience role, company size, pain point and solution of interest. The problem is that having too many
categories can drive the need for a huge amount of content. (Imagine a single presentation that would have slides
relevant to all of those categories!) So start with only the most important factors.
Quick Tip: Choose Only the Content Categories That Really Matter
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Now that you know what should be available and what is available,
you’ll probably discover two things. First, you may realize that you
have a significant gap between what you have and need. Second (the
good news), you’ll find that many needs can be filled by repurposing
and upgrading existing content. The key to figuring out where to start
is to assess bang for the buck.
Follow the seven steps below to set up the program, develop an
ongoing process for monitoring usage and feedback – and never
stop improving.
1. Inventory Your Content. Start with your sales portal
and corporate website. Next, go where your subject matter
experts store their content. Ask salespeople to share their favorite
documents, including the unofficial ones.
2. Map Existing Tools to the Content Map. Whether
a tool fits or not is a matter of interpretation. Start with the
narrowest definition of suitability (i.e., the document could be used
tomorrow in a sales meeting). Next, identify the tools that could
work with some modification.
3. Identify and Evaluate Gaps. Make sure you take into
account the impact that gap has on sales performance. Is it an
annoyance or are deals stopping because critical tools don’t exist?
Don’t forget that your content map needs to cover all of the
relevant content categories. For example, if a key asset varies by
industry, your content needs to cover all applicable verticals.
4. Assess the Level of Effort Required to Fill the
Gaps. This depends both on what is available that could be
upgraded and how difficult the asset is to create.
5. Create a Proposed Action Plan that balances impact
with level of effort.
6. Review the Action Plan with Selected
Stakeholders from your sales, product and marketing
organizations at all levels. Gain their commitment to follow
the plan.
7. Continuously Monitor Content Development,
Distribution and Usage. Are people using new tools
as they become available? If not, find out why, and take
corrective action.
Prioritize and Start Now...
So You Can Be a Sales
Enablement Hero.
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Following this process and aligning content to real-world selling and
buying environment will make you popular with a lot of people:
Now is the time to begin the journey toward creating content that
doesn’t just get thrown over the fence, but is actually used.
Consider Using a Third Party for Help
Despite your best intentions, the usual barriers to change (e.g., history,
pride of ownership, organizational silos) can get in the way of success.
Working with an unbiased third-party that has seen these issues in
dozens of companies can help you get past the baggage and focus on
the real goal: driving revenue.
Your product/solution and marketing teams
will find that their content load just grew
lighter: fewer pieces to create, easier standards
to follow and fewer last-minute fire drills.
Your salespeople will rejoice in having
fewer, more powerful tools, along with a
clear understanding of what to use when.
Your sales leadership will delight in
improved seller performance at no extra
cost to the organization.
Branding is critical for your
customers and prospects. It’s less
important for your salespeople.
The time and money needed to finish
off internal materials (e.g., coaching
guides, prompters, playbooks)
may be better spent elsewhere.
With solutions, competitors and
market opportunities evolving so
quickly, your focus should shift
towards getting the knowledge to
the field as quickly as possible and
conditioning your sellers to look past
the wrapper.
Quick Tip: Save the Sparkle for the Customer
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