How to Increase Sales Effectiveness Through Search

By Meghan Ganzer | December 18, 2018

Sales effectiveness isn’t just about having the right content. Having the right content and delivering it in the right context can make or break a sale. Read on to learn how to you can digitally transform your own search capabilities to put the right content in front of buyers at the right time and build credibility with prospective customers.

SearchBlog_image1 Picture this: You’re a sales rep in the middle of an important presentation with a prospective buyer. You think things are going pretty well, but then again, you know this sales deck like the back of your hand. Why wouldn’t it be? And then, the unthinkable happens: your prospect asks an off-topic question and you’re stunned. In a panic, you search and scan emails unsuccessfully trying to find content that will answer their question. Defeated, you give up, let the buyer know you’ll get back to them with the information post-meeting, and struggle to get your presentation back on track. It’s an all too familiar scene that can make or break a sale, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

Giving your sellers the ability to quickly search for and leverage content that resonates in moments that matter with buyers can be a game changer for both your sales reps and profitability.

At Mediafly, we’ve transformed the way sellers search, assemble, and present content to reduce time wasted preparing for presentations and improve the buyer-seller dynamic in real-time during live sales engagements. Empowering sales reps with advanced search capabilities ensure they can lead more effective, consultative sales discussions that drive positive outcomes.

How can you digitally transform your own search capabilities to put the right content in front of buyers in the right context and build credibility with prospective customers?

SearchBlog_image2 Phase 1: Search
Store content in one centralized repository. This may seem like an obvious step, but according to SiriusDecisions, 62% of companies still have over six locations in which they store external sales content. When materials are stored in multiple locations, sellers have to dig for content and waste valuable time that would be better spent engaging with buyers.

Tagging content-based document titles and descriptions can be incredibly helpful for sales reps trying to locate sales assets. It reduces administrative task time and helps build a strong, content-fueled interaction with the buyer to drive success.

SearchBlog_image3 Phase 2: Full-text search
But what happens when the title and descriptions leave gaps? A marketing team may use certain labels or words to describe content differently than the way a salesperson searches for the content. This misalignment results in missed content opportunities.

Many times, the content a user is looking for is buried within the actual text of the document or presentation. With full-text search, queries return more relevant matches, no matter where the text is located within the content item. Previously, search results only queried against an item’s title, description, and keyword fields. Full-text search’s algorithm looks past the item’s title, description, and keyword fields to inform the search results.

Full-text search reduces the time it takes a sales rep to find documents and helps marketers find the exact documents they are looking for quickly, ensuring they can find and keep content accurate no matter where it is located.

SearchBlog_image4 Phase 3: Video transcription search
Modern sellers need more than static content to keep their buyers engaged. So what about audio and video file types? When content admins upload these file types to a content repository, machine learning can be leveraged to automatically transcribe them into text. The search technology uses this text to locate related content during a sales rep’s query. For content admins, the automatic transcription reduces time spent manually tagging content. For sellers, content is exposed more quickly and across all file types in real-time, enabling them to differentiate themselves with compelling and relevant content that addresses exactly what the buyer wants to discuss.

Evolved Selling™ incorporates sales engagement methodologies and technology to enhance how sellers engage with prospective buyers, empowering sales reps to make sales interactions much more impactful and successful every time. By using the right content at the right time, creating interactive sales meetings and measuring the impact content has on revenue, Evolved Sellers experience a lift in revenue and repeat business.

To learn more about how advanced search capabilities can transform the selling experience for your organization, contact Mediafly.

Meghan Ganzer is the Digital Communications Manager at Mediafly. Since making the strategic shift from sales to marketing, Meghan has focused on content writing, external communications, and event collaboration to support the Mediafly sales team through demand generation. Meghan attended Miami University in Ohio and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications.

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