Sales is changing. Buyers have more access to information and are coming armed to sales engagements with more information than ever before. Both buyers and sellers are overwhelmed by the amount of content available to them, but the importance of relevant content is only becoming more important. Today, relevant content means personalized content. Modern buyers and sellers expect a “weekend experience” where the right content, for the right people, is presented to them at the right time. As a result sales leaders are being challenged to adapt and ensure their sellers are as effective as possible. Sales content management tools help revenue teams store, manage, and share the right content, to the right people, at the right time to drive wins. Gartner summarizes the importance of these tools saying, “Provide a single source of truth with version and compliance control. Optimize the development of marketing content through the analysis of performance data.” There’s no shortage of stats on the importance of sales content management tools, and we’ve collected the top ones for you here.
Use Single Content Repository
A sales content management system serves as a singular, central hub for storing and organizing all revenue-related content. Far too often sellers spend too much time looking for the right content, which could be spread across up to six content repositories. A single source of truth for content ensures that the sales representatives can quickly find the resources they need to support their selling efforts, rather than spending valuable time searching for files across various platforms. Here’s the proof:
- On average, 1,400 sales assets are available to sellers
- Despite the amount of content available to sellers, up to 70% of marketing produced content goes unused
- This is in part because 65% of sales reps can’t locate meaningful content to share with buyers – making it the most common complaint among US sales teams
Ensure accurate, up-to-date, relevant, branded content
The use of content can’t just be adhoc. It needs to be the logical next stop on the buyer’s journey, and help solve problems they care about. Additionally, it needs to be accurate and up-to-date. Content needs to not only lead to a deeper understanding of the buyer, but also be memorable and add value to them. Providing the right content at the right time, in the right way could get you a win, but the wrong content could also cost you that win. Don’t just trust me, buyers themselves say they need the content sellers send to be relevant:
- When choosing vendors, 89% of B2B buyers say it’s important or very important to receive relevant content at each buying stage.
- Once they are customers, 68% say they won’t expand a contract if they don’t receive helpful content after making their purchase.
- Fifty-nine percent of buyers said the content they receive from sellers is more style than substance, and 61% said the content they get from sellers is less relevant than what they can find elsewhere
Personalize content to every buyer
”Personalization” has become a buzzword in the world of sales, but it takes a lot of time, and you need to have a strong foundation of knowledge on each buyer stakeholder – who they are, what they care about, what problems they are trying to solve. What do we mean by “personalization”? Eighty percent of B2B buyers expect the same buying experience as B2C customers. Organizations who can master personalization reap significant benefits, empowering their reps to be more effective in less time. Here are the top stats highlighting the importance of sales content personalization:
- Forrester found 74% of marketing decision-makers said that buyers and customers expect a sales and marketing experience that is personalized to their needs and preferences.
- However, fewer than 33% of businesses are able to meaningfully personalize their outreach to buyers.
- Seventy-seven percent of companies using direct one-to-one personalization observed an increase in market share.
Track sales content performance
Tracking sales content performance is crucial as it reveals the impact and efficacy of materials used in sales, allowing revenue to identify what works and change behaviors and strategy at scale. Analyzing engagement, customer behavior, and effectiveness helps optimize content strategies, refine messaging, and allocate resources efficiently. This data-driven approach leads to better sales outcomes, improved customer experiences, and a competitive edge. Organizations are beginning to recognize the importance of tracking content performance, but there is still a long road ahead as evidenced by these stats:
- Forty four percent of Semrush’s State of Content Management 2023 research said improving the quality and value of their content has led to increased revenue content success
- However, Forrester found that 59% of marketing organizations say they can view content performance metrics by campaign, yet only 34% can do the same by theme or topic and only 40% can analyze content performance by audience.
- Content audits are critical to continuously optimizing success, as 53% of organizations who conducted a content audit saw an increase in engagement rate
Drive revenue team alignment
Alignment between revenue functions is crucial for a seamless and effective customer journey. When all teams work together towards shared goals, it enhances lead generation, nurtures prospects more efficiently, and ultimately boosts revenue. Sales content management systems play a vital role in driving this alignment by providing a centralized platform for both teams to access and share relevant, accurate, up-to-date content. Marketing can create and update materials based on sales feedback, ensuring content aligns with real-time customer needs. Simultaneously, sales can provide insights into content performance, enabling marketing to refine strategies and produce more targeted and impactful materials, leading to a cohesive and successful sales process. The proof is in the pudding:
- Ninety percent of B2B decision makers say that marketing and sales need to work more closely together.
- That’s because revenue team alignment can contribute to a 67% increase in closed deals.
- Furthermore, each year misalignment between revenue teams results in a loss of $1 trillion in wasted efforts and decreased productivity.
To learn more about sales content management systems and how Mediafly can help take your sales and marketing content to the next level and align your revenue team, schedule a demo here.
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