Here's a question for you: Are you tired of and frustrated by the disconnect between your content creation efforts and actual sales performance? You're not alone.
In this blog we’ll cover everything about high-impact sales collateral that are boosting conversion rates and delighting sales teams. We'll dive into what makes each type effective, share best practices for creation, and show you how to leverage data for continual improvement.
Whether you're looking to streamline your content strategy, empower your sales team, or simply close more deals, this blog has you covered. Let's turn your sales collateral from a necessary evil into your secret weapon for success.
What you'll find in this blog:
Gone are the days when a glossy brochure and a firm handshake could seal the deal. Buyers nowadays are savvy, well-informed, and expect personalized experiences and your sales collateral needs to keep up.
Effective sales collateral serves as a silent salesperson, working 24/7 to educate prospects about your solutions, address pain points and objections before they arise, build credibility and trust in your brand, guide buyers through complex decision-making processes, and provide the right information at the right time in the buyer's journey.
But here's the kicker: according to Forrester, 65% of content created for sales teams goes unused. That's a lot of wasted effort and missed opportunities. So, what's going wrong?
If you're a sales manager or marketing professional, these pain points might sound all too familiar:
Your sales team is drowning in a sea of PDFs, presentations, and one-pagers. Finding the right piece of content at the right time feels like searching for a needle in a haystack.
This overwhelm leads to wasted time, missed opportunities, and frustrated salespeople who might revert to using outdated or self-created materials, potentially misrepresenting your brand or offering.
By the time your beautifully crafted brochure makes it to print, the information is already obsolete. In fast-moving industries, static collateral just can't keep up. This results in salespeople presenting inaccurate information, damaging credibility, and potentially losing deals due to misinformed prospects.
Generic, one-size-fits-all materials fail to address the specific needs and pain points of individual prospects. Your buyers are unique - shouldn't your collateral reflect that?
When your materials don't resonate with a prospect's specific situation, you miss the opportunity to demonstrate deep understanding and value, reducing the likelihood of moving the sale forward.
Your marketing team is creating content, but it's not matching up with the stages of your sales funnel. This results in frustrated salespeople and confused prospects. This misalignment means salespeople lack the right tools at crucial moments, potentially stalling deals or failing to address key decision criteria at the right time.
How do you know if your sales collateral is actually working? Without clear metrics, it's a guessing game and it’s hard to justify the time and resources spent on creation. This lack of insight leads to continual investment in potentially ineffective materials, wasting resources and missing opportunities to optimize your sales approach.
If your sales team isn't using the collateral you're creating, it's not just ineffective - it's invisible. Low adoption rates often stem from a lack of trust in the materials or difficulty in accessing them. This results in inconsistent messaging across your sales force, reduced efficiency, and a disconnect between marketing efforts and sales results.
These challenges aren't just frustrating - they're directly impacting your bottom line. But there's a solution on the horizon, and it starts with embracing data.
Smart sales leaders are catching on to a game-changing approach: data-driven, buyer-centric sales collateral. This shift is transforming how we create, distribute, and measure the impact of sales materials.
Here's what this looks like in practice:
Leveraging data analytics and AI, companies are creating dynamically personalized collateral that speaks directly to each prospect's needs, industry, and stage in the buying journey.
By analyzing past interactions, firmographics, and behavioral data, you can automatically tailor content to each prospect, increasing relevance and engagement.
Static PDFs are making way for interactive experiences. Think product configurators, ROI calculators, and guided assessments that engage buyers and provide real-time, relevant information.
These tools not only engage prospects but also capture valuable data about their preferences and priorities, informing future interactions and collateral creation.
Advanced analytics tools are helping teams understand which pieces of collateral are most effective at each stage of the sales process, allowing for continuous optimization.
By tracking metrics like engagement time, sharing rates, and influence on deal progression, you can refine your content strategy for maximum impact.
The wall between sales and marketing is coming down. Collaborative platforms are enabling real-time feedback loops, ensuring that collateral evolves based on front-line insights.
Data on content usage by sales teams, coupled with their qualitative feedback, helps marketing create more relevant and effective materials.
With more interactions happening on-the-go, successful teams are prioritizing mobile-friendly collateral that's easily accessible anytime, anywhere.
Usage data from mobile devices informs design decisions, ensuring that your collateral is not just accessible but optimized for how your prospects actually consume information.
From explainer videos to interactive demos, diverse content types are being seamlessly integrated to cater to different learning styles and preferences. Analytics on content consumption patterns help you understand which formats resonate best with different segments of your audience, allowing you to tailor your content mix accordingly.
By embracing these data-driven approaches, companies are seeing tangible results: higher engagement rates, shorter sales cycles, and ultimately, more closed deals. The most effective sales collateral isn't just informative - it's intelligent, adaptive, and laser-focused on your buyer's needs, all powered by robust data insights.
As we dive into the 10 types of high-impact sales collateral in the next section, keep this shift in mind. The most effective collateral isn't just informative - it's intelligent, adaptive, and laser-focused on your buyer's needs.
Now that we’ve looked into the challenges and the role that data plays in improving sales collateral, let's dive into the most effective types of sales materials that are helping companies close deals and drive revenue.
Case studies are powerful narratives that showcase how your product or service solves real problems for actual customers. They provide concrete evidence of your solution's value, helping prospects envision similar success for their own business.
Highlighting specific challenges, solutions, and measurable outcomes, case studies build credibility and trust often tips the scales in complex decision-making processes.
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😎 Pro Tip: When creating case studies, focus on storytelling. Start with the challenge, detail the journey, and emphasize quantifiable results. Include direct quotes from your client for added authenticity. Remember, the best case studies aren't just success stories – they're roadmaps that show prospects how they too can achieve similar results. |
ROI calculators are interactive tools that help prospects understand the potential financial impact of your solution on their business. By inputting their own data, prospects can see a personalized projection of cost savings, revenue increases, or other relevant metrics.
This tangible demonstration of value not only aids in justifying the investment to decision-makers but also positions your offering as a strategic business decision rather than just another expense. For example, leveraging engagement metrics effectively is crucial to quantifying this value in buyer engagement.
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😀 Pro Tip: Ensure your ROI calculator is based on realistic, conservative estimates. Provide clear explanations for each input and output, and offer the option to download a detailed report. Remember, transparency in your calculations builds trust and credibility. |
Personalized sales presentations go beyond generic slideshows to deliver content that speaks directly to each prospect's unique situation, challenges, and goals.
By leveraging data and insights about the prospect, these presentations demonstrate a deep understanding of their business, making your pitch more relevant and compelling. This tailored approach not only captures attention but also shows your commitment to addressing the prospect's specific needs.
Competitive battle cards are concise, easy-to-reference guides that equip your sales team with the knowledge they need to position your solution effectively against competitors.
These cards typically include key differentiators, common objections and how to handle them, and specific scenarios where your solution outshines the competition. By arming your team with this focused competitive intelligence, you enable them to address prospect concerns confidently and steer conversations towards your strengths.
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😉 Pro Tip: Keep your battle cards living documents. Regularly update them based on market changes and feedback from your sales team. Include not just feature comparisons, but also insights into competitors' typical sales tactics and how to counter them effectively. |
This competitor battlecard template from Notion, with provided prompts, is a great starting point. Check out their library for other battlecard templates.
Customer testimonial videos bring your success stories to life, allowing prospects to hear directly from satisfied clients about their positive experiences with your product or service. These videos provide social proof in a format that's engaging and easy to consume.
Showcasing real people discussing real results build trust and credibility. This helps prospects overcome skepticism and visualize the potential impact of your solution on their own business.
Check out this testimonial video of Showell and Sandvik's partnership:
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😁 Pro Tip: When creating testimonial videos, aim for authenticity over perfection. Use a mix of scripted and spontaneous elements to keep the content genuine. Focus on the specific challenges your client faced, how your solution helped, and the measurable results they achieved. Consider creating a series of shorter, problem-specific testimonials that can be used strategically throughout the sales process. |
White papers are in-depth, authoritative reports that address complex issues relevant to your industry. By providing valuable insights and actionable advice, white papers position your company as a thought leader and trusted advisor.
They're particularly effective in sales cycles where education is a crucial part of the decision-making process. Well-crafted white papers can generate leads, nurture prospects through the sales funnel, and provide sales teams with valuable talking points.
Solution configurators are interactive tools that allow prospects to build and customize your product or service to their specific needs. These tools not only engage prospects by putting them in the driver's seat but also help them understand the full range of options available.
Configurators can simplify complex product offerings, making it easier for prospects to envision how your solution fits into their business. They also provide valuable data on prospect preferences and priorities.
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🤓 Pro Tip: Design your configurator with user experience in mind. Make it intuitive and visually appealing. Include tooltips or pop-up explanations for each option to educate users as they configure. Consider adding a "recommended configuration" feature based on the user's inputs about their needs or industry. Here's something you might find relevant: 6 Use Cases of 3D Configurator Software in Sales Enablement. |
Email sequence templates are pre-designed series of emails that guide prospects through the sales funnel. These sequences automate the process of lead nurturing, ensuring consistent and timely communication.
By providing valuable content at each stage of the buyer's journey, email sequences keep your solution top-of-mind and gradually build a case for why the prospect should choose your offering. They're particularly effective for maintaining engagement over longer sales cycles.
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👍 Why we love this: HubSpot's tested and proven sales email templates are grouped by type: first touch, break up, follow up and even includes ChatGPT prompts to help you personalize the emails, so it suits your business' needs better. Did we mention that these templates are free? HubSpot's 50 Free Sales Email Templates. |
Social proof compilations gather various forms of customer endorsements into a single, powerful piece of collateral. This might include customer quotes, usage statistics, awards, certifications, and logos of notable clients.
By showcasing the breadth and depth of your customer base and industry recognition, social proof compilations help overcome buyer hesitation and build confidence in your solution. They're particularly effective in competitive markets where differentiation can be challenging.
We'll toot our own horn- here's an example of what a social proof can look like. You can easily gather customer quotes from reputable platform review sites such as G2 and Capterra.
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😄 Pro Tip: Regularly update your social proof compilations to keep them fresh and relevant. Use design elements to make key statistics and prestigious client logos stand out. Consider creating industry-specific or use-case-specific versions to maximize relevance for different prospect segments. Always obtain permission before using client names or logos. |
Interactive assessment tools engage prospects by helping them evaluate their current situation and identify areas for improvement.
These could be maturity models, readiness assessments, or benchmarking tools. By providing personalized insights, these tools not only deliver value to prospects but also help qualify leads and guide the conversation towards your solution.
They're excellent for capturing detailed information about prospects' needs and challenges, informing your sales approach.
By leveraging these diverse types of sales collateral, you can engage prospects at every stage of the buyer's journey, provide value, build trust, and ultimately drive more conversions.
Remember, the key to effective sales collateral is to continually refine and optimize based on performance data and feedback from your sales team.
BSH Home Appliances, a leading manufacturer of brands like Bosch and Siemens, faced a common challenge in sales: scattered content and inconsistent messaging.
With 80 salespeople in the field, they struggled with time-consuming searches for up-to-date materials and a lack of unified brand voice. This led to sales reps creating their own presentations, resulting in misaligned messaging and lost brand control.
To address these issues, BSH implemented Showell, a sales enablement platform, as their central content hub. This solution provided easy access to the latest materials, saving significant time for the sales team and allowing them to focus on selling rather than searching for information.
The platform also improved cooperation between marketing and sales teams by streamlining content delivery and encouraging feedback.
The results were transformative. Sales representatives reported increased confidence and reduced stress in customer meetings, knowing they had access to the most current and relevant content.
The marketing team gained better control over brand messaging and could track content usage through analytics. This data-driven approach allowed BSH to quickly adapt their onboarding process and understand which content resonated best with their audience.
By centralizing their sales collateral strategy, BSH Home Appliances not only improved their sales team's effectiveness but also set a new standard for internal tools and solutions.
As we've explored, impactful sales collateral is more than just well-designed documents—it's a strategic asset that can transform your sales process. From interactive product demos that bring your solutions to life, to data-driven ROI calculators that speak directly to your prospects' bottom line, each type of collateral we've discussed plays a crucial role in the modern buyer's journey.
Remember, the key to success lies not just in creating these materials, but in continuously refining them based on data and feedback. By embracing a data-driven, buyer-centric approach to your sales collateral, you can ensure that every piece of content is working hard to move prospects through your sales funnel.
Don't let another day go by with underperforming sales materials. Take the first step towards empowering your sales team and delighting your prospects. Try Showell Free today and see firsthand how the right sales enablement platform can transform your content management and boost your sales performance.
Or, if you'd like a personalized walk through of how Showell can address your specific needs, book a demo with us. Your journey to more effective, impactful sales collateral starts now!
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