Under our current messaging framework, this would read something like this: The true mark of an effective sales enablement strategy is growth. When your reps have the skills, tools, and content they need to effectively engage buyers, your business grows. In order to be successful, sales reps need engaging collateral to share with buyers at every stage of the buyer journey.
The collateral used depends on the unique needs of your reps and the buyers they interact with. Remember—buyers are people, and their decisions are not purely business-driven. So, earning their trust and speaking to them in a relatable way is crucial.
Sales enablement collateral can also take many forms depending on the needs of your sellers and the current stage of the buying process. To help you best choose the right type of content, we put together a list of sales collateral examples that sales enablement teams should source, create, and provide so sellers can close more deals.
Examples of sales collateral
Persona documents
Your sales organization sells to a variety of customers across different verticals and industries. Laying out detailed buyer personas prepares your team to help customers uncover and solve their problems. A persona document is a breakdown of a semi-fictional character that represents a typical customer. This helps sellers tailor buyer engagement based on the buyer’s specific background and attributes. This might include:
- General background
- Age
- Gender
- Role and responsibilities
- Industry
- Size of the company they work for
- Their decision-making power in their company
- Common tasks and responsibilities
Product documents
Product documents help salespeople understand exactly what they sell and outline specific benefits for buyers based on their pain points and challenges.
White papers
This type of sales collateral for sales enablement empowers reps to dive deep and address specific business challenges. It gives a greater understanding of an issue which, in turn, helps solve a problem or make a decision.
Case Studies
Case studies are valuable assets that demonstrate how other organizations achieved success using your product. Customer marketing teams produce these testimonials for sales reps to share with prospects as they consider your solution.
Internal success videos
Slightly different from case studies, internal success stories are short videos recorded by top reps that explain how they won specific deals so new hires can see what smart selling looks like.
Data sheets
These documents provide the specifications for your organization’s products. This includes a list of product features, including technical and nontechnical details, and explains them in simple, easy-to-understand language.
Buyer’s guides
These are great for the middle of the funnel as they help push prospective buyers closer to your product or service, while still providing useful information. Buyer’s guides help your seller act as a trusted advisor rather than an average salesperson.
Newsletters
Commonly sent as emails, newsletters are used to stay in touch with clients and keep them up-to-date on new features or products. Want to stand out? Try presenting your newsletter as interactive digital publications instead.
Sales scripts
Sales scripts are used by reps to enable more productive conversations with buyers. Having strategies in place for each stage of the sales cycle helps sellers to guide buyers throughout the purchasing journey.
Email templates and call scripts
Both of these sales enablement content types help sellers standardize how they engage buyers. They give uniformity to the communication and help sales reps build trust with customers and prospects.
Multimedia (videos or podcasts), customer stories, product demos, etc.
Used as external-facing assets for reps to share with prospects or internal assets meant for sales training, these include webinars, conference session video recordings, and podcasts.
Sales playbooks
This enablement collateral is a comprehensive, internal-facing guide that shows the most effective way for reps to sell and is often divided into separate playbooks for each sales stage.
Sales battlecards
Battlecards provide concise, actionable summaries of your product, the market, existing customers, the competition, and their job. They’re also a great way to equip your sales team with quick-fire responses to potential questions from customers.
Fact sheets
A fact sheet lists the technical specifications and features of your products in an understandable way. They provide prospective customers with a clear picture of what the product offers and what sets it apart from similar products in the market.
Pitch books
Well-constructed pitch books sell you and your company and offer visual reinforcement for your verbal message.
Investment proposals
The goal of this document is to motivate potential investors to enter into a mutually beneficial business relationship with a project. It helps investors:
- See the value of the project
- Understand the potential rewards
- Address and resolve concerns
Content for different stages of the buying journey
Because buyers embark on different journeys toward purchasing a product or service, there is room for personalized and unique content throughout the entire sales funnel. Here’s how teams can leverage internal and external content to move prospects from the awareness stage all the way to the advocacy stage.
- Awareness stage
Awareness is about making your brand known and attracting appropriate potential buyers. Prospects know that they have a challenge they need to overcome and start looking for products, services, and companies that can help them address their needs.
Key content: blog posts, articles, videos, press releases, infographics, social media
- Consideration stage
During this stage, buyers are debating options, considering pricing, researching vendors, and weighing the features and benefits. This stage is when you begin to build a relationship with your prospects as they recognize that they have a need and begin to explore solutions. They are also aware that your organization could help them solve their problem but are not yet ready to make a commitment.
Key content: whitepapers, ebooks, research reports, webinars
- Purchase stage
Prospects are ready to buy and are evaluating you and your competitors, but they need information that will help them make a decision and then feel confident that they made the right one. The decision and purchase are made so now it’s time for immediate action. Do not leave a void in between this phase and first contact. The customer needs to be acknowledged. Start your welcome messaging to kick off the journey with a great experience and a chance to move them into further phases.
Key content: product information, datasheets, testimonials, case studies, product reviews, ROI business cases, product demonstrations
- Retention stage
Gaining a new customer is not the end of your content marketing activities – don’t stop engaging. Retaining a customer is difficult, and this is where many will fall off the process if they’re not sufficiently supported. Constant communication is key to developing customer loyalty. Continue to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise and keep adding value to the relationship. It’s particularly important at this stage to provide educational content so that the customer can successfully onboard, incorporate your product into their workflow, and attain the maximum benefit from it.
Key content: FAQs, knowledge base, onboarding and user guides, user seminars or forums, product-focused articles, workshops, product updates, customer newsletters, engagement/satisfaction plans, activity-triggered emails
- Advocacy stage
If all the other phases are handled correctly, your customers will become fans, and fans will provide the best marketing you can get. When customers are happy and begin to share positive opinions about your organization or product, they become advocates. Their influence on the purchasing decisions of others should facilitate further sales. At this point recommendation and reward is a great boost to improve sales. At this stage, your content should promote trust, encourage two-way dialogue and communication, and build community.
Key content: promotions, loyalty programs, events, surveys, feedback opportunities
Boost your sales collateral with Seismic
Sales collateral is a valuable asset for boosting conversions and driving revenue growth. At Seismic, we understand the different types of sales content that sales needs to educate, engage, and convert buyers. Want to learn more? Check out our free guide: Creating Buyer-Focused Content That Helps Sales Win.
