A sales pitch deck is a concise presentation that effectively communicates an organization’s product or service value proposition, features, benefits, and proof points to potential customers. A pitch deck for sales typically consists of slides with appealing visuals and messaging that highlight buyer challenges and how the organization’s product or service solves those problems. The objective of the deck is to persuade and engage the audience during a sales conversation.  

What’s the difference between a pitch deck and a sales pitch? 

While “sales pitch deck” and “sales pitch” might appear to be synonymous, they carry distinct meanings. A sales pitch refers to the messaging or talk track that a sales professional uses to communicate value when engaging with a customer face-to-face, over the phone, or via email.  

A sales pitch deck is a visual tool used in a sales pitch that enables sellers to present a narrative and elaborate in greater detail about use cases, features, and customer stories. A B2B sales pitch deck  gives sellers the opportunity to ask questions and frame the conversation around the prospect’s unique needs.  

The purpose of a sales pitch deck 

The purpose of a sales pitch slide deck is to help a sales rep tell a compelling story that generates interest and a two-way dialogue with a potential customer. Creating a meaningful sales conversation helps the seller learn more about the buyer and convince them to continue down the path to purchase.  

What to include in a sales pitch deck outline 

A sales pitch deck typically includes information on the company’s problem-solving solution, product or services, market opportunity, competitive landscape, customer testimonials, pricing model, financial projections, team expertise, and a call to action. Done well, slides are made up of a combination of visuals — images, charts, or diagrams — and clear and simple language that make it easy for the audience to understand how your product and/or services will benefit them. When creating a sales pitch deck, consider an outline that includes the following types of slides: 

Problems and challenges

This slide introduces the pain points that your customer is facing and should include research that demonstrates your understanding of the industry and business landscape. Starting with the customer problem helps the seller adopt a consultative sales approach that builds trust.

Solution and value proposition

After acknowledging your customer’s challenges, it’s time to make the connection between your solution or service and how it can solve the problem. This is an opportunity to present a new way of thinking and to articulate your unique value proposition in a way that stands out from the competition.

Features and capabilities

This slide is an overview of the key features and capabilities that your solution provides. Pairing this information with benefit statements makes these slides relevant to your audience while helping them understand how these capabilities will address their needs.

Demo

Questions and discussion about the product and services often lead to a short demonstration (demo) of what your product offers. Seeing your solution live helps the seller highlight unique features and capabilities and translate them into tangible business benefits.

Customer testimonial

Sharing a few customer stories that align with the prospect’s industry or size is a great way to show proof of success and provide the right context to help buyers envision using your product or service.

Pricing and services

After generating excitement about your product or service, it’s important to clearly explain your pricing and what’s included. It should be easy for your audience to understand how they can purchase your product and/or service offerings and the value it could bring to their organization.

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Best practices that inspire the perfect pitch 

To deliver a compelling story that will convince your buyers, your sellers must be well-versed in your product and knowledgeable about the challenges their buyer faces. To effectively communicate your value proposition, a sales pitch deck needs to include the essential elements noted in the section above and must be organized in a way that engages your audience.  

Sales pitch deck examples will differ between organizations. But, there are sales deck outlines and recommendations around length and flow that nearly every seller can benefit from. Read on for tips to create the best sales deck for your team. 

The 10-20-30 rule 

When composing a sales pitch deck, it can be challenging to distill your value proposition and product details into just a few slides. While it’s easy to get carried away — you are passionate about your organization, after all — the 10-20-30 rule advises limiting pitch decks to 10 slides, keeping presentations under 20 minutes, and using a minimum font size of 30 points. Shorter presentations with clear, readable slides help the audience maintain focus and understand your messaging without getting overwhelmed. 

How to organize a sales pitch deck 

To tell a compelling story, it’s important to build a narrative that draws in your audience. Organize a sales pitch deck by starting with an attention-grabbing introduction, followed by slides outlining the problem, solution, product features, market opportunity, competitive analysis, customer testimonials, pricing, financial projections, team expertise, and a compelling call to action. Maintain a clear flow between slides and keep content concise for maximum impact. 

How to end a sales deck 

End a sales pitch deck with a strong and memorable conclusion that summarizes key points, reinforces the value proposition, and highlights the call to action. Solicit feedback by inviting questions and asking about the buyer’s timeline to determine next steps. Express gratitude, leaving the audience with an impression that motivates them to continue along the buyer journey. Be sure to follow up promptly after the presentation with a copy of the deck and other collateral that is relevant to the discussion.  

Nail your next sales pitch deck with Seismic 

Creating personalized presentations at scale doesn’t have to be time-consuming. The Seismic Enablement Cloud^TM provides content automation and personalization tools that enable reps to easily find, customize, and share personalized sales pitch decks, helping them create effective presentations in a fraction of the time. Our modern content personalization capabilities give sellers autonomy to tailor sales pitch decks without sacrificing consistency and important branding elements, enabling them to build the right slides for the right client, every time: 

• Guided Assembly: Create workflows that guide sellers to build personalized content for every client conversation. Sellers can input details of a deal, such as a customer’s industry and the products they want to pitch, to automatically generate a deck using pre-selected, approved content. 
• Seismic for PowerPoint and Google Slides: Through plug-ins, sellers can pull in content, data, images, and mix-and-match slides without leaving PowerPoint or Google Slides. Our plug-ins give sellers access to templates and slides from proven sales pitch decks, speeding up the creation process and ensuring they work within your system instead of using old files on their desktop. 

Ready to nail your next sales pitch deck? Reach out to us for a demo.  

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What is an AI sales assistant? 

An AI sales assistant is a software application that utilizes AI technologies like machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to support and improve the sales process. AI for sales assists sellers with various tasks, enhances their day-to-day activities, and streamlines workflows. AI sales software relies on ML algorithms, predictive analytics, and generative AI to provide data-driven insights, automate tasks and workflows, and improve overall efficiency in the sales cycle.

How to use AI for sales 

When considering how to use AI in sales efforts, the possibilities may seem overwhelming. To get started, focus on your most critical workflows and then expand your use cases over time. How AI is used in sales will vary by organization, but the following examples are common uses to consider. 

Analyze large datasets

Stronger and faster than a human brain, an AI sales assistant can analyze vast amounts of data from several sources, such as CRM systems, marketing databases, web analytics, and customer interactions, helping sellers quickly make informed decisions. These insights can be used to improve the accuracy of sales forecasts, track performance, segment customers, and understand the competition — all without the need for manual work.

Uncover patterns

By analyzing large datasets, sellers can easily uncover patterns and apply those learnings to refine sales strategies. These actionable insights, once previously impossible or too complex to decipher, are key examples of how AI can help in sales and optimize strategies to increase revenue.

Automate mundane tasks

Every organization wants to give sales reps more time to focus on high-value activities that contribute to customer satisfaction and drive growth. AI tools for sales can automate mundane tasks like sending follow-up emails based on predefined templates and triggers and generating sales forecasts using predictive analytics and historical data, saving time and improving efficiency.

Answer customer questions

Finding an answer can be time-consuming and, despite best efforts, the result may still be false or inaccurate. But with an AI sales assistant, tracking down the answer to a customer question is considerably easier. Sales reps can find the right information and approved customer-facing resources fast, helping them provide accurate and personalized customer service.

Get content recommendations

Surface content recommendations for go-to-market (GTM) teams by integrating an AI sales assistant with your sales content management system. AI technology can provide contextual recommendations based on the buyer information and sales stage, enabling personalized customer interactions and higher customer satisfaction.

Analyze conversations

Turn daily customer conversations into valuable insights. AI assistants can transcribe and analyze conversations to generate summaries, key takeaways, and customer sentiment, providing sales reps and leaders with the intelligence needed to optimize strategies and improve the customer experience.

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Examples of AI sales tools 

Seismic recently surveyed 1,400 leaders in sales, enablement, and customer success across the globe to find out how fundamental AI technology is to their GTM efforts. A whopping 93% of enablement tech users say AI is driving their future investments, and 91% say AI improves agility and speed to market. What’s clear is that global GTM leaders believe that investing in AI sales tools will positively impact business outcomes and bolster their future success.  

By now, you may be wondering, “Where do I begin?” Once you decide how you’ll use AI in your GTM motions, it’s critical to select the AI tools for sales that will support your unique needs. While there is no magic formula for choosing the best AI tools for sales, the following are examples of tools that support distinct phases of the sales process: 

• Chatbots and virtual assistants: Through a web chat interface, chatbots use machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to engage in conversations with customers in real-time, answering questions, qualifying leads, and helping them progress along the customer journey. Virtual assistants, powered by NLP, support business activities like scheduling meetings and setting reminders. A popular AI sales bot is ChatGPT, and well-known virtual assistants include Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri.  
• Predictive analytics and lead scoring: Using AI for sales prospecting is becoming increasingly popular. Predictive lead scoring technologies like MadKudu, OutFunnel, and 6sense use AI to provide accurate predictions of which leads have a high probability of converting, helping sales reps prioritize leads and focus on the most promising accounts. The software assigns a score by analyzing historical data, considering many factors, including buyer behavior, demographics, and engagement levels. By pursuing high-quality leads, organizations can experience higher conversion rates and increase revenue. 
• Sales engagement platforms: Platforms like Salesloft, Microsoft Sales Copilot, and Outreach Sales Execution serve as a hub for sales activities like email outreach and phone calls, in addition to deal workflows. These tools help sellers determine which prospects to interact with, the optimal timing for engagement, and what to say, all while capturing and tracking sales activities. 
• Conversational intelligence: A conversational intelligence platform uses AI and machine learning to capture voice and text data and combine it with sentiment analysis to help organizations better understand customer interactions. As noted in the section above, organizations can use this technology to transcribe and analyze customer interactions such as emails, calls, and chats, helping sellers improve communication skills, understand customer needs, anticipate concerns, and address them preemptively. Leading vendors in the conversational AI for sales market include Gong, IBM, Microsoft, Google, and AWS. 
• Sales forecasting: Sales forecasting tools use AI algorithms to analyze relevant information like sales data and trends to accurately predict pipeline volume and forecast the likelihood of closing. This helps organizations project revenue, understand pipeline health, and identify opportunities and risk, providing the intelligence to refine strategies and achieve targets. Examples of sales forecasting tools include Salesforce, Clari, and Zendesk. 

How Seismic’s platform leverages AI sales tools 

Using an AI sales assistant has quickly evolved from a trend to a new way of doing business that is transforming the entire sales process. Many use cases and technologies are available to help organizations improve sales motions, with seemingly small changes yielding big results.    

As an early adopter of AI, Seismic began leveraging AI in 2015 to help GTM teams maximize their potential. Over the years, our platform has continued to adapt, providing sellers with support ranging from contextual information and just-in-time intelligence to AI-generated lessons, meeting preparation, and support on mundane tasks. The recent introduction of Seismic Aura in 2021 and Seismic for Meetings and Seismic for Microsoft Sales Copilot in 2023 demonstrates our commitment to innovation in AI-powered enablement.  

• Seismic Aura is the engine that powers the AI features in the Seismic Enablement Cloud. Seismic Aura analyzes large and complex data sets, giving sellers insights and context-driven recommendations that are personalized for every opportunity. 
• Seismic for Meetings centralizes meeting activities, enabling sellers to personalize content, present, and follow up with prospects and customers all in one tool. The platform uses AI to generate post-meeting summaries, suggest relevant materials to share after the meeting, and provide valuable analytics for sellers and managers on content usage, sales behaviors, and emerging conversation themes.  
• Seismic for Microsoft Sales Copilot helps organizations streamline workflows and provides sellers with contextual information such as content and training recommendations within the Microsoft tools they already use daily.  

Regardless of where you are in your journey with AI technology, Seismic is here to help. If you’d like to learn more about AI sales tools in enablement, please request a demo. 

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The role of sales documents in the sales process

Sales documents play a critical role throughout the sales process. Done right, they not only provide essential information about a product or service but also address a potential buyer’s specific concerns, offering tangible evidence of the benefits that can be expected from the proposed solution. Aligning sales documents with each stage of the buyer’s journey establishes trust and confidence, ultimately increasing the likelihood that a prospect will convert to a sale.

To better understand the role sales documents play in the sales process, consider a scenario in which a technology company is trying to secure a deal with a potential client in the healthcare industry. The client needs a software solution that can streamline data management and improve operational efficiencies. 

In this context, a well-crafted case study can be highly effective. In an ideal world, this case study would feature a current customer who faced similar challenges to the potential buyer. It would also include details about how the technology company’s software was successfully implemented, the specific problems addressed, and the positive outcomes achieved. 

This example illustrates just one of the many uses of sales documents. Incorporating a case study and other relevant sales documents at key points in the sales cycle significantly enhances a seller’s ability to connect with prospects and demonstrate the practical value of their solution. Ultimately, this leads to faster deal cycles and increased win rates.

The connection between enablement and sales documents

Because sales documents are so vital for winning deals, sellers need easy access to them. That’s where sales enablement comes in. Sales enablement centralizes sales documents, ensuring that the latest, most relevant resources are at sellers’ fingertips. That way, sales reps don’t have to waste time searching for the right assets or worrying about which version is the most up-to-date — approved materials are quickly discoverable and ready to use. 

In addition to organization and accessibility, sales documents must be customized according to each buyer’s unique needs, challenges, and objections. Sales enablement tools help sellers tailor their pitches to each buyer, contributing to a positive customer experience. Prebuilt templates with approved messaging and customization options enable sellers to quickly personalize presentations for maximum impact.

Today’s sales enablement tools also provide organizations with the insights and data needed to understand content effectiveness. Robust analytics assist enablement leaders in tracking internal content usage while helping frontline teams identify buyer preferences. 

In a nutshell, sales enablement empowers sellers to use sales resources strategically and enhance their effectiveness. It optimizes the entire document lifecycle from discovery to delivery and unlocks the full potential of your sales team to connect, convince, and close deals.

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Best practices for sales documents

Sales documents can vary widely in performance. The most effective ones are well-crafted, compelling, and delivered at the right time. For guidance, here are five best practices to keep top of mind as you prep sales documents and fine-tune your sales documentation process:

Tailor sales documents

Customizing sales documents to resonate with each prospect’s needs, challenges, and interests is essential. First, gather insights into specific pain points, industry trends, and preferences. Then, personalize the content to demonstrate that you understand their business and how your product or service will address their unique challenges.

Map documents to the buyer’s journey

A well-stocked sales document repository has resources that align with each stage of the buyer’s journey (awareness, consideration, decision). Recognize where your prospects are in the sales funnel and use your sales documents accordingly, anticipating common objections at each stage.

Use interactive content

While multimedia elements such as videos and infographics make your sales documents visually appealing, interactive content is even more engaging and memorable. For example, interactive quizzes or assessments offer prospects insights into their needs or challenges. The answers provided can also be used to improve customization.

Track and measure effectiveness

Analytics tools demystify how prospects are interacting with your sales documents. You can monitor a wide range of metrics, including time spent on each page, click-through rates, and document downloads. Feedback like this will help you identify which elements are most effective, as well as those that could be improved.

Leverage a sales enablement tool

Implementing a sales enablement platform to centralize all your sales documents ensures that your sales team has easy access to the latest and most relevant materials. Sales enablement streamlines the distribution process and maintains version control to ensure that everyone is aligned and using the most up-to-date materials.

Incorporating these best practices into the preparation of sales documents and your sales documentation process can enhance the effectiveness of your sales strategy overall, helping your teams achieve growth.

Deliver the right sales docs at the right time

At Seismic, we make it easy for clients to organize a central hub for sales documents for quicker discovery, personalization, distribution, and tracking. Our sales enablement solution ensures sellers are equipped with the knowledge and resources needed to deliver the right sales documents at the right time. To learn more, check out Seismic in action by watching these short, led-by-you demos that address common sales challenges.

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Sales coaching is a way to mentor and guide sales reps toward success. It involves using a detailed, customized approach to improve sales techniques, strategies, and interpersonal skills, and it directs all of these efforts toward measurable objectives that are aligned with the overall sales goals of the organization.

Just as coaching in the world of sports elevates athletic performance, formalized sales coaching programs empower individual sellers to excel in their roles. Because they provide specialized guidance, instruction, and inspiration, sales coaches can revolutionize the way a sales team operates.

The difference between sales training and coaching

Successful organizations provide both sales training programs and sales coaching to their sellers. While these two practices may sound similar, each one has a different focus. 

Sales training supplies the foundational knowledge and skills your reps need to start selling. This firehose of information creates an immediate impact; however, that impact typically diminishes over time, especially if there is no reinforcement or ongoing support. That’s where sales coaching comes in. 

Sales coaching is the continuous, personalized support that helps sellers apply sales training and knowledge effectively in real-world scenarios. It utilizes highly individualized coaching content that focuses on the unique strengths, weaknesses, and development areas of each sales rep. Since the goal of sales coaching is continuous improvement and skill refinement over time, its impact is transformational and long-lasting. 

The difference between sales training and coaching is subtle but important. For B2B companies, a combination of both B2B sales training and sales coaching is usually the most effective approach for driving sustained sales success. 

The importance of sales coaching 

In today’s competitive business landscape, sales coaching is quickly becoming a strategic imperative for sales success. Effective sales coaching equips sellers with the skills and know-how to navigate complex buyer journeys, meet elevated customer demands, and close deals quickly. One of the main reasons sales coaching is so powerful is that it bridges skill gaps in the workforce, helping ensure that seasoned sellers stay on top of their game while also enabling new sellers to ramp quickly.

The importance of sales coaching is well understood. In fact, in our 2023 Value of Enablement Report the majority of respondents said that additional coaching would help them meet goals (88%) and close more deals (84%). However, many organizations are leaving benefits like these on the table — 45% of those we polled said they don’t offer sales coaching at all.

Let’s dive in and learn how to create a sales coaching program so that your organization can start taking advantage of this significant competitive differentiator.

How to build a sales coaching program 

Creating a well-structured sales coaching program isn’t difficult, but it does require careful planning and execution. The key is to take a methodical approach, completing each stage thoroughly and in the proper order. Here are the eight essential steps to follow when building a sales coaching program: 

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The value of using sales coaching software

Sales coaches need specific coaching tools to do their jobs properly. These days, one of the most essential components in the sales coaching toolkit is sales coaching software. 

When evaluating sales coaching software for your program, weigh your options carefully. Be sure to choose a tool that can provide:

• Customization: Since each sales rep has a unique combination of strengths and weaknesses, you need to be able to deliver individualized coaching plans and training.
• Real-time feedback: In today’s highly competitive sales marketplace, it’s essential for sellers to get real-time feedback about their efforts. This enables them to appropriately shift their behaviors and course correct on priorities.
• Practice opportunities: Sales reps need a risk-free space to practice scenarios and apply the skills they’re learning.
• Tracking progress over time: Continuous improvement is one of the hallmarks of sales coaching. That means every member of the sales team needs to have the capability to easily identify areas where they excel, as well as areas where they need to improve.
• Data-driven insights: Advanced analytics about customer interactions and sales performance enable sellers and their teams to refine strategies, identify trends, and make data-informed decisions. These insights also help track the ROI of coaching efforts over time.
• Consistent coaching: To be effective, sales coaching programs have to be adaptable for on-site, hybrid, or remote coaching sessions.

The impact of AI on sales coaching 

The best sales coaching programs also leverage artificial intelligence (AI) for a range of capabilities that enhance sales skills training and drive greater coaching effectiveness. For instance, AI can analyze individual learning styles, strengths, and weaknesses to provide targeted guidance, deliver instant, real-time feedback during training or practice sessions, and even predict future performance based on historical data, helping coaches anticipate challenges and design proactive strategies. 

Many organizations are already implementing AI to facilitate more efficient and effective coaching experiences. Our recent State of AI in Enablement Report found that 53% of respondents are using enablement technology for learning/coaching and 45% are leveraging AI in learning/coaching. In addition, of those who said their companies plan to make further investments in enablement technology, a whopping 93% said advancements in AI are driving those investments.

Coach sellers faster with Seismic

In today’s dynamic business environment, where buyer expectations are high and competition is fierce, sales coaching serves as a critical tool that helps sales teams drive sustainable revenue growth. Are you ready to start empowering your sales reps to reach their greatest potential? Seismic Learning gives reps the resources to ramp quickly, stay up-to-speed on messaging, and receive personalized coaching at scale.

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Conversational intelligence tools track and review customer interactions, allowing customer-facing teams to form a deeper understanding of their conversations with prospects. Conversation intelligence software can record, transcribe, and analyze phone calls, social media conversations, email exchanges, SMS, and more. By capturing data in real time, these tools provide invaluable feedback that sheds light on how to improve customer engagement and sales outcomes.

How does Conversational Intelligence work?

A conversational intelligence platform uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to record voice and text data and combine it with sentiment analysis to understand emotional intent. Using these powerful technologies, conversational intelligence technology can recognize patterns and then predict current and future buyer needs. It also offers recommendations to reps that they can use to drive intelligent conversations — effective communication that increases the value of prospect interactions. The marketplace is taking note of this powerful new tool: according to MarketsandMarkets, the conversational AI market is predicted to reach over $12 billion by 2026. 

Let’s look at a few of the key features of conversational AI software:

1. Call recording: The ability to capture interactions and transcribe them to create a record of every transaction is a central feature of conversational intelligence. Beyond just providing reps with a clear reference for each conversation (and the key points that came up), this supports training and coaching initiatives, enabling managers to review past interactions and coach reps on improvement.
2. Transcription: Conversational intelligence software can transcribe audio into text instantly, making it easier to review conversations, search for critical messaging, and even share with others for feedback. These transcriptions also serve as valuable resources for performance reviews and training, because they provide a tangible record that a manager can refer to when assessing strengths and weaknesses.
3. Real-time analysis: The technology also works to collect helpful data points, analyzing language patterns, keyword usage, and conversation pacing to offer a comprehensive view of the interaction. In addition to analyzing calls after they happen, some tools even provide real-time insights, identifying emotions like confusion or hesitancy that the sales rep could address in the moment.

Ready to dig in? See G2’s list of top conversational intelligence software providers to get more information about different options available. 

Why is Conversational Intelligence important?

Today’s buyers crave genuine interactions. It’s not just about making a quick sale or answering a question; they want to feel heard and understood. For reps, this means a fundamental shift from transactional interactions toward genuine relationship-building. To do this effectively, sellers need more than just good instincts — they need conversational intelligence.

To remain competitive, customer-facing teams can’t afford to overlook conversational intelligence. Gartner predicts that advanced analytics will become common and top sales organizations will leverage data from buyer interactions to build winning engagement models. 

Conversational intelligence drives modern selling by taking away a lot of guesswork. By focusing on customer-facing interactions, organizations may experience the following benefits: 

Deep insights

Conversational intelligence pulls out actionable information from past conversations, shedding light on buyer sentiments and needs. This makes it easier for teams to craft outreach (and tweak their approaches) for each individual prospect.

Continuous learning

By pinpointing areas of improvement, these tools help reps become more effective throughout the various stages of the sales cycle .With data at their fingertips on what has worked in the past — not just for them, but for other reps as well — they can quickly upskill and grow their contribution to the team.

Replace intuition with data

With only a gut feeling to go by, understanding why a customer chose to go with a competitor can be challenging. Conversational intelligence provides real data that can help inform more accurate learnings about successful and failed deals.

Predictive selling

Instead of being reactive, teams can be proactive, as conversational intelligence tools help uncover customer needs (even before they are voiced by the customer). This foresight allows sales teams to anticipate concerns and address them preemptively, streamlining the sales process.

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How to use Conversational AI

Every conversation holds clues to better performance and, ultimately, more closed deals. Conversational intelligence allows reps and go-to-market (GTM) leaders to tap into these interactions regularly, with a clear roadmap to optimize strategies and improve overall team performance. 

Here’s a look at some of the use cases for conversational intelligence among sales teams:

Review interactions at scale

From managing team performance to organizational reporting, sales managers are exceptionally busy, leaving little time to review calls between reps and their prospects. Auto-generated summaries help managers easily identify key phrases, messaging, and content that were used in meetings. This enables managers to review many interactions quickly and get a clear picture of team performance without lengthy individual reviews. 

Update sales methodology

What worked yesterday might not work today. By tapping into conversational intelligence, leaders can identify what drives positive outcomes and what doesn’t. They can use this to regularly update playbooks and enablement strategies based on real, solid data. 

Improve and reinforce training

Every team has its strengths and gaps. With insights pulled from call data, leaders can see where the team could use more education or support. Whether it’s a product refresher or mastering a sales approach, managers will know precisely where to target training. 

Deliver personalized coaching 

84% of leaders told Seismic that more training, coaching, or upskilling could help them close more deals. Conversation intelligence helps managers pinpoint the strengths and areas of growth for each rep, allowing for tailored coaching that makes a meaningful impact. 

Replicate success across the team

Got a team member who’s knocking it out of the park? With conversational intelligence, you can spotlight the tactics or habits that high performers use and share them with the entire team. This collaborative approach not only celebrates success but also creates a culture of shared growth and learning — and that can improve retention down the road. 

Gauge the effectiveness of content and messaging

It’s not just about clicks or downloads — it’s about the people. With a closer look at buyer preferences and behaviors through conversational intelligence, teams can understand what customers really want and like. By tracking specific keywords, topics, and questions, marketing teams have end-to-end visibility into the performance of their content and messaging and the insights to iterate and improve.

Empower effective engagement with Seismic

Conversational intelligence is just one of the many AI innovations that are transforming the enablement space. Seismic’s generative AI capabilities accelerate every aspect of go-to-market activities so customer-facing teams can move faster, engage effectively, and close more deals. Learn how The Seismic Enablement Cloud^TM incorporates AI to help teams deliver smarter content, proactive enablement, and focused training and coaching. Or, get a demo to see AI in action.

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Employee advocacy is the practice of internal employees genuinely and organically endorsing their employer’s products, services, or brand.

Here are three employee advocacy examples to illustrate what we mean:

• An Apple employee raves to their friends about the latest iOS accessibility features. 
• A Starbucks barista posts funny TikToks every few days about his love for their lattes. 
• A Morgan Stanley banker tells her LinkedIn network about how the bank accelerated her career for the better. 

Anything kind that employees publicly say about their employers is considered employee advocacy. Social media is a hotbed for advocacy — and savvy businesses are catching on to that.

Today, buyers almost always do their own research via online channels before they ever chat with a salesperson. They look at what current customers and employees are saying about the vendors and brands they’re considering. They look at how active everyone is in their industry’s community. They watch for authentic, trustworthy behavior, specifically on social media.

Which begs this question: How can small businesses and global enterprises alike show up excellently on social media for their buyers?

The answer is simple: an employee advocacy program. 

What is an employee advocacy program?

An employee advocacy program is simply the formalization of the ad-hoc, organic endorsement employees make about their employers’ products, services, or brands.

While employees can, of course, be solo advocates for their organization, forward-thinking organizations are creating more formal employee advocacy programs because there’s strength (and sales) in numbers. 

To be clear, ad-hoc advocacy is still fair game and welcomed by most brands — but sanctioned employee advocacy programs put the tools, resources, prompts, and enablement right into the hands of employees who may need a bit more assistance to pull together a strong social media advocacy post.

Here’s one important caveat before we go any further: advocacy programs should never feel like another form of advertising. Buyers can sniff out sneaky self- or business-promotion from a mile away. Instead, great employee advocacy programs exist to align employees and give them tons of fodder and support in building authentic and trusted relationships with their networks at scale.

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Benefits of employee advocacy

Based on logic and intuition alone, you probably can guess that employee advocacy programs impact the bottom line. But the extent of that bottom-line impact? That might surprise you. 

The Hinge Research Group released a report on the impact of social media-based advocacy programs on 500+ businesses, and the results are fascinating: 

• 45% of companies attribute new revenue streams to employee advocacy
• 32% of respondents now see better search engine rankings
• 17% have actually decreased their marketing spend with an advocacy program

But the benefits go beyond the bottom line. Hit “play” to hear Steve Watt, Seismic’s Director of Market Insights and social selling expert, share why employee advocacy on social media has to be more than just a marketing function because there are benefits for both broader company and individual employees.

Benefits for the company

Drive sales and marketing outcomes: When employees organically share about their work and life experiences and name-drop your brand every once in a while, buyers see authenticity and approachability. This almost always increases inbound sales and makes it so your other marketing functions — like your website or ads — are amplified because people know your company.

Increase brand awareness and reputation at scale: This goes hand-in-hand with marketing outcomes. Employee advocacy is one of the best ways to enhance and solidify your reputation in the market. But for this to happen, employee advocacy really has to be a team sport, not just an internal marketing function. To show up in a way that’s more captivating and engaging than your competitors, you’ll need client-facing folks (think sales and CS), as well as executives actively involved. 

Improves employee engagement and performance: Employee advocacy on social media builds morale in a way that few other initiatives can. In fact, 69% of employees from the survey we cited earlier said that social media has actually helped them in their careers — in large part thanks to employee advocacy. As Steve also points out, employee advocacy is a top talent magnet. Candidates love to see happy employees rave about their experiences.

Benefits for employees

The benefits don’t stop just with employers. Check out these three ways formal advocacy programs enhance the employee experience as well.

Creates an easy-to-follow roadmap for success: Lots of employees would love to have a more active, vibrant social presence — but it’s hard to know where to start. By providing recommended prompts, articles, and industry expertise for them to customize and share, you’re enabling them to take that leap. 

Establishes credibility and thought leadership in the market: Steve says it best: “When people, specifically executives show up on social, they create categories, they can build their reputations as well as their company’s reputation. They can pull the world towards them like never before.”

Provides networking opportunities: Our world is more digitally connected than ever before, and starting (or joining) conversations on LinkedIn opens up the door for more connections with people in your industry who share your same professional values and interests. Just look at how many “LinkedIn helped me get this job” labels live in people’s current and past role descriptions. Social media scales the number of people you can interact with each day for the better.

Tips for launching an employee advocacy program

Creating a successful employee advocacy program takes a lot of intentionality and planning. If you’re considering building or bolstering one for your organization, follow this five-step roadmap to get organized and bring it to life faster.

Employee advocacy best practices

It’s completely normal for advocacy program leaders to face challenges in the months following the launch of their programs. Thankfully, some of the main culprits — selectively engaged employees, repetitive content recommendations, and engagement drop-offs — are nothing Steve hasn’t seen before. Listen to how he’s overcome these challenges with the following best practices to rebuild a more successful, longer-lasting program.

Provide adequate training

Employees can’t just be expected to succeed without any training or enablement on social media best practices. As you roll out your advocacy program, be sure to offer self-service learning options for employees and a few live training sessions for folks who prefer a more hands-on demo.

Incentivize participation

At first, you may need to sell the value of your employee advocacy program internally. Some leaders and employees don’t understand what’s in it for them or the business impact of them posting. It’s on you to not only explain those individual and company benefits to incentivize participation, but to encourage participation with giveaways, prizes, and even monetary rewards for active participation if possible.

Lead by example

The best employee advocacy programs leverage internal experts who encourage other teammates to use social media. Encourage your experts — especially executives and top-level leadership — to share their opinions, stories, and advice to drive buy-in and excitement across the team. Leading from the top makes all the difference in a successful program rollout.

Focus on educational content

All too often, companies just push their own promotional content, which doesn’t drive results and honestly feels spam-y to buyers who stumble across your posts. Instead, encourage and enable your employees to share educational, thought leadership content that’s relevant to their network. The less it’s about your organization and company, the better. Buyers will do their own research and quickly figure out who the most helpful people in their network work for.

How to measure the success of your employee advocacy strategy

If step one is launching an employee advocacy program, step two is effectively measuring it and understanding its success. Here are five different key performance indicators (KPIs) we recommend monitoring every month to make sure your program is active and successful:

1. Adoption rate: What percentage of employees are bought in and have made a post?
2. Active participation: What percentage of invited employees are repeat, active posters? 
3. Reach, engagement, and impressions: How many people are consuming employee-driven content? 
4. Impact on revenue: What revenue can be partially or fully attributed to employee advocacy efforts?
5. Growth of followers: How much has your organization’s followership grown? How about individual followership of your most active employee advocates?

One final note: Don’t forget to set goals and measure these metrics against your program’s original targets. Otherwise, you’re just gathering data for data gathering’s sake. Many people who are standing up employee advocacy programs on social media will capture key stats (followers, reach, engagement, impressions, and revenue impact) prior to rolling out their programs so they can paint a clear before-and-after picture.

Enable everyone to be an employee advocate with Seismic LiveSocial

Interested in starting your own advocacy program or bolstering your existing one? Seismic’s LiveSocial tool is an employee advocacy platform you’ll love.

Hundreds of leaders use LiveSocial (even our internal team here at Seismic!) to implement and launch successful social media-based employee advocacy programs. The results are more informed buyers, shorter deal cycles, and higher win rates. To see what we mean, check out this two-minute video about the impact of engaging with buyers on digital channels like social.

The post How to create an employee advocacy program on social media appeared first on Seismic.

A sales technology stack is a collection of software tools, technology, and platforms that’s designed to streamline and enhance the sales process. The B2B sales tech stack empowers go-to-market (GTM) teams with the capabilities needed to efficiently manage leads, engage with prospects and customers, track and measure interactions, and drive revenue growth. 

While sales stack tools have different functions to support the entire buying cycle, they must be strategically integrated to ensure success. Integrated sales tech stacks optimize the sales process, increase efficiency, and provide a seamless experience for sellers and customers.

Understanding the sales tech landscape

Research from McKinsey reveals that COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation within sales teams, compressing what would have been several years of technological adoption into months. Teams abruptly shifted away from traditional sales techniques centered around in-person interactions to embrace new digital selling strategies and tools to effectively engage with customers across digital channels. 

While digitalization has many benefits, it’s common for some investments to go unused. A study by Nexthink estimates that organizations around the world waste more than $44 million per month on unused software licenses. Salesforce’s State of the Sales Report cites that 66% of sales reps say they’re drowning in tools and that sales teams rely on approximately 10 tools to perform their job. What’s more, employees often use multiple applications for the same task or purpose. Having multiple tools that do the same thing causes confusion and misalignment on teams. To reduce redundancies and costs, organizations need to determine which tools are most effective and optimize their sales software stack to achieve the ultimate goal: more sales. To resolve this issue, many organizations are taking steps to improve their sales tech stack. In fact, Salesforce found that 94% of sales organizations plan to consolidate their tech stack within the next 12 months.

Examples of common sales stack tools

Choosing the best sales tech for your organization can be a daunting task for a number of reasons, such as the need to integrate diverse technologies, align with various team preferences, and address legacy systems. 

As a starting point, consider your existing sales processes to identify the most essential tools for salespeople at your organization. Just as no two sales teams are identical, every organization’s tech stack needs will also look a little different. Let’s take a look some some of the more common types of tools in the sales tech stack:

1. Account and contact management software focuses on managing individual contacts and accounts and is particularly useful for sellers who need to track interactions, manage follow-ups, and stay updated on account-specific details. While some features may overlap with a CRM (see below), it does not support the full customer lifecycle. 
2. Sales content management software (CMS) stores marketing and sales collateral in one place, helping GTM teams collaborate, automate processes, and manage approved assets. A sales CMS also surfaces relevant content for sellers and enables them to personalize collateral for their customers. 
3. Conversational intelligence (CI) software uses AI to capture, analyze, and provide insights into sales conversations, whether they occur over the phone, through video calls, or in written messages such as email and chat. CI software can also identify keywords and topics of conversation, making it easy for leaders and sellers to understand the salient points of the call. This gives GTM leaders the right intelligence to make strategic business decisions, coach sellers, and forecast deals. 
4. Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a platform for managing all customer interactions and relationships, providing a holistic view of the customer lifecycle. It includes account and contact management but goes beyond by offering functionalities like sales automation, lead tracking, opportunity management, pipeline forecasting, and customer service management. 
5. Sales engagement software is designed to streamline and optimize the entire sales process, from prospecting and outreach to closing deals and nurturing customer relationships. It offers a centralized platform with functionality that enables multichannel communication, personalized messaging, lead prioritization, activity tracking, and analytics and reporting. 
6. Sales forecasting software uses historical data and predictive algorithms to forecast future sales trends and help organizations make informed strategic decisions. The software integrates with various data sources to create a comprehensive dataset for analysis and uses various forecasting models — such as time-series analysis, moving averages, exponential smoothing, and regression analysis —  to predict future sales revenue accurately.
7. Training and coaching tools provide learning programs that are quick and easy to consume, helping sellers onboard and access continuous training on the latest sales techniques, company product updates, and business trends. Training, coupled with real-life scenario-based practice gives reps the personalized coaching needed to improve their skills and reach their goals.  

Stack the Tech in your Favor

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Benefits of a robust tech stack

A robust sales tech stack brings a host of advantages that help modern sales teams thrive in a dynamic marketplace. Here are some of the key benefits organizations experience:

Streamlined communication

By integrating various tools like email, messaging, and video conferencing into a single platform, a sales tech stack provides GTM teams with a unified hub for communication and collaboration. This minimizes the need to switch between different applications, saving time and improving responsiveness and engagement.

Improved efficiency

A sales tech stack centralizes data, optimizes sales workflows, and eliminates manual tasks with automation, resulting in higher productivity and better time management. Sales stack tools deliver actionable insights and automated reporting, helping you improve sales forecasting and focus on strategic activities that drive revenue growth.

Optimized sales process

Many sales tech stacks offer customizable workflows that align with your organization’s sales process. This ensures that every lead goes through a consistent and optimized journey, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates, increased revenue, and improved customer satisfaction.

Reduce costs

By optimizing sales processes, improving productivity, and leveraging data-driven insights, a robust sales tech stack contributes to lower costs across the entire sales cycle. It enables your organization to achieve its sales goals while maximizing the efficiency of technology and people resources.

Considerations for building a sales tech stack

Building the right sales tech stack is a process that will have a far-reaching impact on your sales operations, productivity, and bottom line. With so many categories of tools to choose from, there are several factors to consider when building out your sales tech stack:

1. How will these tools help the organization achieve key business goals and outcomes?
   Every tool you add to your tech stack should align with specific business objectives and outcomes. Consider whether the tool enhances efficiency, improves customer experience, increases revenue, or addresses other critical goals. Clearly defining how each tool contributes to your organization’s success ensures you’re investing in solutions that yield tangible results.
   
2. Does the tool integrate and work together with other tools in the tech stack? 
   Integration is crucial for a cohesive tech stack. Tools that seamlessly work together minimize manual data entry and errors. An integrated tech stack also provides a holistic view of customer interactions and streamlines workflows, ultimately improving efficiency and enabling better decision-making.
   
3. How much manual work goes into setting up and managing the tool?
   The ease of implementation and ongoing management is a significant factor. Tools that demand extensive manual setup and constant maintenance from IT and GTM teams consume valuable time that could be better spent elsewhere. Opt for tools with intuitive interfaces and automation features that minimize manual effort.
   
4. Does this tool support current business as well as future change and growth?
   A tool that suits your current needs might not be suitable as your business scales or undergoes changes. Choose tools that can accommodate future growth, new processes, and changing market dynamics. This helps your organization avoid having to switch tools frequently, which can disrupt operations.

Unify your tech stack with Seismic

As the global leader in enablement, Seismic helps sales teams unify tools by integrating with and extending the value of so many popular platforms, including CRM systems, content repositories, email platforms, data sources, and other software. With built-in capabilities around intranet, video and email, social selling, enablement planning, and learning and coaching, Seismic replaces redundant tech, improving operational efficiency and maximizing your ROI.  

Interested in improving your outcomes? Get a demo from our experts to learn how to spend less on tech and get more value. 

The post Breaking down the sales tech stack appeared first on Seismic.

Sales coaching is the strategic process of guiding and developing sales reps to grow their skills and improve performance. Sales coaching empowers sellers through continuous practice, guidance, and feedback.

Sales coaching is not the same as sales training. While training delivers foundational knowledge that sellers need to know for their roles, coaching in sales fosters additional growth and development that builds on the knowledge gained through sales training. Sales coaching helps sellers cultivate new and existing skills, enhance their knowledge, and strengthen their confidence — all of which can lead to improved performance and success.

Why is sales coaching important?

Sales is the primary revenue driver for many organizations. According to Chorus, teams that receive sales performance coaching experience 16.7% higher revenue growth over teams that don’t receive any coaching. Research also shows that 75% of reps who receive sales coaching consistently hit their quotas. But, the benefits don’t stop there. Teams that provide sales performance also experience:

Improved retention rates

Sales coaching is a great way to improve rep morale and job satisfaction. Seismic’s 2023 Value of Enablement Report found that 80% of respondents believe that coaching would help them feel more satisfied with their job. Additionally, 50% of participants are considering leaving their company due to a lack of training and coaching. Lastly, companies that provide on-the-job coaching increase seller retention by an average of 20% each year. 

Adoption of best practices across the team

Sellers have first-hand experience with various winning playbooks and strategies. Sales coaching is a great way to discover one seller’s successful strategies and tips that can be shared with the rest of the team. This is also a great way to scale best practices and share wins to your entire sales force. 

Maximized sales training

Companies often spend a lot of resources delivering sales onboarding and training each year. However, 70% of this training is forgotten after a week, and nearly 90% is lost within a month. Sales coaching is a great way to reinforce training content and ensure that sellers can retain and apply what they learn in their roles. 

Confident and ready reps

The ultimate goal of sales coaching is to improve the performance of your sales reps. And while sellers need to have relevant skills and knowledge, it’s essential that they feel confident in their roles. Seismic found that 76% of sellers believe that access to coaching helps them avoid second-guessing themselves. 

Enhanced buyer experiences

Sales coaching can also make a big difference in your buyer and customer experiences. When sellers have all of the skills and knowledge they need in their roles, they’re more likely to deliver personalized and engaging experiences to their buyers. In fact, 97% of sellers say that coaching helps them speak to buyers from a more informed standpoint, and 87% say that it helps them better prepare for interactions with buyers.

Sales Coaching Playbook

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Sales coaching strategies

Sales coaching offers reps dedicated time to ensure they understand what they’re learning, have space to ask questions, and receive consistent feedback. While sales coaching methods can look different from team to team — and even rep to rep, the goal is to help drive success. Let’s take a closer look at three common sales coaching scenarios that any sales coach can use to empower sellers and help achieve remarkable results. 

Role playing

Engage in role-playing exercises where you simulate various sales scenarios to hone your sellers’ communication and negotiation skills. This allows them to practice handling objections and deliver compelling sales pitches effectively.

Shadowing

Accompany your sellers on sales calls or presentations to provide real-time feedback and guidance. By observing their interactions with prospects firsthand, you can identify areas for improvement and offer personalized coaching.

Sales playbook development

Collaborate with your sellers to craft a comprehensive sales playbook that outlines best practices, objection handling techniques, and effective sales strategies. This valuable resource will serve as a reference guide for your sellers, ensuring consistency and efficiency in their sales approach.

How to be a good sales coach

Being a proficient sales coach requires a blend of leadership, communication skills, and a deep understanding of sales principles. Coaching a sales team involves helping sellers reach their full potential while collectively achieving organizational goals. Here are some key sales coaching tips to excel in this role: 

• Individualized coaching: One-on-one sales coaching allows for personalized guidance tailored to each team member’s strengths, weaknesses, and developmental needs. By understanding their unique skill sets and areas for improvement, a coach can provide targeted support.
• Continuous training: Sales training and coaching should be an ongoing process rather than a one-time event. Regular training sessions keep the team updated on industry trends, product knowledge, and effective sales techniques, ensuring they stay competitive in the market.
• Lead by example: A sales manager coaching their team should exemplify the behaviors and attitudes they want to instill in their reps. Demonstrating effective selling techniques, active listening, and resilience sets a standard for the team to follow.
• Create a consistent feedback loop: Effective coaching for sales involves providing constructive feedback in real-time. Acknowledge successes, address areas of improvement, and offer actionable insights for growth. Encourage open communication where team members feel comfortable sharing their concerns and seeking guidance.
• Goal setting and accountability: Help sales teams set clear, achievable goals and hold them accountable for their progress. Regularly review performance metrics and celebrate milestones to keep morale high and motivation strong. 
• Adaptability: Recognize that each member of the sales team may respond differently to coaching techniques. Adapt your approach based on individual preferences, learning styles, and personalities to maximize effectiveness.
  
   

Sales coaching best practices

How to measure sales coaching effectiveness

Measuring the effectiveness of sales coaching within an organization is crucial for assessing the impact of coaching initiatives on the performance and development of sales teams. Here’s how an organization can effectively measure sales coaching effectiveness: 

• Performance metrics: Analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs) such as sales revenue, conversion rates, average deal size, and sales cycle length before and after coaching can provide insight into the impact of coaching on sales outcomes. Comparing these metrics over time can help identify improvements because of coaching. 

• Skill development assessments: Conducting assessments to evaluate the development of specific sales skills is essential. This can include pre- and post-training evaluations or regular skill assessments to gauge progress in areas targeted by coaching initiatives. 

• Employee feedback: Soliciting feedback from sales team members about their experience with coaching can offer valuable insights into its effectiveness. Surveys, interviews, or focus groups can be used to gather qualitative feedback on the relevance, usefulness, and impact of coaching programs on individual performance and job satisfaction. 

• Observation and coaching quality: Monitoring coaching sessions and providing feedback to coaches on their ability to offer guidance, support, and constructive feedback to sellers is important. Assessing the quality of coaching interactions, adherence to coaching frameworks, and alignment with organizational goals can help gauge coaching effectiveness. 

• Retention and engagement: Tracking employee retention rates and levels of engagement among sales team members can indirectly measure the effectiveness of coaching. High retention rates and increased employee engagement may indicate that coaching efforts are contributing to job satisfaction, skill development, and overall performance improvement.  

By leveraging a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures, organizations can gain a comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness of sales coaching efforts in driving the success of their sales teams and achieving business objectives. 

The perks of a sales coaching tool

Sellers work in a more competitive, fast-paced, and complex environment. However, it still seems like most organizations struggle to invest in the tools and strategies that can help sellers succeed most. In fact, most managers spend less than 5% of their time coaching sellers. When they were asked why this is the case, the two primary reasons were:

• There isn’t enough time: Sales managers have so much on their plates and are too busy to coach on top of other priorities. 
• They don’t have the tools: For coaching to be truly effective, there needs to be a clear process. However, most sales managers don’t have a way to make the process scalable and efficient.

Thankfully, sales coaching software can help sales managers overcome both of these obstacles. A sales coaching tool enables go-to-market leaders to deliver coaching and personalized feedback to frontline reps at scale. An online coaching platform also makes it easy to create a streamlined sales coaching program that includes everything sellers need to hone skills, receive feedback, and improve in their roles. 

How we can help

The Seismic Enablement Cloud  includes sales training and coaching tools that help ramp new sellers quickly and keeps existing reps’ skills sharp. Want to see how you can assess skills, deliver personalized coaching, and track development at a scale? Get a demo to learn more!

The post The ultimate sales coaching guide appeared first on Seismic.

Content personalization tailors brand messaging and communications to reflect the unique needs and characteristics of individual buyers. This includes content that is relevant to specific stages of the buyer’s journey, or it may go a step further with hyper-personalized messaging that acknowledges the buyer’s particular business needs or past behaviors. With customer expectations higher than ever, the use of personalized content creates a unique and highly-targeted experience that is key to the success of every deal.

Why is personalized content important?

Buyer engagement and the sales cycle have drastically evolved over the past few years. Modern buyers are more informed and have had an average of 27 information-gathering sessions before they ever speak to a sales rep. When buyers finally interact with a seller, they expect the rep to provide tailored and hyper-relevant information. In fact, McKinsey found that more than 70% of today’s buyers expect companies to deliver a personalized experience, and 76% will move to another organization if they’re unhappy with their experience. 

So while customers certainly expect it, it’s also proven to be more effective. Personalization cuts through the clutter, allowing brands to get the attention of buyers who are constantly bombarded with marketing and advertising messages. We’ve seen firsthand how personalization empowers sellers to effectively engage with buyers and customers. Our report, The Personalization Payoff, found that more companies are sending personalized content than ever before. This includes an 89% increase in personalized content sent by companies with fewer than 1,500 employees over a one-year period alone. These same companies saw their efforts pay off, with buyer engagement increasing by 57%, underlining the power of tailored content to generate higher conversion.

The Personalization Payoff

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Challenges of delivering a personalized experience

While personalization is critical to buyer engagement, both customer-facing and marketing teams encounter unique operational challenges in executing a successful approach. Additionally, 63% of GTM leaders say that the content their teams use is not personalized enough for customers.

Customer-facing teams 

Sellers are in frequent communication with prospects and need content to provide personalized and helpful content needed to close a deal. Often, the overall lack of time and/or a clear understanding of what content is available and approved causes sellers to reuse old decks and collateral. Or, they may even resort to creating their own content, which may not be compliant or  consistent with the latest messaging. 

Marketing teams

Marketing’s goal is to produce engaging content that is accessible to sales. Catering to every individual request for content isn’t realistic, and 42% of B2B marketers say that their marketing efforts aren’t fully personalized. Building systems to create content at scale and finding the right delivery methods are two common roadblocks that must be solved to support a personalized content program.

Content personalization strategies and tips 

Let’s explore three key strategies that support marketing and sales teams in addressing these challenges and delivering exceptional personalized content:

1.   Know your buyer

At the heart of personalization is a deep understanding of the buyer. Building a research phase into your content personalization strategy will ensure that teams are aligned on buyer needs and preferences, so that the content can be as relevant and relatable as possible. Marketing can support this by building out personas and a customer journey map, while sales can provide perspectives from their more frequent communications with prospects. 

2.   Make messaging relevant

Once teams have a strong understanding of the buyer, it’s time to create content. It’s helpful to segment audiences into groups based on defining characteristics, like demographics, company size or job title, or even past engagement with your brand. Brainstorm what messages will be most effective for each group and the types of content that would most likely be consumed. The more data points you have on the customer, the more relevant you can be. 

3.   Curate content carefully

Discoverability is a key piece of the puzzle. As the volume of content grows, marketing teams will need to find a way to manage the library of content, organized by segment or buyer’s stage, and provide easy access for customer-facing teams. It will also be critical to keep content up to date over time and remove or add new assets as needed to support the business. 

Effective personalized content examples 

It can be challenging to know where to start with content personalization. Here are a few examples to help you tailor your messages to the your buyers:  

1. Incorporate the buyer’s logo or brand elements in pitch decks or proposals.
2. Reference the buyer’s past interactions or purchases to offer relevant recommendations or insights, reinforcing their connection with the brand.
3. Tailor messaging based on the buyer’s role. — For example, use technical language for an IT decision-maker, or share high-level business implications and data to show a return on investment for a CFO.
4. Implement dynamic content in emails or on your site that change based on user behavior.
5. Use case studies and testimonials relevant to the buyer’s industry or role. 

The value of enablement tools for content personalization

Sales enablement tools are powerful resources that companies can use to generate personalized content and manage it effectively. Recently, Seismic found that sellers at companies without an enablement tool spend an average of 10 hours per week tracking down and revising content. Here are a few ways enablement tools can reduce this workload and boost productivity: 

Produce content at scale

Marketing teams often struggle to create enough content to serve the entire sales organization’s needs, let alone with the level of personalization required for today’s buyers. Content personalization tools store and organize existing content and allow easy edits and updates to adjust for different segments and use cases. They essentially function as a vast digital library that allows for easy discovery. 

Personalize content

Enablement tools often include dynamic content features that allow for the fast personalization of content based on buyer characteristics. In many cases, sellers can do this without the help of marketing and pull personalized content into different formats, such as PowerPoint presentations or Google Slides. Putting more power into the hands of reps allows them to focus on selling, not searching for content, and reduces the burden on the marketing team. 

Measure effectiveness

Content personalization tools provide organizations with quantifiable data on their content performance and usage. For example, these tools can track everything from, click-through rates on a specific piece of content to the time the buyer spent reading the content. They also help attribute collateral to conversion and buyer decisions down the road. This wealth of data and insights helps organizations fine-tune their enablement strategy and build a plan for developing the most engaging content. 

Ready to make your content stand out?

The Seismic Enablement Cloud features solutions that make it easy for go-to-market organizations to build content at scale and harness the power of personalization. These tools help marketing teams streamline content delivery so it’s more efficient and impactful. As a result, enablement teams can ensure the right messages and content is delivered to sellers precisely when they need it. And with our robust self-service tools, sellers can quickly and easily create personalized content that resonates with buyers and stands out from competitors. Ready to learn more? Read how Salesloft experienced a 35% increase in win rates after implementing Seismic. Or, get a demo where you can get a deeper dive on our sales content management and automation features.

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What is client engagement?

Client engagement is the act of cultivating impactful connections with prospects. It encompasses any interaction that takes place between sellers and buyers — from connections on social media to direct 1:1 sales calls. When done right, it’s a powerful strategy: reps who effectively engage prospects can foster long-term relationships, improve the sales process, and close more deals.

How engagement has changed

The rise of technology and shift toward remote work has drastically impacted client engagement in recent years. Let’s take a look at some of the major evolutions. 

• Proliferation of digital channels: In the past, client engagement activities often took place in person over happy hours, dinners, or conferences. Now, with more people working remotely, as well as a global customer base, engagement largely happens over digital channels. For example, a seller may reach out to a prospect on LinkedIn, exchange emails, and eventually set up a time to connect on a virtual meeting. 
• Consultative selling: Traditional selling has been transactional. Reps were laser-focused on closing a deal and often used assertive pitches to do so. Now, consultative selling is more common, with emphasis on understanding a prospect’s specific needs and developing tailored solutions for them, all to build trust over time. 
• SaaS sales technology: Advanced enablement and sales engagement tools allow teams to better track interactions, send personalized communications, and measure progress. The proliferation of technology in this space can be overwhelming, but the right tools can empower busy sales teams to reach buyers at scale.

Why is client engagement important?

Effective engagement has many positive benefits, from spurring prospects to action to building long-term advocates for your brand. Here are just a few of the benefits organizations see: 

• Higher conversion rates: Consistent and targeted engagement can guide potential customers through the sales funnel more effectively, improving conversion rates. In fact, Salesforce found that companies with strong customer engagement strategies saw a 40% increase in conversion rates.
• Revenue growth: When sellers create meaningful interactions during the buying process, prospects may be open to current and future spend. One study showed that buyers who were fully engaged in the sales process accounted for a 23% increase in company revenue. 
• Post-purchase advocacy: An exceptional customer experience can transform satisfied customers into eager brand advocates. 77% of customers who’ve had a positive experience say they will recommend the company to a friend. These customers also may be open to participating in case studies or speaking on behalf of the company, creating influential word-of-mouth testimonials.

Rewriting the Rules of Engagement

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The client engagement process

Successful sellers take a thoughtful approach to engagement by understanding their buyer’s needs, tailoring their pitches, and building a relationship that goes beyond the sale. Consider these five key steps reps can take to build a client engagement plan: 

Research the buyer 

Buyers expect reps to be informed about their needs — even on the first interaction. For reps, this means that research comes first. Learn about the company and the role your prospect holds, and then consider what might have prompted them to seek your services. This sets the stage for a productive first meeting and demonstrates genuine interest in their success.

Connect where they are 

In order to stand out, it’s important to meet prospects in the channels where they spend their time. For many, this is on a social media platform like LinkedIn or Twitter. While digital is queen, sellers can also look into the events or conferences that prospects attend and make a valuable in-person connection. 

Tailor your pitch 

As you start to engage with the buyer, practice active listening and ask questions to understand their current challenges as clearly as possible. A customized consultative pitch is proven to work as 84% of businesses are more likely to buy from reps who understand their goals. 

Build a trusted partnership

Today’s sellers are expected to become industry knowledge experts, providing insight and value beyond the product. Managers need to consider how they can help their reps upskill in this area. This is when additional training and coaching programs, as well as opportunities to attend educational events can help sellers improve their craft.

Measure success 

Establish clear metrics to measure the effectiveness of your client engagement program. This includes reporting on client interactions or views and engagement with enablement materials.

Client engagement strategies

By utilizing client engagement best practices, sales teams can effectively connect with clients, drive meaningful conversations, and uncover new revenue opportunities. Let’s dive into some strategies that every go-to-market organization can put into action.

Build a strong digital presence
Buyers often do their own fact-finding before speaking to a rep, most commonly through online channels. It’s important for sales to develop a strong digital presence and be prepared to share personalized content and the right messaging at the right time.

Provide personalized experiences
71% of consumers expect personalized interactions. Tailoring the customer journey and content to individual needs can significantly impact a company’s revenue and customer retention. Organizations that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue than those that don’t. 

Help, don’t sell
Sales teams should adopt a consultative approach, offering valuable insights and solutions, to build credibility and foster relationships that transcend products (or even companies).

How to improve engagement through enablement

Sales enablement provides reps with the tools and resources they need to effectively engage buyers across the customer journey. Here are three key areas where enablement technology can help drive engagement.

Ready to take engagement to the next level?

With the Seismic Enablement Cloud, businesses can effectively streamline and support client engagement with the necessary tools and insights to foster meaningful interactions, create personalized experiences, and train and upskill their teams. Seismic’s  sales content management enables reps to discover and deliver engaging, personalized, and informative content throughout the buyer’s journey. Our learning and coaching capabilities also help sellers build client engagement skills through continuous training and 1:1 coaching. Interested in learning more? Get a demo to start honing your team’s client engagement strategy.

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