Establishing trust with potential customers is one of the steepest hurdles your company’s sales team face during a sales pitch or acquisition call. Their task is to prove to a potential buyer that your company’s products or services are the right fit for their needs. If any doubts or uncertainties arise in the potential customer’s mind, these might turn into red flags that can bring the entire sales discussion to a halt.
As a marketer, part of your job is to provide your sales team with effective, informative content that helps them convince potential customers to buy what your company is selling. That’s what “sales enablement content” is all about. In this article, we want to explore this important topic in detail and give you some solid advice on how to turn your sales enablement content into a powerful tool for conversion.
What is sales enablement content?
When making a pitch, your sales team relies on useful information that answers customer questions and highlights the benefits of your brand and its products. In marketing terms, resources like these are known as sales enablement content. They can take many different forms, depending on how your customers and leads prefer to receive information.
In general, a strong base of sales enablement content should include at least the following assets:
- Informative articles and blog posts that show your company’s expertise and answer specific questions that customers are asking.
- Client case studies that show how your product has benefited other customers.
- FAQ pages that explain the features of your products and services.
- Standard (but customisable) email templates that your sales team can quickly use to follow up with potential customers after an initial contact.
As your sales team guides leads through the customer journey, this content is at their side to help them fully cater to the customers’ needs.
Creating sales enablement content that works
If your company is already creating content, then, chances are, you’ve been writing sales enablement content all along, even if you didn’t necessarily call it by that name. In any case, the key to any successful form of content marketing is to have a solid strategy.
It’s time to map out your organisation’s sales enablement content needs and build that steady base of content that your sales team needs to bring in new customers. The tips below help ensure that your sales enablement content pays off.
Get your sales team fully involved
To make sure your sales enablement content truly matches potential customers’ needs, there’s no one better to talk to than your sales team members themselves. They are working directly with potential customers every day, and they know where the customers’ questions, interests and pain points lie.
Make sure your sales team members are involved with sales enablement content creation every step of the way. As you know, it can be a time-consuming process to create content. That’s why most sales team members avoid the task: they are simply too busy trying to do their jobs. Yet, the authenticity and perspective that they can bring to the content is extremely valuable. Try to find the right balance so that you can get them involved in the content creation process, without getting in the way of their sales activities.
Try planning a regular meeting (say one hour, once a week) with sales reps to brainstorm new content topics. Keep your mind and ears open and find out what your sales team actually need from you as a marketer. If possible, ask members of your sales team to review content before publishing to make sure it will resonate with potential customers.
Assess your content needs and make a plan
Take an audit of your company’s existing sales enablement content. This will help you identify blind spots in your existing content base. Once you know where additional content is needed, you can create a sales enablement content calendar to start filling in the gaps.
Again, it is important to get your sales team members involved in this process. Let them have the final say on which content creation projects should take priority. Work with them to create detailed briefings for the content you need. This will enable you and your team to create the content more effectively, or outsource it to professional content creators.
Write really good client case studies
Case studies are among the most effective sales enablement content types for B2B sales teams. They enable potential customers to fully envision what it is like to do business with your company. By focusing on how your product benefits your existing customers, you also put the spotlight on the people who are buying your products. This shows that your company is customer-focused and eager to help its customers succeed.
To create excellent case studies, be sure to choose a wide range of customers to showcase. This way, you can cover diverse aspects of your product and what it can do.
Remember to make it personal. Showcase the people who buy and use your products, and tell the story of how your product helps make their lives easier and more successful.
Create effective email templates
One form of content that you might be overlooking as a marketer is your company’s sales emails. These are often handled strictly by the sales team. Yet, your expertise as a marketer could be a great benefit to making these emails more persuasive and impactful.
Work alongside your sales team to create a series of follow-up email templates that can be quickly used at any stage of the sales process. Encourage your sales team members to customise these emails to address specific leads’ questions.
You can use these email templates to link to relevant sales enablement content. This helps keep your leads within your sales content ecosystem. It also directs their attention towards informative material that optimally positions your brand. As a result, the lead will feel more confident about doing business with your company, and your sales team has a better chance of getting them across the sales finish line.
High-quality content boosts sales
Sales enablement content is one of the most fundamental forms of content a marketing team creates. You need to do everything you can to make sure this content is truly customer-focused, so that it can dispel any doubts and convince your leads that your product is right for them.
As with any form of content, quality should be a priority for your sales enablement text. This is why we recommend working closely with your sales team to ensure the accuracy and relevance of the material. It is also a great idea to entrust sales enablement content creation to professional (freelance) writers. This lightens your workload as a marketer and guarantees the quality that your sales enablement campaigns require.
