Sales enablement has become a must-have for every company that competes with other organizations for the attention of modern buyers. As a leading provider of sales enablement technology, at Highspot we believe it is our responsibility to share what we know about emerging trends that are impacting this market: what’s working, what’s not, and what “good” looks like in sales enablement.
One of the most important topics for every company practicing sales enablement is content management. It’s a subject that’s near and dear to our hearts because it tends to be a primary pain point for every sales and marketing team that Highspot is uniquely designed to solve.
Content and the Modern Sales Cycle
Today’s sales landscape is more competitive than ever for B2B sellers. Modern buyers are now more independent, preferring to do most of their own research before interacting with a seller. In fact, one CEB study found that buyers travel through 57% of the buyer’s journey before their first meaningful interaction with a seller. As a result, content has become the center of the modern sales cycle, rewarding sellers who engage buyers with valuable insights and subject matter expertise. Without insightful content to demonstrate their knowledge and value, sales reps risk losing buyers to better-equipped competitors.
For sellers to remain competitive in this new sales landscape, they have to capitalize on every conversation and approach each exchange artfully, adeptly, and expeditiously. The best way for sellers to connect with today’s more educated buyers is to come prepared with compelling content that convinces them to move to the next stage of the buyer’s journey.
A recent SiriusDecisions study that explored how winning reps use content ultimately concluded that top-performing reps consistently use more content than their counterparts. The research found that buyers received or consumed 22% more content overall from winning reps, and the content they provided was more likely to be perceived as high-impact.
Content has become one of the most important tools a seller has in their arsenal, but research by the CMO Council has shown that reps spend a full 40% of their time searching for or creating content and 80% of content created by marketing for sales goes unused. There are often three reasons why sales reps don’t use content created specifically for them:
- They don’t have time to look for it
- They aren’t aware that the content exists
- They think that there is too much content to filter through to get the content they need
Finding a solution to this problem is more complicated today because reps have so many storing options available. For example, content can live on reps’ desktops, in a content management system (CMS), or online in a file storage platform. But what if there was a way for reps to easily search and find content, get greater visibility into the content that marketing creates, and receive guidance on content attributes such as buyer stage and industry? That’s where content management via sales enablement can help.
Intuitive Content Management with Sales Enablement
Sales enablement tools save sales reps time by providing one content repository for all content needs, cutting down on the amount of time that reps spend seeking and creating content. Reps can find what they need when they need it.
With Highspot’s patented AI technology, sales reps have the ability to quickly search and locate the content they seek while receiving curated content recommendations along the way. This gives sellers more visibility into the marketing content and sales assets available to them. If sales reps are unable to find the content they need or don’t know it exists, they are not adequately equipped to win the business of today’s buyers. For sellers to have impactful conversations that demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of a buyer’s business needs, they need access to effective content at a moment’s notice.
Smart Content Guidance and Personalization
Easy content discovery is not the only Highspot feature that creates winning sellers. As technology drives change in the world of B2B selling, it has also caused the sales cycle to become more complex. As a result, today’s sellers need step-by-step guidance in order to deliver content that makes an impact. Modern buyers expect sellers to be nimble and knowledgeable enough to provide content that is valuable, personalized, and aligned to their needs.
Not only should content provide buyers with value and new insights — it must also map to their stage in the buyer’s journey, helping sellers move buyers smoothly through the purchase process. Winning reps consume 35% percent more content overall than low performers, and they also leverage different types of content at each stage of the buying process. Every step of the buyer’s journey requires different messaging and content to effectively convince buyers to continue moving toward a purchase decision. In order to do this, buyers must engage with valuable content that moves them to act. With Highspot, sellers have access to 50+ integrations with customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and other tools. This makes it easy for reps to find content that aligns with prospects’ purchase journey stage and encourages them to move on to the next step.
Valuable Content Visibility and Insights
Successful content creation requires one final feature: performance analytics. As sales reps engage buyers with content, marketers must have visibility into what content resonates or falls flat. Using Highspot analytics and CRM integrations, marketing teams can easily pinpoint ineffective content and content that is linked to revenue production. Marketing can then use the information to make any necessary changes to improve content, ultimately equipping sellers with effective content that successfully resonates with today’s buyers.
Highspot’s content discovery and guidance capabilities provide sales reps the ability to broaden and deepen their use of content, giving them a competitive advantage when engaging today’s buyers.
To learn how to effectively manage core sales content to empower your sales reps, download our content management whitepaper today.
