Creating a resource library of sales collateral gives Sales and Marketing an opportunity to build confidence with customers, generate more leads, or initiate a conversation. This helps to provide the target audience with all the information they need to evaluate, decide and purchase - particularly B2B sales when your business involves complex products and services.
1. Case studies
A customer case study is a great way to educate customers on how your product works and shows the results you achieved. This social proof is powerful.
A case study describes the brief, what you did and how the result was achieved. Use this proven format for your case studies:
- The challenge
- The solution
- The impact
- Customer Testimonies
It is important to be as relevant as possible to a potential customer to establish familiarity with the challenges that an existing customer faced and the results they desired.
Having at least one case study for each of your main customer personas and services is recommended. Create short versions of case studies for proposals, while more extended versions make great blog posts. In each case, focus on the problem and provide information from one or more case studies to guide this particular challenge. The case study provides a tangible example of a product's impact through an example of a business like a client's. These case studies are particularly effective during a sales process's initial meeting and proposal stages.
2. Proposal templates
Proposals are commonly used to explain how your company will deliver a product or service. Creating a template will save your salespeople time and also ensure they follow best practices and keep branding consistent. One approach is to design a company-wide template based on each proposal or create several to match particular customer personas or products. Sales proposal templates are usually used during the final stages of your sales funnel.
3. Sales presentation decks
An effective sales deck combines social proof (such as the case studies mentioned above), storytelling and statistics to sell something that will solve the prospect's main challenge.
Any sales pitch can use sales decks: You don't necessarily need to deliver a presentation in-person to prospects; but you can create decks for your team to share with prospects to view at their leisure. The content of a sales deck should be tailored to the prospect's stage in the decision process, so ensure you understand where they are in the sales funnel when creating one.
4. Blog posts
For B2B businesses, creating educational content is often a way to establish themselves as experts on a subject. By writing blogs, a business can answer any questions that your prospects may have, help them in their quest for solutions and at the same time build brand awareness. Blogs are great collateral to use in the awareness stage.
Remember, your blogs aren't a way to sell your products, but they can be a way to show them why they need you.
5. eCommerce Site
Launching a comprehensive e-commerce platform will also benefit the sales team, providing yet another digital sales collateral to showcase products and open up purchasing options for the digitally savvy B2B prospect.
Unlike printed collateral, content in an eCommerce site can be easily updated. You can now create and test compelling content for your targeted B2B buyers, deliver value and respond quickly to changes in the market.
Additionally, an eCommerce system can be leveraged as a Sales tool (like CRM), significantly improving your sales team's visibility into inventory, customer orders, pricing, and history.
Final thoughts
In B2B sales, many Prospects will place a Sales Person's subject matter and solution expertise at the top of their list of qualities. Therefore, it is critical that you carefully customize sales collaterals to support different touchpoints that build trust and relationships. It is important not overwhelm prospects with too much technical detail, or provide too little information that doesn't add value.
Start by considering what part of your sales process you would like to support and what value you can offer to sales prospects. What will convince them that they need your product or service? Answer these questions, and you will be well on your way to developing the right sales collateral.
Grow better with Zooloo, we are happy to help you get started with digital transformation, please contact us at sales@zooloo.asia.
- Pick up some marketing tips from our “How to” blog series
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