Optimizing Sales Performance Through Powerful Enablement Content with Phyllis Davidson

In this episode, we’re discussing how to ensure that your salespeople are using the sales content that is provided to them. 
 
Here, we ask questions like: Why is content important to prospects and customers? Does it make a difference? Why does sales content often remain unutilized by salespeople? What elements should be in place in order for sales to make the best use of marking content?  
 
Joining Dani to answer those questions and so many more is Phyllis Davidson, VP/Principal Analyst at Forrester.  

Phyllis brings up some great pieces of insight, like:  

• Why do sales reps who make use of content perform better than their peers who do not?  

• How too many sellers are left confused about when to use certain pieces of content and, just as importantly, where to access them?  

• And lastly, why strengthening the relationship between marketing and sales can only result in stronger and more helpful content for sellers and prospects alike.

Enablement Content Provides an Opportunity for Conversation with Prospects 

“We're going to talk about how to really get content used effectively by salespeople,” Dani says, kicking off the conversation. “And we're talking about all kinds of content, specifically marketing content, but also sales enablement content. There’s often a lot of overlap there.  

“So, just to start, what is it about this topic that makes it so important to you? And can you give us a few examples of the kind of content we might be talking about, so people are all on the same page?” 

“So, first of all,” Phyllis says. “When we're talking about business-to-business sales, which generally have a longer lead time, you've got to keep somebody engaged with you for a while before you sell to them. You're not selling to one person, right? You're generally selling to a buying group. 

“Sales needs to have a way to keep engaging with people. And marketing is certainly in the business of coming up with the story that they're pushing out to keep people engaged.  

“But, at some point, it makes so much sense for sales to pick up that conversation, insert themselves and be the one that shares that piece of content that marketing has created, with appropriate context, for that client. What better reason for a sales rep to reach out than to share something that comes across in content?  

“...And there's a logic to this, right? Because, again, if you can really connect your conversation to something that you can leave behind with someone. And I’m not talking about a product brochure, here. I'm talking about audience-centric kinds of content.  

“And, actually, this all becomes very obvious when we get to the bottom of the funnel, and a customer is actually asking a sales rep for product information. That's low-hanging fruit.  

“What I'm talking about, though, is putting [content] out there and sharing it.  

“The onus is on marketing to make sure that this kind of external marketing content is effectively shared with sales and that sales is empowered to use it. This is what's so important. 

“So, you asked what kind of content we're talking about. It could be any kind of asset. Whether it's an eBook or a blog or a thought leadership paper, whatever it is, it doesn't matter as much what the asset is. It matters what's in it. 

“And what can be so effective for sales to share is something that combines facts about the industry, that demonstrates that the vendor is knowledgeable and can be a trusted supplier of information.  

“That's one element in content that's really great for sales to use, actual data about what's going on in the industry together with that thought leadership.  

There's a real opportunity here for a sales rep to plug into those thought leadership ideas and put it in context for the prospect or customer that they're sharing it with. It provides an opportunity for

Embrace and Focus on Audience-Centric Content 

“I hear it all the time,” Dani says. “I talk to business leaders and sales leaders of all types that are skeptical about how much content really matters in the sales process. They're not used to that. They haven't transitioned to the world where we are all expected to be content providers and educators.  

“So how important do you think it actually is to the prospects and customers? Does it really make a difference? Like, what do you know that can help maybe convince some of those folks a little more that this matters?” 

“Okay, so I have a great data point for you,” Phyllis says. “We do a study every year where we talk to businesses about their consumption of content from the vendors who are trying to sell to them. And we ask a set of deep questions about the value of content, and the responses are actually pretty daunting.  

“Folks don't think the content they get from vendors is very good. They get too much, it’s all looks, there’s no meat in there, or it’s too much of a high level overview that isn't really demonstrating an understanding of customer needs.  

“But here's the most interesting factoid. We ask the question: ‘How likely are you to continue to do business with a vendor whose content you don't find valuable?’ Almost 70% of respondents said that they were unlikely to expand contracts with vendors who simply did not provide good content.  

“Many of us are in businesses where it's not so much about selling the first time; it's about retaining customers, right? So, it’s not only the machine for getting content out there through a variety of channels to your audiences but also empowering sales to use that content not just for new business but in their ongoing communications with existing customers. It's so critical.  

“...I do think the initial onus is on marketing to provide those materials that support the content. That makes it easy and possible for sales reps and other customer-facing account team members to effectively share the content.” 

“Yes, love it,” Dani says. “I love the emphasis on ‘they care about good content.’  

“We're not just talking about content that I think a lot of sales people are used to, which content that explains your product or service. We're talking about content that's helpful and educational.” 

Phyllis says, “My main goal for our whole team when it comes to content strategy in Forrester is trying to help our clients on the business side develop audience-centric content and absolutely step away from this product promotional type of content that companies have always developed. 

“You'd be surprised. As much as we've been talking about being audience-centric for years, it's still really hard for a lot of companies. And a lot of companies are just so product-driven that it's still an internal struggle.  

“But it's up to the content team to reinterpret the story that needs to be told to make it audience-centric.” 

What Keeps Salespeople from Using Content That is Created for Them? 

“Why do we think salespeople aren't using the marketing assets and content that we create for them?” Dani asks. “What are the problems we're facing?” 

“One of the things we see is that sales is confused about what the heck to use and where to find it,” Phyllis says. “So, some of our stats, and I'm looking right now at some of the figures that I have from recent studies, there's like 1,100 assets available to the average seller to pick from. That's crazy, right?  

“We need to make it easy for them by promoting specific content. Also, many sellers say that what they have in terms of sales tech to help them get to the right content isn't very good. They need easier ways to access the content.  

“They also will find that they just don't think the content fits. They feel like they have to rewrite an asset or rewrite the enablement around the asset.  

“Let's say the email that marketing provides doesn't fit what they're going after at all. And then, too often, marketing might be pushing the same content for too broad a range of deal types or persona types, buying groups, etc.  

“So, it's fine-tuning and really ‘creating the content for the content,’ as I like to say.  That can make a difference. Plus, the technology! 

“...All of the problems I just mentioned can be solved through effective use of a sales content solution. In fact, one of the places where we see modular content, and a really powerful recommendation engine really taking hold, is within those sales content solutions.  

“Because one of the first things we've seen happen is a much more effective use of modules. So, just from a pure enablement standpoint...our capabilities are really strong in this area to provide the different modules that a sales rep can easily pick from. 

“It's not like it's necessarily easy to put this together, but companies that are doing a really great job in utilizing these solutions make it easy for sales reps to pull together the presentations that they need because they've been basically added to the engine in a modular way. And the engine is driven by AI that can help put together and assemble, and construct those presentations. 

And, in addition to that, what you want to happen is for sales reps to go in and say, ‘Okay, I'm looking at this kind of deal. This is essentially where my persona of this type is in the sales cycle. This is the problem they're having. What content should I be sending?’ And they should be able to pull that out of the system. And along with the actual content is, again, what I call ‘the content for the content,’ the email, the social blocks, the call script, those things.  

“It shouldn't be just one thing for each asset. The marketing team should have thought through what all the use cases are for the use of this type of asset and make sure that we're providing what's needed.  

“The other thing, too, is that this isn't something that marketing should be doing for every single asset that they're churning out, right? Part of the challenge here is saying, ‘What is the right content?  

“Again, I mentioned those 1,100 assets. Well, you also can't be recommending 500 assets. You've got to have an engine that is using intelligence to get to the right asset, or, at least, a shortlist.  

“You don't want sales to have to spend time to try to choose. You want to try to get them what they need as easily as possible.” 

A conversation.” 

The Six Essential Elements Needed to Make the Best Use of Enablement Content 

“So, I know that you're doing a presentation on this topic,” Dani says. “And you have some key elements that you put together detailing what should be in place for sales to make the best use of marketing content. So, tell us, walk us through those key elements that people should be thinking about.” 

“Well, we put together a schema, if you will,” Phyllis says. “Six essential elements. And we sort of made it simple by just calling it ‘The What, The Why, The When, The Whom, The How, and the ROI.’  

The What: 

“‘The what’ is you have to start out with the right set of content. 

“And, like I said, it shouldn't be just any old asset and it should by no means be all assets. This should be where ‘the what’ is chosen based on it being an area or a current campaign that's strongly connected to current sales plays, where there's a lot of heat and light.  

“What you should be doing is giving sales something that you expect to be really popular, even if you're putting it out through multiple marketing channels. Honestly, if an end customer gets something from sales that they've actually seen in a banner ad for or wherever, that's good. There's nothing wrong with that. 

The Why: 

“The other thing is ‘the why.’ Whereas you don't want to be saddling the sales rep with your whole marketing plan around the content, you do need to give them information about why this content is relevant, specific to the personas, to the buying group, to your solutions.  

“You need the short set of messaging and goals with the content that sales can know quickly. Again, not some big, long document, but enough so that they understand why this is the right content. 

The When: 

“Then ‘when.’ When is the right time to share it?  

“It should be clear when something is appropriate for what stage in the buyer journey.  

“By the way, that's also something that's very important from a feedback standpoint, because what if sales disagrees and says, ‘you know, I've been sharing this, but it really is more bottom of the funnel. You're telling me it's the first thing to share.’ That right there will help marketing do a better job with this ‘when’ in developing future content.  

The Whom: 

“For whom? There's two angles on this. Because, yes, it's, ‘make sure you've parsed your personas enough and also provided the appropriate emails, etc.’ 

“But the other thing is the enablement material. From the standpoint of your sales team, the way you enable a BDR may be different than the way that you enable an account manager or a CSM. 

“It's important that the marketing team is thinking through that as well.  

The How: 

“Then ‘the how’ really is what does that full package of supporting materials include?  

“You've got the asset or set of assets itself. That's what the end customer is going to see. Then you've got all the supporting assets that provide ‘the how.’ How can sales effectively share the content? We've talked about that, so there's a diverse set of materials.  

The ROI: 

“Then the ROI, which is the last of our six essential elements, is being able to follow and see when content has been shared by sales and what's been successful based on the engagement you see among the audience.  

“So, getting that feedback loop is critical.” 

Measuring the ROI of Enablement Content 

“Is there anything else we should know about ROI?” Dani asks. “Anything else that you recommend when it comes to ensuring it, tracking it?” 

“Well, I'll tell you something,” Phyllis says. “ROI on content is about engagement and influence. It is not about creating a lead or closing a piece of business.  

“I mean, certainly, salespeople understand that content isn't going to close a piece of business, but we still see a lot of marketing funnels that suggest that there's this moment in time when content opens a door or closes a door.  

“And sure, you could set things up that way by gating content, and that content is downloaded, and bam, that person gets a call from sales. But that doesn't usually work.  

“What we're trying to help marketers do is create a whole schema for engagement where, basically, they are looking at all of the sensors that are enabled through the whole marketing stack.  

“And, by the way, sales sharing is another place where you have a sensor that will pick up a signal from the audience regarding what they're doing and what they want to engage with. You want to build content engagement that's based on collecting signals and fine-tuning an experience in a personalized way based on those signals.  

“So, ROI needs to be about driving engagement that ultimately has a relationship to pipeline and close business. It's not about a one-to-one relationship between content and leads. So, I hope that makes sense.” 

“It makes total sense,” Dani says. “And I think it's probably one of the most important things folks should hear from this, because I think, often, we're looking for that direct ROI, and that's just not how it works. You're going to lose that battle, and then you're going to give up on doing things that actually really matter and do make an impact.” 

“Yeah,” Phyllis says. “And...it's a big change from a sales operation standpoint, you know, in terms of the way the waterfall is looked at, measured and, just frankly...the way it works. 

“... In B2B, I often will say to people, ‘Hey, we're not selling a pair of pants online where this person looked at brown pants. Now, let's send them ads for blue pants!’  

“What we’re talking about here has so much more complexity.  

“It's hard, but one of the great things that marketing can do is to work closely with sales in this way and make sure that they're creating content that's useful to that sales conversation.” 

Have an Open Door Between Marketing and Sales 

“I love this,” Dani says. “I love your passion; I love your expertise. This is such an important topic, but we do have to close out, even though we can sit and chat all day.  

“Any closing thoughts? Anything we haven't covered that you want to make sure our listeners know before we say goodbye?” 

“I would say, and this is to your sales audience, feel like you have an open door [to marketing], even if you don't know the people who are in marketing producing content.  

“Go figure out who they are; tell them if you think something is good or if you think something's bad. Look at what marketing is putting out and...get to know your marketers a little bit. 

“You may be able to get more out of them than you realize in ways that are really helpful to your job daily.”