Sales content management (SCM) is the backbone of a streamlined sales process, ensuring the right sales content and sales assets are always at your team’s fingertips.
This article delves into what sales content management entails, its significance, and how to set it up for maximum impact.
Let’s dig in.
Disclaimer: The information below is accurate as of March 25th, 2024.
What is sales content management?
Sales content management is a systematic approach to handling sales materials, ensuring they’re accessible, relevant, and effective throughout the sales cycle.
This process involves creating, storing, organizing, and delivering materials such as pitch decks, case studies, webinars, and product sheets used by sales teams to engage prospects.
By optimizing content for easy retrieval and use, sales content management enables salespeople to find and use the right content quickly.
In essence, effective content management empowers your sales teams to be more proactive, responsive, and successful in improving the buyer journey for customers.
What is an example of sales content management?
Let’s take, for example, a tech company that uses a single hub, like Google Drive, to organize its sales materials.
The company creates and organizes a wide range of content, including product datasheets, demo videos, and case studies.
Before a meeting, a sales rep can easily find and compile the most relevant case studies and product demos to address a prospective client’s concerns.
This streamlined access saves time, makes their sales presentations effective, and increases the likelihood of closing more deals.
Why is sales content management important?
A well-structured sales content management system ensures that sales teams can find, customize, and share content or marketing collateral that hits the mark for customers.
Without it, sales teams will spend a lot of time searching for content, which can significantly drain productivity.
According to a study, 440 hours is the average time sales reps spend each year trying to figure out the right content to share with prospects.
This reduces the time for engaging with prospects, hampers the overall sales process, and potentially leads to missed opportunities and decreased revenue.
Here are more reasons why you should implement a sales content management system:
- It shortens sales cycles: With immediate access to relevant sales content, sales reps can quickly respond to customer inquiries, provide compelling product comparisons, and share the latest sales content. In turn, this speeds up the decision-making process for prospects.
- It ensures brand consistency: With sales content management in place, every piece of content shared across the team is consistent, up-to-date, and aligned with the company’s messaging and branding.
This consistency ensures that no matter who the sales rep is or where the customer is, the messaging remains uniform, strengthening the brand’s integrity.
- It allows for more personalized sales presentations: Sales reps can customize presentations and proposals quickly to meet the specific needs of their prospects.
This personalization can lead to higher conversion rates as the content speaks directly to the customer’s pain points and needs — 80 percent of B2B buyers expect the same buying experience as B2C customers.
- It improves sales and marketing team alignment: By centralizing content creation and distribution, sales and marketing teams can collaborate more effectively to ensure that content is directly tied to sales goals and customer needs.
SaaSworthy says sales and marketing alignment can help your firm become around 67 percent better at closing deals.
- It provides actionable insights: Advanced analytics offered by sales content management tools can track which materials are used most and how they influence sales outcomes.
For instance, a real estate agency that notices how virtual tour videos significantly increase client engagement will consider a strategic shift toward more video content.
How do you create a sales content management strategy?
A sales content management strategy involves handling all the sales materials or collateral your team uses to engage and convert prospects throughout the sales cycle.
You can create a sales content management strategy by following this process:
1. Set clear objectives
Ask critical questions such as the goals of creating sales content, how it benefits customers, and how reps will find and use it.
Is your goal to improve lead conversion rates, reduce sales cycle length, or increase upsell opportunities?
Answering these questions keeps your strategy focused and goal-oriented.
For example, your goal might be to reduce the time sales reps spend searching for content from an hour to just a few minutes.
2. Develop a content plan
Create a schedule for when new content needs to be created, reviewed, or updated.
Then, align content updates with product launches or significant market events to ensure sales reps have timely and relevant materials.
For instance, a retail company could align its content refreshes with seasonal product launches to maximize sales opportunities.
3. Create different types of content
Different audience segments may prefer different types of content. Millennials might engage more with videos, while older demographics like detailed brochures.
So, tailor your content types to match your target audience’s preferences to ensure higher engagement levels.
For example, a financial services firm could use interactive infographics for younger clients while offering in-depth white papers for institutional investors.
4. Periodically review your sales content
Regularly review your content to ensure it remains accurate, relevant, and aligned with your sales objectives.
Share the audit results with all stakeholders to maintain transparency and drive action where needed.
For instance, a half-yearly audit could reveal that certain outdated brochures need revisions to reflect new service offerings.
How do you improve your sales content management?
Improving your sales content management will make your sales team more effective and aligned with your marketing efforts.
Here are the steps you want to consider:
- Collaborate with your sales team
- Run a comprehensive content audit
- Organize all sales materials in one place
- Integrate with your CRM system
- Track the performance of your sales content
Now, let’s cover each step in full detail.
1. Collaborate with your sales team
According to Forrester, 89 percent of B2B buyers say receiving relevant content at each buying stage is very important when choosing vendors.
Sales representatives are always on the front lines, engaging with prospects and customers daily.
So, engage directly with them to understand their needs and challenges and curate content that addresses these points in real time.
Their firsthand experience with customers can provide invaluable insights into what types of content are most effective and what gaps exist in your current library.
For instance, they might reveal a need for more detailed case studies in a particular industry or request quick-reference guides for new product features.
2. Run a comprehensive content audit
According to a study, 60-70 percent of content produced by B2B marketing organizations goes unused.
Use sales content management software to identify and eliminate outdated content, ensuring sales reps can easily find suitable materials for their sales conversations.
Then, categorize content according to the sales stage it supports, the buyer persona it targets, or the product line it covers.
This helps you to gain a clear understanding of whether your content portfolio comprehensively covers all necessary bases.
You may discover that some content pieces need to be used more or have become obsolete.
This could be due to changes in your product offerings, shifts in market demands, or simply because the content no longer resonates with your target audience.
For instance, a whitepaper on industry trends from three years ago may no longer hold value if newer trends have emerged.
3. Organize all sales materials in one place
Centralizing all sales materials into a single, accessible repository or hub can maximize the efficiency of your sales team.
The rationale is simple: when sales reps spend less time searching for content, they can dedicate more time to engaging with prospects and closing deals.
For example, a robust learning management system (LMS) can offer hyper-personalized experiences using AI to recommend content, adapt learning paths, and provide virtual coaching.
This facilitates faster onboarding and ensures that each sales rep’s learning experience meets specific needs.
4. Integrate with your CRM system
Integrating your sales content management system with your CRM system allows sales representatives to incorporate the most relevant and current materials into their interactions with potential clients.
For example, the Docebo for Salesforce module facilitates efficient prospecting, sales-opportunity creation, and access to rich learning content — from in-house resources to external content providers like LinkedIn.
This ensures sales reps have immediate access to the content assets they need directly within their already familiar CRM interface.
5. Track the performance of your sales content
A sales content management software with analytics and reporting capabilities allows you to monitor content usage and assess its effectiveness in achieving sales goals.
This enables sales leaders and content creators to make informed decisions based on hard data.
Analyzing this data can also pinpoint the content that plays a pivotal role in sealing deals, helping you double down on what works best.
For example, if analytics show that a particular type of video content significantly shortens the sales cycle, you can prioritize producing similar materials.
What is a sales content management system?
A sales content management system (SCMS) is a software solution designed to streamline the organization, storage, optimization, and dissemination of sales materials.
It also encompasses various collateral types — from templated emails and call scripts to external-facing documents like e-books, slide decks, and case studies.
Simply put, it acts as your sales content marketing ally.
What are the benefits of using a sales content management system?
Here are some benefits of using an SCMS:
- Enhanced efficiency: By consolidating all sales-related content into one centralized platform, an SCMS eliminates silos and simplifies access to vital sales collateral.
It also helps to automate manual processes while providing administrators — such as sales managers and team leads — with control over authoring rights, content accessibility, and sharing permissions.
- Informed decision-making: With built-in analytics and tracking, SCMSs offer insights into the most effective materials, guiding future content creation and sales strategies.
- Streamlined communication and training: An SCMS also serves as a platform for announcements, policy updates, and sales training materials. This keeps the sales team informed, aligned, and continuously learning, enhancing their performance and adaptability in a competitive market.
How is a sales content management system used?
An SCMS can be used to improve sales efficiency and effectiveness.
Here are some common use cases.
- Sharing and presenting content: An SCMS provides salespeople with easy access to the collateral they can offer during meetings and send as follow-up content.
- Meeting preparation: With all sales collateral readily accessible, salespeople can efficiently prepare for meetings, and tailor presentations to match the prospect’s needs and interests right within the system.
- Lead nurturing: Advanced SCMS platforms leverage AI and machine learning to recommend content to sales reps based on factors like sales stage, buyer persona, and specific sales scenarios.
- Delivery of sales collateral: AI and machine learning within an SCMS deliver tailored content to salespeople to reduce the time spent searching for the right content.
What features should you look for in a sales content management system?
When selecting an SCMS, you’ll need to prioritize the features that suit your sales team’s needs and overall business goals.
Here are the key features to consider:
1. Data and insights
A sales content management platform that provides comprehensive analytics can help sales teams identify areas for improvement in their sales process.
Some platforms offer an advanced analytics suite designed to provide in-depth insights into how sales content and training activities affect revenue and overall sales performance.
This functionality is crucial for a sales team optimizing their content strategy based on real-world outcomes.
Additionally, you can use the platform to analyze feedback, track the effectiveness of sales enablement efforts, and directly tie learning activities to sales results.
2. Personalization features
An SCMS with personalization features uses artificial intelligence to create adaptive learning paths and personalized experiences for each user.
This means that the platform can analyze a sales rep’s previous interactions, learning pace, and preferences to recommend the most relevant content.
For instance, Docebo provides hyper-personalized learning experiences that accelerate the ramp-up time for new sales reps and support their ongoing development.
To do this, it tailors the learning experience to fit the unique learning style of each sales rep — from using visual aids and interactive content, to hands-on simulations.
3. Reporting features
Effective sales content management rests on measuring and understanding the impact of content on sales performance.
This is where a platform with robust reporting features can offer insights into how sales training content is consumed, understood, and applied in real-world sales scenarios.
For example, you can use the platform to access qualitative feedback from sales reps about content relevance and quantitative data on engagement, completion rates, and learning outcomes.
4. Learning efficiency features
Modern sales teams require training solutions that match their dynamic workflows and provide learning opportunities that are both flexible and effective.
This is where an SCMS with a mobile learning feature becomes essential.
A robust LMS platform allows sales professionals to access training materials from any device anytime — during commutes or between meetings.
Through its social learning capabilities, sales reps can also share insights, best practices, and success stories within a community of peers.
5. Integrations
A well-integrated SCMS ensures that sales teams have uninterrupted access to the most current tools, information, and training materials directly within their everyday workflow.
For example, Docebo integrates with:
- Gong, enabling sales teams to leverage training insights and improve sales conversations.
- HubSpot, allowing for the synchronization of user data to ensure that sales and marketing efforts are aligned.
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM, automating sales workflows and making it easier to track customer interactions.
- NetSuite, which powers up e-commerce flows by integrating training data with e-commerce operations to improve the customer buying experience.
- Salesforce, allowing sales reps to access training without leaving their CRM environment.
- Veeva CRM, providing sales reps with a full view of customer interactions and training history for more personalized and informed sales conversations.
Over to you
The right platform can transform your sales content management strategy — whether you’re revamping your sales enablement content or starting from scratch.
Now, it’s your turn to take the next step.
Book a demo today to see how Docebo can streamline your sales content management and improve your sales enablement strategy.