Content Marketing

Sales Enablement: Tailoring Content to the Customer Journey

79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. Do you know what that means? Your business is generating some sales, but maybe it isn’t enough.

Have you tried including sales enablement in your marketing strategy? Sales enablement content is tailored for each stage of the buyer’s journey. It can help improve sales and keep customers interested in your business. Your sales reps can use sales enablement content throughout the selling process to encourage potential customers to make a purchase.

Sales enablement content also helps remove doubts prospects have about buying a product and allows sales and marketing teams to identify and answer pressing questions customers have at different stages of the buyer’s journey. In fact, 95% of buyers choose a solution provider who delivers content that helps them navigate through each stage of the buyer’s process.

WHAT IS THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY?

In order to understand how sales enablement content works, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the customer journey. The customer journey represents the process a potential customer goes through before they make a purchase. Below are the common phases customers go through before they buy a product.

Awareness: The consumer becomes aware of a product through different marketing channels such as digital marketing and traditional marketing. Once a consumer becomes aware, they realize that they need to resolve an issue or they want to pursue an opportunity. Sales enablement content, at this point, should offer content that educates potential buyers about the issues and opportunities at hand. This should be done without directly selling to the consumer.
Consideration: At this stage, the consumer realizes that a need must be met and they consider whether or not to buy a product. As they look for different products and services to solve their problem, marketers create content that educates consumers about their particular solution and helps remove any doubts they may have about making a purchase.
Decision: The buyer has chosen a solution, but it doesn’t guarantee that it will be from your company. At this stage, you must convince them that your brand offers the best solution. For this stage, content you create should show how your business is different from and better than the competition.

Now that you have a better understanding of the buyer’s journey, you should know how essential sales enablement content is to your bottom line.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SALES ENABLEMENT CONTENT

Before we get into why sales enablement content is so essential to helping customers make a purchase decision, let’s take a look at some telling stats. According to a recent Aberdeen Research report, structured sales enablement programs lead to:

62% higher team quota attainment
205% more revenue growth
725% higher sales velocity
23% increase in lead conversion

Considering these stats, would you want to leave sales enablement out of your marketing strategy? We doubt it.

Sales enablement…

Keeps marketing and sales on the same page.

As you know, your marketing team brings in leads, while the sales team closes the deal. But when the two teams aren’t aligned, your business won’t be as efficient in making the sales you desire. Marketing creates the buyer personas that highlight the hopes, dreams, fears, and goals of your ideal customers. This allows sales to get to know your target audience and gives them a better chance at influencing a purchase. With software that tracks prospects’ behavior, your marketing team can learn more about prospects such as their concerns. They can then turn this information over to the sales team, which uses it to make an attractive offer, specifically tailored to the prospect.

Maintains top-of-mind awareness.

As your marketing team consistently dishes out content that aligns with each stage of the buyer’s journey, it makes it easier for potential customers to remember your brand. Even though the consumer may not be ready to buy for a few months or even years, they’re still consuming your content, which keeps your business top-of-mind. They may not need what you’re offering at the moment, but when they do, your business will be the first one that comes to mind.

Build lasting relationships with prospects.

Staying top-of-mind isn’t about harassing people until they make a purchase. It’s about building a relationship and earning trust. But you want to keep that relationship and maintain that trust. A lot of your sales enablement can be done by writing personalized emails, offering free content, encouraging email subscribers to attend a webinar, and inviting them to demo your product. An efficient sales enablement process involves always creating content that’s beneficial and valuable to the consumer.

BUILDING AN EFFICIENT SALES ENABLEMENT STRATEGY

So where to begin? To build a strong sales enablement process that will help move leads down the sales funnel, you should create content that will be of value to your prospects. Remember, people don’t like to be sold to. Instead, they want information that’s accessible and easy to digest.

CASE STUDIES AND TESTIMONIALS TO SHOW SOCIAL PROOF

Case studies show real-world examples of how a customer has gained value from your product. The same goes for testimonials; whether they’re written or in video, they act as social proof. This means that prospects will look at these pieces of content and think, “Wow. Maybe I should buy this (product). This customer enjoyed it so much that they spoke highly of it”.

WHITEPAPERS THAT VALIDATE YOUR PRODUCT’S VALUE

Whitepapers are educational pieces of content that are downloadable and act as lead magnets. People are often required to enter their email address to obtain the content. In your whitepaper, you present a problem and provide a solution. This shows the value of your product or service.

PHONE SCRIPTS/EMAIL TEMPLATES THAT HELP YOUR SALES TEAMS CONTACT PROSPECTS

Phone scripts and email templates help make outreach easier and save valuable time. You can create phone scripts for new product features, events, or tools. Email templates can help you expedite the sales process. Your sales team can use the templates and customize them to each prospect’s needs.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

By looking at how your competition is performing in content creation, keyword rankings, and other key performance indicators, you can gain more insight into how your product stacks up against theirs. From there, you can show your prospects how you differ from the competition by comparing certain characteristics.

At the consideration stage, a prospect will compare different companies before making a purchase decision. They’ll consider things like price, unique selling points, and value. It’s your job to show them how your solution will provide superior value. By creating content that compares the capabilities of your product to your competitors, you can help consumers make a more informed decision (to buy from you). For example, you can create a side-by-side feature or price comparison chart to show prospects how your solution is the best out there.