How To Create Sales Enablement Content (Types + Examples)
Are you struggling to bridge the gap between your marketing team’s efforts and your sales team's needs? You're not alone.
Many businesses (and more specifically, marketers) face the challenge of creating the right content to truly empower their sales team members. In this article, I’ll share everything I know about sales enablement content, providing you with practical tips, insights, and examples to help your team create content that drives conversions and boosts revenue.
What Is Sales Enablement Content?
Sales enablement content is the resources and materials designed to support the sales process by providing valuable information and tools to prospects and sales teams. It equips sales representatives with the necessary resources to engage with prospects effectively and move them through the sales funnel.
In the context of account-based marketing, sales enablement content becomes even more crucial as it enables personalized communication and tailored solutions for key accounts.
Internal vs external sales enablement content
In the below graphic, I’ve outlined some of the key differences between internal and external sales enablement content. Where internal content is useful to your sales team, external content is more useful to your prospects.
Why Is Sales Enablement Content Important?
Sales enablement content empowers your sales reps with the resources they need to effectively engage, create SQLS vs MQLs, and close deals. In fact, companies who employ an effective sales enablement strategy achieve a win rate of 49% on average, according to the 2019 State of Sales Enablement Report. That's 12% higher than those without an enablement strategy.
By investing in sales enablement content, you're not just supporting your sales team, but driving revenue growth and improving overall business performance.
Types Of Sales Enablement Content
Blogs and articles
Blog posts or articles are written pieces that dive into industry trends, challenges, and topics of interest. They can help establish your company as an industry thought leader and provide valuable insights to your target audience.
By sharing your knowledge, you build credibility and trust with potential customers, ultimately aiding the sales process by positioning your company as a knowledgeable authority.
Example: Userflow is the start of Toplyne’s blog narrative and highlights how the company could use product-led growth to their benefit.
Case studies
Case studies are detailed accounts of how your product or service successfully addressed a specific problem or challenge for a client. They showcase real-world examples of your offerings in action, highlighting benefits and outcomes!
Case studies are powerful sales tools because they give social proof and show the value your solution can deliver, helping to overcome objections and build trust with prospects.
Example: G2’s case study follows the basic structure of: challenge, solution, and result. They use creative storytelling to make a compelling case for their product.
Customer Testimonials
Testimonials are endorsements from satisfied customers, either in written quotes or video format. They offer authentic, third-party validation of your product or service's effectiveness and customer success.
Testimonials build credibility and trust with potential buyers by showcasing the success stories of others. This influences their purchasing decisions and allow the sales team to leverage more social proof in their conversations.
Example: Cooby’s customer testimonials are located on their own personal page. Someone looking for proof that their product works, need only go to this page to read the social proof.
Explainer videos
Explainer videos are short, visual presentations that simplify and clarify complex concepts or product features. They use engaging visuals and straightforward language to educate customers about your offerings and how they can address their needs or challenges.
Not only do explainer videos help with understanding and comprehension, reducing confusion, but they also allow clearer communication between the sales team and customers, ultimately speeding up the sales process.
Example: Synthesia effectively communicates its tools and applications through chronological storytelling in this video on their YouTube channel.
White papers
White papers are in-depth reports that provide valuable analysis and research on specific industry topics to inform and educate readers. They serve as authoritative resources that help establish your company's credibility, positioning you as a trusted advisor.
By offering valuable information and thought leadership, white papers allow the sales team to engage with prospects in meaningful conversations, address their concerns, and nurture them through the sales funnel.
Example: Tech Target did a study on what today’s tech purchase journey looks like and what content consumer's are wanting to see through their journey. This is the kind of value they want to provide their audience and also situated them as a knowledgeable voice in the tech strategy industry.
One pagers
One pagers are concise documents that highlight key features and value propositions of your product or service. They offer a quick overview of your offerings and pricing so prospects easily understand the value you provide.
One pagers serve as effective sales collateral because they quickly communicate your unique selling points, helping the sales team capture attention, garner interest, and start conversations with potential buyers.
Example: ActivTrak gives educational advice to managers on how to measure their employees productivity, while promoting the use of their product as well!
Webinars
Webinars are live or recorded presentations that offer education and expertise on relevant topics within your industry. They give an interactive platform for sharing knowledge, addressing common challenges, showcasing your expertise, or even sharing a product demo.
These virtual presentations provide customers with valuable content, thought leadership, and meaningful interactions. They help build trust and rapport with potential buyers, positioning your company as a trusted advisor and facilitating deeper engagement throughout the sales process.
Example: Clearscope hosted three experts to talk about their approaches to solving common problems in SEO. This firsthand testimony from professionals already utilizing Clearscope serves as compelling social proof for prospects facing similar issues.
Email templates
Email marketing templates are pre-written messages designed for different stages of the sales cycle, such as initial outreach, follow-ups, and nurturing sequences. They provide a consistent and effective way to communicate with customers, ensuring that key messages are delivered in a timely manner.
Not only do these streamline communication with customers (saving time and maintaining professionalism in interactions), they also help the sales team to engage with leads better, moving them through the sales funnel faster.
Example: HelpScout shows us what an upselling email could look like!
Sales playbook
A sales playbook is a comprehensive guide that outlines sales strategies and best practices for engaging with prospects and closing deals. It provides a structured framework for the sales team to follow, offering step-by-step guidance on how to navigate the sales process effectively.
A sales playbook serves as a valuable resource for sales representatives, equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to succeed in their roles. It helps standardize sales practices, improve consistency, and empower the team to overcome common challenges and objections they may encounter during sales interactions.
Example: HubSpot’s playbook goes through their three-step objection management framework. They cover the most common objections, fears, and confusions a buyer might have.
Sales training materials
Sales training materials are designed to onboard and train new sales hires effectively. They can include training manuals, presentations, sales scripts, videos, role-playing exercises, or quizzes that help new reps learn.
These particular materials equip new hires with the knowledge, talking points, and confidence they need to become successful sales professionals. By providing comprehensive training and ongoing support, they help new reps to quickly ramp up and contribute to the sales team, ultimately driving revenue.
How To Create Effective Sales Enablement Content
1. Talk to your sales team
Schedule 1:1s with your sales reps to identify common pain points and challenges they face during their customer-facing sales calls. Questions like:
- What are the most common objections or concerns raised by customers during your calls?
- Are there any aspects of our product or service offerings that you find particularly challenging to explain or sell to customers? If so, why?
- Are there any areas where you feel you could benefit from additional training or support to improve your sales goals?
2. Consider the full buyer journey
Develop relevant content that caters to different stages of the customer journey, from awareness to post-purchase support.
For example, if you're running a project management SaaS company, you could make content ranging from introductory guides on project management principles for the awareness stage to advanced tutorials on using your software's features for the post-purchase stage.
You also need to consider where your content will be deployed. For example, does your ABM software allow you to distribute content as part of the ABM content strategy?
3. Audit your existing content
Assess your current content types in your library to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement. Are you running low on infographics to share with your stakeholders? Do you have an abundance of social media content?
4. Design your sales enablement content strategy
Determine the pieces of content you need to create, prioritize them based on relevance and impact, and allocate resources accordingly.
5. Create content and share it with your sales team
Develop high-quality content and ensure that your salespeople are equipped with the necessary tools to leverage it effectively in their sales conversations.
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Effective sales enablement content is the secret ingredient to unlocking your sales team's full potential. By understanding the needs of your team, aligning content with the buyer's journey, and creating high-quality resources, you can empower your sales reps to close more deals and achieve greater success.
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