4 Pieces of Sales Collateral Your Business Needs

Proper sales collateral can mean the difference between a successful revenue team and a so-so revenue team, but many small businesses aren’t tapping into this resource. 

Sales collateral helps your sales team educate potential clients about your brand and is usually developed by your marketing team or marketing agency. If done right, sales collateral keeps your sellers on brand, simplifies your offering to your potential clients, and gives your sellers resources to consult and leave behind. Not bad outcomes at all!

The problem is that many small businesses haven’t developed the necessary sales collateral to grow their business. We’re helping change that. Read on to learn about common mistakes we see businesses make when writing sales collateral and the pieces of sales collateral you need to develop for your business. 

Common Sales Collateral Mistakes

Sales Collateral Mistake 1: Failing To Segment

Many organizations tend to only think of their sales teams as a “bottom of the marketing funnel resource.” That can be a mistake. Depending on the deal, the customer, and how they came to your brand, the potential customer might actually be at the top or middle of the marketing funnel when they first talk to a salesperson. Low-funnel sales collateral won’t make a difference if the prospect is still only comparing your product or solution to a competitor. To combat this, ensure that your sales team has content for all stages of the deal cycle. This will vary from customer to customer. Typically, we recommend infographics for top-of-funnel, battle cards for prospects considering you versus another competitor, and case studies for mid-funnel.

Sales Collateral Mistake 2: Reusing Marketing Content As Sales Content

We want to clarify something here. Repurposing marketing content CAN be really useful. However, some small businesses, strapped for time, sometimes copy and paste marketing content from email marketing or their website into a piece of sales collateral. That’s likely a mistake. We have found that the prospect’s needs in the sales cycle are so different from their needs when they’re first learning about your brand. Now, rewriting or building upon a past blog or email promotion to create your sales collateral is a great option. Just be sure to adjust appropriately if you reuse marketing content in sales collateral.

Sales Collateral Mistake 3: Failing To Divide External & Internal Content

Not all sales collateral is meant to be read by the end prospect. Sometimes, your sales team needs help overcoming objections, synthesizing information, and staying true to your brand’s message. If sellers need help communicating the finer points of your value proposition, then internal-only talk tracks might be necessary pieces of sales collateral. Just be sure that it is crystal clear which piece of content is meant to be read by a prospect and which is only for a seller to consult. You don’t want to inadvertently give a prospect your entire sales playbook merely because a seller was unsure what was external and what was internal. This division of sales content into external and internal can also save you time. A properly branded piece of sales collateral requires a lot of graphic design to really impress a prospect. An internal-only piece might require a little less. 

Sales Collateral Mistake 4: Failing To Align Sales & Marketing

Too many brands think of the line between sales and marketing as a line in the sand. In this framework, every deal can be neatly and cleanly handed off from marketing to the sales team. A clear before and after, where the deal has passed from marketing to sales. However, this framework doesn’t help sales and marketing work together to close deals.

 Let’s walk through an example. Imagine a lead found your website on Google, thanks to your SEO campaign, and submitted a request for an appointment. A sales rep then schedules time with them to review their problem. In the “line in the sand” approach, marketing’s job is done. The lead has gone off their plate and is on the sales team’s plate. However, in our opinion, the marketing team’s job isn’t over; it’s only morphed! We recommend including that lead on email marketing promotions, even as they chat with your sales team, for the best results. The lead is likely still learning about your brand, and your marketing content is still useful, even as they plan out a deal with Sales. 

The more marketing and sales collaborate to move deals through to close, the better your outcomes will be. Trust us. 

Common Types of Sales Collateral

• Case Studies: Everyone says that they’re the best. Potential clients are thus a little skeptical, and that skepticism is warranted. Combat this skepticism with social proof in the form of a case study. This demonstration of your excellence proves you’re the real deal. If you have a client that is willing to testify on camera about what you did for them, even better.

• Battle Cards: When your prospect is considering your solution vs a direct competitor, nothing is as useful to your sales team as a battle card. This side-by-side comparison demonstrates the offerings, strengths, and differences between you and any given competitor and gives your sales team a talk track to help overcome objections. It’s important to note that battle cards can be both client-facing and merely an internal resource to help your sellers format their responses to objections. 

• Whitepapers: Sometimes, your solution is a technically complex one, or your prospect’s need is very intricate. A whitepaper highlighting your thought leadership and industry expertise, is a great piece of sales collateral for these situations. The end goal of a well-written whitepaper is to elaborate on an industry problem at a high level of detail. These pieces of content are usually great resources to leave with prospects as conversations are beginning to demonstrate what your brand has contributed to the industry’s conversation around a topic.

• Infographics: Infographics are quick, digestible pieces of content that outline what problem you solve and what that means for your prospect. This piece of sales collateral should be one-page and boost plenty of graphics and eye-catching images. The goal with this piece of collateral isn’t to win a deal immediately; it’s to give the client a quick run-down of who you are and build some awareness. We recommend sending this piece of sales collateral out after meetings with prospects so that they have a summary piece of content to consult later or show to other internal team members. 

Develop Your Dream Sales Collateral With JSL

As a small business, you don’t have the marketing resources that a larger sales organization might. That’s okay! You can still compete at the highest level with the help of a quality marketing agency.

JSL Marketing & Web Design is an award-winning marketing agency headquartered in Dallas, TX. We’ve been helping clients develop their dream content for years and are waiting in the wings to help you put your story on the page!

In addition to any of the above pieces of sales collateral, we might also recommend…

• Formalizing A Brand Style Guide
• A Competitive Analysis
• Market Research
• Logo & Graphic Design Improvements
• Digital Marketing
• & More

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