It’s no secret that sales content plays a pivotal role in the B2B path to purchase. Some studies suggest that a prospect consumes 13 pieces of content before making a purchase decision.
Plus, according to Gartner, today’s B2B buying groups typically include five to 16 people, each doing their own research and consulting content. That’s a lot of stakeholders – and a lot of content sellers must get right.
But creating endless piles of sales content isn’t the answer. What truly moves deals forward is ensuring sellers can deliver the right content, to the right buyer, at the right moment in their journey.
But that’s tough, especially when teams are lean, deals are complex, and content is scattered across the organization.
Sales content automation is changing the game.
In this post, we’ll explore what sales content automation is, how it’s positively impacting sales organizations, and how to build a strategy that equips your team to deliver personalized, engaging buyer experiences – and win more deals.
What is sales content automation?
Sales content automation is the process of streamlining and accelerating the entire sales content lifecycle. Sales content automation tools tackle repetitive, time-consuming tasks like versioning, personalization, distribution, and performance tracking so sellers can always deliver content that resonates with every buyer.
Taking sales content management to the next level
Sales content automation often works together with sales content management, but the two aren’t the same thing. While sales content management provides a centralized place to organize and store assets, automation adds a layer of intelligence and efficiency to ensure the right content is created, surfaced, and optimized at every stage of the sales cycle.
Think of it this way: a basic storage tool like Google Drive or Dropbox can hold all your content. But these tools won’t help a seller find the right sales sheet for the right prospect, personalize it so it resonates, and track how the buyer interacts with it. The right sales content automation tools can do all that (and more) thanks to features like:
- Dynamic content generation: Quickly create tailored content that resonates with buyers, no matter where they are in the purchase journey.
- Contextual recommendations: Surface the most relevant content for the deal at hand based on factors like industry, persona, stage, and past engagement. Sellers spend less time searching and more time engaging.
- Version control: Ensure sellers are always using the latest, on-brand assets, while enabling easy versioning for personalized updates.
- Performance analytics: Track how content is used by sellers and engaged with by buyers, and how that activity influences deal outcomes.
In short, sales content automation eliminates content chaos and replaces it with a streamlined, data-driven process that helps reps deliver impactful, on-brand materials every single time.
What are the benefits of sales content automation?
Buyer expectations have never been higher. Sellers must consistently meet those expectations, but it’s not always easy when buying committees are getting larger and sales cycles are getting longer.
Sales content automation gives reps the ability to move faster, personalize more effectively, and keep messaging consistent and relevant – even when deals are complex and buying groups are large.
Let’s take a look at some of the top benefits of sales content automation.
Boosts sales rep productivity
Sellers don’t have to waste time searching for the right asset or building one from scratch. Sales content automation delivers relevant, ready-to-use content instantly, which means sellers can spend more time engaging buyers and advancing deals.
Increases sales velocity
When you can get tailored, on-brand content into a prospect’s hands at exactly the right moment, it removes friction from their decision-making process. Buyers have the information they need, when they need it, which accelerates their purchase journey.
Scales content creation with flat budgets
As your team grows or expands into new industries or territories, content needs multiply. But budgets don’t always keep pace. Sales content automation helps teams “do more with less” by scaling production and personalization, without proportionally increasing resources.
Ensures brand consistency
Teams no longer have to worry about rogue decks or off-brand messaging. Sales content automation tools help ensure sellers always work with the latest, approved assets. That means every touchpoint reflects your brand’s voice, positioning, and value.
Enhances the buyer experience
Great products and services matter, but nearly 90% of buyers say their experiences with a company are just as important.
Modern B2B buyers want sellers to understand their needs and provide personalized content and experiences that address their specific challenges. In fact, 71% of people expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and three-quarters get frustrated when this doesn’t happen.
Sales content automation makes that personalization fast, consistent, and scalable.
Informs smarter content optimization
Not all sales content drives the same level of engagement. Sales content automation tools include analytics to show what’s working and what isn’t. That means you can double down on content that’s working and optimize (or, in some cases, completely eliminate) content that isn’t.
The organizations winning deals today are the ones meeting buyer expectations for speed and relevance – without overloading their sellers and enablement teams. The right sales content automation strategy (and tools) are a must.
What types of sales content can you automate?
Sales content automation can be a great way to deliver relevant, personalized, and impactful content at scale. But what types of sales enablement content can you automate?
If it’s repetitive to create, essential to selling, and used often across deals, you can probably automate it. Here are a few examples.
- Sales presentations: From first-touch overviews to deep dive demos, sales content automation helps sellers pull together personalized, polished decks – without sinking a ton of time into it.
- Proposals and quotes: Eliminate manual errors and speed up turnaround time with templates that automatically pull in the right pricing, terms, and product details for each buyer.
- Win-loss decks: Standardize post-deal review materials to make competitive insights easy to share across the team, while keeping data accurate and current.
- Sales battlecards and sales collateral: Arm reps with dynamic, easy-to-access battlecards that update in real time with the latest product messaging and competitive intel.
- Case studies and customer stories: Quickly tailor proof points and examples to match the buyer’s industry, region, or use case — without going through a complete rewrite.
- Email templates: Keep outreach consistent and relevant with pre-approved templates that sellers can tailor to address each buyer’s unique needs and pain points.
When these types of sales enablement content are automated, it’s a win for sellers and buyers alike. Reps stop wasting time searching or creating, and prospects get the timely, tailored materials they need to make confident decisions.
How can you implement a sales content automation strategy?
Rolling out a content automation strategy can have a big impact on sales productivity and performance. But it’s not as simple as buying a sales content automation tool and hoping for the best. It’s about building a system your sellers will actually use.
Here are a few key steps you need to take to get it right.
#1 Conduct a sales content audit
Take an inventory of everything in your current sales content library. Determine what’s current and what needs updates. Also identify where there are gaps.
Lean on usage data during your sales content audit. Often, a small portion of content drives the most engagement. This data can help you understand where to prioritize your time and resources.
#2 Standardize and modularize our sales content
Break sales content into reusable components, such as slides and templates. That way, your sellers can mix and match different components for different buyers, industries, and personas – without starting from scratch. This also makes personalization faster and more consistent.
#3 Invest in the right sales content automation tools
If you don’t already have sales content automation tools, now’s the time to make the investment. Choose a platform that aligns with your team’s needs, integrates with your existing tech stack, and offers essential features like dynamic content creation, contextual recommendations, version control, and analytics. Your sales content management system or sales enablement platform may have automation capabilities you’re not using yet, so be sure to ask.
#4 Integrate your tech stack
Your sales content automation platform should make sellers’ lives easier, not more complicated. Be sure your chosen platform works seamlessly with your CRM, sales engagement software, and other sales enablement tools. This ensures sellers can access content without leaving their workflows, and analytics flow back for reporting.
#5 Build contextual recommendations
Tap into automation features that enable sellers to surface the right content based on things like deal stage, buyer persona, industry, and engagement. This will enable sellers to spend less time guessing and searching and more time engaging with customers and sharing proven, relevant content.
#6 Train your reps (and keep training them)
Even the best sales content automation platform won’t make an impact if your sellers don’t know how to use it or don’t see the value. Provide hands-on training when you first launch your sales content automation platform. Follow up with ongoing enablement to reinforce adoption.
#7 Measure and optimize
Use data to track content usage, buyer engagement, and impact on deal outcomes. Double down on what works and make data-based optimizations to refine underperforming assets. This helps ensure your sales content library is only filled with effective, impactful assets.
By following these steps, you’ll create a living, evolving sales content automation strategy that continually improves seller productivity and buyer engagement.
Stop searching, start selling
Today’s B2B buyers depend on sales content to make informed purchase decisions. But creating a ton of content isn’t the right approach to reach those buyers. Instead, organizations must ensure their sellers deliver the right content to the right buyer at the right time.
Sales content automation makes that possible.
By ensuring the right content surfaces at the right moment, reps can spend less time searching and more time selling. Buyers get relevant, personalized materials that answer their questions, build their confidence, and move them towards a purchase decision – faster.
With Mindtickle’s sales content management and automation features, your sellers have a single source of truth for all content, complete with dynamic content generation, contextual recommendations, real time version control, and performance analytics that connect directly to revenue outcomes. This results in a faster, smoother, more consistent buying experience and a sales team that’s free to focus on what they do best: closing deals.
Ready to spend less time searching for content and more time selling? Book a live demo to see what Mindtickle’s sales content management and automation tools can do for you.
By Poornima Mohandas
