Content in context – the sales perspective

In the sales enablement space, “content in context” is a commonly used phrase. However, what does it really mean? Even more important, how should it best be applied to help sales people consistently reach their quota?

Content and the funnel

Generally speaking, content in context can be described as having relevant content for different stages of the funnel. Early on, it is about generating interest and attracting prospects that fit your ideal customer profile. Mid-funnel content can be created to achieve a number of different things, however in simple terms it is about differentiating yourself from the competition and reducing the perceived risks associated with change. At the closing stages, content should be aligned with credibility and confirmation, assuring the prospective client that they have made the right decision – not only to change, but that you are indeed the right choice to help them achieve a successful outcome.

Buyer Personas

In addition to having the right content for the right chronological context, companies have been advised to create marketing material that resonate with different buyer personas. CEOs and sales operation managers may sit on the same decision making committee, but they care about different things. Right? Subsequently, what we provide to them must resonate with problems they are trying to solve.

Where to begin? 

Companies are channeling more and more resources towards content production. By providing relevant information for the right stage of the funnel, adjusted to the right buying persona and aligned with the buying decision process and buyer culture, we can increase the likelihood of achieving greater results. 

Here is the challenge – it gets very complex, very fast. The people you want to reach are flooded with content – take 2 minutes to scroll through your Twitter feed and see how many articles that have been recommended to you within the last 20 minutes. How do you decide what information to consume? And yes, I am fully aware of the irony that this post will show up in the exact same space. Getting found is not easy and with so many variables – stages, buyer personas, different industries – content development can be a complex and time consuming process. 

Now, how do we best approach this subject? Bob Apollo, a frequent and fabulous guest author on this blog, elegantly argues: “…if we choose to only create content that is designed to stimulate an insightful conversation with a key stakeholder in a target prospect about an issue that’s important to them, we’d all end up generating (and consuming) a lot less crap”.

One step further

In a sales process context, content is more than marketing material. Allow me to add a dramatic pause and say that again.

(….)

In a sales process context, content is more than marketing material. 

Thank you. Each step in a sales process represents a different context and the “content” a sales person needs to access in order to execute goes beyond which specific marketing material to use.
First of all, a step in the sales process serves a particular purpose. Buyer focused steps are meant to help the prospective client move through their decision process. In order to facilitate this effectively, sales people need to address their concerns, questions and perceived risks associated with change. Value building steps help the buyer realize the value of your products and services and builds a business case for change. Qualifying steps are put in place to avoid happy ears syndrome and consistently ask questions to determine true customer fit. The list goes on.

Deconstructing best practices

You’re not likely see great results if the content you provide only outlines roughly what to do approximately when. Each step of your sales process should be accompanied by your collected best sales practices for this particular context.

What would this look like in practice? Going beyond marketing material, here is a non-exhaustive list of questions that sales people should have the answers to:

• Why is this step important? Can it be skipped? If so, under what circumstances?
• When does this step need to be completed? Why?
• What do I need to do to complete this step? What questions do I need to ask? What (if any stakeholders) do I need to identify? What facts do I need to confirm? What does a successful outcome look like?
• How will I complete this step? How do I access relevant marketing content? Are there checklists, templates or buyer persona information I should utilize and where do I find them? What other resources are available to guide me?
• Who do I need to involve to complete this step? Do I need to request internal resources? Which people in the decision making team do I need to engage with?

In conclusion

Content as a means of staying relevant and differentiating yourself from the competition matters more than ever. However, the right piece of marketing material at the right time is only one aspect – in order to execute your sales strategy on a day to day basis and improve sales enablement, we need to document the detailed instructions around our best practices for each new sales context.