Marketing and sales should be key partners in any organization. Product marketing in particular has the opportunity to work closely with sales to impact one of the most important metrics sales teams measure: win rate.
Product marketers are the go-to resource for providing messaging guidance, product training, competitive intelligence, and other tools to their sales teams. When created and delivered properly, sales collateral produced by product marketing is highly visible, widely adopted, and produces quantifiable results in the form of win rate increases. Three types of collateral in particular are especially valuable in helping salespeople improve their odds of winning deals.
Competitor Battlecards
Competitor battlecards are one of the more popular sales enablement materials that you as a product marketer can create today. Battlecards provide an overview of a specific competitor’s company, products, and services. Most importantly, they provide guidelines on how to win a deal against that competitor. The most effective battlecards are easy to consume, up-to-date with the latest competitive intelligence, and are tailored to the stages of the sales process.
Key sources of intel that inform your battlecards generally come from both online sources and your sales team. Review sites like G2, forums like Quora, and your competitors’ own websites are great sources of online intel. Make sure that all data in your battlecards is up-to-date and validated beyond sales rumors. Misinformation about competitors is worse than a lack of information.
It’s also extremely valuable if you store your battlecards in one centralized location, such as within your CRM or sales enablement tool. This allows salespeople to access battlecards where they’re already working and allows marketers to measure effectiveness and adoption metrics.
Industry Overviews
Product knowledge is important for salespeople to master, but industry knowledge can be even more valuable. This is particularly true if you sell into multiple industries with unique qualities. Be sure to provide industry-specific information on what motivates buyers, macroeconomic trends, and examples of successful customers in each industry.
Third party content — such as industry research, but also third-party blog content, including news articles and more — can be a valuable addition to these overviews. Specifically look for content that validates your approach, your leadership, or the problem you’re solving in the industry. Materials like this are great to leverage in follow-up emails to prospects, initial prospecting emails to capture attention, or even sales conversations.
In addition to sharing the articles themselves, look for industry statistics that sales reps can mention on the phone to provide third-party validation about industry trends.
Case Studies and Customer Testimonials
Case studies, testimonials, and even online reviews are an incredible asset to help your sales team win more deals. Whether written or video, feedback from your customers goes a long way in telling the story of how and why your solution is the best. Case studies with quantifiable improvements in key business metrics are particularly valuable in helping salespeople prove out the ROI of your product to buyers.
Remember, you can reuse and repurpose customer-centric content. One case study can turn into multiple quotes to be used across your website, social channels, and other types of assets mentioned here.
Product marketing is in a unique position to impact sales results. Creating sales-focused collateral can be one of the most valuable, quantifiable uses of a product marketers time. To learn more, don’t miss Highspot’s Director of Product Marketing Stephen Brown taking the virtual stage during Crayon’s Product Marketing Digital Bootcamp on April 24th. Save your spot.
