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You’ve seen the stat: Sellers don’t use 60-70% of marketing content. The marketing team creates content for sales, but sellers don’t use it. In this uncertain economy, no company can afford to waste time, resources and effort this way.
Sellers don’t like the content, they are unaware of new content, they can’t find the new content when they need it, or they don’t know how to use it.
Allego and B2B DecisionLabs wanted to solve this problem. They conducted two real-world behavioral studies to learn what increases sellers’ willingness to use a new piece of marketing collateral. They found that who shares the content with sellers greatly affects their likelihood of using it.
Future State: Sellers Want to Use Marketing Content
Research published in Allego’s report “Getting Sellers Engaged: What Motivates Sellers to Use Your Content,” found that sellers are over two times more likely to use marketing-created content if it’s recommended by a high-performing peer.
The field trials observed over 300 sellers working at two enterprise sales organizations. Sellers split into groups and watched a recorded video of a sales manager, a product marketer or a high-performing seller using the same script to introduce new marketing collateral.
The data revealed three interesting findings:
- Sellers are much more likely (61%) to use content when they learn about it from a high-performing peer vs. a sales leader or marketer.
- Sellers are significantly more likely (111%) to use content after watching a high-performing peer provide basic details and demonstrate how to use the content.
- Sellers that make a plan for how they will use new collateral are much more likely (98%) to use it.
3 Steps to Get Sellers to Use Marketing Content
Enlist high-performing sellers. Don’t ask a sales leader or a product marketer to present new content to your sellers — recruit an all-star seller. Research shows that learning from a high- performing peer leads to much higher use intentions.
Demonstrate the conversation. Don’t just give your sellers an overview of the asset; include a demo of how to use it in a sales conversation. Sellers are significantly more likely to use new content after watching a role-play demonstration from a high-performing peer.
- Help sellers plan. Ask sellers some reflective questions after they watch the presentation such as, “How will you use this content?” and “What type of buyer is this a fit for?” Research shows that asking sellers to think about their personal plans for the content increases their motivation to use it.
Go the Final Yard
All the effort marketers put into crafting the most compelling collateral is wasted if you can’t persuade your sellers to use it. Worse yet, when sellers don’t use what marketing provides, they often spend hours every week recreating their own content to use in customer conversations.
It’s not enough to simply make new assets available — sellers must know how to use these resources. In addition to enlisting a high-performing seller to introduce new assets, you can activate sales collateral by pairing it with messaging, talk tracks and winning-the-sale stories to highlight the best use cases.
The research shows that even if you start with identical content, the presenter you choose — and the story they tell — significantly affects your sellers’ willingness to use it. While it may be easier to simply share a new solution brief, eBook or report, following these three additional steps will ensure that sellers get the most value out of every new asset.
Do you need to increase your sellers’ engagement with marketing’s talking points? Download the Allego report, “Getting Sellers Engaged.”
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