A quick look as to the number of sales people creating their own solution content versus using content developed by the marketing organization

1. Engaging Customers at
Critical Touch Points
• CSO Insights: Sales Engagement Optimization
Study

2. Sales Teams Go Rogue
55%
45%
Sales
Marketing
Who is Creating Sales Content?
The chart to the right shows that there is about a 55/45 split
between collateral created by sales teams and materials
created for sales by marketing. This means most of the content
sales teams use is made by sales — not by marketing.
Furthermore, several of the companies surveyed highlighted
the concept of “sales enhanced” content. In these cases,
marketing created the tools or collateral, and sales customized
it for their own use. When you take this into account, the sales
organization is actually creating more than 55% of their
content.
Source - CSO Insights: 2016 Sales Engagement
Optimization Study

3. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Call Scripts
Product Brochures
Email Templates
ROI Templates
Needs Analysis Templates
Objection Handling Information
Proposal Templates
Demos
Competitive Analysis
Presentations
Sales Force Best Practices
Case Studies and References
Mission Critical Very Important
We then sought to assess the value that various tools
and content represented to sales teams in terms of
helping them effectively engage customers and
prospects. The chart to the right provides a summary
of participants’ ratings of the value of various types of
resources sales teams use during the sales process.
Here we see that sales professionals need a variety of
different types of assets to share with clients in order
to support effective interactions.
How effective are companies at providing sales teams
the materials they need? That analysis raised some
yellow and even red flags.
Sales Teams Go Rogue: Creating Their Own Content
Value of Different Types of Assets
Source - CSO Insights: 2016 Sales Engagement
Optimization Study

4. 19%
47%
29%
6%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Needs Redesign Needs Improvement Satisfactory Exceeds Expectations
Quality and Quantity of Content
Created by Marketing
Sales Teams Go Rogue: Creating Their Own Content
We have often said that the answer to every sales challenge you currently
face probably already exists inside your company. Some enterprising sales
professional has figured out a unique value proposition, developed a great
answer to an objection, has developed messaging that clearly
differentiates you from the competition, etc.
Looking at the list of assets on the previous page, we see that sharing best
practices is the second highest-valued selling resource for salespeople.
Unfortunately, few companies are in a good position to effectively do this.
Of the firms surveyed in the Sales Engagement Optimization study, 30%
reported having a random or ad hoc sharing practice, and another 40%
said they had an informal process.
The remaining items on the list are often the responsibility of marketing
to create. When asked the study participants how sales would rate the
quality and quantity of the assets marketing provides, it became clear that
less than 35% of marketing organizations are providing content that
meets the needs of sellers.
Here we see the first sales engagement challenge many companies are
facing: they are not consistently providing sales teams with the best
practices, tools, and collateral to effectively sell.
Source - CSO Insights: 2016 Sales Engagement
Optimization Study