This quick reference guide identifies three common root causes of the sales content problem and three strategies for addressing it. You’ll learn about short-term strategies that can help you drive customer value and sales effectiveness. You’ll also learn how small investments in content development can lead to outsized returns in bigger deals and higher close rates.

1. How effective are your company’s sales content and
tools? Do they help improve close rates and deal
sizes? Or do your reps waste time on failed searches
and become amateur marketers who create their own
content? Today, many companies exhaust valuable
resources on tools and assets that never get used, or
worse, steer salespeople toward low conversion rates,
small deal sizes, and heavy discounts.
This quick reference guide identifies three common root
causes of the sales content problem and three strategies
for addressing it. You’ll learn about short-term strategies
that can help you drive customer value and sales
effectiveness. You’ll also learn how small investments
in content development can lead to outsized returns in
bigger deals and higher close rates.
PRODUCTOVERLOAD
CONSISTENCY
CONTEXT
Customers and
prospects care about
their problems first –
not your products.
How much time do
your salespeople
spend looking for
information, mashing
up documents, or
writing new ones?
What does a salesperson
need to do to prepare for a
meeting, have a successful
conversation, and close to
a next step?
DRIVING SALES EFFECTIVENESS WITH GREAT CONTENT
Your fastest path to revenue may lie in improving one or more stages in
the buying/selling process. If your sales leadership can identify a set of
activities where small improvements will deliver big returns, you may be
able to make a large contribution to revenue with minimal resources.
Unlike the previously described Standards transformation, where you
create content across the portfolio, here you concentrate on a window of
opportunity in the buying/selling process and create just enough content
to make a difference.
Here’s how to start:
• Ask sales leaders to identify stages in the selling/buying process where small improvements can pay big
dividends (e.g., developing a business case)
• Ask sales operations or training leaders to explain what should be happening at these stages
• Interview sellers and subject matter experts to find what they need to be successful
• Identify a set of assets that could help make a difference
• Pilot a set of assets and ask for feedback
You can use these transformation strategies together, but be careful not to do too much at once. For example, a
sales-process transformation focused on the Solution Development stage might also require some standardized
solution product information. The result is a Process transformation (#3) combined with a limited Consistency
transformation (#2) focused on only one or two documents. Keep in mind that the larger your portfolio and
company, the more stakeholders you’ll have to work with, and you’ll have to spend more effort rolling out your
program. So plan accordingly.
TRANSFORMATION: PROCESS
FINAL THOUGHTS
95 West Court Street
Doylestown, PA 18901
215.230.4340
info@launchintl.com
www.launchinternational.com
WHY CONTENT
MISSES THE
MARK
What it is: Content develop-
ment targeted at a specific
point in the buying/selling
process
Use it when: You’ve identi-
fied a buying/selling stage
where small improvements
can yield a large return
It leads to: Increased
opportunities, larger deal
sizes, and higher win rates

2. What it is: Systematic
approach to driving consisten-
cy in sales and marketing
assets
Use it when: You need to
deliver time savings over a
short period or facilitate
bundled product & service
solutions
It leads to: Time savings for
sellers and authors, larger deal
sizes, brand consistency, and
reduced risk
WHAT TO DO?
No company can shut its
doors and replace everything.
What’s needed is a phased
approach starting with
areas that produce
the biggest return.
Customers and prospects care about their problems
first – not your products. It’s a truth as old as sales
itself, but recent trends make it even more significant.
With today’s availability of information, buyers do more
research and form their own opinions before talking to
your salespeople. And recent studies have confirmed
that buyers are increasingly frustrated with salespeople
who lead with product pitches.
Yet all too often, companies overload their content
libraries with product and solution information. They
fail to provide resources on customer issues and how to
guide a buyer toward addressing them. This sets their
salespeople up for deals where the buyer is driving
the agenda, leading to single product transactions,
head-to-head feature/function battles with competitor
products, and deal decisions based on lowest price.
Which way are you steering your salespeople? To find
out, do a simple audit on a representative sample of
sales and marketing content. Create two piles for what
you review:
• Pile 1: Industry information, business trends,
customer problems, and ways to address them
• Pile 2: Product and solution descriptions, features,
functions, and technical specifications
If the count skews toward Pile 2, your reps may be
missing opportunities to sell high, increase deal sizes,
and differentiate against competitors.
How much time do your salespeople spend looking for
information, mashing up documents, or writing new
ones? Do your vendors, marketers, and subject matter
experts know what to create or what standards to
follow? If not, even the most diligent, well-intentioned
authors will contribute to a hodgepodge of materials –
a virtual flea market of multiple document types, many
of which are likely redundant and out-of-date.
The most immediate symptoms are complaints
from sales and low usage rates. Beyond that are the
frustrations of authors who churn out content by
the bushel and still have to respond to one-off
requests. But there is also an effectiveness problem.
Salespeople often have a subset of products
they are comfortable discussing. Content chaos
makes it difficult for salespeople to learn about
new offerings. It persuades them to sell further
into that comfort zone and dissuades them from
offering more of your portfolio. The result is
money left on the table in the form of smaller
deals and missed opportunities.
Your reps conduct a wide variety of sales
meetings depending on where the buyer is on
a journey from identifying a problem to solving
it. In order to create effective content, authors
need help understanding what actually happens
in these meetings. What does the buyer know
and care about? What does a salesperson need
to do to prepare for a meeting, have a successful
conversation, and close to a next step?
Companies often try to help with training and
playbooks. Too often, however, training is all
about the product, and playbooks are little more
than repurposed data sheets and solution guides.
How much of your content helps a salesperson to
share valuable insights, ask the right questions,
and help buyers understand the positive
outcomes they can achieve with your help? If it
doesn’t support these activities, your salespeople
may be missing opportunities altogether, or
leaving money on the table with small deals.
PROBLEM: PRODUCT OVERLOAD
PROBLEM: CONSISTENCY
PROBLEM: CONTEXT
If buyers don’t want products pushed at them, what do they want?
Research has shown that buyers value sales meetings in which they can
develop a deeper understanding of the business issues and problems
they face. They want insights, not product pitches. But where do these
insights come from?
Our experience has shown that most companies have a wealth
of unique points of view – they wouldn’t be in business without a
distinctive way of delivering value to customers. The problem is, these
companies haven’t shown their salespeople how to use those insights
to engage buyers. The good news is, arming your salespeople with
tools to do so is easier than you think. In fact, the fastest path to elevating sales conversations lies in packaging
those insights into buyer-friendly content and training your salespeople to share those insights.
Here’s how to start:
• Review your website, company publications, and marketing materials
• Select up to three insights that are unique to your company and simple enough to be communicated in a sales
conversation
• For each one, ask subject matter experts to explain how it connects to your company’s products and solutions
• Select a finalist based on its potential to motivate customers
• Create a short, buyer-facing document that summarizes the insight in simple terms
• For salespeople, develop a presentation, whiteboard, and/or discussion guide
• Ask your sales leadership team to encourage salespeople to engage prospects with that insight
• Gather feedback on those efforts, and use them to develop additional insights
Dealing with content chaos may take precedence over any other
objective in the short term. Perhaps Marketing is concerned about
brand consistency, or Sales is fed up with time wasted on searches,
or your CEO is worried about liability risk from “rogue” content. In
most cases, it’s impossible to replace all content in the short term.
Instead, success lies in starting with a set of high-impact documents and
creating in-depth authoring guidance. By encouraging usage of the
“must-haves,” you may find that other assets types are no longer needed.
The result? Less content, more brand compliance, time savings for authors and sellers, and reduced risk of the
wrong promises being made to buyers.
Here’s how to start:
• Interview salespeople to identify the highest-priority assets
• Create fully designed prototypes, and ask for feedback
• Create authoring standards and guides – include directions on branding, messaging, and writing style
• Train authors and vendors on following the standards, and provide coaching as necessary
• Include this training in onboarding programs for new staff
TRANSFORMATION: INSIGHTS
TRANSFORMATION: STANDARDS
CONTENT TRANSFORMATION STRATEGIES

3. What it is: Systematic
approach to driving consisten-
cy in sales and marketing
assets
Use it when: You need to
deliver time savings over a
short period or facilitate
bundled product & service
solutions
It leads to: Time savings for
sellers and authors, larger deal
sizes, brand consistency, and
reduced risk
WHAT TO DO?
No company can shut its
doors and replace everything.
What’s needed is a phased
approach starting with
areas that produce
the biggest return.
Customers and prospects care about their problems
first – not your products. It’s a truth as old as sales
itself, but recent trends make it even more significant.
With today’s availability of information, buyers do more
research and form their own opinions before talking to
your salespeople. And recent studies have confirmed
that buyers are increasingly frustrated with salespeople
who lead with product pitches.
Yet all too often, companies overload their content
libraries with product and solution information. They
fail to provide resources on customer issues and how to
guide a buyer toward addressing them. This sets their
salespeople up for deals where the buyer is driving
the agenda, leading to single product transactions,
head-to-head feature/function battles with competitor
products, and deal decisions based on lowest price.
Which way are you steering your salespeople? To find
out, do a simple audit on a representative sample of
sales and marketing content. Create two piles for what
you review:
• Pile 1: Industry information, business trends,
customer problems, and ways to address them
• Pile 2: Product and solution descriptions, features,
functions, and technical specifications
If the count skews toward Pile 2, your reps may be
missing opportunities to sell high, increase deal sizes,
and differentiate against competitors.
How much time do your salespeople spend looking for
information, mashing up documents, or writing new
ones? Do your vendors, marketers, and subject matter
experts know what to create or what standards to
follow? If not, even the most diligent, well-intentioned
authors will contribute to a hodgepodge of materials –
a virtual flea market of multiple document types, many
of which are likely redundant and out-of-date.
The most immediate symptoms are complaints
from sales and low usage rates. Beyond that are the
frustrations of authors who churn out content by
the bushel and still have to respond to one-off
requests. But there is also an effectiveness problem.
Salespeople often have a subset of products
they are comfortable discussing. Content chaos
makes it difficult for salespeople to learn about
new offerings. It persuades them to sell further
into that comfort zone and dissuades them from
offering more of your portfolio. The result is
money left on the table in the form of smaller
deals and missed opportunities.
Your reps conduct a wide variety of sales
meetings depending on where the buyer is on
a journey from identifying a problem to solving
it. In order to create effective content, authors
need help understanding what actually happens
in these meetings. What does the buyer know
and care about? What does a salesperson need
to do to prepare for a meeting, have a successful
conversation, and close to a next step?
Companies often try to help with training and
playbooks. Too often, however, training is all
about the product, and playbooks are little more
than repurposed data sheets and solution guides.
How much of your content helps a salesperson to
share valuable insights, ask the right questions,
and help buyers understand the positive
outcomes they can achieve with your help? If it
doesn’t support these activities, your salespeople
may be missing opportunities altogether, or
leaving money on the table with small deals.
PROBLEM: PRODUCT OVERLOAD
PROBLEM: CONSISTENCY
PROBLEM: CONTEXT
If buyers don’t want products pushed at them, what do they want?
Research has shown that buyers value sales meetings in which they can
develop a deeper understanding of the business issues and problems
they face. They want insights, not product pitches. But where do these
insights come from?
Our experience has shown that most companies have a wealth
of unique points of view – they wouldn’t be in business without a
distinctive way of delivering value to customers. The problem is, these
companies haven’t shown their salespeople how to use those insights
to engage buyers. The good news is, arming your salespeople with
tools to do so is easier than you think. In fact, the fastest path to elevating sales conversations lies in packaging
those insights into buyer-friendly content and training your salespeople to share those insights.
Here’s how to start:
• Review your website, company publications, and marketing materials
• Select up to three insights that are unique to your company and simple enough to be communicated in a sales
conversation
• For each one, ask subject matter experts to explain how it connects to your company’s products and solutions
• Select a finalist based on its potential to motivate customers
• Create a short, buyer-facing document that summarizes the insight in simple terms
• For salespeople, develop a presentation, whiteboard, and/or discussion guide
• Ask your sales leadership team to encourage salespeople to engage prospects with that insight
• Gather feedback on those efforts, and use them to develop additional insights
Dealing with content chaos may take precedence over any other
objective in the short term. Perhaps Marketing is concerned about
brand consistency, or Sales is fed up with time wasted on searches,
or your CEO is worried about liability risk from “rogue” content. In
most cases, it’s impossible to replace all content in the short term.
Instead, success lies in starting with a set of high-impact documents and
creating in-depth authoring guidance. By encouraging usage of the
“must-haves,” you may find that other assets types are no longer needed.
The result? Less content, more brand compliance, time savings for authors and sellers, and reduced risk of the
wrong promises being made to buyers.
Here’s how to start:
• Interview salespeople to identify the highest-priority assets
• Create fully designed prototypes, and ask for feedback
• Create authoring standards and guides – include directions on branding, messaging, and writing style
• Train authors and vendors on following the standards, and provide coaching as necessary
• Include this training in onboarding programs for new staff
TRANSFORMATION: INSIGHTS
TRANSFORMATION: STANDARDS
CONTENT TRANSFORMATION STRATEGIES

4. How effective are your company’s sales content and
tools? Do they help improve close rates and deal
sizes? Or do your reps waste time on failed searches
and become amateur marketers who create their own
content? Today, many companies exhaust valuable
resources on tools and assets that never get used, or
worse, steer salespeople toward low conversion rates,
small deal sizes, and heavy discounts.
This quick reference guide identifies three common root
causes of the sales content problem and three strategies
for addressing it. You’ll learn about short-term strategies
that can help you drive customer value and sales
effectiveness. You’ll also learn how small investments
in content development can lead to outsized returns in
bigger deals and higher close rates.
PRODUCTOVERLOAD
CONSISTENCY
CONTEXT
Customers and
prospects care about
their problems first –
not your products.
How much time do
your salespeople
spend looking for
information, mashing
up documents, or
writing new ones?
What does a salesperson
need to do to prepare for a
meeting, have a successful
conversation, and close to
a next step?
DRIVING SALES EFFECTIVENESS WITH GREAT CONTENT
Your fastest path to revenue may lie in improving one or more stages in
the buying/selling process. If your sales leadership can identify a set of
activities where small improvements will deliver big returns, you may be
able to make a large contribution to revenue with minimal resources.
Unlike the previously described Standards transformation, where you
create content across the portfolio, here you concentrate on a window of
opportunity in the buying/selling process and create just enough content
to make a difference.
Here’s how to start:
• Ask sales leaders to identify stages in the selling/buying process where small improvements can pay big
dividends (e.g., developing a business case)
• Ask sales operations or training leaders to explain what should be happening at these stages
• Interview sellers and subject matter experts to find what they need to be successful
• Identify a set of assets that could help make a difference
• Pilot a set of assets and ask for feedback
You can use these transformation strategies together, but be careful not to do too much at once. For example, a
sales-process transformation focused on the Solution Development stage might also require some standardized
solution product information. The result is a Process transformation (#3) combined with a limited Consistency
transformation (#2) focused on only one or two documents. Keep in mind that the larger your portfolio and
company, the more stakeholders you’ll have to work with, and you’ll have to spend more effort rolling out your
program. So plan accordingly.
TRANSFORMATION: PROCESS
FINAL THOUGHTS
95 West Court Street
Doylestown, PA 18901
215.230.4340
info@launchintl.com
www.launchinternational.com
WHY CONTENT
MISSES THE
MARK
What it is: Content develop-
ment targeted at a specific
point in the buying/selling
process
Use it when: You’ve identi-
fied a buying/selling stage
where small improvements
can yield a large return
It leads to: Increased
opportunities, larger deal
sizes, and higher win rates