Allego, the leading provider of sales support platforms, today announced new sales content research in partnership with B2B DecisionLabs, a B2B research and consulting firm. Binding sellers provides the results of a two-part behavioral study revealing the most effective approach to getting sellers to use product-focused content.
(Photo: Allego Inc. Facebook page)
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According to Forrester, up to 70% of sales content delivered by marketing is never used. Low utilization of marketing-created sales content is a never-ending struggle for many companies that wastes managers’ time, results in rogue seller-created content, and leads to inconsistent product information and messaging in the marketplace. Sales content can have a significant, positive impact on productivity, win rates, and deal sizes. A LinkedIn study found that salespeople who use content in their sales process outperform their peers who don’t use content by more than 50%.
The Binding sellers report shows how the messenger influences sellers’ likelihood to use sales content and the factors that increase sellers’ willingness. The real-world field trial, led by Dr. Leff Bonney, a behavioral scientist and director of research at B2B DecisionLabs, observed the behavior of more than 300 entry-level and veteran salespeople who worked at two corporate sales organizations.
Salespeople split into nine groups and watched a recorded video of a sales manager, product marketer, or high-performing salesperson introducing a new piece of marketing material. Each group watched one of three different presenters share the content using one of three different storytelling methods. Each presenter followed the same scripts and used the same piece of content.
The report reveals that salespeople were more likely to use collateral when they heard about it from a high-performing colleague than from a sales leader or marketer.
The data revealed:
- Using a high-performing salesperson to present new collateral increased the probability of use by 61% over a comparable presentation by the product specialist.
- Presenting new content with a case study or a demonstration increased the likelihood of use by about 30% over basic information alone.
- When a high-performing salesperson presented new collateral with a demonstration, the probability of use increased by 111% compared to the least effective combination, which was a product specialist who presented only basic information.
- Asking reps to make a plan for how they would use new collateral in their sales promotions increased the likelihood of use by 98% compared to the control group, which didn’t ask the reps to do any learning activity.
“It’s a common problem: the marketing team creates content for sales, but sellers don’t use it. Businesses in this uncertain economy can’t afford to waste time, money and effort in this way,” said Mark Magnacca, president and co-founder of Allego. “The research shows that a comprehensive sales content management platform that is able to generate and manage relevant, field-generated and top-performing content, support peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and deliver content in context is a powerful option for B2B sales organizations.”
“The data is clear. And while the results seem obvious, I’m not sure this approach has been common,” said Tim Riesterer, Chief Visionary at B2B DecisionLabs. “But now that you know there’s a significantly better way to increase content usage, it would be a malpractice not to.”
Visit Allego.com to view the full research report or learn more about improving sales content management.
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