Everything You Need to Know About Sales Content Management Software

Your marketing team creates numerous content pieces every year for your sales teams to use throughout the sales process. However, did you know that most of this content goes unused? One of the main reasons is that sales teams have no clue where to find the latest sales collateral. In fact, per studies, “sales reps spend an average of 440 hours each year trying to find the right content to share with their prospects and customers.” If that sounds like a challenge your organization might be facing, sales content management software (sales CMS) is the solution. 

In this first blog, we cover what a sales CMS is and why it’s essential for your sales enablement strategy. Our next blog post in the series will then cover the key features of a sales CMS and how Enable Us helps organizations. 

Note: A sales content management software benefits every department in your sales funnel – from Marketing to Customer Success. For the purposes of this series, we focus primarily on content management for sales enablement.

What is a Sales Content Management Software?

A sales Content Management Software (CMS) is a platform that enables you to store, organize, distribute, and analyze content in a centralized location. The sales team then easily finds content to share with their prospects to nurture and move prospects through the buying process. Simply put, it is a single source of truth for all your sales content. 

“95% of customers choose to buy from providers that offer relevant content at every stage of the buying process.” - Demand Gen Report

Why is a Sales Content Management System Important?

Imagine this: Your sales representative meets with a prospect interested in your latest product release. The rep knows marketing created an explanatory product video. The salesperson searches on Google Drive, via email, and slack yet is unable to find the video! 

Now multiply this exact scenario by the number of account executives and reps on your team. Not having a single source for your sales content is why a single sales rep spends nearly 30 hours a month searching for or creating their own content (Source: American Marketing Association). 

That’s why having a sales content management software is vital to your sales organization’s success, providing these benefits:

• Single Source of Truth for Content: A CMS helps sales and marketing to organize sales content in a centralized location. They can easily identify tailored, relevant content for specific verticals, industries, clients, use cases, or stages in the buying cycle, all in one place. Some tools like Digital Sales Rooms also let you share all relevant content with your prospects via a single, unique link. 
• Increase Sales Productivity: With sophisticated search and filtering capabilities, sales spend less time finding and sharing content with their prospects. This helps shorten the sales cycle and accelerate deal velocity. It also streamlines collaboration among team members, so everyone can stay on the same page even when working in different locations.
• Access In-Depth Data Insights: How content performs with prospects is a black box to sales,  with almost 65-90% of marketing content untouched by sales. A sales enablement content management system provides in-depth seller and buyer analytics on each content piece. This enables sales and marketing to make data-driven decisions based on content effectiveness, usage, and influence on deal velocity and wins. 
  Bonus reading: Benefits of Content Tracking for Sales Teams 
• Define Content Permissions: With a mix of internal and external sales content, sales can mistakenly send an internally-facing document to a prospect. The right sales CMS enables administrators to set permissions on individual content pieces - what can be shared, downloaded, and more. By setting proper user roles, your organization can prevent any unintentional or unapproved changes by users. 

Bonus: Made up your mind to get a sales CMS but unsure how to get executive buy-in? In her blog post, “Making the Business Case for Sales and Marketing Investments - CMS,” our CMO, Cece Lee, shares tips on making a winning business case for a CMS. 

The Takeaway

In today’s dynamic, buyer-driven environment, it is critical for sales teams to explore ways to improve the buyer’s experience. However, if they’re spending hours searching or creating content, they have less time to focus on their prospects and deals.

Whether you’re a sales, sales enablement, or marketing leader, you want to alleviate this pain point. With sales content management software, your team can easily find and share the right content that fits a prospective buyer’s needs. This not only establishes a seller’s credibility with a prospect but also frees their time to focus on meaningful conversations with their prospects. 

Stay tuned to our next blog on what features you should consider in a sales CMS.

Do you already use a sales CMS? What features do you believe are indispensable? Let us know in the comments below.

Download The Essential Guide to Sales Content Management Software.

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