I don’t know about you, but I hate wasting time. Whether it’s doing errands, making dinner, or writing this blog post, I try to be as efficient as possible.

I need to save time to fit more in my day. But it’s even more important to be efficient when you’re a seller. Your quota depends on it.

The problem in many cases is the content management system you’re using. Legacy systems simply aren’t flexible or powerful enough to meet the needs of sellers today.

In fact, recent research highlights two critical problems with traditional sales content management systems:

1. Conventional technologies reinforce the divide between those who create and manage sales content (marketing and sales enablement) and those who use it (sales reps).
2. This divide undermines sales reps’ willingness and ability to adopt new content.

As a result, marketing isn’t always able to provide the kind of content the sales team wants. Or if they do, sellers don’t know where to find it, when to use it, or how to use it.

The solution? Modern sales content management platforms. These tools promote better alignment between marketing and sales, ensuring marketers create content that sellers want to use and that sales reps know how to use it properly during conversations with buyers. All of which ultimately leads to better sales conversations, more wins, and increased revenue.

Modern sales content management platforms surpass the capabilities of traditional content management systems. Here are three areas in which the new technology and approaches improve sales content creation, sharing, and management.

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Level Up Your Sales Content Management Game

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The Old Way vs. the New: 4 Ways Modern Sales Content Management Systems Outperform Traditional Tools

1. Creating Effective Sales Content

The Old Way:

Traditional sales content management tools provide workflows for content creation efficiency, but they fall flat when it comes to content effectiveness. That’s because they lack a robust feedback loop between marketing and sales during the content creation process. There’s no way to solicit rich input from content users. Instead, content creators are limited to “thumbs-ups” and other one-dimensional text-based feedback from sellers.

The New Way:

Modern sales content management platforms, on the other hand, empower creators to obtain rich, inline video feedback on what’s working and what’s not. Video collaboration enables creators to “road test” new content and watch salespeople present the content to gauge how prospects react. This helps creators sculpt the language and tone of their content, so it reflects the realities of on-the-ground use throughout every stage of the sales process.

2. Promoting New Sales Content

The Old Way:

With traditional sales content management tools, marketers rely on text-based notifications (email, messaging apps, and news centers) to tell the sales team about new content and explain where to find it. This impersonal approach reinforces silos and inhibits collaboration between the two teams.

The New Way:

Modern sales content management platforms allow content creators to record videos of themselves discussing the content and their reason for creating it. Through those easy-to-make videos, they can explain why they developed the content, when to use it, and how to use it.

Videos put marketers’ faces in front of the sales team, making communication more personal and easier to consume, driving greater engagement, and helping marketing and sales be better aligned.

Modern platforms also allow the marketing team to collaborate with the enablement team to create content and ensure sellers know how to use it. For example, the two teams can create video-based certifications to ensure sellers know how to articulate the concepts embodied in the new content when talking with prospects.

3. Managing and Activating Sales Content

The Old Way:

Traditional sales content management systems focus on “guardrails.” They set boundaries on who can access content (and who can’t), how content can be personalized (or not), and when older versions of content can be used.

The New Way:

Modern sales content management platforms shift the focus from what can’t be done to what sales reps can do to improve their delivery. For example, the tools allow top-performing sellers to create and share videos of themselves explaining best practices, footage of sales meetings where they used content pieces, and explainer videos of marketing-created content.

Research shows peer-to-peer learning is a far more effective way to help sellers learn, plus sellers are more likely to use content when a high-performing peer shares it with them. In fact, a recent report by Allego and B2B DecisionLabs found that using “a high-performing seller to present new collateral increased the likelihood of use by 61% over a similar presentation made by the product specialist.”

4. Measuring Sales Content Analytics

The Old Way:

Conventional sales content management tools offer quantitative analytics for gauging the impact of sales collateral. By viewing reports and dashboards, marketers can determine which videos, white papers, and other materials are viewed and shared the most—based on how long viewers linger on the content. With a quantitative approach, content creators infer why a particular video or sales sheet resonates (or not). It doesn’t offer qualitative assessments.

The New Way:

Modern sales content management platforms provide a qualitative approach, which allows content creators to firmly identify the reasons why content resonates with sellers. Using video collaboration with sales reps, marketers can watch and listen to actual sales presentations and meetings.

Doing so helps them pinpoint, for example, why a certain phrase or tone works well at one stage of the sales cycle, but not during another. This enables marketers to update their content with versions that are more effective with prospects and more engaging to your sales reps.

At a time when sales teams are working harder than ever—and competition is fierce—sales reps need access to the best tools and content. Upgrading to a modern sales content management system allows you to provide both.

Learn More:

Download the All-in-One Sales Content Management Kit and learn how to organize, manage, and activate sales content to accelerate sales.