B2B sales have changed—perhaps forever. Your sales reps have only about 5% of a customer’s time during their buying journey, according to Gartner. B2B sales are also much more complex and lengthy than those of the past, often taking months (even years) and numerous touchpoints to close.

For today’s product marketers, creating content that supports this sales cycle has never been more challenging.

Product marketers know what’s at stake. They strive to provide salespeople with the resources they need to keep prospects moving through each stage of the process. Yet, despite their best efforts, a chasm often exists between the content created by marketing and the content used by sellers.

Forrester reports that 60% to 70% of content produced by B2B marketing organizations goes unused, sitting in sales portals and website “shelves” inactivated. The disconnect between product marketing and sales can result in buyer frustration, lost opportunities, and missed revenue goals.

There is a better way.

Here are the top five ways product marketers can ensure messaging and content achieves the intended goal of closing the deal.

1. Connect with the Language of the Customer

As product marketers capture information on their customers and markets, they should be sure to tap into one powerful source of information: their sales team.

Jake Miller, senior product manager at Allego, says that product managers often rely on what research tells them about a customer, which can differ from what the customer actually says on a sales call.

“Product marketers are very good at creating product-centric content. But in a selling situation, what’s needed is audience-centric content that generates conversations that advance the sale.”

Creating that type of content requires product marketers to learn from real-world selling situations. To learn that language, listen in on sales conversations or watch video recordings of your salespeople presenting to customers.

Leveraging real-world feedback from buyers and sellers ensures that marketing has the messaging, concepts, and language needed to create sales content that resonates with the sales team and the customer.

2. Nurture a Conversation Between Sales and Product Marketing

In addition to listening to how the buyer describes their pain points, product marketers should also pay attention to how salespeople deliver the messaging that marketing works so hard to develop.

Miller recommends that product marketers create an ongoing conversation with sales where both groups can share their content experiences. Marketing can talk about the data behind the sales content they have developed, while sellers can share how they use it and how effective it is.

“At Allego, we have found that asynchronous video collaboration works best for creating interactive conversations between sales and marketing,” says Miller. “We provide quick hits of content and messaging sellers can use to improve their sales conversations. We can then see who has viewed the content and review the levels of feedback and engagement that content generated.”

Conversely, product marketers can access recorded videos of sellers practicing and seeking feedback on new messaging, as well as footage of real-life prospect interactions. Product marketers can review the video and provide inline feedback on a specific area, validating what is working and correcting any areas that need improvement.

Over time, this ongoing sales conversation helps product marketers see what’s working in the field and revise content as selling situations change.

3. Provide a Context for Sales Content

Collaborating with sales is a good start, but moving the sale forward requires that sellers understand more than just the message – they need to understand the context of their marketing content.

“Marketers develop a specific piece of content to communicate a certain point or overcome a particular objection: a video, thought leadership piece, or best practice example,” says Miller.

“But when a salesperson gets that content, the goal of why that piece was created or when to use it has often been lost. Without that framing, the piece is a much less effective sales tool.”

Just as asynchronous video collaboration was used to help sellers understand the message, it can also be used to help them better understand when and how to use the content marketing creates.

Product marketers can create short intent videos that describe the purpose and ideal situation for each asset. In addition, product marketing can write talk tracks and other pieces of knowledge to accompany the content and ensure that each new piece is deployed properly.

“Wrapping each piece of content in context gives sellers insight on when and how to use that content so they can more effectively and move deals forward,” notes Miller.

4. Ensure Salespeople Know Where to Access Sales Content

No matter how much time and effort goes into developing new sales materials, salespeople often fall back on their old trusted content, much to the frustration of product marketers.

The big question is: why?

The answer is simple: sellers don’t feel confident finding new sales materials stored on the various drives in their organization. And even if they can find the content, they are not always sure when and how to use it.

For salespeople to feel in control, they need to know precisely where the content is and when to access the suitable materials.

A sales enablement solution like Allego gives product marketers a resource that makes sellers feel more confident.

In this central repository, salespeople can easily find and share the sales content they need. Sellers can personalize every prospect interaction without impacting brand compliance or product positioning, and all content is trackable so both product marketers and sellers can monitor engagement.

In addition to helping sellers find the right content, a sales enablement platform can also help users combine resources to deliver maximum impact at each step in the sales process.

“Combining content with explainer videos of relevant talk tracks, best practices, and win stories provides the seller with the additional information they need to handle objections, nurture prospects, and close deals,” says Miller.

5. Gain Insight into Content Effectiveness

You’ve worked hard to create good sales content, and your sales teams are happy. But you’re not done yet!

Successful product marketers have keen insight into what content is making an impact and what needs to be revised. But all too often, marketers are in the dark when it comes to supplying this crucial data.

Miller recommends measuring content success based on business outcomes. For example, connect content adoption metrics and content usage to pipeline acceleration and revenue goals.

“When you know what content is working—and what’s not—you can make sales collateral even more effective and stop wasting time on activities that don’t get results,” concludes Miller.

Learn More

Download The Complete Guide to Sales Content Management to find out how you can organize, manage, and activate content—that your sales team will love.