The Man Behind the

Curtain: Content’s Role in the Sales Enablement Process

Carla JohnsonPrincipal @CarlaJohnson

SALESENABLEMENTEnsuring that every seller has the right tools, information, skills and processes they need to make the most of a conversation with a buyer.

THECONVERSATION

We create tools the sales team asks for and they never use them.

We send qualified leads that fall into a black hole.

We are trying to create meaningful conversations, and marketing’s tools aren’t relevant.

We continually have to tell customers that our products don’t do what marketing and sales told them they would.

MARKETING SALESPROFESSIONAL

SERVICES

Marketing determines what tools sales needs

Marketing often fails at telling how a solution -• Achieves a goal

• Solves a problem

• Satisfies a need

MARKETING AND SALES

Source: The Fornaise Marketing Group

of collateral

created by marketing is never used by

sales

50%

90%TO

20% of an organization’s salespeople generate 60% of its revenue (CSO Insights)

Misalignment between sales and marketing causes the typical company to underperform by 10% in annual revenue (IDC)

MARKETING AND SALES

Thinking of your initial meeting, what percent of reps were:

Ex-tremely

Pre-pared16%

Very Prepared27%

Somewhat Pre-

pared31%

Not Prepared26%

Source: IDC Customer Experience Panel, January 2009

CUSTOMERCONVERSATIONS

“The conversations field salespeople or channel partners have with prospects and customers may be the last bastion of competitive differentiation in today’s rapidly commoditizing markets.”

- American Marketing Association

Delivering the right information to the right person at the right time and in the right place.

MARKETING AND SALES

Create “Promise Keepers”

CARLA JOHNSON :: Principal @CarlaJohnson

TODAY’SCONVERSATION

Collaborate

Educate

Liberate

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”- Maya Angelou

Collaborate

Learn and understand what sales wants to achieve• Brand awareness• Lead generation• Customer acquisition• Engagement• Thought leadership

Source: Managing Content Marketing

CONTENT MARKETING FUNNEL

Can’t we all just get along?

Educate

What’s your “story”?

Who do you tell it to?

When/how to tell it?

What do you want to accomplish with it?

Liberate

Your story only works if people are free to tell it

Content is key

V E R Y W H E R E

U B L I S H

N C E

R E A T E

E

PO

C

CASESTUDY

CASE STUDY• Handwriting Recognition

Software (1996)

• Serviced postal markets and check processing – declining industries

• Needed to move out of siloed markets and provide technology for more applications

CASE STUDY• Needed better market and

partner recognition

• Needed to provider partners and end users with more tools to become successful

• Believed sales tools and leads paramount as they built partner program

CASE STUDY2012 – Foundational Year• Refreshed branding• Persona development• New website/refresh collateral• Content audit• Mapped content to persona/buyers’

journey• Began email communications• Partner portal

CASE STUDY

In 2012, Parascript commissioned research with AIIM

Results

• Hundreds of registered downloads and webinar attendees

• Blog content• Media coverage• Interviews with nearly every

technology analyst firm• A year’s worth of storytelling and

internal reinforcement to position our products that continues to evolve

CASE STUDY

2013 – Build Leads

• Estimated outbound leads 50%

• Bigger focus on content marketing for other 50%

• Because of budget, needed prospects to find Parascript and self-qualify

CASE STUDY

Sales

Marketing

CASE STUDYIn 2013 they refreshed the research, in an easy-to-read infographic

Results

• Hundreds more registered downloads expected

• Instant media coverage resulting in more downloads of the complete study from our website (all tracked in Hubspot)

• More blog content

CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY

1000s 1000s 1000s 18.1% 4.6%YTD 2013:

CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY

Study and Infographic continue to provide content opportunities

Additional Benefits

• Foundation for a recent channel webinar and upcoming end-user webinars, anticipating several hundred more prospects

• Top-level content for our nurturing campaign

CASE STUDY

Key Learnings –

Content helped validate a new market

Used content to generate a storyarc and extended that seamlessly into sales enablement

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Think: Buyer Enablement• Commit to culture change• Find your common purpose• Go beyond information – create

insights• Make it easy to give content “legs”

Carla Johnson, PrincipalType A Communications(720) 344-0987carla@goTypeA.comwww.goTypeA.com

Type A Communications

@carlajohnson