10 Times Salespeople Should Use Content in Their Sales Process

If your salespeople have ever asked for more or better sales collateral to send to prospects, you need look no further than your developing library of online content. No one puts tri-fold brochures or sales packets in the mail anymore...but you still need a way of communicating vital information to prospects and customers. It’s as easy as emailing them a link to a blog or eBook that specifically fits their needs or questions. Here are 10 instances when a salesperson can and should use content in their sales process:

1. When you are nurturing a relationship with a lead and need a reason to touch them again. Send a link to a pertinent blog and then follow-up by phone a few days later. 
2. When, in a needs analysis conversation, a prospect or customer indicates questions or interest in a particular topic, follow up with a blog that gives them more information.
3. When a prospect has “ghosted” you and no longer responds to phone calls or other inquiries. Send information you think they’ll be interested in reading to see if that gets the pipeline flowing again. 
4. When you need to follow-up with a prospect who wants to ‘think about it,’ but are fresh out of ideas for what to say without sounding cheesy - send content. 
5. When you want to provide additional resources to a client and need something to send them that keeps you top of mind. There’s nothing better than a simple “Saw this and thought you might find it beneficial” email with a link to helpful information. 
6. When you need a topic of conversation for a monthly ROI meeting with a key client, send information from your blog library that pertains to issues or needs they have. Discuss it in your meeting. 
7. When you want to seed a prospect or a client with new products or services that you’d like to present to them.
8. When you have a prospect that has gone cold and you’d like to reach out every 6 months or so to stay top-of-mind and see if anything has changed, send a blog link. 
9. When you have collected a bunch of names from a trade show or event and need an effective way to follow up without sounding “salesy” and want to collect more information to see who on the list is a legitimate prospect, send gated content like an ebook. 
10. When you want to collect leads, run a marketing campaign promoting your online content and invite people to subscribe. When they subscribe, you collect their contact information for follow-up in the future. 

Considering all of this, your sales team should be actively sending blogs or ebooks to potential customers to give them an extra push down that funnel. The more content they read, the more you will be on their mind.