Get On The Buyer’s Time: Sales And Marketing Content Must Evolve

You’ve heard it a million times, and you’ll probably hear it a million more: It’s the content that sells. It’s the sales and marketing content that differentiates your company from competition, gets your prospects truly listening and gives your sales reps that armor of credibility they need to survive the market. But it takes more than awesome words to cut through the noise. You need to say the right things at the right time.

Content and buyer, evolving in tandem.

Your sales process needs to be dynamic and adaptable if you want to get in with the modern B2B buyer. His eyes are fleeting, and his standards are high. He’s got information in spades and consulting teams on speed dial. This means that the timing of your content delivery is crucial to the success of your sales enablement.

It’s not just about sending out the right sales and marketing content to the right people – it’s about sending out the right content to the right people when they need it most.

According to GfK Roper Public Affairs And Media, 80% of B2B decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of targeted, “bite-sized” articles rather than in one bombarding advertisement.

This makes sense. Aside from the fact that the information torrent is overwhelming and off-putting, a super bundle of mass-market content isn’t targeted, so it’s not going to pique that buyer’s exact pains with precision or carefully cater to his exact stage in the buying process.

Each stage of the buying process requires a different type of content. This means you have to sync your sales and marketing campaigns with the buyer. The information should evolve with him, changing intensity, emotion and purpose as the buyer gets more comfortable with your company – and closer to that buying decision.

On the buyer’s time: Respond, help, challenge and differentiate.

Here are some pointers for a sales enablement content strategy that evolves with the buyer:

• Don’t jump into your solutions if the buyer is still in the beginning of the buying process. This is when you want to focus on RESPONSIVE content that doesn’t overwhelm or intrude, but simply answers (and anticipates) his questions.
• Once the buyer warms up to your company, provide him with HELPFUL INSIGHT, like digestible research and industry-related studies, to show him you’re there to help, inform and educate, not hit him with a hard sell.
• Present your CHALLENGING PERSPECTIVES and DIFFERENTIATION points only when you’ve earned the buyer’s trust as a knowledgeable and trustworthy resource. This is when that strategic discretion and emotional intelligence (EQ) from your sales team come into play.

You know what helps with effective content timing? Clear-cut buyer insight. Fill out the form below to see how a Sales Enablement Platform puts you in the buyer’s world: speaking his language, on his time.