Top 4 “Must Have” Features when Choosing a Sales Asset Management Platform

So you’re shopping around for a Sales Asset Management Platform. You’ve probably looked at tons of different materials—websites, sales sheets, PowerPoint presentations—and now you’re suffering from information overload. Don’t worry; we’re here to help.

How do you sift through all the listed bells and whistles to single out the companies with platforms worth pursuing? The key is to keep the essentials in mind. If your prospects don’t meet these basic criteria, cross them off the list. Here are the four essential features your chosen Sales Asset Management Platform must have:

The Features

1. Ability to keep content updated and consistent

The problem facing many marketing and sales teams today is that they push out tons of great content… and then it blends in among all the outdated materials. Whenever new updates need to be made, finding and revising each piece of content is more than just tedious—it can be downright impossible. This results in content that is never up to date, and thus is never used. Instead, sales reps take extra time piecing together their own unapproved, inconsistent materials.

The solution is to find a platform in which content can be updated easily, quickly and automatically throughout the library, no matter the number of copies or locations. This feature significantly reduces staff hours while retaining brand and message consistency, allowing you to ensure each situation gets the best content possible.

2. Ability to respond quickly to buyer requests

Timing is everything in sales. When your buyer is ready to move the sales process forward, you should be ready too. An asset management platform that makes it quick and simple to access your sales resources means that you’re spending less time searching for the right content and more time actively engaging the buyer.

Look for a platform that allows for centralized access to all of your sales and marketing content, real-time collaboration with team members, analytics-driven guidance and active tracking and alerting of buyer requests. Bonus points if your platform enables automatic recommendations as soon as new resources and updates are available.

3. Ability to personalize and deliver with impact

Which content is more effective: a generic brief on your company’s solutions or a customized brief that directly addresses the solutions that will best fit your buyer’s needs? It seems like a no-brainer, but if your asset management platform doesn’t allow for rapid personalization of materials, your sales team is likely to default to the former option.

Your platform should promote easy creation of personalized materials in various forms of high-impact rich media. It should recommend the right resources and deliver those resources in a private buyer portal that sets you apart from your competitors, creating a unique and superior buyer experience.

4. Ability to track content and buyer activity in real time

You’ve sent off the sales content to your buyer. Now what? If your sales asset management software isn’t intelligently monitoring that content’s activity, you’re losing out on valuable information. If you can tell the exact moment your buyer looks at the content, which pages they spend the most time on, and who they’re sharing the materials with, you’ll essentially have a map pointing you in the right direction toward closing the deal.

A platform that tracks content and buyer activity allows you to engage buyers at the moment when they’re showing interest in your product and guide your conversation toward the areas you now know your buyer is most focused on. Moreover, by tracking buyer activity, you can enhance your content through in-depth analytics that tell you where your content is and isn’t doing well.

The Takeaway

There are a lot of great Sales Asset Management Platform features out there, but you need a baseline for your search. Find a platform that enables easy content updates, quick buyer response, personalized content and real-time tracking, and your sales process will flourish as a result.