THE

DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO

SALES CONTENT MANAGEMENT

TURBOCHARGING SALES AND
MARKETING PRODUCTIVITY IN
YOUR COMPANY

RESEARCH PRESENTED BY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE: BUSINESS CASE
PART TWO: ALIGNING STAKEHOLDERS
PART THREE: SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS
PART FOUR: RETURN ON INVESTMENT

PART 1
BUSINESS CASE FOR
SALES & MARKETING
CONTENT MANAGEMENT

WHY SALES & MARKETING CONTENT MANAGEMENT?

70% of a Sales Reps Time Not Spent Selling

70% of a Sales Reps Time Not Spent Selling

Source IDC, McKinsey, SiriusDecisions

The three biggest Jme sucks are:

1. PresentaCon Building - Searching, compiling, nalizing

2. UpdaCng CRM -MeeJng Notes, UpdaJng Opportunity Records

3. NavigaCng MulCple PlaKorms - CRM, Databases, Email, Knowledge
Repositories, Intranets, etc.)

IDC and McKinsey report that sales reps each waste 10 to 20 hours per week on unproducJve tasks (re-creaJng exisJng slides, curaJng materials for
presentaJons, searching through documents for the right content to send to prospects).

B2B companies inability to align sales and markeJng teams around the right processes and technologies has cost them upwards of 10% or more of
revenue per year, or $100 million for a billion-dollar company. Source: Bizsphere

Because reps spend only 30% of their Jme selling, with the remainder of their Jme spent on admin tasks like updaJng CRM and looking for content to
include in a sales presentaJon, an eecJve sales and markeJng content management can help your business scale and gets your reps to the content that
closes the quickest.

WHY SALES & MARKETING CONTENT MANAGEMENT?

90% of MarkeJng Content Goes Unused by Sales People
90% of MarkeCng Content Goes Unused by Sales People
Source AMA (and others)

The three biggest causes are:

1. Content Overload - With so much, it is hard to nd anything, so reps rely

on the same, ofen old and outdated pieces of collateral
2. No Tracking and Governance - MarkeJng doesn't have any ways of
monitoring which content is being adopted by Sales, and how well it is
being received by prospects, so they end up overproducing to be safe
3. Irrelevance - No Time for Reviewing - Sales people never review
new markeJng collateral because they are busy on deals. The key
challenge is connecJng the rep to the right content when the rep needs
it
Companies spend 16% of their overall budget on MarkeJng content, according to the InformaJon Technology Services MarkeJng AssociaJon. However,
up to 90% of markeJng content is never uJlized, reports SiriusDecisions and The American MarkeJng AssociaJon. This means the majority of your biggest
markeJng investment goes unused, never to generate a lead for your organizaJon.

WHY SALES & MARKETING CONTENT MANAGEMENT?

Only 7% of sales reps rst meeJngs convert to a second meeJng

Only 7% of Sales Reps First MeeCngs Convert to a

Second MeeCng Source: Forrester

The three biggest causes are:

1. Lack of Intelligence - Without any concrete data, most reps go on gut
feeling to chase down prospects and ulJmately waste a ton of Jme on
dead prospects and miss opportuniJes with the qualied ones
2. Poor Messaging - When reps cant nd the markeJng materials they
need, they create their own. Brand and message accuracy suer, best
pracJces are lost, and deals fall out of the pipeline


3. Budget MisallocaCon - Sales and MarkeJng leaders tend to overweight
budgets on meeJng generaJon eorts and not the more crucial, and
easier to adapt, pipeline development eorts

CONTENT TRENDS
#1 - Sprawl

Most fast growing companies have sales and markeJng content management issues. We see 3 main causes: content sprawl, content
growth, and divergent workows.

Content Sprawl - where sales collateral is stored

In fast growing companies storage infrastructure is heterogeneous.
Common repositories include le shares, cloud storage like Box and
Dropbox, email, local drives, CRM, wikis, and purchased or homegrown
content management systems.

How does this aect sales content?
As your company grows and deploys new tools to support this growth,
storage diversity and content sprawl will conJnue. This means it will
become more dicult and more Jme consuming for your reps to nd that
one insight, white paper, case study or playbook they need to close deals.

At the same Jme it will become harder for you and management to audit
who is using what content and what content leads to the best return on
investment.

Figure 1: The enterprise repository infrastructure will always be

heterogeneous. ROAR Growth Map 2011

CONTENT TRENDS
#2 - Growth

Content Growth - the volume of content produced by

sales and markeDng teams

CreaJng content has never been easier. SanDisk says the number of
business documents in the world doubles every 1.2 years, it is common to
see content tripling year-over-year in fast growing companies, and former
Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, stated Every 2 days we create as much
informaDon as we did from the dawn of civilizaDon up unDl 2003.

How does this aect sales content?
TradiJonal content systems break down very quickly at scale -- with more
and more content, how do your reps cut through the cluoer to nd the
best content?

Many soluJons require markeJng managers to take a subjecJve approach
in determining which content is best and then to conJnuously tag
informaJon. However, a subjecJve content ranking and tagging approach
will not scale with the growth of your company.

Figure 2: The growth of content is acceleraJng exponenJally. Cisco Global

Cloud index 2012-2017

CONTENT TRENDS

#3 Divergent Workows

Workows - the tools, processes, and interacDons

employees use to accomplish their jobs

Your organizaJons changing workows mean dierent ways of creaJng,
storing and distribuJng collateral.

How does this aect sales content?
Stakeholders interact with content in dierent ways -- reps need quick
access to the best content possible; markeJng needs a way to pull together
the best content for reps, publish it and track analyJcs; and sales leadership
needs to understand what content wins and closes deals.

In short, you need a soluJon that is easy to integrate with and can stay
relevant and scale while the personnel and workows around it constantly
change.

A MORE PRODUCTIVE SALES TEAM

Sales ProducJvity is a measure of the eciency and eecJveness of teams/reps. Eciency plus eecJveness leads to the highest aoainable revenue.

10

EFFICIENCY Saves Cme surfacing content

- Time for more acJvity
- Calls, meeJngs, prospecJng

Eciency Impact

Highest
Revenue
Per Rep
ProducCvity = Eciency + EecCveness

EFFECTIVENESS Surface the best content

Maximize value of client interacJons
Improve conversion rates

0
0 2 4 6 8 10

EecJveness Impact
Many organizaJons dene producJvity as just eciency and are missing the gains that eecJveness can bring. For example, just because a rep is able
to crank through more deals doesn't mean that key metrics like close rate or average selling price goes up. A strategic sales content management
investment will help you with both eecJveness and eciency.

FASTER AND SMARTER GROWTH

From Growing Fast

Companies have tradiJonally grown by adding more headcount to key

funcJons like sales and markeJng. If a company wanted to grow by 100%,
they would double the sales force and add more markeJng resources.
While this strategy worked in the past, and enabled many companies to
grow fast, it is expensive and not fully scalable. In todays world investors
demand beoer economics and smarter paths to protability.

To Growing Smart

Todays leading companies have made strategic decisions to focus on how

to work smarter. Doubling the sales team to grow the business is not an
acceptable soluJon. Leading companies are looking for predictable growth
through incremental resources.

Driving ProducCvity

This has shifed the focus to driving more producJvity and equipping the
team with resources and tools to eliminate fricJon and increase eciency.

11

WHY TRADITIONAL SALES AND MARKETING

CONTENT MANAGEMENT IS CHALLENGING
Building a SoluCon to Solve the Sales and
MarkeCng Content Problem is Dicult

It is a Herculean task to achieve the vision and

desired end-state. Many content management
iniJaJves take longer than expected to deploy and
ofen fail because:

For a 250 person 3 year old company, uploading
and tagging exisJng collateral takes on average
6 months
The system does not scale with the needs of the
organizaJon
Maintenance requires a lot of eort from
markeJng and sales operaJons
The system only meets the requirements of a
small group of users and has low engagement
rates
The overall project takes too long to rollout, nd
mainstream adopJon, and has low actual
impact

IdenJfy & curate

exisJng content silos
and assets
Publish content to
exisJng workows
(e.g. upload to
Salesforce.com
library)

Track how external

customers and
prospects engage
with content

Organize and tag all

content based on an
agreed upon
structure

TradiConal Workows
Do Not Scale!

Track which content

is most eecJve at
moving Opps
through pipeline

Upload all tagged

content into a new
system

Ensure that only

approved and latest
content is made
available to teams

12

HOW TO PRIORITIZE INITIATIVES

There are three key elements to evaluate as you
consider which tools to equip your team with
12

1. Time to Value

Consider the increases in producJvity and eciency

that come with each iniJaJve


3. Number of Stakeholders Aected

Measure iniJaJves by the impact felt at every level

within the organizaJon senior exec, mid level, rep
etc.

10

ProducCvity Impact
(0-10 with 10 being the best)

PrioriJze applicaJons that can be implemented quickly

and painlessly. Quick wins can be hard to come by so
any tool that delivers fast ROI should not be
overlooked


2. ProducCvity Impact

Number of
stakeholders
aected

8
6
4
2
0
0

10

12

Time to Value
(0-10 with 10 being the best)

13

PART 2
ALIGNING STAKEHOLDERS

STAKEHOLDER SUMMARY
Securing execuJve buy in is key when it comes to a content management implementaJon. To do so you will need to posiJon
this investment according to the specic needs of each member of the execuJve team.

Stakeholder

Key PrioriCes

Mapping to Content Management IniCaCve

CEO

Grow the business

Protability
Employee Morale

Accelerate key revenue acJviJes

Drive producJvity and scale smarter

CFO

Increase revenue and protability

Get more out of exisJng systems

Increase sales eciency, producJvity and grow revenue

CMO

Increase and demonstrate MarkeJng ROI

Simplify workows
Support sales producJvity

Increase adopJon of collateral

Track how content is used by sales reps and measure ROI
Integrate seamlessly with exisJng systems and workows

Head of Sales

Make quota
Increase win rates

Help reps spend more Jme selling

Instant access to proven content regardless of where it is stored

Sales Ops

Help reps spend more Jme selling

Increase sales eecJveness

Eliminate Jme spent searching for and recreaJng content

Reps supplied with content that has proven ROI

CIO

Impact to exisJng infrastructure

Control IT spending
System adopJon

Increase adopJon of exisJng systems

Seamless integraJon
Automated content migraJon and permissioning

15

STAKEHOLDER

Gezng to Goals: CMO & CEO

CEO

CMO
Goals

How Content Management helps

Goals

How Content Management helps

Drive a cohesive strategy

and align with sales

Simplify workows

Measure, increase and
add visibility to markeJng
ROI

Control markeJng
message

Support Sales ProducJvity

Provides a markeJng <-> sales feedback

loop giving your CMO visibility into what
content is resonaJng in the eld.

Simplies the workow of your markeJng
team as Jme-consuming manual tasks like
tagging, organizing, and distribuJng
become automated.

Allows your CMO to measure content ROI
as you get visibility into which content is
associated with winning deals. Track PAGE
based analyJcs on how content is used
internally by reps.

New, on-brand collateral is made instantly
available to reps increasing content
adopJon. Old collateral is instantly
removed

Increase eciency

Match shareholder
expectaJons / Increase
revenue

Improved cohesion
between teams across the
company

Boost employee morale

Grow the business

Increases eciency, producJvity, and

morale by eliminaJng the all too common
where did I leave that le problem.

Drives revenue gains as your sales team
spend more Jme selling. Helps sales team
become more eecJve.

Adds visibility to markeJng eorts including
metrics like content ROI.

Drives producJvity and scales without
requiring a change to workows.

16

STAKEHOLDER

Gezng to Goals: Head of Sales

Head of Sales
Goals

How Content Management helps

Faster go to market

Make quota

Value messaging

Increase win rates

Improve team
performance

Allows reps to quickly surface and use

content that is proven to close more
business.

Sales reps get the tools to mash up the
most relevant pages, images, and charts to
create perfectly tailored pitches in minutes.

Complex selling requires increased
personalizaJon, something which content
management sofware makes seamless.

Eciency gains thru integraJon with
Salesforce.com - allowing your reps to
access the best content straight from
Salesforce.

Content analyJcs means reps can learn
from and copy high performing team
members.

17

STAKEHOLDER

Gezng to Goals: CFO & CIO

CIO

CFO
Goals

How Content Management helps

Goals

How Content Management helps

Manage risk

Increase revenue

Facilitate protability

Manage cash ow

Future planning

Highlight the improved visibility into

markeJng eorts and content investments
your new soluJon can bring. CFOs will want
to talk numbers and ROI.

Outline your projected ROI Jmeline and
your Jme-to-prot. Dont hedge on the
detail. Your CFO will examine your proposal
thoroughly so take your Jme over that
spreadsheet!

Content Management can help you get the
most out of exisJng systems.

Explain how eecJve content management
helps to increase producJvity and revenue.

Facilitate innovaJon

Supply teams with the
tools they need to do
their job

Maintain strong security
posture

Control IT spending

System adopJon rates

Impact to exisJng
infrastructure

Understand the security standards your

soluJon meets. Once you are saJsed that
the system meets industry standards on
security you can sooth your CIOs worries
over data integrity.

Show how a soluJon can extend the life of,
and get more out of exisJng storage
investments.

Highlight how a soluJon can be deployed in
hours not days, weeks, or months.

Talk about the ability of your chosen
soluJon to embed in exisJng systems.

Automated content migraJon and
permission management reduces ITs
workload.
18

STAKEHOLDER

Gezng to Goals: Sales Ops

Sales OperaCons
Goals

How Content Management helps

Get reps selling

One go to market

Simple to use

Control content
availability

Increase Sales
EecJveness

Relevance algorithm delivers the right

content to the right people increasing sales
eecJveness.

Complete automated workow integraJon
within Salesforce.

IntuiJve user experience like Google for
business documents.

No migraJon necessary to populate
Salesforce with relevant content meaning
reps dont have to concern themselves with
uploading content manually.

With instant content surfacing reps spend
more Jme selling instead of searching for
and recreaJng silod content.
19

STAKEHOLDER OBJECTION HANDLING

We put together a list of some of the most common reasons you will hear for delaying implementaJons as well as our
recommended response.

ObjecCon

Response

We are coming into a really busy Cme

of the year with lots of late stage deals
in the pipeline. Maybe we should revisit
this at a later date.

If anything, more deals means we should implement sooner rather than later. The speed at which business
is conducted today means it is unlikely there will ever be a perfect moment. A strategic sales and
markeJng content management investment comes with proven ROI, empowers reps, and increases win
rates. The longer we wait the longer it will take to reap the benets.

The MarkeCng team is concentraCng

on the website redesign project, maybe
we can talk again when they nish.

MarkeJng teams today rarely have a quiet moment. Truth is, if we pick the right soluJon, with an intuiJve
interface and next generaJon search funcJonality, it will actually help with the current project.
Deployment only takes a couple of hours and ease of use is key -- meaning users will be up and running in
no Jme.

IT is already inundated, we will

come back to SCMM when their
schedule eases.

The Jme IT needs to invest is minimal. Deployment only takes a couple of hours and automaJc mirroring
of current permission sezngs means no new governance is required.

We already employ a sales content

management system and markeCng
spent some Cme tagging each le to
help us nd them in future.

Simply put, your sales content management system wont scale. The days of tagging and other manual
sorJng methods like naming convenJons are over. We need a soluJon that automaJcally indexes all
content regardless of where it is stored, increasing producJvity without the Jme consuming le
management tradiJonal content management systems require.

20

PART 3
SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS

CONTENT MANAGEMENT DECISION FRAMEWORK

Architectural Criteria

Now that youve decided to make a purchase, you must take the Jme to choose the soluJon that matches your business needs.
The framework below presents key workow quesJons you need to consider.
Requirement

DescripCon

Benets

Fully integrates with exisJng

Any soluJon must fully and automaJcally sync with all of

DramaJcally reduces Jme to value and implementaJon Jme.

repositories and systems.

your exisJng repositories and content. That means

customers should be able to keep their content where it lives
without moving it, tagging it, or re-permissioning it. A viable

Fully leverages exisJng assets and investments without a forklif

rip and replace.

soluJon will automaJcally sync with your exisJng

Minimizes implementaJon risk, as exisJng infrastructure

infrastructure, requiring no workow change.

remains in place should the new soluJon not work.

AutomaJcally indexes, categorizes,

The soluJon should have the intelligence to automaJcally

Reduces admin and deployment Jme and overall total cost of

and analyzes all exisJng content

index and categorize exisJng content assets without any

ownership.

assets.

human intervenJon.

Zero manual tagging or uploading

The soluJon should not require admins to manually upload

Makes all exisJng corporate content available for use. Reduces

required.

content for it to be made available to end-users. All content

admin and deployment Jme and overall total cost of ownership.

repositories should be automaJcally indexed and made

available for search.

22

CONTENT MANAGEMENT DECISION FRAMEWORK

Architectural Criteria conJnued
Requirement

DescripCon

Benets

AutomaJcally analyzes content

Content relevance and seeding within the system should

The system will check to see what content is new. When a user

relevance based on freshness and

be based on content usage and relevance signals such as

is researching a specic topic new or fresh content is given a

usage analyJcs.

when the content was created.

boost in search results.

Easily scales as the volume of

The system should provide instant uJlity with no addiJonal

ExisJng silos are indexed and the content hosted within them is

content, categories and users

infrastructure investments. As new content is created it

made accessible to the organizaJon. ExisJng infrastructure

grows.

should be automaJcally added to the system.

investments get a new lease of life no need to rip and replace.

No addiJonal maintenance/

System deployment Jme should take hours/days not weeks/

DramaJcally reduces Jme to value and implementaJon Jme

administraJon required

months and it should not be necessary to dedicate a

and reduces total cost of ownership.

resource to maintaining the system.

Easily embedded into other

An API that allows customers and partners to embed the full

Customers dont have to support another website. There is liole

applicaJons like Salesforce.com,

content management experience within systems such as

energy and Jme spent training users to alter their workow,

portals and intranets

Intranets, Wikis, CMS and CRM.

habits, or experience.

Signal based content analyJcs

Content relevance and seeding within the system should

Understanding signals and relevance down to the page and

be based on usage and relevance signals. Signal examples

object level within a document allows the system to present the

being views, clicks, downloads, re-use, modicaJons,

exact asset within a document the user is looking for, as

creator, etc.

opposed to a link to the enJre document.

23

CONTENT MANAGEMENT DECISION FRAMEWORK

FuncJonal Requirements
Requirement

DescripCon

Benets

Ability to surface and extract

SoluJon must provide the ability for users to extract content

Huge reducJon in the Jme reps spend creaJng/re-creaJng

objects, logos, and complete pages. and copy objects for use in the creaJon of new content or for client slide decks.
sharing internally and externally.
Ability to push the most relevant

The soluJon must provide an interface so that admins can

MarkeJng can instantly make new materials available to all reps

content to reps based on account

see what content is being used, what is not being used, and

with one click of a buoon.

type, opportunity, and stage.

what content moves deals forward.

Track PAGE based analyJcs on how

The system needs to provide content usage analyJcs down

content is used internally by reps.

to the page/slide level.

Track external engagement with

The system needs to provide a way to track client

Get a real-Jme noJcaJon any Jme a client clicks on your link.

content by customers.

interacJons with content that is sent to them.

See how Jme is spent on your content in slide-by-slide detail.

Understand what content is helping move deals forward.

Ability to mashup dierent pages of The soluJon should be le type agnosJc.

Ability to normalize content, no maoer what the source, to a

content from mulJple le formats

reps preferred le type.

to create new content.

24

PART 4
RETURN ON INVESTMENT

CORE BENEFITS
3 Core Benets Sales Content Management Can Bring To Your Company

1. Save Cme and money

2. Measure and opCmize content investments

3. Increase win rates
1. Save Cme and money

Provide your sales and markeJng

teams with instant access to the
latest content regardless of where
it is stored. With more to focus on
whats important producJvity will
improve, resulJng in massive
savings in Jme and money.

Where did I leave that le?
Quickly put an end to the Jme-
consuming where did I leave that
le rouJne. Provides reps with
instant access to the latest sales

content reducing ineciency and

allowing teams to focus on whats
most important selling!

Time is the reps most precious
commodity.
Any soluJon that allows sales reps to
spend more Jme selling warrants
immediate consideraJon.

Faster Ramp Up Time.
Give new hires instant access to the
most successful sales content, proven
pitches, and detailed analyJcs.

2. Measure and opCmize

content investments

As companies allocate more and

more of their budgets to content, it
makes sense that execuJve teams
want to start seeing evidence of
ROI.

Detailed AnalyCcs
Learn which content is associated
with winning deals. With content
analyJcs, reps can instantly access
winning content, and markeJng
teams can understand what
resonates.

Assess Content ROI

Eliminate unnecessary subjecJvity
when it comes to content investment.
With visibility into how regularly a
piece of content is used and its
associaJon with winning deals,
markeJng can quickly measure the
ROI on their content investment.

26

CORE BENEFITS
Create tailored pitch decks in
minutes
Ensure your sales team are
The modern buyer completes close to
equipped with the best and most
70% of the buying process before the
relevant content when and where
rep is even engaged. Sales reps are
they need it.
dealing with increasingly

knowledgeable prospects and must
Increase sales eecCveness
Instead of searching for the piece of tailor their pitch accordingly. The best
sales content management opJons
content that best addresses the
give sales reps the ability to mashup
prospects situaJon, many sales
dierent pages of content from
reps re-use sales content on the
mulJple le formats to create the
basis that it is easy to nd. Sales
perfectly tailored pitch.
content management quickly puts
an end to this ineciency giving
reps the best chance at winning
new deals.

3. Increase win rates

3 key metrics to measure success:
1. Sales rep win rate
2. Content ROI
3. Sales acJvity metrics e.g. Jme spent selling

27

SAMPLE BUSINESS CASE

The CMO at a fast growing Inc. 500 sofware rm is looking to build a business case for a sales/markeJng content management
iniJaJve. A clear path to ROI needs to be shown in order to secure budget.

Background

30 sales reps
Current document repository is not user friendly and provides no analyJcs
Reps waste Jme pulling slides from mulJple presentaJons - signicantly impacJng producJvity
6 hours wasted/week/rep searching for/recreaJng content
No feedback loop from sales to markeJng no analyJcs
RFP response workow is highly inecient

Key Needs

Drive eciency across sales team

Provide markeJng insight into what works and what doesnt
User-friendly interface

Goal
One week implementaJon Jme
One mobile opJmized search layer to access content
ProducJvity gains (reducJon in search and slide re-creaJon Jme)
Drive eecJveness by ensuring team has access to the latest approved collateral at all Jmes

28

SAMPLE BUSINESS CASE

Future State

Current State
100
200

180

90

80

150

60

100

40

50

20

3.6

1.8

0
Hours Wasted Per week

Equivalent Reps Lost

Hours Saved Per Week

ProducJvity Gain in Reps

How Sales Content Management helps

1. Save Cme and money
Faster rep onboarding and quota aoainment thru best pracJce methodologies, access to proven successful pitches, and analyJcs.
ProducJvity gains could result in freeing up the equivalent of 1.8 reps and an esJmated $450K in cost savings over 12 months.
2.

3.

Measure and opCmize content investments

HighlighJng the most successful content to use in responses to prospects.
AnalyJcs on how content is used and shared both internally and externally enables markeJng teams to create consistent and stronger messaging.
Increase win rates / Faster revenue growth
Empowering sales reps to own more of their work with an easy to use, visual, soluJon. This also improves the quality of their presentaJons.

90 Hours per Week * $100/Hour * 50 = $450,000 in cost savings

Impact of 1.8 Reps = TBD

RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Context

A 2014 survey asked companies

about the eect sales & markeJng
content management sofware has
had on their business

68%
57%

27%

33%

47%

By using sales content management and

analyDcs soNware, sales and markeDng
leaders are strengthening their agility and
increasing their oensive capabiliDes to grow
revenue more consistently and protably.
Alex Gorbansky, Docurated CEO

30

THE
3

I
NEVITABLE
T
RUTHS
O
F

Table of
contents
SALES CONTENT MANGEMENT
1. Your exis,ng content and silos are not going away. You need a soluJon that can integrate
with all your repositories.

2. The volume of new content will grow. You need a soluJon that doesnt require manual
tagging and uploading - otherwise you will never keep up with the growth of content as you
scale and your soluJon will be obsolete in months.

3. There will be massive change in your organiza,on with regard to people and workows.
You need an easy to maintain, end-user-friendly soluJon, that integrates with your known
workows, and will also allow you to add the unknown workows and tools you will need in
the future.