Articles, Presentations, & Press Releases

What are sales tools? They are the multimedia materials that the marketing people prepare for the sales people to use during the selling process. They may take a variety of forms: PowerPoint presentations, CDs, interactive web content, customer success stories, datasheets (printed or electronic), comparison charts or product selection tools.

Roles: Who Does What?
The marketing people are responsible for preparing the sales tools, but the sales people need to be involved throughout the process. The sales people need to specify which tools they need, and the content for each one. The marketing team develops the content, making sure that all the key messages have been incorporated, consistent with the latest competitive information. The sales people need to review the content before it is finalized. The entire process should be completed to meet the deadline as specified by the sales people. If sales tools are among the many deliverables created during a product launch, they should be given highest priority; it's imperative that the sales team has the tools that they need to begin selling when the product is launched.

Formats and Venues
The evolution of sales tools has followed the same path as other marketing materials: print, to electronic, to web-based formats. Sometimes selling situations or customers may dictate the form of the selling tool. For example, at a trade show, you may want to have printed copies of datasheets. However, in the case of a cold call, the sales person may want to have something that can readily be emailed after the call, such as a link to a website or an email attachment. Because there are so many choices of formats today, it's best to let the sales people decide what format will serve their needs.

The Selling Process
Different tools may be required for different steps of the selling process. During the early part of the selling process, the goal is to develop awareness of the company and product, so a lot of different sales tools may be needed, and both general and detailed product information and content will be used. In the early stages, webcasts or webinars and customer success stories may serve that purpose. During the middle stages and before the closing of the sale, the customer will need more information about the product. That's when datasheets may be used. If customers want to try the product or test it in their own environment, the sales tools need to be interactive, such as demos or presentations. That's why it's advisable to develop as many types of sales tools as the budget allows so that the sales team can apply the most effective tool for the situation.

The Most Effective Tools Today
Today's customers expect to be able to obtain information via email and the Internet. One of the most common selling tools today is the webcast or webinar. If you can get people to register, attend, and provide interactive feedback, this can be a very effective method of developing awareness, giving an in-depth presentation, answering questions, and giving product demos if the product lends itself to that. According to webinar gurus, the keys to successful webinars are: 1) make the event interesting by providing backup information like case studies and, 2) offer alternative times and locations for the event to reach the broadest audience. It also helps to use software tools that can track registration, attendance and post-event follow-up.

The comparatively unglamorous datasheet is still an effective selling tool. Datasheets should be concise and clear, 2-pages front and back, with interesting graphics. Generate a PDF version, and it's ready to be emailed to leads and prospects. It's also a good idea to post datasheets at the company website.

Web-based Flash demos are another effective tool for those products that can be demonstrated on a website, such as software. Making this available at the company website means that web visitors can download or view it at their leisure. These demos can also supplement the sales process after a cold call because the sales person can direct the prospect to the company website to view them.

Customer case studies and success stories can also be effective sales tool that provides a reference account and "proof point" for the product being sold. This helps in all stages of the selling process. They can be printed or posted at the company's website.

Comparison charts or selection tools may be helpful during the middle stages of the selling process when the target customer is trying to make a decision. These can be electronic or printed, and can even be interactive.

The ubiquitous PowerPoint presentation may still be a requirement during some stage of the selling process, especially if there are multiple levels of signature authority needed in order to complete the purchase. Presentations can be modified on the fly based on the target audience. Very often, the marketing people don't get very involved in putting these presentations together and the sales people do it themselves. However, the marketing people need to make sure that the sales people have the key list of messages that need to be incorporated in all presentations.

And last but not least, the CD. There are two different philosophies about CDs - whether they are used as a giveaway at trade shows or handed to a customer during a selling situation. Some people believe that CDs are often just thrown away because customers don't have time to look at them. Others believe that it's a good medium that holds a lot of marketing material and therefore makes it easier than sending things one at a time, such as a datasheet, demo, white paper, etcetera. So, this one is up to the sales team. The nice thing is that today it's very fast and cheap to create CDs even in mass quantities, so if the sales team decides they want them, it won't be a big hit to the budget.