Surveys show that the average sales force uses only 10 percent of traditional marketing support materials. Why? One common reason given by sales people is that the messages in the materials don’t speak to the issues that customers have. Another reason is that the collateral doesn’t address the issues in a way that compels the reader to act, causing that glossy brochure to end up in the back of a sales proposal, perhaps unread. Sometimes, the issue isn’t the marketing material, but the lack of it. Companies may have great material to support one part of the sales process, but nothing to engage or inform the customer at another step in their buying-decision process.

Does your sales team use the sales-support marketing collateral that you produce? How do your materials support various steps in the sales process? Companies struggling with the sales-marketing disconnect need to ask three important questions:

• How can we create messages that address key customer concerns and attractively communicate the value of our solution?
• How can our marketing collateral better align with and support each stage of the customer purchasing process?
• How can we help our sales force move from product comparisons to a more consultative sales approach?

perhaps more of us need to take a step back and answer a few basic questions: “Who are we talking to?” and “What matters to them?” Only after you’ve identified the decision maker and their primary business issues can you move to the next phase.

Differentiate
Differentiate your company and your solution by identifying which of your solutions meets the customer’s needs. To do this, list customer business needs in a column on one half of a sheet of paper. Alongside the list of business needs, write your key solutions, capabilities, and differentiators. Then draw lines from the needs to the solutions, capabilities, or differentiators that meet that need. You’ll begin to see how your solutions solve critical customer pains.

Below this “map,” or on a separate sheet (one sheet per business need), document how the solution would create value for the customer. Simply write a statement for each value point. Be patient; this can take time.

Document
You can formulate a set of message outlines, one per business issue. For each message outline, document the business issue, your capabilities, the elevator pitch for why your solution offers the best value, and a proof statement.

Once you capture these essential elements in writing, you can use them in a number of ways. They can form the basis for your product or solution positioning and messaging. You can also use these documents to develop conversation road maps that can inform your sales team and help guide their conversations.

Your marketing collateral and sales support materials will be born out of, and based on, this important process. By taking the time to understand and document who your customers are and what they need, you’ll be well on your way to supporting each step of the sales process with compelling marketing and sales support materials. And your computer’s recycle bin may be a little lighter because of it.