Why Your Marketing Materials Are Not Your Sales Materials,
and why it matters.
With ‘Work’-ers In
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www.workaletta.com
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Guide
Table of Contents
Introduction
Marketing Educates, Sales Persuades
Marketing Nurtures, Sales Closes
Sales Needs Custom Tools
A Dive into Playbooks and Sales Plays
Content for Both Sides of the Table
Differentiating Across Markets
Conclusion and Takeaways
About Workaletta
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01.
Introduction
Marketing professionals are often asked-
to take their existing marketing materi-
als like white papers, ebooks, case stud-
ies, etc., and “repurpose” them for sales
enablement. The idea is that sales reps
can take these materials and use them
in their sales conversations with pros-
pects. While it’s tempting to think you
can take this approach – it’s often mis-
guided. Marketing and sales materials
serve fundamentally different purposes
and must be created separately.
Observations
In this paper, we’ll explain:
+93% of sales reps say customized sales collateral is
more effective than recycled marketing materials.
(Corporate Visions, 2022)
Why marketing
content should
not double as
sales collateral.
1.
2.
3.
The distinct
goals of market-
ing vs. sales.
Importance of
having dedicated
sales playbooks
for sales success.
Sales reps spend 30%
more time research-
ing per sale without
customized collateral.
(Corporate Visions, 2022)
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02.
Marketing Educates,
Sales Persuades
The core purpose of marketing content
is to attract and nurture prospects by
educating them about key challenges in
their industry and how your company’s
solutions can help. The goal is establish-
ing your company as a trusted advisor
and thought leader. Marketing materials
include whitepapers, eBooks, infograph-
ics, case studies, and webinars. These as-
sets are optimized for discovery through
search and social and are designed to
move prospects progressively down the
funnel.
Sales materials, on the other hand, serve
a quite different function. They are meant
to persuade prospects and convince
them to buy from you. Sales collateral
includes pitch decks, solution overviews,
ROI calculators, other tools, questions
when prospecting, objection handling,
and more to prove your value and seal
the deal.
Repurposing a whitepaper or eBook
that tells the story about what your so-
lution does as a sales deck doesn’t work
because the content is laser-focused in-
ward rather than on the customer. It also
creates work for sales.
A look at core objectives.
+99%
of buyers said a tailored pitch
was very influential in their
buying decisions.
(Demand Gen, 2021)
That’s why trying to blend these two
distinct types of content doesn’t work.
When marketing content tries to be
too specific, it loses its ability to attract
and engage prospects looking for infor-
mation. When sales materials are too
broad or educational and not persuasive
enough, they fail to convince prospects
to take action.
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Key Differences.
03.
Marketing Nurtures,
Sales Closes
Another key difference between
marketing and sales materials is
their use in the buyer’s journey. Mar-
keting content is deployed early
and throughout the top and middle
of the funnel to nurture prospects.
The goal is to educate prospects
over time and build awareness and
consideration for your brand. Today,
since many B2B buyers do much of
this research independently, this
content must be informative and
easy to understand.
On the other hand, sales materials
need to consider a few things. First,
your prospects will have many ques-
tions after their self-guided educa-
tion about your company, and you’ll
need to predict what those ques-
tions will be and have answers ready.
Your conversations with customers
and prospects come into play at the
bottom of the funnel
when they are ready to shortlist solu-
tions and make purchase decisions.
They serve as ammunition for sales
reps to close deals and beat the com-
petition. By conflating marketing and
sales collateral, you lose sight of when
and how content should be deployed
for maximum impact – and you also
risk repeating a message that your
prospect has already seen that doesn’t
answer their questions.
It’s certainly possible for some content
pieces to serve hybrid functions across
the funnel. For example, an analyst re-
search report could be used in mar-
keting to build credibility and by sales
to strengthen value propositions. But
this should be the exception and not
the rule. As a best practice, separate
content for awareness, consideration,
and decision phases.
+79%
of sales leaders say updating
sales collateral is a top sales
enablement priority.
(Sales Enablement Society, 2022).
+40%
Sales has more meetings
with with personalized
content.
(Seismic, 2022)
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04.
Sales Needs
Custom Tools
A look at what works.
Even if a marketing asset like a
whitepaper has persuasive el-
ements, sales reps need cus-
tom tools tailored to their situa-
tion. Materials should be crafted
through the lens of different
buyer personas, industries, and
use cases. Sales collateral incor-
porates competitive compari-
sons, ROI calculators, and other
functionality that generic mar-
keting materials lack.
First
Second
This tells us two things: too many
companies are cutting corners
and taking shortcuts, and these
shortcuts impact sales’ ability to
sell.
Trying to make marketing as-
sets pull “double duty” for sales
usually leaves salespeople ill-
equipped. Reps need content
designed to address prospects’
unique pain points and objec-
tions and make the business
case for your solution. Sales play-
books and sales plays provide
this tactical support for winning
deals.
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Third
05.
A Dive Into Playbooks
and Sales Plays
Why they work.
Sales playbooks are guides that es-
tablish repeatable processes to target
prospects,
progress
opportunities,
and close deals. They provide frame-
works, templates, scripts, and other
tools organized by the sales cycle
stages. Sales plays then provide spe-
cific tactical assets to execute each
playbook activity. For many compa-
nies, this could be a combination of
presentations, calculators, and other
tools that help sales close deals.
For example, a playbook may out-
line the typical stages to identify and
qualify new opportunities, including
buying center research, initial out-
reach, and details about messaging.
The playbook could also include email
templates, cold call scripts, and value
prop guidelines to equip reps to exe-
cute each sales play activity.
+16.4% Deal size
improvement when
using sales plays.
(Sales Enablement PRO, 2022)
+15% Sales plays
improve win rates .
(Sales Hacker, 2021)
+34% Sales reps
meet their quota at
a higher rate using
sales plays.
(Accent Technologies, 2022)
The beauty of sales playbooks and
sales plays is they can be highly cus-
tomized and modular. You can build
playbooks for different products,
services, industries, buyer types, and
sales process phases. Sales Plays
provide the plug-and-play assets
and stories sales will use to address
a limitless combination of sales sit-
uations. Organizational alignment
is one of the most important by-
products of using a Sales Playbook.
Everything from your outreach to
your follow-up is aligned with what
is outlined in the overall vision of
the play.
Having bespoke sales playbooks
powered by an always-growing re-
pository of sales plays gives your
team flexibility and customization
educational/
demand
marketing
content can’t match.
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06.
Content for Both
Sides of the Table
This ultimately translates to more revenue compared to a fragmented
approach. Even if resources are tight, resist the urge to make marketing
materials do double duty for sales. The results will suffer on both ends.
Developing content for both marketing and sales keeps each team focused on their part
of the funnel while helping them work together cohesively. To best arm both marketing
and sales with what they need to be successful, take an integrated cross-departmental
approach:
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Train marketing and sales teams on their distinct goals
and how to collaborate. Make it clear marketing is demand
generation. Sales is demand conversion.
Foster communication between the departments to share
insights around buyer pain points, objections, and motiva-
tors to inform content.
Ensure marketing allocates budget for sales materials and
that sales allocates time to inform marketing content.
Take a modular, componentized approach to content that
allows you to repurpose elements but keep core assets
separate.
Utilize marketing automation and CRM systems to track
content performance across the funnel and gain insights
to improve future content.
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07.
Differentiating Across
Markets
Double down on things like:
One of the challenges in creating separate sales and marketing content is con-
veying what makes you unique across different segments. Especially as you
target multiple verticals, how do you adapt your core value proposition while
staying true to your essential differentiators?
The key is to identify your fundamen-
tal differentiators across your brand
and solutions. Drill down to what un-
derlying advantages and strengths
allow you to deliver value across mul-
tiple industries and buyer types.
Getting to these core differentiators
provides a blueprint for presenting
a consistent and compelling case
for your business while tailoring it to
specific market needs.
For instance, a manufacturing com-
pany may tout its patented process
automation
capabilities,
enabling
higher throughput and yield. It’s pow-
ering advanced forecasting to reduce
inventory costs and increase margins
for retail. Healthcare? Optimizing pa-
tient flow and care coordination.
The same strengths are adapted to
each industry’s priorities. In other
words, the exact use case from a
product perspective is communicat-
ed very differently to different indus-
try segments.
This segmented messaging comes to
life in sales materials through use cas-
es, data, and customer wins relevant
to each sector. Marketing content can
tap into these differentiators but lead
with education around broader indus-
try challenges. This provides a plat-
form for sales collateral to then pre-
scribe specific solutions.
Keeping your foundational promises
consistent empowers more targeted
execution across content types. Sales
and marketing then echo and rein-
force positioning while speaking di-
rectly to their distinct audiences.
Proprietary Technology or IP
Unique Expertise
Breadth of Capabilities
Comprehensive Approach
Special Methodology
Superior Results
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08.
Conclusion and
Takeaways
Conclusion
Takeaways
Developing strong alignment between sales and marketing allows you to nur-
ture prospects and close deals in a unified system. But this requires under-
standing their differing roles. Don’t undercut the effectiveness of either func-
tion by having sales and marketing materials serve double duty.
Give your audience what they need at each journey stage—supply market-
ing with compelling content to attract and convert potential buyers. Next,
empower sales with purpose-built tools and content to address specific pros-
pect use cases, questions, and objections. Making this distinction will lead to
greater success for both teams.
Focus first on creating high-quality content for each part of the funnel. Then,
look for responsible ways to cross-pollinate and multi-purpose elements be-
tween departments. This integrated strategy will allow you to provide the
right content, to the right people, at the right time. In an age of information
overload, alignment between sales and marketing content is key to breaking
through the noise to drive more revenue.
Marketing content educates and nurtures, while sales materials
persuade and close. They serve different purposes.
Marketing assets attract prospects early in the funnel, while sales
materials are used at the bottom to make the business case/close deals.
Sales reps need custom tools and calculators tailored to their situation
versus generic marketing content.
Sales playbooks and plays provide proven frameworks, scripts, tem-
plates, and assets organized by the sales cycle.
An integrated approach trains both teams on their roles, fosters com-
munication, and takes a modular approach to content.
Identifying core brand differentiators provides a consistent blueprint to
tailor value props to various segments in both marketing and sales ma-
terials.
© 2023 Workaletta Inc | info@workaletta.com