In today’s competitive business environment, turning prospects into leads requires a strategic and proactive approach. Educating potential customers on how your products or services can solve their problems is essential, but starting a sales content process can be a challenge for many teams. We recommend focusing on three key areas to get a sales enablement content strategy started: Audience, Content, and Execution.
Start with your audience in mind.
The first step is to identify your target audience. To do so, you need to ask the right questions that enable you to define your “right to win” clients. These are the prospects that your team is best positioned to provide the best possible service. Once you have identified your right to win clients, you can expand your list to include additional targets that are slightly outside of your perfect right to win group. To create a realistic and appropriately sized group of contacts to approach, you should consider factors such as:
- In which areas does your agency generate the most profit?
- With whom are you currently communicating?
- What kind of business do you choose to walk away from?
- Which brands align with your agency and should be your clients?
- What areas are the most interesting to your team and align with their passions?
By asking these questions, you can determine who your audience is in a specific, lead-driven way.
Create sales content with intent.
Content is a critical element of new business success. To advance your sales content strategy, you must provide content that your audience wants to consume and share online. When creating your sales enablement content strategy, it is crucial to start slow and avoid overextending yourself. To determine what content should live on your editorial calendar, consider questions such as:
- What is the purpose of your agency’s existence? (less about what and how)
- What is the one thing your agency does better than any other?
- What are the benefits of working with your agency?
- What type of work is beyond your agency’s scope? (this will help you drive more qualified conversations)
- What are the business problems that you solve for the identified prospect categories?
By creating sales content that is relevant to your audience’s needs, you can aid your prospects in determining why they should work with you over another partner.
Make a sales content plan that is achievable.
To achieve your new business goals, you must have a well-defined plan that is consistently repeatable and includes well-defined goals, measurements, and activities. Your plan should involve everyone in the new business process, from sales and marketing to management. During the execution phase, consider these questions:
- Which members of the in-house team will be fulfilling each role in the sales/marketing process?
- What technologies are currently in place?
- In what way do we want to approach new prospects?
- How have we approached prospects in the past, and what methods have worked best?
- Who has typically been the most receptive to our messaging?
A critical part of execution is leveraging the content you have created and the process your sales and marketing team uses to drive 1-1 sales conversations. By using your content to engage with prospects more often, you can increase your chances of winning clients.
To turn prospects into leads you must identify your target audience, create relevant sales enablement content, and have a well-defined plan in place. By focusing on these three key areas, you can support a proactive approach to new business and increase your chances of winning more business with your most sought-after clients.