Empower Your Sales Enablement Content Strategy

Knowledgeprofessionalsareinundatedwithahighervolume, velocity,andvarietyofcontentthaneverbefore,andthisis especiallytrueforprofessionalsinmarketfacingand monitoringroles Cuttingthroughthenoisetodiscover insightscriticaltoinformingothershasbecomeincreasingly timeconsuming.Herewelookattherolecontentplaysinsales enablementandhowCronycle’suniquemixofartificialand humanintelligencecanimproveanorganization’suseof curatedcontentinthesalescycle

TheStellarRiseofSales Enablement

Salesenablementasastrategicdisciplinehasundergonea massiveevolutionsinceForresterResearchfirstformally defineditbackin2008 Thebiggestevolutionaryleapcamein 2016/2017whenthenumberoforganizationsindicatingthey hadaformalsalesenablementeortnearlydoubled Today salesenablementisamaturedisciplinewithaprovenabilityto impactanorganization’ssalesperformance Thatmaturity hasledtoaclearpictureofwhatisandisnoteective

ForfiveyearstheMillerHeimanGrouphavebeenformally studyingthedisciplineofsalesenablement TheirCSO Insights:2019SalesEnablementReportislitteredwithkey pointstoestablishthebusinesscaseandinformyourstrategy:

the power

In2019,613%oforganizationsreportedhavingsales enablement.

Organizationswithoutsalesenablementreportedwin ratesof42.5%,comparedto49%forthosewithsales enablement.

Three quarters(74.6%)oforganizationswithsales enablementhaveformalorevendynamicsalesprocesses, comparedto45.2%withoutsalesenablement. Salesenablementhasanevenstrongerimpacton customerrelationshiplevelsthanitdoesonsales processes AveragewinratesforthoseconsideredTrusted Partnerswere59.9%versusamere39.5%forthosewho wereconsideredApprovedVendors

Whatis Sales Enablement?

Forresterdefinedsalesenablementas: “astrategic,ongoingprocessthatequipsallclient facing employeeswiththeabilitytoconsistentlyandsystematically haveavaluableconversationwiththerightsetofcustomer stakeholdersateachstageofthecustomer’sproblem solving lifecycletooptimizethereturnofinvestmentoftheselling system.”

Asimplerdefinitionisthatsalesenablementisaconcerted eorttoalignthesystems,processes,toolsandinformationto helpsalesprofessionalssellmoreeectively.Buildingasales enablementeortrequiresdevelopingaclearstrategythat:

Outlinesthecross functionalinterplaybetweenall functionsthattouchthecustomerincludingsales,

marketing,customersuccessandsupport

Alignsandintegrateskeytechnologiestoenableascalable, barrierfreesalesprocess

Developingenablementservicestoempowerthesalesforce withcontentservingallstagesofthecustomerlifecycle, educationandcoaching

Ongoinggovernanceandmeasurementoftheeort.

Contentis Key!

Anyonestartingdownthepathofdevelopingasales enablementinitiativequicklyrealizesthatcontentplaysavital role Theinterplaybetweenfunctionsthattouchthecustomer islargelyaboutproducingandcuratingcontenttoinform, educate,nurture,convertandsupportcustomers The alignmentofkeytechnologieslargelyfocusesonhowwe leverageanddistributecontentthroughoutthesalescycleto advancearelationship. Andenablementserviceslargelyfocus onamassingandusingcontentmarketingtodevelopthesales professionalasatrustedpartner/subjectmatterexpert.

Theinterplaybetweenfunctionsthattouchthecustomeris largelyaboutproducingandcuratingcontenttoinform, educate,nurture,convertandsupportcustomers

Salescontentcomesinmanyformsbutcanoftenbegrouped intooneoftwocategories:contentthatwillendupinthe handsofprospects/customersandcontentthatwillbeusedto helpenablethesalesforcetobemoreeective

Content–AMassive Time/LaborInvestment

Contentcomesfrommanydierentsources,withsellers themselvesbeingthesecondlargestproducer.“Sellersstill createaboutone fifthofthecontenttheyneedontheirown: 21.3%thisyearcomparedto20.7%lastyear.”Thatequatesto 10 16hoursaweekspentsourcinginsightstoproduce content,curatingreferencesandexamples,andproducing originalcontent.

Otherkeyhighlightsfromthe2019SalesEnablementStudy include:

281%ofrespondentssaidtheydon’tknowhowmuchthey investincontent.

Only318%ofrespondentsreportedhavingacontent strategyinplace.

Havingaformalcontentstrategyledparticipantstoa 27.1%increaseinwinratesanda18.1%increasequota attainment.

UsingCronycletoEmpower YourSales EnablementEffort

Cronyclepairsapowerfulcontentdiscoveryandcuration processpoweredbyhumanandartificialintelligencewitha digitalworkplaceforteamstomakesenseof,annotate,discuss andsharecontent.

Cronycleiscapableofsupportingtheentiresalesenablement contentlifecycle;servingasthedefactoenvironmentfor marketintelligence,competestrategyformulation,third

partycontentdiscoveryandaggregation,internalknowledge developmentandsharing,andmarketingcontentrepository

The Cronycle Approach to Discovery

Cronycleisamarketleaderinusingartificialandhuman intelligencetodiscovercontentatscale. Ourapproachstarts bylettingmachinesunderstandtheworldasitisversusashow wewouldartificiallystructureit Wedothatbyfeeding millionsofpiecesofcontentintoourtopicsdiscoveryengine everymonth Thatenginebuildsagraphdatabaseofrelated topicscompletewithsemanticsthatarebeingdiscussedvia content.

Wethenusethosetopicstosourceanexpertisenetwork

Wethenusethosetopicstosourceanexpertisenetwork,ie a humanpowerednetworkcomposedofindividuals,publishers andorganizationssharingcontentrelevanttothosetopics

Ourproprietaryalgorithmsassignentitiesintheexpertise networkarelevancescore Wethenautomaticallybuild communitiesofthetopentitieswithexpertiseonatopic.We followthoseentitiesonline,aggregatingcontentsharedby themintotopicalfeeds.

Theapproachsolvesakeychallengethathaslimitedthe eortsofcontentconsumerssincethedawnoftheinternet thedynamismofsources.

Creating a Filterable Hub for Content from Anywhere

Inadditiontocontentsourcedbytheexpertisenetwork, Cronycleallowsuserstobuildontopofthatfoundationwith contentfromknownsources(RSSfeeds,websites,newsletters, automatedwebsearches,etc) Userscanthencreateadvanced filtersappliedagainstallofthoseincomingsourcestoproduce finitestreamsofhighlyrelevantcontent Collaboratorsfrom acrosstheorganizationcanplayaroleinselectingthemost valuablecontentfromfeedstoengagewith.

Supporting Sales Enablement Content Management

Externalcontentplaysavitalroleinsalesenablement Itis oftenredistributedbysalesprofessionals,andfrequently servesastheresearchbehindoriginalcontent Cronycle’s boardsprovideapowerfulplaceforallstakeholdersthat collaborateonandleveragecontenttostore,discussand evolvecontent. Collaboratorscanbuildboardsthatserveas dynamiclibrariesforeachaudience(internal,channelpartner, customersegment),customerrelationshiplifecyclestage, intendeddistributionchannel,productoering,etc. Those boardsstorenotonlythecuratedcontent,butalsointernal documents,presentations,videosandmore.

Withintheboardenvironment,userscanfiltercontentbykey dates,contributor,formatandtags(fixedschemaor folksonomic).Userscanmakesenseofcontentbyextracting insights,summarizingcontentanddiscussingitems Related contentitemscanbegroupedintoarcstoallowformeta discussion Insightscanbeextractedfromasingleitem,group ofitems,orfromanentireboardtoquicklycompilekey

Leveraging Content

Cronycleenablesorganizationstoleveragethecontentstored onboardsinamultitudeofways Salesandmarketing professionalscanusetheboardsasrobustlyfilterable repositories Whenoneormorepiecesofcontentisneededfor acampaign,directcustomerinteraction,ortoresearcha particularsubject,notonlyisthecontentthere,sotoisany discussionithastriggered.Userscanpushcontentfrom boardstocontentmanagementsystems,emailcampaign platforms,researchandbusinessintelligenceplatformsand contentproductionplatforms Toenableexternalaudiences, extendaccesstoboardsviaboardsubscriptionsor integrate withotherrelieduponchannelssuchasMicrosoftTeams, Slack

FormalizeYourContent Strategy

Thebusinesscasetoinvestinaformalsalesenablement contentstrategyisaneasyonetomake.Organizationslooking todeveloparobustsalesenablementcontentstrategyneedto investtimeinunderstanding:

Whoarethekeyinternal/externalstakeholdersthatwill collaborateonandbenefitfromtheeort

Whattypesofexternalcontentareneededtoinformand enableyoureortsaroundeachstakeholderandeach stageoftherelationshiplifecyclewiththem

Whichcriteriawillbeusedtodeterminewhichthird party contentcanbepassedontoexternalstakeholders,and whatthird partycontentwouldbecomesourcematerial fornativecontent

Whatnativecontentwilltheorganizationneedtoproduce toaugmentthird partycontentforeachstakeholder segmentandrelationshipstage,andwhowillbe responsibleforproducingit

Whatchannelswillbeusedtodistributecontenttoeach stakeholderandhowmuchautomation/integrationcanbe leveragedtoreducethatwork

Whowillmanagethelifecycleofcontentusedtoinform, educate,nurtureandsupporteachstakeholder

AtCronyclewehaveseenawiderangeoforganizationsstart thejourneytobuildarobustsalesenablementcontent strategy.Wearelearningandadaptingastheyare. Ourtopic

modelscurrentlyspannearly60,000topicsandnewonesare beingaddedallthetime ToexplorehowCronyclecan empowerandaccelerateyoureort,scheduleaoneononecall withus

Discover the power of Cronycle for Teams

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