What is sales collateral? 9 Kinds that’ll shower you with conversions

Customers want to learn the ins and outs of the product/services, but practically, it is difficult for a salesperson to explain everything alone. 

Here comes the role of sales collateral, which plays a crucial role in sales conversion. On average, sales reps take the help of 17 sales collaterals throughout the sales pipeline.  

The above stat indicates the importance of sales collateral in the buyer’s journey. 

Let’s dive deep to learn what sales collateral is, its importance, best examples, and how to build sales collateral to boost sales conversion rate. 

What is sales collateral?

Sales collateral is any content that enables sales professionals to convert prospects into paying customers by showing them the brand’s efficiency and effectiveness. 

It includes both; digital and traditional content resources such as landing pages, eBooks, videos, infographics, social media posts, etc. 

This collateral helps your sales team to close more deals and is a part of sales enablement. 

4 reasons why your business must create sales collateral 

With sales collateral, you can encourage the prospects to become your paying customers. Check out these 4 reasons to know why your business must create sales collateral. 

1. Helps to generate leads 

You can nudge your potential web visitors to take a demo of the product and service or contact the sales reps. 

By leveraging the right sales collateral at the right place, you can push your prospects ahead in your sales pipeline. 

For example, if your prospect is looking for a better alternative to their current Keap CRM software. Then, a sales page titled; “Best Keap CRM alternative” would be sales collateral to get you a qualified lead. 

2. Lets you show your expertise 

You can express why you are the best in the industry through sales collateral. Blogs, videos, case studies, checklists, and white papers help you express your expertise as a brand. 

It helps you gain your prospect’s trust and build brand awareness. 

3. Keep customer interaction up to date 

Sales collateral keeps the conversation fresh and live for long sales processes like in B2B. Instead of dull and forceful follow-ups, sales collateral keeps the interaction more prosperous for prospects and sales teams. 

New updates and information in the sales collateral entice the prospects to contact you. 

4. Boost brand authority 

Sales collateral is solid evidence to rely on in a hierarchical business model. An organization with high brand authority gains customer trust and higher sales conversion. 

What are the types of sales collateral? 

There are majorly two types of sales collateral; traditional and digital based on media. 

Your company’s website is a true example of digital sales collateral as it contains your product and services, offers, features and benefits, customer reviews, pricing, etc. 

Some businesses solely rely on digital sales collateral, while many require both types. The nature of the business and prospects decides the usage of the kind of sales collateral. 

Leverage the right sales collateral at the right stage! 

Sales collateral lets you or your team prompt your deal further in the sales pipeline. Let’s understand how you must leverage the right sales collateral at the right stage of the buyer’s journey. 

1. Awareness stage: For sales prospecting  

About 42% of B2B clients consume 2 to 5 content resources before interacting with any salesperson. Therefore, sales collateral is critical to get sales-ready prospects in your sales pipeline. 

Examples of best sales collateral that works at the awareness stage: 

• Informational blogs (Ex: 9 best SaaS lead generation strategies) 
• Landing Pages
• Informative whitepapers (Ex: SaaS churn) 
• Insightful videos   
• Webinars  

2. Consideration stage: To facilitate sales conversation  

At this stage, your sales team begins interacting with the prospects to understand their pain points better. 

Prospects are exploring similar options, so your sales collateral must have everything to fulfill their intent. 

It must have expressed your product or service value, features, and, most importantly, how it can benefit them. Provide solutions through sales collateral; the right prospect will fall your way. 

Examples of best sales collateral that works at the consideration stage: 

• Specific datasheets 
• Case studies (Ex: Tried many CRMs, but Salesmate just stuck!) 
• Catalog including use-cases & tips with a CTA 
• Buyer’s Guide
• Corporate brochure 

3. Decision stage: To encourage deal closing  

Prospects at this stage are well-versed about your brand, so now your sales collateral must have something useful to serve to nudge to pay you at this final stage. 

Your sales collateral should enable you to outshine your competitors and present you as the most reliable brand for the product or services. 

Examples of best sales collateral that works at the decision stage: 

• Pricing guides 
• Activity-triggered emails  
• Product demo or presentation
• Competitor comparisons (e.g. Salesmate CRM vs. HubSpot CRM)  
• Product walk-through webinar/Seminars  
• Feature and benefits explainer videos 

Since we serve a CRM product, we linked our winning sales collaterals to help you learn and close more deals. 

Sales collateral is built once you’ve had a strong understanding of your buyer persona. 

Research well, and once you have the answers, you and your team can start with the formation of sales collateral.   

Now, let’s find the most effective sales collateral that drives revenue to the business.  

9 best examples of sales collateral to win more sales conversion 

As 81 % of consumers research brands online before reaching sales reps, businesses must harbor abundant content resources to feed prospects and convince them to purchase from you.  

Check out these 9 effective sales collateral examples that you must create to close more deals. 

1. Sales pages  

The content/copy on the landing and sales pages count as collateral. You can showcase compelling offers on landing pages to push the prospects further on the sales pipeline.  

If created well, landing can help to maximize conversions for sales teams. To create impactful landing pages, you can consider the following frameworks for landing page copywriting.  

• AIDA framework 
• SLAP framework 
• FAB framework 
• PAS framework 
• The 4 P’s  

Using these frameworks, you can highlight prospects’ challenges and their solutions mindfully that encouraging them to move one step ahead in the sales cycle. 

2. Blogs 

Blogs led to drive new potential leads and are great for every stage from awareness to decision. They boost brand awareness and are a great platform to demonstrate your thought leadership. 

You can build blogs based on your industry and the buyer’s persona. An insightful blog helps your prospects to understand your product or services in a better manner.  

See the example of a blog for a different stage. 

TOFU blog for awareness stage: Top reasons why SaaS business owners must invest in a sales CRM

MOFU blog for consideration stage: 11 Best automotive lead generation ideas to boost your business

BOFU blog for decision stage: 7 best shared inbox software [Comparison table for quick decision]

3. Case studies 

This can include customer success stories with your company to help prospects understand the benefits of your product and services. 

To attract B2B clients, you can illustrate how other companies gain tremendous revenue growth with the support of your product/services. Here is an interesting example. 

4. Corporate brochures 

Brochures are the traditional sales collateral that has made its own version and place in a digital world. You can create your company’s brochure and upload it on your site. 

You can leverage your brochures to generate new potential leads by attaching a simple form asking only prospects’ names and emails to download it. 

Sapphire Systems is using this strategy to get sales-worthy leads; check out its brochure to create an awesome one for your business. 

5. Sales battle cards (competitor’s comparison) 

Battle cards are a one-pager sales document representing a comparative analysis of your company and its competitors. The focus areas include the products or services offered, the market, existing customer features, and pricing.  

Like we have offered a comprehensive feature comparison table, Salesmate vs. Pipedrive, for our prospects.

Sales battle cards help prospects understand which company’s product can solve their problem better.  

6. Customer success stories videos 

These videos will work as impactful social proofs and help prospects learn how the brand is helping their customers.  

Learn how Salesmate helped EDS Strategy close deals 3x faster in the case study. 

7. Datasheets  

The datasheet is used to illustrate your brand specification, and it is excellent for commercial communication. 

These are made by manufacturers enabling people to identify the ins and outs of product potential. 

It comprises an inventory of your product’s features (both technical and non-technical). To understand better, see the example of a product sales datasheet below. 

8. Product-oriented newsletters 

Newsletters help to keep the marketing and sales conversation fresh with potential clients. Plus, it lets you send product or service updates like new feature add-ons to new and existing clients.

You can send product updates to your expired or canceled users to keep them updated about your product, as shown in the above example by Salesmate. This keeps the chances of conversion alive. 

You can set email automation with a condition like “send product updates newsletters to the unsubscribers list weekly” and automate your email campaign using Marketing Automation to entice them to make a repurchase. 

Building a top-notch newsletter that your prospects engage with or want to read demands strategic efforts. Make sure your newsletter has all elements; compelling copy, images, design, CTA, clarity, and conciseness in perfect balance. 

9. Sales decks (product presentations & demos)

This sales collateral gives a deep-dive understanding of what your company sells, how the product benefits your target customers, their problems, and the critical challenges for your company. 

For instance, we have created a comparison of Salesmate CRM with the industry’s best other CRM software, highlighting all the features to help our prospects make better decisions. 

8 best tips & tricks to boost business revenue with sales collateral 

To gain maximum output from your sales collateral, you must consistently check its quality, update it, and follow many such practices. 

Look at the image to learn the best practices to create sales collateral and boost efficiency.  

Tip 1: Identify your prospect’s stress points 

When creating your sales collateral, the team responsible must thoroughly understand the customer pain points; emotions can influence the decision of prospects. 

Tip 2: Create customer-centric sales collateral   

Your target audience only cares about how your product can benefit them. So, make the sales collateral customer-centric, indicating how your product can help them. 

Tip 3: Collaborate with other business development departments  

The best is that the sales, marketing, and product development team must contribute their expertise to build powerful sales collateral. 

Tip 4: Offer easy access to your sales collateral  

Ensure your sales collateral is easy to access and highly visible on all social interaction platforms and customer engagement. Attractively showcase them on your sites like CTA button by Salesmate for free trial. 

Tip 5: Recycle your sales collateral

It is essential to keep updating your sales collateral with every change and advancement in the product feature, customer persona, company’s sales strategy, or anything related to it. 

Tip 6: Repurpose your sales collaterals 

You must repurpose your content to utilize it to the fullest. Creating a content inventory to implement the repurposing strategy efficiently is better. 

Tip 7: Your sales collateral must be on-brand   

Focus on a few things to create collateral that gives a better on-brand experience, like; its design should be the same throughout, color, font style, spacing, etc. 

Tip 8: Combine your sales collateral with the right tools   

To drain the maximum result with your sales collateral, you must combine it with CRM and sales productivity tools like Salesmate. 

Helpful resource: 15+ sales productivity tools to increase sales effectiveness

Bottomline

Today’s buyers affirm purchasing decisions based on their learning and research. Sales collateral is a true asset to gain customers’ trust and boost sales conversation for profitable business growth. 

However, sales collateral is not sufficient alone for successful sales enablement. It would help if you had the effective tools (platforms like CRM and sales enablement) to analyze the success of your sales collaterals. 

FAQs on sales collateral