Chances are your experience with such tools was a blur of bland modules on how to interact appropriately with your coworkers, protect your passwords, spot phishing scams, and recite your company’s values. Maybe you received some professional development training here and there, and you were lucky if any of it was specific to your role or memorable in any way.

If this was your experience, you were likely educated via a learning management system (LMS), a term you’d again be forgiven for thinking is synonymous with sales training software. That’s because almost every company has an LMS, while fewer have what’s called sales readiness software.

Some businesses aren’t clear on the value of sales readiness software, while others try, in vain, to replicate that value using their LMS.

So, what exactly is the difference between an LMS and sales readiness software?

LMSs are less about learning and more about ticking boxes

LMSs were designed more for the needs of HR and legal departments than GTM teams — or any other team, for that matter. An LMS is a one-size-fits-all solution to ensure employees are educated and up-to-speed on all-encompassing company matters, such as culture, mission, values, goals, security, benefits, and other such policies. 

The catch-all nature of LMSs is reflected in how their success is measured. Whether an LMS or LMS-driven initiative is working comes down to how many employees opened and completed the learning material they were assigned — and little else.

Sales readiness software is about improving skills and increasing revenue

As opposed to LMSs, sales readiness software is role-specific. GTM professionals require ongoing learning about how to close more deals, and sellers need interactive, bite-sized lessons they can access on their mobile devices anytime, anywhere. They also need the same ubiquitous access to supplementary content, such as pitch decks and marketing assets. Finally, they need opportunities to practice communicating with buyers, honing their presentation and negotiation skills.

This focus on improving job performance means sales readiness software measures success not just in terms of engagement with learning material but also whether that engagement translated to more sales, especially of a specific product or service, and how much those sales added to the company’s bottom line.

Not all sales readiness software is created equal

Despite its name, sales readiness software should serve more than just sellers; sales managers and enablement teams need a solution that can provide deep analytics, which they can then reference to improve their efforts, demonstrate value to company leadership, and gain greater decision-making clout. However, not every sales readiness software solution will do this sufficiently.

Seismic Learning is sales readiness software on another level

Adding revenue to the bottom line is the ultimate benefit of sales readiness software. But it has to influence the business in various positive ways to get there. That’s why Seismic Learning outpaces the competition; it was designed as an all-in-one solution, consolidating different content repositories, sales training software, sales coaching software, and sales onboarding tools to accomplish various specific business outcomes. These include: 

GTM efficiency

Seismic Learning makes it especially easy to create and distribute lessons with interactive knowledge checks, such as quizzes, sorting exercises, and more. It also offers AI-powered, real-life practice scenarios with real-time feedback to improve clarity and confidence.

Operational optimization

Seismic Learning boasts a grading station where completed lessons await grading and can be prioritized by various filters. Graders can use answer keys to evaluate open-ended answers to subjective questions efficiently. There’s also a training insights dashboard that exposes opportunities for improvement and fosters more strategic decision-making.

Agility and speed to market 

Seismic Learning makes it easy to create sequences of lessons, tasks, paths, and events tied to specific desired outcomes. These can then be assigned to individual learners, ensuring each of them is on the same page. What’s more, these custom learning paths can culminate in certifications, substantiating a learner’s skills and imbuing them with confidence.

Ready to learn more about Seismic Learning? Request a demo with our team.

The post Sales Readiness Software vs. Learning Management Systems: What’s the Difference? appeared first on Seismic.

Aura Copilot is an AI-powered enablement assistant 

Before we dive into the details of what Aura Copilot is and how it works, let’s briefly explain what Aura is first. Aura is Seismic’s AI engine. It’s what enables the Seismic platform to take discoverability, automation, creation, and analytics to new heights of efficiency. Check out our explainer on Seismic Aura to learn more. 

Aura Copilot makes it easy for you, the user, to interact with Aura and get it to perform the tasks you want. If Aura is an airplane, Aura Copilot is in the cockpit with you, the captain, ready to help get you to your destination. 

In Seismic, you’ll know when Aura Copilot is in play when you see its starry icon in an input field, button, or pop-up window. 

Need an answer to a customer’s question right away? Aura Copilot scours all your Seismic content for an immediate response. Have to build a training lesson on a new product? Just ask Aura Copilot. Want to know who in your org has access to certain documents? Aura Copilot will tell you. Need a summary of a lengthy document? Just click a button to generate it. The possibilities are endless. 

And since Aura Copilot is rooted in your company’s specific content and data, it can deliver answers and insights that aren’t only tailored to your business but will evolve with it. This sets Aura Copilot apart from so many off-the-shelf AI tools on the market. 

Aura Copilot transforms GTM efficiency 

Specifically, Aura Copilot is focused on making it easier for you to do the following: 

Find content more easily 

Rather than guessing what the title of a certain document might be and hoping you were specific enough, you can simply ask Aura Copilot detailed questions to find the most relevant answers and assets right away.  

For example, rather than typing “competitive differentiators” hoping to surface a certain slide or battle card you thought you once saw and then searching that document to find your answer, you can simply ask, “How do we compare to Company B?” Aura Copilot will instantly generate an answer for you and recommend the most relevant content pieces. That’s the power of generative search in action. 

Streamline manual tasks 

Tagging and writing summaries for specific content pieces might sound simple, but they take more time and concentration than people like to admit — and that time adds up. Ultimately, they’re tedious and divert attention away from higher-value activities. 
 
With Aura Copilot, tagging and summary suggestions are automatically generated. You can even use AI to tag documents in bulk by simply selecting the files in question and applying certain tags to all of them at once. 

Automate content production 

Building, designing, and reviewing content traditionally takes hours. You need to outline the content, write it, decide how you want to present it, get everything reviewed, and make edits. Creating in-depth content, like a pitchbook, training lesson, quiz questions, or Seismic hub page, often takes a lot of time. 

But that’s not the case with Aura Copilot. Using the AI writing assistant, you can summarize the content you already have, make edits, or create an entire first draft. What used to take hours can take just a few minutes. 

Prove impact and ROI 

Since GTM teams are responsible for the successful launch and ongoing promotion of products and services, it makes sense they’d be under close financial scrutiny. The questions “What did we earn?” and “What did we spend to earn it?” are always in the backs of the minds of marketing, enablement, and sales leaders. 
 
Aura Copilot uses generative AI-based analytics capabilities, making it easier than ever to answer those questions and showcase to executives just how vital GTM efforts are to the bottom line. Instead of spending hours digging for and poring over numerous spreadsheets and dashboards, you can simply tell Aura Copilot what information you want. Aura Copilot finds it and uncovers trends in seconds. 

Aura Copilot is ideal for all GTM teams 

How exactly can GTM teams use Aura Copilot? Here are a few examples: 

Marketing

Marketers are all about creating and measuring the effectiveness of promotional content. With Aura Copilot, marketing teams are not only able to create and edit more content more quickly, but they can also use generative AI for analytics that indicate what’s working and what’s not.

Enablement

Like marketing teams, enablement teams are immersed in the creation of content, just of a different kind. With Aura Copilot, first drafts of lessons and sales playbooks can be created in minutes. And generative analytics is used to scour thousands of data points, including lesson completions, quiz success rates, and more, revealing specific learning trends in record time.

Sales

Whenever a sales rep has a question — even if they’re with a customer — they can simply ask Aura Copilot, which will immediately respond with an answer based on the Marketing-approved content that lives in Seismic. Reps can also streamline the creation of customer emails by having Aura Copilot generate the first drafts. 

How Aura Copilot works 

Using Seismic’s data as a foundation, Aura Copilot leverages “dynamic grounding” to contextualize the user’s prompt.  

The prompt is then fed to a large language model (LLM) through Microsoft Azure or IBM Watsonx—whichever is your cloud provider of choice—to generate an intelligent response complete with trust, security, and compliance validation layers. 
 

Ready to see Aura Copilot in action? 

Get a Demo

Aura Copilot keeps your data private 

Speaking of trust and security, Seismic is committed to responsible AI. We follow global privacy laws and ensure your data isn’t sent to train third-party AI models. Our agreements with other companies forbid it, ensuring privacy and safety settings are configured to limit the disclosure of your data for such purposes. 

To learn more about how Seismic Aura keeps your AI-related data safe, check out our Aura explainer and please read our trust page and our privacy policy. 

The post What is Aura Copilot?  appeared first on Seismic.

Aura is Seismic’s engine for AI enablement 

At Seismic, we’ve always believed that artificial intelligence (AI) would transform how B2B companies go to market, making great strides in efficiency and effectiveness. This is especially true with the rise of generative AI.  

Unlike traditional AI models, which rely on predefined rules to recognize patterns, generative AI is trained on large datasets to create new patterns on its own. 

Traditional AI works well for solving problems if they fit within the limits of what it’s been programmed to handle. Generative AI, on the other hand, can generate entirely new content, making it more flexible and applicable. 

Since 2015, Seismic has made progressive investments in AI, including generative AI for sales enablement, to evolve the capabilities that make us the global leader in enablement. The result is Aura, our AI engine that powers those capabilities. 

Aura is at work throughout the Seismic platform 

Aura applies to four overarching enablement use cases: 

1. Discovering content 
   Aura recommends content and provides answers based on context, intent, search history, and relevancy. 

2. Creating content 
   Aura leverages generative AI to create content, including document descriptions, , training lessons, social posts, Digital Sales Rooms, and more. 

3. Automating tasks 
   Aura dramatically simplifies and shortens manual processes. It can summarize recorded meetings and chats as well as streamline skills assessments, hasten translation and localization, automatically tag and classify content, and, in the near future, simulate role-playing scenarios. 

4. Providing advice 
   Aura offers guidance on the best next steps in a variety of scenarios, from personalized sales training and coaching to improving analytics and insights. 

Specifically, Aura powers the following AI enablement capabilities and features found in Seismic: 

Intelligent content curation in Seismic LiveSocial 

Aura provides each rep with a personalized stream of recommended third-party content based on their specific interests and needs. Reps can draw from this feed to share the most resonant content with their prospects and clients.

Smart search in Seismic Search 

Aura dramatically improves content discoverability via keywords, auto-tagging, and analysis. Aura takes data found in a company’s CRM system, like leads, contacts, opportunities, and competitor info, ensuring only the most relevant assets are recommended. 

Just-in-time answers using Seismic’s Generative Search 

Aura provides reps with in-the-moment access to summarized answers and relevant sources all in one place. Responses are grounded in your business’s Seismic content and presented in natural language.  

AI-powered coaching in Seismic Learning 

Aura allows for auto-scoring, review, and analysis of recordings to help reps effectively practice content delivery and master concepts. They can take virtual coaching sessions that simulate real-life scenarios, such as practice phone and video calls. Aura measures the rep’s clarity, confidence, and credibility by recognizing their use (or non-use) of filler words, among other criteria, providing immediate feedback. 

Analyzing and replicating successful meetings in Seismic for Meetings 

Aura analyzes recorded meetings, providing transcripts, topics discussed, questions asked, and what next steps should be, allowing a rep to stay focused on their presentation and their buyer. This data also sheds light on whether the content presented was effective and whether training material was useful, revealing where improvements can be made for both. 

Driving smarter strategies in Seismic Insights

Aura combs through hundreds of tables in seconds, providing answers in just a few clicks, and uncovering game-changing insights by answering questions asked in plain language. 

Did you know? 

94%

of organizations that have implemented AI enablement tools say it boosted GTM efficiency. 

Aura can yield incredible business results 

Here’s just a handful of statistics illustrating the positive impact AI is having on businesses: 

According to our research, of those who implemented AI enablement tools  to achieve certain enablement outcomes: 

• 92% said it improved operational optimization 

• 93% said it enhanced the buyer experience 

• 91% said it increased agility/speed to market 

• 94% said it boosted go-to-market efficiency. 
    

According to McKinsey: 

• AI could add up to $4.4 trillion in 63 select use cases annually 

• AI has the potential to automate 60% to 70% of employee work activities. 
    

And according to LinkedIn: 

• 75% of B2B salespeople who exceeded quota globally use AI. 

Aura is safe and secure 

There’s a lot of concern surrounding AI usage and company privacy. Rest assured that Seismic strongly adheres to enterprise-grade security and ethical standards to keep your data private.  

Here are the most frequently asked questions we receive regarding AI and our customers’ private data: 

Does Seismic send my data to third parties for model training?

No. When we leverage models managed by third parties, we ensure that available privacy and safety settings are configured to limit the disclosure, storage, and use of your data for model training purposes.

Does Seismic use sensitive customer data, such as proprietary and confidential data, to train its AI models? 

No. Our AI models don’t access or consider any use of sensitive personal data. Seismic requires little personal information to function, typically limited to name, email address and IP address. Our customers control the content they upload into their Seismic tenants. Our terms of use explicitly prohibit sensitive personal information, such as financial or health data.

What data privacy standards do Seismic’s generative AI features abide by and how are these standards tested? 

Seismic’s generative AI features are SOC2 Type II, ISO 27001, and ISO 27701 certified. Our products are tested and vetted by leading security tools and penetration testing against Open Web Application Security project standards and the MITRE ATLAS penetration testing.

Will my company’s data be used to create, develop, or improve AI components in Seismic? 

No. However, the feedback users provide on the accuracy/effectiveness of an AI-based feature may be used to improve our existing models and/or inform future product development.

Do users know when they’re utilizing an AI-based feature? 

Yes. An AI icon informs users when they’re engaged with generative AI technology on our platform.

Does Seismic provide opt-in/out functionality for AI-enabled features? 

Our generative AI features are opt-in by default.

How do Seismic’s generative AI features handle my content permissions? 

Seismic respects your established content permissions. Your users will only receive insights and answers derived from content they have the right to access, ensuring your sensitive information remains protected.

Does Seismic require integrations with any additional customer systems or data sources to enable AI features? 

No. While some AI features may benefit from integration into your CRM and other systems, that will be called out during the opt-in and activation processes and are at your discretion to enable. Please note that you may interact with the AI features of parties you have separate relationships with, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, while using Seismic.

When is my company’s AI-related data deleted? 

Seismic stores AI-related data in our cloud infrastructure for the duration of a customer’s contract with us. Data is deleted upon termination of that contract.

To learn more about Seismic’s security and data privacy standards, please visit our trust page and read our privacy policy. 

You can add an AI-powered enablement assistant to Aura 

If the Seismic platform were an airplane, Aura would be the engine and Aura Copilot would be sitting next to you in the cockpit. While you focus on your business goals and destination, Aura Copilot handles your requests, answers questions, and takes care of the behind-the-scenes tasks.  

Need an answer to a customer’s question right away? Aura Copilot scours all your Seismic content for an immediate response. Have to build a training lesson about a new product? Just ask Aura Copilot. Want to know who in your org has access to certain documents? Aura Copilot will tell you. Need a summary of a lengthy document? Just click a button to generate it. The possibilities are endless. 

And since Aura Copilot is rooted in your company’s specific content and data, it’s able to deliver answers and insights that aren’t only tailored to your business but will evolve with it. This sets Aura Copilot apart from so many off-the-shelf AI tools on the market. 

To learn more about Aura Copilot, check out our explainer. 

Ready to start your AI journey? 

Get a Demo

Seismic is the perfect partner for AI enablement 

Generative AI is a transformative force with seemingly endless potential. Countless businesses are trying to understand how it can reshape their industries and how it can be harnessed to improve their enablement efforts. 

Aura is proof that Seismic has the vision, know-how, and capabilities to guide businesses on their transformation to unprecedented enablement efficiency and effectiveness. 

To learn more about how AI will impact all aspects of the GTM process, check out our resources about the era of ai-guided selling. 

The post What is Seismic Aura?  appeared first on Seismic.

In 2010, five forward-thinking colleagues saw an opportunity to help sales and marketing teams deliver personalized customer experiences at scale. They created Seismic, a new cloud-based technology focused on streamlining content creation and personalization with automation, making it easier for client-facing teams to consistently present their products and services. By orchestrating people, processes, and technology to improve sales efficiency, a new business category was born: enablement. Seismic’s content management system enables sellers to discover the right content and personalize it while staying on brand and compliant. Instead of wasting time rebuilding content over and over, sellers can focus on what they do best: selling.

More than content — meet the Seismic Enablement Cloud

While content is an important component of enablement, the industry now focuses on other areas to ensure teams have access to the right information, tools, sales collateral, knowledge, and skills to do their jobs successfully. To address these needs, Seismic has evolved beyond the early days of content automation to a comprehensive platform. The Seismic Enablement Cloud is a unified solution built around five pillars, designed to empower customer-facing teams with the right skills, content, tools, and insights to engage customers.

1. Learning and Coaching: The pace of change and the complexity of today’s sales cycle makes delivering training to all reps — not just new hires — an important business priority. To help new reps ramp quickly, Seismic allows enablement teams to build a scalable onboarding program, tailored to each unique role. To support continuous learning and upskilling, Seismic’s readiness platform provides tools to create lessons, certification programs, real-life roleplay scenarios, and more. Managers can provide sales coaching and feedback in real-time, helping sellers improve their ability. 

2. Strategy and Planning: Every good enablement program starts with a strategy and plan. Before kicking off an initiative, teams can centralize strategy and planning in Seismic. Enablement Planner helps enablers work smarter by streamlining workflows for playbooks, onboarding programs, sales plays, and more. Built-in sales content analytics give enablement teams the right insights to adapt their programs and maximize impact. 

3. Content Automation: Producing content for buyers is a time-consuming process for GTM teams that rely on manual methods, legacy systems, and information from disparate sources. Teams use Seismic to automate the collection of data and assembly of documents, reducing errors and improving quality in a fraction of the time that it took previously. This is especially useful in industries such as financial services that rely on pitch books to articulate value during the sales process.

4. Buyer Engagement: It’s a buyer’s world today, with more than 50% of the customer journey occurring before a buyer interacts with a seller. When buyers are ready to speak with a rep, they expect materials to be personalized and relevant to their unique needs. To help stand out from competitors, Seismic has a suite of personalization tools ranging from machine learning and AI for content recommendations to built-in wizards within PowerPoint and Google Slides that can quickly and easily personalize presentations. Seismic also enables client-facing teams with several delivery channels, including email, social, and digital sales rooms (think customized solution portal) to connect with buyers).

5. Enablement Intelligence: It’s challenging to demonstrate enablement impact without a tool that centralizes your enablement efforts. The Seismic Enablement Cloud has the data and insights GTM teams need to demonstrate ROI and drive revenue growth. Seismic also integrates with common sales tools including CRMs, email tools, collaboration software, and data repositories to get visibility across the entire business.
   

Regardless of your organization’s enablement maturity, Seismic is purpose-built to meet the current and future needs of GTM teams. While your team may start small today, Seismic’s comprehensive platform provides everything you could need to build an effective and strategic enablement framework over time, reducing the need to purchase tools from additional vendors when needs evolve. 

How does Seismic work?

Seismic’s platform is built on a foundation of enterprise-grade technology that’s designed to scale as your business evolves. This technology includes:

• Global Cloud Infrastructure: Seismic’s cloud-based technology connects users across devices, teams, and global geographies, delivering fast, available, and secure enablement.
• Open Platform: The Seismic Exchange® marketplace allows users to integrate the tools their go-to-market teams use daily, such as Slack and Salesforce, to create a streamlined and unified experience. Customers also have the flexibility to build and publish their own apps through Seismic’s extensive APIs.
• Security and Administration: Seismic provides organizations with SSO (single sign-on) solutions so users have seamless access and control. Robust controls and governance features make it easy for highly regulated industries to maintain compliance.
• Machine Learning and Data Infrastructure: Today’s go-to-market teams have access to an abundance of data. Seismic empowers them to collect this data and use machine learning to reveal patterns and insights around content, behaviors, and activities that accelerate deals.

Does Seismic use AI?

Generative AI has already started to transform the sales enablement space by performing time-saving tasks and providing sellers with insightful intelligence that improves the customer experience. Seismic is no stranger to AI, with capabilities dating back to 2015. Starting with predictive content recommendations for sellers based on sales stage, industry, or persona, Seismic has safely and securely expanded those capabilities across the entire platform. Powered by Aura, Seismic’s AI and machine learning engine, Seismic maximizes GTM productivity and success by providing:

Contextual information

Aura analyzes large and complex data sets, giving sellers insights and context-driven recommendations that are personalized for every opportunity.

Auto-tagging and content descriptions

Generative AI auto-tags content properties and generates a description, helping content creators accurately and quickly publish content that’s discoverable for sellers.

Just-in-time intelligence

Within Seismic, sellers can search for the answers they need during customer interactions and instantly get summarized results and natural language responses at the top of their search.

AI-generated lessons

To create high-quality training content in less time, Seismic Learning (formerly Lessonly) generates lessons, questions, and summaries that trainers and enablement professionals can easily tailor and refine for their needs.

Meeting preparation and follow-up

Seismic for Meetings helps sellers prepare for meetings, generate post-meeting summaries, recommend follow-up content, and suggest next-best actions. The tool also generates insightful analytics for the rep and managers on content usage, sales behaviors, and trending topics during conversations.

Social posts

To help sellers engage with customers on social media, Seismic LiveSocial uses AI to generate a post for every article, intelligently crafting appropriate starting text based on the article’s length, tone, and personality.

Can Seismic help highly regulated industries? 

Seismic is a permission-based platform, making it an ideal technology for our clients in financial services, insurance, wealth management, and other highly regulated industries. Seismic enables teams to apply content governance and compliance rules that work for their specific business, ensuring that the content that’s created and shared meets industry standards and organizational requirements. Content governance and compliance rules can be as broad or granular as you need, giving administrators the flexibility to implement controls. 

How does Seismic make your job easier?

Investing in a new technology can be a daunting decision, especially in today’s economy when every purchase is under scrutiny. To better understand the value of enablement tools, Seismic surveyed more than 1,200 full-time sales, enablement, and customer success professionals in managerial and leadership roles throughout the United States and Europe. The study found that 

99% of those who use a sales enablement tool believe it makes their job easier. In fact, 88% of users say an enablement tool makes them more productive and drives stronger results, and 89% say an enablement tool improves confidence.

In addition to making their jobs easier, respondents cited that enablement tools improve efficiency, helping them save time. The study found that enablement tools save an average of 13 hours a week; and in that time:

• 83% said they can focus on revenue-generating activities
• 51% have time to find metrics for planning/forecasting

To learn more about how a tool like Seismic could save you time and money, read the Value of Enablement Report.

Do more with Seismic

Teams across the globe use Seismic to empower entire customer-facing organizations with the skills, content, tools, and insights they need to delight customers and grow businesses. We’ve evolved to offer the Seismic Enablement Cloud, incorporating the latest innovations around AI and machine learning to help you enhance the customer experience, accelerate the sales cycle, and increase revenue. 

Curious how the Seismic Enablement Cloud could help your organization? See Seismic in action by getting a demo. 

The post What does Seismic do? appeared first on Seismic.

The role of sales documents in the sales process

Sales documents play a critical role throughout the sales process. Done right, they not only provide essential information about a product or service but also address a potential buyer’s specific concerns, offering tangible evidence of the benefits that can be expected from the proposed solution. Aligning sales documents with each stage of the buyer’s journey establishes trust and confidence, ultimately increasing the likelihood that a prospect will convert to a sale.

To better understand the role sales documents play in the sales process, consider a scenario in which a technology company is trying to secure a deal with a potential client in the healthcare industry. The client needs a software solution that can streamline data management and improve operational efficiencies. 

In this context, a well-crafted case study can be highly effective. In an ideal world, this case study would feature a current customer who faced similar challenges to the potential buyer. It would also include details about how the technology company’s software was successfully implemented, the specific problems addressed, and the positive outcomes achieved. 

This example illustrates just one of the many uses of sales documents. Incorporating a case study and other relevant sales documents at key points in the sales cycle significantly enhances a seller’s ability to connect with prospects and demonstrate the practical value of their solution. Ultimately, this leads to faster deal cycles and increased win rates.

The connection between enablement and sales documents

Because sales documents are so vital for winning deals, sellers need easy access to them. That’s where sales enablement comes in. Sales enablement centralizes sales documents, ensuring that the latest, most relevant resources are at sellers’ fingertips. That way, sales reps don’t have to waste time searching for the right assets or worrying about which version is the most up-to-date — approved materials are quickly discoverable and ready to use. 

In addition to organization and accessibility, sales documents must be customized according to each buyer’s unique needs, challenges, and objections. Sales enablement tools help sellers tailor their pitches to each buyer, contributing to a positive customer experience. Prebuilt templates with approved messaging and customization options enable sellers to quickly personalize presentations for maximum impact.

Today’s sales enablement tools also provide organizations with the insights and data needed to understand content effectiveness. Robust analytics assist enablement leaders in tracking internal content usage while helping frontline teams identify buyer preferences. 

In a nutshell, sales enablement empowers sellers to use sales resources strategically and enhance their effectiveness. It optimizes the entire document lifecycle from discovery to delivery and unlocks the full potential of your sales team to connect, convince, and close deals.

Sales Content Reimagined

Explore the App

Best practices for sales documents

Sales documents can vary widely in performance. The most effective ones are well-crafted, compelling, and delivered at the right time. For guidance, here are five best practices to keep top of mind as you prep sales documents and fine-tune your sales documentation process:

Tailor sales documents

Customizing sales documents to resonate with each prospect’s needs, challenges, and interests is essential. First, gather insights into specific pain points, industry trends, and preferences. Then, personalize the content to demonstrate that you understand their business and how your product or service will address their unique challenges.

Map documents to the buyer’s journey

A well-stocked sales document repository has resources that align with each stage of the buyer’s journey (awareness, consideration, decision). Recognize where your prospects are in the sales funnel and use your sales documents accordingly, anticipating common objections at each stage.

Use interactive content

While multimedia elements such as videos and infographics make your sales documents visually appealing, interactive content is even more engaging and memorable. For example, interactive quizzes or assessments offer prospects insights into their needs or challenges. The answers provided can also be used to improve customization.

Track and measure effectiveness

Analytics tools demystify how prospects are interacting with your sales documents. You can monitor a wide range of metrics, including time spent on each page, click-through rates, and document downloads. Feedback like this will help you identify which elements are most effective, as well as those that could be improved.

Leverage a sales enablement tool

Implementing a sales enablement platform to centralize all your sales documents ensures that your sales team has easy access to the latest and most relevant materials. Sales enablement streamlines the distribution process and maintains version control to ensure that everyone is aligned and using the most up-to-date materials.

Incorporating these best practices into the preparation of sales documents and your sales documentation process can enhance the effectiveness of your sales strategy overall, helping your teams achieve growth.

Deliver the right sales docs at the right time

At Seismic, we make it easy for clients to organize a central hub for sales documents for quicker discovery, personalization, distribution, and tracking. Our sales enablement solution ensures sellers are equipped with the knowledge and resources needed to deliver the right sales documents at the right time. To learn more, check out Seismic in action by watching these short, led-by-you demos that address common sales challenges.

The post Sales document best practices appeared first on Seismic.

A sales enablement process is the set of activities, tools, and resources that organizations use to empower frontline teams throughout the entire sales cycle. It includes various stages, from onboarding and training to content management, technology implementation, and ongoing support. 

When launching an enablement program, a sales enablement process serves as a guide for aligning teams, defining the buyer journey, and identifying resources to support the sales team. This ensures that sellers have what they need to engage buyers, close deals, and drive growth.

Getting Started on your Enablement Journey

Read the Guide

Why it’s important to have a well-structured process

Teams with a well-structured enablement process improve sales effectiveness and prove the value of their contributions. It’s important to have a structure in place for several key reasons:

• Enhance sales performance: Equipping sellers with the right resources and support maximizes their potential, leading to better performance.
• Drive consistency: Enabling frontline teams to follow consistent messaging and processes improves consistency across the customer experience, resulting in higher trust and customer satisfaction.
• Improve productivity: Making mission-critical sales enablement materials readily available via the right technology and tools drives productivity and efficiency among sellers. 
• Quickly adapt to market changes: Delivering just-in-time training with supportive coaching prepares sellers to quickly adapt to business and market changes. 
• Measure impact and drive improvement: Proving the impact of your enablement efforts is critical to getting buy-in and funding from the C-suite; in addition, it gives you the insights necessary to make improvements to your sales enablement process over time. 

Create and scale your enablement process with Seismic

Creating a sales enablement process has never been easier with the Seismic Enablement Cloud. Seismic’s Enablement Planner serves as a central location for frontline teams to plan, execute, and iterate on a process. Seismic also supports critical activities such as content management, training and coaching, and communication and collaboration, complete with robust analytics to measure your success. Together, these tools streamline enablement efforts and empower you to create repeatable and scalable processes that lead to growth. Ready to see how Seismic can benefit your organization? Schedule a demo today. 

The post How to create an effective sales enablement process appeared first on Seismic.

What is generative AI?

Talk of artificial intelligence is practically inescapable these days. And while it’s been around for nearly seven decades, the topic has exploded with the emergence of generative AI. Generative AI is a type of AI that focuses on creating and generating new content. This includes text, images, sounds, animation, and other types of media that are very similar to human-created content. It also leverages machine and deep learning to spot patterns, understand speech, make choices, and answer questions. 

From smart personal assistants to autonomous vehicles, AI-powered tools and tech are already a part of daily life. However, generative AI has made more significant advancements as more industries and organizations identify ways that it can help people work more efficiently and effectively. 

Understanding AI in sales enablement today

As generative AI continues to evolve, it has the potential to greatly impact the future of enablement and other GTM operations. This potential is exciting, but it can also be overwhelming for leaders since there’s still a lot of uncertainty and speculation as to what the long-term impact will be.

To get a better understanding of how organizations currently leverage AI, we surveyed 1,400 full-time sales, enablement, and customer success managers and leaders—many of whom use enablement technology at work. The State of AI in Enablement: 2023 Report found that 50% of organizations surveyed currently utilize some type of AI-powered tool in their enablement process. Of these users, 82% of them are impressed with the results they’re seeing and plan to double down and implement more AI-powered solutions in the next year. 

This uptick in implementation is validated by other industry studies. In fact, Forrester projects a meteoric rise for AI-powered platforms, estimating the market value will climb to $37 billion by 2025. And as these tools mature, so will the adoption of AI among businesses. In other words, while there is some uncertainty, organizations are already leaning into the possibilities of leveraging AI within their enablement efforts.

How AI benefits GTM teams: Doing more with less

The organizations that make an effort to embrace and leverage AI already have a leg up on their competition and will only continue to extend their lead. Many organizations are already leveraging AI in other areas of their business, including:

• AI for sales prospecting uses algorithms to analyze historical sales data and prioritize the highest-converting leads. 
• Conversational AI for sales such as an AI sales assistant or AI sales bot can handle customer inquiries and questions 24/7. 
• AI forecasting detects trends and patterns and creates more accurate forecasts.
• Generative AI enables sales email creation, scheduling, and personalization.

The average seller only spends 28% of their time on actual selling. The rest of their time is spent on manual tasks and processes. So, if you’re still wondering how to use AI in sales enablement at your organization, these areas are natural opportunities to leverage AI and take some of that busy work off the table. 

Additionally, many organizations are being asked to hit the same goals (or even more aggressive targets) with fewer resources. In the face of these challenges, leaders are looking for ways to scale their programs, streamline and automate processes, and equip sellers in the best way possible. That’s where AI for sales really shines. Here are the outcomes that respondents said they’d like to achieve with AI.

• 63% of leaders want to achieve operational optimization. This includes higher enablement efficiency, improved content usage, and tech stack consolidation. 
• 54% want to enhance the buyer experience. Improved experiences can lead to increased deal sizes, better win/renewal rates, and decreased sales cycle times.
• 48% of respondents would like to improve agility and speed to market. This includes the time to market, adaptability to change, and team alignment.
• 40% want to drive GTM efficiency through faster seller ramp times, higher quota attainment, and more time spent on high-value activities. 

When it comes to achieving these outcomes, there are different areas where enablement teams can apply AI. Let’s take a closer look at some of these areas.

The State of AI in Enablement

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Delivering sales training and coaching programs powered by AI

Coaching and training programs are known value-drivers. Companies with effective programs experience annual revenue growth of 16.7% and retention increases of more than 20%. AI for sales teams enables more personalized training and coaching programs. Here’s how: 

Training effectiveness

Effective training should include hands-on practice and role-playing. AI in sales training replicates real-life sales scenarios so sellers can practice sales calls and product demos. 

Real-time assessments

During these practice sessions and sales calls, AI can monitor performance, identify skills and knowledge gaps, and provide tailored training to improve development.

Personalized feedback

AI powered sales training and coaching also enables managers to identify where gaps exist among their team and deliver personalized coaching plans at scale to improve performance. 

Leveraging AI for data-driven insights

AI can analyze huge amounts of data in real-time — far more and far better than a human can. This data can reveal trends and patterns that leaders can use to tailor their enablement strategy, optimize sales tactics, and target marketing efforts. This also allows for a more agile way of working. By leveraging AI to track content analytics, leaders can easily identify:

• The most and least shared content by sellers
• What content buyers engage with
• What content is most effective throughout the deal cycle
• What type of content is missing

As AI sales tools  track this information, GTM teams can piece together a more comprehensive picture of prospect engagement, gather actionable insights, and share key data across the team. 

Tips for implementing AI

From improving meeting efficiency to providing just-in-time enablement, there’s no shortage of new and exciting opportunities that are prime areas for adoption. By leveraging AI in these mission-critical areas, revenue teams will have more time to focus on other high-impact, critical, and strategic areas that will lead to greater efficiency and productivity. But careful consideration is essential. Here are three key factors to keep in mind:

1. Data quality and integration: Because AI tools heavily rely on data for accuracy, you need to ensure that your organization’s data is high-quality and organized. It’s also best to assess the integration capabilities of the tools your team uses.  
2. Training and adoption: It’s important to prioritize training to ensure your team is proficient in using AI-powered sales tools. Create training resources and supportive content that addresses challenges and answers common questions.
3. Transparency and ethical considerations: Prioritize transparency in how AI algorithms work and the data they use. Then, establish clear guidelines for ethical practices within your organization to ensure compliance and safety. 

If you’re still not exactly sure how AI fits—or can fit—into your business, check out Seismic’s Enablement AI Evaluation Checklist which can help you determine if you need AI, what you need it for, and how to get started.

The leader in AI-powered enablement

AI has been part of Seismic’s platform since 2015 when we introduced AI-guided selling that surfaces content recommendations based on deal context. In the years since, we launched Aura, our AI/ML engine that fuels AI-powered enablement across The Seismic Enablement Cloud. Our robust  tool provides GTM teams with intelligent content curation, smart searches, just-in-time enablement, AI-powered coaching, and so much more. Get a demo and see Seismic’s AI features firsthand. 

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Sales enablement empowers revenue teams with the right tools, resources, and knowledge to sell more effectively. But it goes beyond that — a sales enablement strategy aligns your entire go-to-market (GTM) team around improving sales performance. It helps sellers anticipate customer needs and close deals, while giving leaders a clear focus on top priorities. In a crowded marketplace, this differentiates effectives organizations from low performers — and ultimately helps companies succeed. 

What are sales enablement tools?

Sales enablement tools are technology solutions specifically designed to streamline workflows, reduce workload for customer-facing professionals, and provide teams with valuable insights for improved performance and revenue growth. These tools include many capabilities and features – from sales content management and automation to training and coaching, buyer engagement, strategic planning, and analytics and intelligence. Let’s take a closer look at some of these tools and functionalities.

Organize sales enablement materials

One of the most critical capabilities of a sales enablement solution is sales content management,  a centralized hub for storing and organizing sales enablement materials. Beyond organizing content, sales enablement solutions also surface content for sellers, allowing them to find, personalize, and share relevant information quickly. Some tools even allow for dynamic personalization to aid in the delivery of tailored content based on the prospect’s stage in the buyer’s journey. 

This hits a key pain point for reps. The Seismic 2023 Value of Enablement Report showed that GTM leaders without enablement technology spent an average of 10 hours weekly searching for, comparing, or revising content. And 77% of respondents stated that the time they spend finding content could be better utilized to advance their team’s goals. 

The outcome of good content management is huge: 97% of leaders report that quick access to information ensures they’re better informed when engaging clients. 

Provide sales onboarding and training

Onboarding and training are the stepping stones to success in any sales role. 84% of leaders told Seismic that a little more training, coaching, or upskilling could help their teams close more deals. But delivering training at scale can be a challenge. That’s where sales enablement tools come in, providing:

• Easy onboarding: With structured online lessons and quick access to company assets, enablement tools can help reps ramp quickly, without much hand-holding from operational teams. 
• Personalized training: 45% of leaders say their company doesn’t offer coaching. Digital sales enablement tools can step in to bridge this gap with digitally hosted training sessions, interactive coaching practice, and coaching plans. This ensures that all sellers, whether newbies or veterans, can stay competitive and up-to-date.

Get insights on your sales enablement strategy

It’s crucial to measure performance and benchmark progress against past results. Sales enablement tools support teams in this process by providing insights to help optimize their sales enablement strategy. Robust analytics and reporting capabilities make it easy for teams to measure key areas, including: 

• Content usage: Gather actionable insights around content usage, such as the average time spent per sales asset and which documents are accessed most frequently. This information helps identify high-impact materials and those that may need improvement.
• Sales performance: Monitor performance indicators like the number of closed deals, conversion rates, or the length of the sales cycle. This allows you to pinpoint successful strategies and highlight areas that could benefit from changes. 51% of teams told Seismic that enablement tools save them time on finding metrics for planning and forecasting.
• Buyer engagement: View metrics such as the timeline of interaction with prospects, types of approaches that convert, and progression through the funnel, allowing reps to take actions that have the highest likelihood of success.  

Simplify the tech stack with an enablement tool

With new tools and tech emerging frequently, it can be easy for sales teams to end up juggling too many tools and applications. A sales enablement platform can alleviate this overhead, unifying functionality under one roof and streamlining workflows. This approach brings a number of benefits.

1. Consolidate tools: Centralize all your tools and applications in one platform to reduce clutter and improve focus. By simplifying the tech stack, sellers are more likely to adopt the technology and maximize outcomes.
2. Create streamlined workflows: Integrations with technologies that sellers rely on daily – like a CRM or productivity tools – make it possible to reap the benefits of sales enablement in the flow of work. As a result, workflows become more efficient, reducing complexities and boosting productivity.
3. Integrate and leverage data: Eliminate manual reporting by pooling together data from different sources, creating a more holistic view of your sales process.
4. Make data-driven decisions: Integrate and consolidate data to provide a clearer view of trends, bottlenecks, and opportunities. Flexible dashboards and reporting make it easy to dissect this data and take action.

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The value of sales enablement software

Implementing sales enablement software can significantly transform your sales operations, as is evident in the Seismic 2023 Value of Enablement Report. Leaders told us that better enablement tools: 

• Make work easier: 99% of respondents who use a sales enablement platform stated that it makes their job easier because they can manage tasks efficiently.
• Increase productivity: 88% of respondents noted that sales enablement software makes them more productive and keeps the sales machinery running smoothly.
• Drive results: 88% of users reported that enablement software drives better outcomes. 
• Save time: Sales enablement technology saves teams an average of 13 hours per week. 

Remember, sales enablement software isn’t just a tool. It promotes a strategic and efficient way of work that’s expected in today’s digital-first world, ultimately improving the effectiveness of sales teams and helping the business grow. 

Take enablement to the next level

The Seismic Enablement Cloud is the top sales enablement platform to empower teams with the right skills, content, and insights. As an all-in-one unified engagement platform, Seismic features six essential sales enablement tools across content management, learning & coaching, strategy & planning, content automation, buyer engagement, and enablement intelligence. It’s the premiere resource to help rapidly growing organizations accelerate sales and cultivate growth. Ready to learn more? Get a demo to explore all of the benefits and capabilities of the Seismic.

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The financial services industry is experiencing a tremendous evolution. Evolving client expectations, uncertain economic conditions, and the proliferation of digital tools have fundamentally changed the way firms engage with clients.

As the industry becomes more client-centric and competitive, it’s critical for client-facing professionals to create remarkable client experiences. Financial institutions are also facing a new set of challenges. Longer buying cycles, new products and services, and complex compliance requirements mean that firms and financial professionals need to evolve to remain competitive. Those that rely on what worked yesterday will fail to adapt and win the clients of tomorrow.

Firms and client-facing teams need tools that will enable them to operate more efficiently, elevate client experiences, and optimize operations. This is why modern enablement is mission critical for success. Effective enablement provides client-facing teams the right resources, processes, and technology to win business, retain clients, and adapt to change — all at scale. Increasingly, leaders across banking, asset management, wealth management, and insurance agree that enablement is mission critical to their firm’s operations. 

Unifying the tech stack with enablement

Like many other industries, the financial service industry is experiencing a digital transformation. The right mix of technology can help firms deliver high-touch experiences across digital and virtual channels, as well as in-person interactions. At the same time, the struggling economy and tightened budgets mean that firms need to make strategic investments in order to build the most modern tech stack possible. 

By investing in enablement technology, firms can unify the applications they already use for maximum ROI. Enablement tech connects with customer relationship management, marketing automation, and collaboration tools. As a result, firms can connect crucial sets of data that live across different systems. Instead of trying to connect disparate pieces of information and insights to make business decisions, firms can better identify which strategies work and where opportunities lie. The right enablement tool also helps firms streamline workflows, optimize operations, and achieve key internal and external outcomes. Let’s take a closer look at some of the key business outcomes firms can achieve by making an investment in enablement. 

Improve efficiency and effectiveness

One of the largest impacts enablement has is its value on efficiency. We recently surveyed more than 1,200 leaders across the United States and Europe to determine how enablement tools impact their business. The study found that 84% of those who use an enablement tech say it’s integral to operating more efficiently. Let’s take a closer look at two key reasons why this is the case. 

Automate and streamline tasks

A key component of efficiency is saving time. Firms that use enablement tools can automate and streamline tasks that take up crucial time so that advisors, bankers, agents, and relationship managers can spend more time on high-value activities. In fact, firms that use enablement tools save 13 hours, or nearly two business days, each week. By automating tasks around quarterly commentary, content personalization, and approvals, client-facing teams have more time to build  relationships with their clients. 

Decrease new hire ramp time

Knowledgeable advisors, bankers, agents, and relationship managers who deliver relevant and helpful advice to clients are more important than ever. With higher expectations and complex financial situations, advisors need to be experts who can instill trust with their clients. However, it takes most firms nearly a year to fully ramp a new hire to productivity. This negatively impacts their time to revenue attainment and productivity.

As a result, more firms are investing in platforms that allow them to deliver training and coaching to new client-facing teammates. These tools help firms create engaging and interactive training experiences that allow new hires to develop competency and expertise quickly. Firms can also accelerate readiness with quizzes and immediate scoring to confirm that employees have retained and understand training materials. It’s worth noting that the need for training doesn’t go away once new hires ramp in their roles. Firms can also leverage enablement technology to provide essential training and coaching on an ongoing basis. This ensures client-facing teams keep their knowledge and skills up to date amid industry changes and evolving client preferences. 

Enhance the client experience

The ultimate goal of enablement is to help client-facing teams provide guidance and support in various ways — from in-person meetings and phone conversations to email updates and compelling social media posts. Today’s macro-economy means that clients have more questions and need more guidance that they can trust. As a result, firms need their client-facing teams to engage meaningfully with their clients and offer a deeper level of expertise. Gartner found that more organizations are investing in tools that enable their frontline teams to find answers when clients’ needs and questions are more specialized. Enablement tools provide just-in-time access to content and even AI-powered answers to questions so reps can find the most relevant information and correct information right when they need it.

Deliver personalized content 

Enablement software also ensures that client-facing teams can create highly relevant and personalized content in just a few clicks. In today’s market, growing wallet share and retaining current clients is extremely important — and difficult. 

Clients already do plenty of research on their own before they even reach out to an advisor, banker, agent, or relationship manager. When they finally do, they expect information they receive to be relevant and useful to them. 85% of firms agree that clients will dismiss a seller in the first interaction if they don’t receive tailored information. Modern enablement gives client-facing teams central access to digital collateral and dynamic assets that they can edit and personalize at scale. It also gives them the chance to integrate useful data and information from a CRM and other sources for even greater customization.

Optimize key operations

We’ve also heard from more financial services leaders that they need to “do more with less.” It’s now more important than ever to optimize current operations so client-facing teams can focus on achieving business goals. But, that’s easier said than done, especially in an industry that’s highly-competitive and quickly evolving. Let’s take a closer look at two areas where enablement can help firms better optimize key business processes and operations.

Reduce compliance risks

Content control is extremely important for highly-regulated industries like financial services. Advisors, bankers, wealth managers, and agents should only have access to the most relevant materials needed in their roles. Enablement software allows leaders to apply role-based permissions that ensure departments, teams, and individuals only have access to the content they need. It also gives them the opportunity to to control the extent that content can be modified. Gone are the days when marketing teams could create tailored assets for each and every client. Instead, firms can use enablement tools to give client-facing teams the ability to personalize content in a controlled environment. It also provides marketing and compliance teams peace of mind in knowing that these assets still meet brand and regulation standards.

Measure and track impact

Once marketing teams create content and hand assets over  to be used during client interactions, they often don’t know if it’s actually used or effective. This is an inefficient use of time and money for every firm. Enablement software helps marketing teams better understand the impact of the content they create. Detailed tracking and content analytics provide visibility into what collateral is sent to clients the most, what clients find most engaging, and what is helping their firm close deals. By measuring the ROI of marketing materials, firms can leverage the content that’s working the most and focus on improving content effectiveness in the long-run. 

Accelerate speed to market

Firms are faced with a number of time-consuming tasks and obstacles that prevent client-facing teams from working efficiently. Not only do they need to quickly produce time-sensitive content that’s crucial for advisors, they also need a way to improve alignment, refine their sales methodology, and close more deals. An enablement tool creates a process that standardizes, automates, and scales all of these initiatives. Let’s dive into one of them in more detail. 

Refine sales methodologies — quickly 

In order to bring and keep client-facing teams up-to-speed with new changes, firms need to create new time-sensitive materials and update existing assets as quickly as possible. But without an enablement tool, these pieces likely live in multiple places and across numerous departments within a firm. Enablement tools automate the content creation and updating process by pulling in data from disparate sources to produce pitchbooks, factsheets, client review documents, proposals, and much more.

Enablement tools also become a single source of truth for all sales-related content. This gives client-facing teams a one-stop-shop to prepare for client interactions and stay up to date on the newest sales frameworks within their firm. As a result, client-facing team members are on the same page and using the same information which is crucial for effective client engagement.  

Smarter enablement leads to better outcomes

Enablement will continue to evolve as a critical part of a firm’s business strategy. And firms that successfully adopt the use of enablement tools to address their challenges and support their most important goals will achieve better outcomes. And that’s why we created the Seismic Enablement Cloud. Seismic’s unified platform provides client-facing teams with the right skills, content, and insights to win business and retain clients at scale. It’s purpose-built to meet your firm’s current demand and grow with you as your needs evolve. See why more than 400 financial services clients choose Seismic for their enablement needs. Get a demo today, or check our Financial Services Hub for more great resources.

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Content personalization tailors brand messaging and communications to reflect the unique needs and characteristics of individual buyers. This includes content that is relevant to specific stages of the buyer’s journey, or it may go a step further with hyper-personalized messaging that acknowledges the buyer’s particular business needs or past behaviors. With customer expectations higher than ever, the use of personalized content creates a unique and highly-targeted experience that is key to the success of every deal.

Why is personalized content important?

Buyer engagement and the sales cycle have drastically evolved over the past few years. Modern buyers are more informed and have had an average of 27 information-gathering sessions before they ever speak to a sales rep. When buyers finally interact with a seller, they expect the rep to provide tailored and hyper-relevant information. In fact, McKinsey found that more than 70% of today’s buyers expect companies to deliver a personalized experience, and 76% will move to another organization if they’re unhappy with their experience. 

So while customers certainly expect it, it’s also proven to be more effective. Personalization cuts through the clutter, allowing brands to get the attention of buyers who are constantly bombarded with marketing and advertising messages. We’ve seen firsthand how personalization empowers sellers to effectively engage with buyers and customers. Our report, The Personalization Payoff, found that more companies are sending personalized content than ever before. This includes an 89% increase in personalized content sent by companies with fewer than 1,500 employees over a one-year period alone. These same companies saw their efforts pay off, with buyer engagement increasing by 57%, underlining the power of tailored content to generate higher conversion.

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Challenges of delivering a personalized experience

While personalization is critical to buyer engagement, both customer-facing and marketing teams encounter unique operational challenges in executing a successful approach. Additionally, 63% of GTM leaders say that the content their teams use is not personalized enough for customers.

Customer-facing teams 

Sellers are in frequent communication with prospects and need content to provide personalized and helpful content needed to close a deal. Often, the overall lack of time and/or a clear understanding of what content is available and approved causes sellers to reuse old decks and collateral. Or, they may even resort to creating their own content, which may not be compliant or  consistent with the latest messaging. 

Marketing teams

Marketing’s goal is to produce engaging content that is accessible to sales. Catering to every individual request for content isn’t realistic, and 42% of B2B marketers say that their marketing efforts aren’t fully personalized. Building systems to create content at scale and finding the right delivery methods are two common roadblocks that must be solved to support a personalized content program.

Content personalization strategies and tips 

Let’s explore three key strategies that support marketing and sales teams in addressing these challenges and delivering exceptional personalized content:

1.   Know your buyer

At the heart of personalization is a deep understanding of the buyer. Building a research phase into your content personalization strategy will ensure that teams are aligned on buyer needs and preferences, so that the content can be as relevant and relatable as possible. Marketing can support this by building out personas and a customer journey map, while sales can provide perspectives from their more frequent communications with prospects. 

2.   Make messaging relevant

Once teams have a strong understanding of the buyer, it’s time to create content. It’s helpful to segment audiences into groups based on defining characteristics, like demographics, company size or job title, or even past engagement with your brand. Brainstorm what messages will be most effective for each group and the types of content that would most likely be consumed. The more data points you have on the customer, the more relevant you can be. 

3.   Curate content carefully

Discoverability is a key piece of the puzzle. As the volume of content grows, marketing teams will need to find a way to manage the library of content, organized by segment or buyer’s stage, and provide easy access for customer-facing teams. It will also be critical to keep content up to date over time and remove or add new assets as needed to support the business. 

Effective personalized content examples 

It can be challenging to know where to start with content personalization. Here are a few examples to help you tailor your messages to the your buyers:  

1. Incorporate the buyer’s logo or brand elements in pitch decks or proposals.
2. Reference the buyer’s past interactions or purchases to offer relevant recommendations or insights, reinforcing their connection with the brand.
3. Tailor messaging based on the buyer’s role. — For example, use technical language for an IT decision-maker, or share high-level business implications and data to show a return on investment for a CFO.
4. Implement dynamic content in emails or on your site that change based on user behavior.
5. Use case studies and testimonials relevant to the buyer’s industry or role. 

The value of enablement tools for content personalization

Sales enablement tools are powerful resources that companies can use to generate personalized content and manage it effectively. Recently, Seismic found that sellers at companies without an enablement tool spend an average of 10 hours per week tracking down and revising content. Here are a few ways enablement tools can reduce this workload and boost productivity: 

Produce content at scale

Marketing teams often struggle to create enough content to serve the entire sales organization’s needs, let alone with the level of personalization required for today’s buyers. Content personalization tools store and organize existing content and allow easy edits and updates to adjust for different segments and use cases. They essentially function as a vast digital library that allows for easy discovery. 

Personalize content

Enablement tools often include dynamic content features that allow for the fast personalization of content based on buyer characteristics. In many cases, sellers can do this without the help of marketing and pull personalized content into different formats, such as PowerPoint presentations or Google Slides. Putting more power into the hands of reps allows them to focus on selling, not searching for content, and reduces the burden on the marketing team. 

Measure effectiveness

Content personalization tools provide organizations with quantifiable data on their content performance and usage. For example, these tools can track everything from, click-through rates on a specific piece of content to the time the buyer spent reading the content. They also help attribute collateral to conversion and buyer decisions down the road. This wealth of data and insights helps organizations fine-tune their enablement strategy and build a plan for developing the most engaging content. 

Ready to make your content stand out?

The Seismic Enablement Cloud features solutions that make it easy for go-to-market organizations to build content at scale and harness the power of personalization. These tools help marketing teams streamline content delivery so it’s more efficient and impactful. As a result, enablement teams can ensure the right messages and content is delivered to sellers precisely when they need it. And with our robust self-service tools, sellers can quickly and easily create personalized content that resonates with buyers and stands out from competitors. Ready to learn more? Read how Salesloft experienced a 35% increase in win rates after implementing Seismic. Or, get a demo where you can get a deeper dive on our sales content management and automation features.

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