On a recent research study that we conducted over 50 percent of the people that responded stated that they received too much collateral and it’s not properly positioned in a way that really helps them be useful in knowing how and when to apply it.

So What’s the Problem?

Let’s face it, we as salespeople and sales managers are inundated with the amount of collateral that we received from marketing, product management, and sales training, and we’re just overwhelmed with the pure amount of stuff that’s provided to us. The real challenge is in fact that we just get all of this stuff, but it’s never really provided in a way that is useful for us. So we asked sales representatives today, when and how are you supposed to use some of the stuff that you’ve been given? They often look at us with a blank stare. They just don’t really know when and how to apply all the collateral. It’s really frustrating for marketing and sales training and product management because they spent a lot of money pulling all of this stuff together. Unfortunately, it rarely gets used.

So What Should Be Done About it?

I think there are two things that can be done about it. Number one is don’t overwhelm your sales team. Try to be sure that you have the marketing collateral, the product management collateral and the sales training collateral all come together so that they know when and what is going to be used at the appropriate times. Let’s not overwhelm the sales representatives with too much stuff unnecessarily. Number two, marketing and product management sales training should not assume that just because they provided the collateral that the salespeople actually know how to use it. We encourage you to provide an environment which gives the opportunity for them to practice, gives that sales representatives the opportunity to learn how to apply a particular piece of collateral so that when they’re out in the field, they know exactly when and what and how to use it.

 

 

How Does Ignite Help?

Ignite Selling offers these amazing capstone simulations that provide an ideal environment to help the sales representatives and the sales managers to learn how to adapt and how to utilize the marketing collateral that’s provided to them. This becomes extremely important if you’re launching a new product or launching a new business strategy, or maybe you’re going after a new particular competitor. When we give our sales representatives these types of collateral, we need to make sure that they know how to use it and when to use it. Capstone simulations are an ideal way to help your team be more effective at utilizing the investment in that collateral that you’ve already made.