Building an efficient team is no easy task. Not to mention, keeping your sales team and your marketing team on the same page can be like herding runaway cattle. This is especially the case when you don’t have a universal spot for your marketing materials available — like proposals, flyers, guides, whitepapers, or case studies.
Today, we are going to talk about this pain point, direct you toward a solution, and hopefully get your sales and marketing teams working together.
Why Does It Matter If Sales and Marketing Are on the Same Page?
Maybe you have found your company in this situation before. A member of your sales team has an upcoming meeting. They request an updated version of their sales information sheet from your marketing department.
Not having updated that document in months, your marketing department finds itself scrounging for the flyer’s file. They dig and dig, and, finally, settle on recreating it.
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Now, multiply this issue by 10, 20, however many salespeople you employ. Suddenly, your marketing team is consistently wasting time on previously created materials.
This could have something to do with an update to a compliance disclaimer, a change in a last name, or even a re-branding initiative.
Your marketing team is under a ton of stress, buried under basic design requests. Things that are simple to update, but not really due to the capacity of the requests.
How Can You Keep Your Sales and Marketing Teams Aligned?
In regards to alleviating stress and being more efficient, it is ideal for your company to have a universal collateral engine.
Melissa Hoffman, our CEO and Founder, explained, “A collateral engine is a software platform that brings all company assets into a central, organized view for teams access. It provides brand control, making collateral standards and role-based accessibility across your organization a reality.”
Until recently, there wasn’t a direct solution for B2B business owners. We saw this clear hole in the market and decided to try and fill it with SixCE.
What Types of Sales Assets Can SixCE Hold?
The nice thing about using our collateral engine is you have TeamSix to help you import and create documents pertinent to your business. We help you set up your instance to be compatible with your brand, your clients, and your needs.
There are various templates you can have imported or created on SixCE. Below, we have addressed the few we feel may be of the most interest for business owners.
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01. RFPs and Proposals
Standardize your RFP and proposal processes by having pre-made templates you can mix-and-match per client-use-case.
02. Information Sheets / Biography Sheets / Flyers
Have template designs for each salesperson’s bio sheet or flyers that have editable areas for updating content and contact information.
03. Business Cards
Make the process of on-boarding a new employee and getting their business cards printed easier. Have a template of your approved business card design and allow contact information to be easily inserted.
04. Company Letterheads / Press Releases
Rather than creating a new press release or letterhead with every important business update, have a set template to easily insert. Access both digital and print versions, as well as easily share to social media.
05. Compliance Disclaimers
Work within the world of compliance standards? Keep your documents up-to-date with the latest disclaimers by having set disclaimer blocks that can be dragged and dropped into any document.
06. Testimonials / Quotes
Keep a set of testimonials and quotes to pull from as content blocks. Use them in any applicable template.
07. Whitepapers and Case Studies
Create an entire library of various whitepapers and case studies, as well as templates for new ones. Allow certain employees advanced or minimal access to each for sharing and editing.
Next Steps…
There are huge advantages to incorporating a collateral engine into your business. You will no longer need to worry about a sales flyer from, for example, three years ago suddenly reappearing.
SixCE provides you with one, universal access point for all your sales and marketing materials. This allows your marketing and sales teams to work hand-in-hand and be on the same page (at least, from the perspective of graphics).
If you are interested in learning more about what SixCE could do for you, we recommend reaching out to us. One of our experts on TeamSix will comb through everything SixCE has to offer, as well as figure out the platform’s best use for your company.
