5 Reasons Why DAM Software is at the Heart of Effective Sales Enablement
Buyers know more than you do.
It’s a scary thought, isn’t it?
Especially to a sales rep.
Sales reps meet with manufacturers, retailers, life sciences – you name it.
It’s difficult to stay on top of every trend, in every industry.
But buyers….
…they have one goal before they shortlist vendors:
Find out EVERYTHING about the category and the most popular platforms.
They use their time wisely. They consume A LOT of content.
Today, 70% of the buying process is executed online.
Because of this, buyers are becoming more knowledgeable than the sales reps.
More than 50-70% of the time, buyers will purchase a product without ever talking to sales.
During the research phase, they’ve already defined exactly what they want and need – and complete the purchase on their own.
The relationship between buyer and sales is complex.
So, when buyers do reach out to sales teams, you better make it count.
Each interaction has to be personalized.
Each interaction has to be valuable.
Each interaction has to be memorable.
No easy feat.
So, how do you achieve it? How can you make each sales interaction count?
The answer lies in technology.
In this article, we’ll look at how sales teams use technology, why DAM software is suited to sales enablement and how MCR Safety uses DAM for sales enablement.
Leveraging technology to improve the sales process
Every enterprise can benefit from using DAM software.
Sales reps especially, given the amount of pre and post-sales work they’re involved in. From the prospecting, to the management of both leads and prospective customers and distributing assets to each contact they’re engaged with.
Sales reps spend a lot of their time on non-selling activities.
In fact, they spend less than 36% of their time actually selling.
This is where technology comes in, allowing sales reps to minimize “admin” time so they can do what they’re best at – sell.
More than 70% of sales reps use technology to support their sales process. Technology and data are both two crucial components that help improve sales efficiency.
In fact, according to research by GetAccept, one of the biggest benefits to using sales technology is to “spend less time on admin tasks”.
Two of the most popular productivity tools are sales enablement software and Digital Asset Management.
Both platforms are designed to support the sales process and there’s a lot of overlap in terms of core features between sales enablement and DAM overlap. However, there is a difference between the two platforms:
Sales enablement software is a tool that provides your team with a coordinated source of content and materials. Everyone on your team has access to the exact same materials to manage, edit and share them.
Digital Asset Management software is a tool where all your content is strategically placed in the same archive. Ready to be used, by anyone in your organization, when needed.
For example, DAM software can be used for the storage, management and distribution of all your media assets:
Videos
Audio files
Logos
Documents and more.
Sounds similar?
You’re right, they do.
A lot of the benefits of sales enablement software and DAM mimic each other as both platforms are designed for better management of content as well as improved collaboration.
But here’s the thing:
The right DAM solution is ideally suited to a sales enablement role.
Remember – you need to make each sales interaction count.
Here’s how you can achieve that with a DAM platform.
5 Ways to use DAM software for sales enablement
Deliver personalized and relevant sales pitches
Most sales pitches are the same – regardless of who you’re selling to and who’s in the room.
It’s a single slide deck, uploaded on a shared drive that has been changed, customized and updated dozens of times, by different people within the organization. In most cases, they’re impersonal.
DAM software makes a sales pitch personal.
With DAM, sales reps can use the search function to find relevant sales material, depending on who you’re meeting. Have a meeting with a retailer? Search for new products inside the DAM and you’ll have access to slide decks, research and case studies that can be used specifically for retailers.
No more one-size-fits-all pitch.
Now, it’s relevant. Now, it’s personal.
Get quick access to sales enablement and marketing materials
No matter how much we think sales and marketing teams are aligned, the truth is – they aren’t.
Both teams have different goals, different KPIs and do not always collaborate on the same projects.
Because of this, so much content is wasted.
Technology can help bridge that misalignment:
Sales reps need content in order to move prospects down the funnel or to close a deal
Marketers need a centralized system to manage and edit content that is used by sales
That’s where DAM comes in.
Marketers can manage their digital assets in a DAM and sales reps can be notified of any changes or updates to their sales enablement materials immediately. No more content chaos.
Both teams align on content that’s relevant to the buyer.
And here’s why that’s important.
Let’s not beat around the bush:
Slide decks, product sheets and e-brochures made by sales teams aren’t very good.
(They’re often quite ugly).
That’s OK. Sales reps should spend time selling, not designing PowerPoint presentations.
That’s a marketer’s job. And once the marketing team has designed it, it’s uploaded in the DAM. Instead of practicing their Photoshop skills, sales reps can spend more time on understanding the buyer’s industry and practicing their sales pitch to focus on the buyer's pain-points.
And the next time they meet with a buyer, they get to “wow” them with their beautifully designed presentation, thanks to their new best friend, the marketing team.
Track how content is distributed inside a buyer’s organization
A buyer asks for a case study and you send them a PDF.
In most cases, you’re having to guess whether or not the buyer finds the content engaging.
The same applies with images and videos. Does the content resonate?
A DAM platform gives you access to this data through content analytics.
On an aggregate level, you can track views, downloads and shares on digital assets – giving you a full picture on how engaging an asset is. Having access to this data eliminates unnecessary follow-ups and instead, you only share relevant content with the buyer that moves them to the next phase of the sales funnel.
Keep buyers warm by delivering the right asset in real-time
There’s an old saying that goes “leads go cold within 90 minutes”.
Whether that’s true or not, what is true is that if a buyer asks you for something – you’d better respond and deliver it quickly - or they’ll move on.
Today, sales reps need to search desktop folders, Google drive, Dropbox, email archives and more to find an up-to-date asset that a buyer has asked for.
How long does it take you to find the right asset?
When we asked our 3,000 followers on LinkedIn how long it takes them to find a single asset, more than 20% responded that it took more than 1 hour.
That stops when you invest in DAM.
All digital assets are stored and managed inside a DAM platform as a “single source of truth”.
There is zero time wasted in trying to find the right asset. It’s stored in the DAM. It’s always up to date.
Now, you can respond quickly to the – keeping them warm and engaged.
Create a buyer-centric sales process
When you share product sheets, case studies, whitepapers and other types of sales collateral, you get access to a lot of data. With this data, you find out what works and what doesn’t.
If you find that buyers are more likely to engage with 3D images over say, a video, that feedback can be funneled directly to the marketing department to create more 3D images to be used in future sales conversations.
Whether it’s the medium of the content or the channel the content is shared in, sales teams can use this data to create a better sales process - one that’s buyer centric.
Instead of using opinions or internal processes to dictate how sales and buyers should interact, you’re letting data and engagement behavior metrics drive it. In turn, you give the buyer what they want, when they want it and how they want it – enabling you to deliver an omnichannel strategy.
How MCR Safety use DAM for sales enablement
MCR Safety – a leading manufacturer of personal protective equipment (PPE) across the United States and Europe – uses the Digizuite DAM to build a transformational sales enablement portal for 1,500 unique distributors.
With a library of more than 30,000 assets stored in the Digizuite platform, sales teams, distributors and resellers can easily search on keywords and metadata to retrieve sales and marketing collateral. Everyone involved with the sale of MCR Safety products is working from the same platform and sharing the same sales pitch to prospective customers, closing the sales loop.
Here’s what Bret Lipscomb, MCR Safety Manager of Digital Solutions, says:
“It’s inevitable that our network will expand, and there will likely be additional ways for us to sell products. Through it all, it will be even more important to have the mechanisms in place for brand compliance and sales enablement.”
Conclusion
When you have fewer sales interactions with prospective customers, you better make it count.
Your pitch needs to be personalized, you need to have access to up-to-date sales and product collateral and if the buyer asks you for more information, you need to send it.
Quickly.
Once they have that information, you can track how it’s viewed and distributed between their team. Does a video get more views? Great. Adapt your sales process to include more video.
Ultimately, you want to put the buyer first and adapt your sales process around their needs.
But this is not done manually. You need to look towards technology.
A DAM platform can help you achieve it.
Want to learn more about how Digizuite DAM and sales enablement?
Book a demo today. On a live call, we’ll show you Digizuite DAM and how your sales teams can benefit from using a Digital Asset Management solution.
