Sales collateral: Meaning, types & best practices

In the competitive world of B2B SaaS, having the right sales collateral can make all the difference. But what exactly is sales collateral, and how can you use it to boost your sales game? Let’s break down everything you need to know—from the basics to the best practices. We’ll explore different types of sales collateral and share tips on how to create compelling content that will really resonate with your prospects, and deliver results.

What is sales collateral?

Sales collateral is any kind of document, asset, or content piece designed to help progress the sales process.

It can either be internal (collateral that’s used to inform and empower salespeople) or external (materials given to prospects to educate, inform, and convert them into customers).

It’s an essential resource for any effective sales team. But because it can take virtually any form — from informal leave-behind leaflets to deeply-detailed product guides — many sales and sales enablement leaders often struggle to pinpoint exactly what kind of collateral they should be creating.

Sales teams have a lot of diverse goals to hit. Different types of collateral can support those goals in different ways. So, when it comes to determining what you need, that really depends on what you’d like to achieve.

Here’s a quick look at how common types of sales collateral can help support some of the department’s biggest objectives.

1. Digital brochures

• Digital brochures can clearly lay out everything your customers need to know about you and your products.
• Creating digital counterparts to physical brochures gives your customers greater choice in how they continue their buying journey, and creates opportunities for salespeople to reconnect with prospects.

2. Interactive eBooks

• Original research is great at attracting attention and new people to your content
• By bringing that data to life using vibrant imagery and video, you can turn your findings into a widely shared sensation.

3. Digital magazines

• Want to cement your position as a thought leader? Try creating editorial publications like digital magazines.
• Reporting on industry news gives you real credibility in the eyes of your clients, and you can also weave product promotion into your articles.
• Industry authority and increased brand awareness – what’s not to love about that?

4. Guides

6. Prospect information documents

• Sales battlecards, campaign briefs, and other internal documents help sales teams get up to speed with customer accounts and opportunities quickly.
• But to have the right impact, they need to grab and retain salespeople’s attention.

7. Digital onboarding materials

• The faster you can bring a new salesperson up to speed, the sooner they can start driving revenue.
• With the right digital onboarding materials, you can help them start strong and enable long-term success.

8. Company one-pagers

• Every sales person knows that a strong elevator pitch is key to a good first impression. You have one prepared for meetings, why not have one to deliver digitally?
• A company one-pager gives a snapshot of who you are, what you do, and why that’s of value.
• In this era of content overload, a one-pager makes sure your message is seen and heard quick.

9. Research reports

• In B2B markets, studies show that buyers value concise, research-based content above all else to inform their purchase decision.
• Using research reports to validate your company’s offering is a proven way to increase leads – after all, data doesn’t lie!

10. Case studies

• It’s one thing explaining to prospects why your product is worth their investment – it’s another to show them real-life success stories.
• Presenting them with winning case studies showcasing your product in action brings your pitch to life and backs up your claims of the value you offer.

11. Sales proposals

• Creating proposals is a routine daily task for most sales teams. But that doesn’t mean they need to be generic.
• By bringing some visual flair to proposals, you can grab attention faster and increases your chances of conversion.
• Also, try to include interactive elements in your proposals to keep your prospects engaged.

12. Presentations

• When salespeople present information to prospects, they need their decks and information to be highly relevant to that prospect.
• Empowered with accessible tools, they can customize presentations with ease, and create bespoke collateral that doesn’t need to be rebuilt every time they want to present it to someone new.

13. Website landing pages

• Your website tells prospects everything they need to know about your company. It hosts resources, content, product and service information – the list goes on.
• As well as this, it’s also potentially the first salesperson your prospects meet.
• Using landing pages as sales collateral can turn passive browsers into high-intent leads; just make sure you’re writing pages that you know will resonate with the right audience.

14. Blogs

• Blogs are a great way to educate and entertain prospects.
• Not only can you use them to flex your industry knowledge, they’re the perfect host for product promotion (subtley, of course).
• When used wisely, they can keep readers sticking around on your website, and also lead them to content that’s designed to convert.

15. White papers

• As mentioned earlier, data is the secret weapon to driving leads – facts and figures are memorable, and research proves your authority.
• White papers are persuasive reports that feature all of these and they can help to convince prospects that your company’s opinion is trustworthy and valuable. And who wouldn’t prefer to buy from someone they trust?

Whichever types of sales collateral you choose to create, there are some best practices to follow to get the right results:

• Personalize your collateral:  Every customer and salesperson needs something slightly different from the collateral you put in front of them. The easier you can make it to personalize and adapt content, the greater results you’ll see from your sales collateral.

• Track engagement: Whatever you create, you need to track its efficacy, see who’s viewing it, and understand what they find most engaging. That will help you learn what customers and salespeople want more of, so you can continuously improve your collateral portfolio.

• Democratize collateral creation: Sales processes move fast. When someone needs a new piece of collateral, they need the means to create it right away. By democratizing creation, you can enable salespeople to build and customize the collateral they need when they need it.

• Diversify the use of your collateral: Creating sales collateral takes both time and money so it’s important to maximize return on your efforts. Just one piece of collateral can be used in so many different ways; use quotes from reports in blogs, put case studies in newsletters, feature one-pagers in sales proposals – the opportunities are endless!

• Choose a tool that simplifies collateral creation: Creating sales collateral that’s in line with best practices can be time-consuming and costly if you don’t have the right tool. Want one that lets you easily create collateral that will 10x your reader engagement? Look no further than Turtl.

Turtl is built with best practice in mind, enabling any sales team to master creating high-performing collateral almost immediately. To find out more about how Turtl empowers sales and sales enablement teams, jump into our full sales enablement guide:

Click to read Empowering Sales Enablement for your company | Turtl Guide