For a sales team, sales collateral – the shiny posters, the handouts, the brochures and pamphlets and presentations and all other branded material that conveys critical information about your services and products – is key.
It’s not just enough to talk to someone; you need to show and demonstrate benefits and concepts to really register a strong, favorable impression.
Unfortunately, sales collateral often lacks one, crucial component that can ruin its ability to positively impact potential customers and clients: brand consistency.
What Is Brand Consistency and Why Do I Need It?
A brand is one of the most powerful assets your company has. It is the sum of how you represent yourself and what the public thinks of you. Your company has a brand and your sales force is there to represent it effectively and persuasively.
Do that, and you are far more likely to sell and sell in abundance, because people identify with brands and base buying decisions as much on brand relationships and identity than the actual product or service.
Consistency is key to making this happen – but if you lack brand consistency, you are presenting a fragmented front to a client and failing to deliver your message powerfully and meaningfully.
For example, part of brand consistency is having a clear, coherent message that is the same no matter where a customer encounters it. Repetition breeds familiarity, and familiarity is a cornerstone of a strong brand.
How Sales Collateral Often Fails
Unfortunately, businesses these days do not put a premium on strong, consistent branding with their sales collateral. Two different pieces can represent two different messages and convey two different identities to a client, which weakens the overall presentation and puts the salesperson in a hole from the start.
One big reason this happens is how sales collateral is created and distributed to the field. Instead of a centralized process with clear branding, unified messaging and consistent design from one source, sales collateral is developed across multiple locations, multiple departments, and multiple designers and developers.
So what one piece looks like and sounds like often is completely different from another piece – and yet the salesperson has to represent both!
Fixing the Brand Consistency Issue
Fortunately, technology has evolved to the point where a business can overcome these obstacles. With a centralized, unified process made possible by the Internet, a company can demonstrate one voice, one look and one message by designing, uploading and distributing sales collateral from one point of control.
With a marketing asset management system, for example, you can work with a designer to design sales collateral that presents a unified message and brand across all departments and programs. You can then upload those designs, choose the sales piece you want to distribute, and have the piece produced and shipped from an outside facility faster and in a more cost-effective manner than ever before.
That way, your sales force gets what they need and when they need it. But more importantly, your brand – your business’s most valuable asset – stays consistent and strong.
To learn more, contact DMS today at 205.874.6183.