Developing high-quality sales collateral is a crucial part of supporting an effective sales process. Sales collateral refers to the materials used by sales teams to inform, educate, engage, and persuade prospects throughout the buyer’s journey. This collateral serves as a leave-behind after sales calls and meetings and acts as an ongoing reference for prospects. 

Great sales collateral visually represents your brand, communicates your value proposition, and helps progress prospects through your sales funnel. However, creating collateral that accomplishes these goals requires strategic planning and execution. You need to understand your target audiences, map collateral to your sales process, optimize for different mediums, and continually iterate based on results.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover:

– What sales collateral is and why it’s important for your sales strategy

– The most common types of sales collateral

– How to develop high-converting sales collateral tailored to your sales process 

– Examples of effective collateral from real companies

Let’s dive in!

What is Sales Collateral and Why is it Important?

Sales collateral refers to the collection of marketing materials used by sales teams to inform prospects and customers during the sales process. Sales collateral encompasses both content and visual assets across digital and print mediums. 

Here are some examples of common sales collateral:

– One pagers: short, single-page documents covering a product, service, or company overview

– Brochures: longer print documents with more details on offerings

– Presentation decks: slides to guide prospects through a product demo

– Infographics: visual representations of data or processes

– Case studies: stories of customer success and ROI

– Product sheets: specs and details on specific products

– Solution briefs: how an offering solves particular customer needs 

– Email and social media graphics, icons, and banners

– Analyst reports, whitepapers, ebooks: longer-form educational content

– Videos: product demos, customer testimonials, explainers

Sales collateral serves many important functions:

– Informs and educates: Collateral provides prospects with the information they need to understand your offerings, value proposition, and differentiation. This content fills knowledge gaps.

– Visualizes your brand: Well-designed collateral reinforces your brand identity and desired image at every touchpoint. 

– Supports sales conversations: Collateral gives sales reps materials to share that guide and enhance discussions with prospects.

– Persuades buyers: Sales collateral enables you to make an emotive case for your product and guides prospects to visualize success.

– Progresses prospects: Content moves leads through your sales funnel by addressing concerns at each stage and providing calls to action.

– Serves as a leave-behind: Print or digital collateral acts as a helpful reference for prospects to review after your meetings.

– Remains in circulation: Collateral continues marketing your brand and offerings even when sales reps aren’t in direct conversations.

Quality sales collateral is hugely beneficial for sales teams. But to achieve those wins, it’s crucial to align your collateral strategy with your sales process, audiences, and broader marketing objectives. Next, let’s explore the types of collateral you may want to develop.

Types of Sales Collateral

Sales collateral comes in many formats that serve different purposes during the buying journey. The most common collateral types include:

One Pagers

One page flyers concisely covering one offering, use case, or customer success story.

Brochures 

Longer print documents detailing your offerings, differentiators, and value prop. Brochures often use visuals and multiple pages to tell a fuller brand story.

Presentation Decks

Slide decks used by sales reps to guide prospects through product demos, case studies, pricing, and next steps. Enable customized and interactive presentations.

Infographics 

Visual representations of data, stats, processes, or concepts. Infographics simplify complex information.

Case Studies

Written or video stories of customer success and ROI from using your product. Validate your value.

Product Sheets

Detailed descriptions of specific products including features, specs, requirements, and technical illustrations. Help prospects compare options.

Solution Briefs

Short sheets explaining how your offering solves particular buyer needs or pain points. Take an educational, problem-solving approach.

Whitepapers/Ebooks

Long-form, text-heavy content that dives deep on trends, strategies, and best practices related to your product or industry. Establish thought leadership. 

Product Demo Videos

Short, engaging videos that showcase your product’s features and UI in action. Bring your product to life visually.

Think about which collateral formats are most useful at each stage of your sales process when determining what content to produce. Next, let’s explore how to develop compelling sales collateral from start to finish.

How to Develop Effective Sales Collateral

Creating high-converting sales collateral requires upfront strategizing and planning. Follow these best practices:

Identify Your Audience

Start by getting crystal clear on the specific buyer personas you need to reach. Map collateral content and messaging to the informational needs, pain points, and questions of each persona at their stage in the buying journey. 

Targeting early stage prospects? Focus on informative, educational collateral that builds awareness. For later stage leads, create content selling the concrete ROI of your solution. Speak directly to each audience’s priorities.

Understand Your Sales Process and Buyer’s Journey

Next, analyze your sales methodology. Map out the typical progression of your sales conversations and pipeline. When and how are prospects introduced to your brand? Where does collateral get shared and discussed?

Identify gaps in your sales process where certain collateral could make an impact. For example, lead nurturing emails to prospects can include relevant one pagers or infographics. Proposals may require product sheets or solution briefs. 

Chart your ideal buyer’s journey from awareness to purchase. Determine what information and materials will help move leads through each stage, then develop collateral to fill those needs.

Choose the Right Sales Collateral Mix

With your sales process and audiences defined, determine the optimal mix of collateral formats and topics to produce. Aim for a range of short and long form, visual and text-heavy assets. 

Prioritize collateral that aligns to your product’s strengths and differentiators or that addresses common prospect pain points. Identify any missing gaps your sales team needs filled to improve conversions.

Create Visually Appealing and Branded Designs 

Maximize your collateral’s impact through great design. Maintain a consistent visual brand, tone, and style across all assets. Use color schemes, logos, icons, and layouts aligned with your brand identity. 

Aim for visually appealing, easy to scan layouts. Include photos, charts, illustrations, and ample white space. Icons, bullet points, and selective bolding can highlight key information. Keep text short, scannable, and centered around a single value prop or CTA.

Make Content Scannable and Concise

Prospects will skim your collateral quickly – make core information ultra scannable. Use descriptive headers, subheaders, bullet points, and bolding to break up text and highlight key takeaways. Include ample white space around text.

Keep sentences and paragraphs short, direct, and benefit-focused. Cut out unnecessary jargon, buzzwords, or filler text. Every piece of content should clearly communicate a compelling reason to buy your solution.

Include Calls-to-Action 

Every piece of collateral should drive the recipient towards a next step, whether scheduling a demo, starting a free trial, or contacting sales. 

Make these CTAs prominent through catchy phrasing, contrasting colors, and visual icons. Provide multiple ways for prospects to convert, such as adding links, contact forms, QR codes, or motivational directional text.

Optimize for Different Mediums

Design collateral suited for its final medium and use case. Materials for in-person sales meetings should be print-friendly, portable, and easy to annotate. Presentation decks should use large text and visuals optimized for projection screens. 

For online use, craft easily digestible content and publish assets in shareable digital formats. Optimize videos, images, and graphics for viewing on mobile devices. 

Track and Iterate Based on Results

Closely monitor the performance of your collateral. Notice which pieces generate the most web traffic, leads, and sales conversions. Survey sales teams on what content resonates best with prospects.

Use data-driven insights to double down on your most effective collateral. Continuously test new formats, topics, and designs. Refine over time to maximize impact.

Now that we’ve covered collateral strategy and development, let’s look at examples of stellar sales collateral across several formats.

Examples of Great Sales Collateral

One Pagers

This Salesforce CPQ one pager quickly communicates what the product is, key capabilities, target buyers, and value proposition. Icons draw attention to benefits while the bold colors and clean layout align to Salesforce branding. A clear CTA prompts prospects to request a demo.


Product Brochures

This HubSpot brochure uses eye-catching visuals, client logos, data, and testimonials to creatively showcase their CRM. The content balances text and images while highlighting specific use cases and results.


Presentation Decks

This sales deck from Dropbox effectively guides prospects through their CRM offering. It leads with the problem Dropbox solves then covers product details, customer success stories, pricing options, and a clear call to buy.


Infographics

This infographic visualizes the features and capabilities of Hootsuite’s social media management platform. The illustrations are eye-catching while highlighting real use cases and value.


Case Studies 

This Printful case study tells the success story of a customer who doubled sales using their print on demand fulfillment services. The visuals reinforce key results and social proof.


Product Demo Videos

This Loom video succinctly shows off their video messaging software features. The animated demo quickly communicates Loom’s purpose and capabilities better than any text asset could.


Studying collateral examples from other companies can provide inspiration on creative ways to showcase your own offerings. Test new formats and design techniques to make your collateral stand out.

Key Takeaways

Developing quality sales collateral tailored to your sales process and audiences is crucial for sales success. Key tips include:

– Map collateral content and messaging to each buyer persona and their stage in the journey. Fill their informational needs.

– Analyze your sales methodology to identify gaps where new collateral would make an impact. Coordinate content across the funnel.

– Produce a range of complementary collateral types including one-pagers, brochures, presentations, videos, and more.

– Maintain polished, on-brand visual designs that reinforce your identity. Use visuals to enhance scannability.

– Make content ultra concise and scannable with headers, bullet points, and bolding. Focus on communicating clear value. 

– Include prominent calls to action to drive conversions from every asset. Track performance and iterate.

Developing the right collateral provides sales teams with the materials they need to effectively engage, inform, and persuade prospects throughout the buying process. Align your collateral strategy and content closely to your sales process for maximum impact. With these best practices, you can create consistent, high-converting collateral that empowers sales and wins more customers.