Don’t Shoot the Messenger!
Or: Why Feedback Loops are Critical to Good Sales & Marketing Content.
It is clear that one of the major issues facing sales and marketing organizations is they don’t know what is working and what isn’t, with regards to the quality and usefulness of the content that is created.
Whether it is the marketing department, sales department, or sales training department, they often create content and collateral with no way of knowing whether it is being used and how often it is being used, and to what extent it is of any value.
Therefore, content is often created that goes untouched, unused and collecting dust. The sad part about this is that communication, among everyone involved, should have taken place before and after the content or collateral was created, but didn’t. Departmental silos are often the cause for this breakdown, but the bottom line is that the amount of time and effort that went into creating that content or collateral could have been put to better use doing something else. The amount of money that winds up being wasted can quickly add up, when there isn’t any feedback regarding the quality and value of what is being produced.
Salespeople are not shy about voicing their opinion on things, if given the chance. If they don’t feel like their remarks will be “shot down” or they will be put on the “endangered list” by giving their input and feedback, they will be more open to contribute.
Feedback loops are vitally important to any organization that produces any type of content that sales people are expected to use. Unfortunately, most organizations don’t have a clue as to what their best content and collateral are, how often they are being used, and which collateral was used in the process of making a sale. That information would go a long way to help marketing create a more meaningful ROI around the content they create.
Feedback loops around your content will not only show what is good and not good, but it will also let you monitor when things become outdated and are no longer effective or being used. Organizations need a way in which they can remove old unused content, so it doesn’t continue to clutter up the system, making it harder for people to find what they want. So, if your organization isn’t currently providing a way in which your people can give you feedback on the quality of the content you provide and if you are not using a method to track the number of times it is being used, then I strongly recommend that you do so. I believe by implementing a system which does that will have an immediate impact on the quality and value of the content you provide.
That’s the way I see it, what about you? Please provide us with your “Feedback Loops”