14 Best Types of Sales Enablement Content

Written by
Kevin Alster
Published on
July 2, 2024
Table of contents

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Any sales rep should have sales enablement content in their success toolkit. Filled with essential, up-to-date information, the right sales enablement content supports your sales teams to work more effectively and secure more deals.

However, companies don't have a sales enablement platform to keep all these assets in one place. So, creating and managing supportive materials for the different stages of the sales cycle may not be as straightforward or intuitive.

This blog post is meant to help all sales professionals discover:

  • The two main sales enablement content types
  • All the different sales enablement assets one can create
  • Some powerful sales enablement content examples for inspiration

Read on and find out how to sharpen your sales axe.

What is sales enablement content?

Sales enablement content is any material designed to educate buyers and sellers and move the sale forward. It can literally be any relevant content: call scripts, case studies, middle-of-funnel (MOFU) interactive demos, email templates, presentation decks, etc.

The primary purpose of this sales content is to prepare your sales reps to address customer queries effectively.

Additionally, sales enablement resources help align marketing and sales strategies. They make sales interactions more effective and improve customer understanding and engagement. Ultimately, they empower your sales team to drive more revenue.

The two main types of sales enablement content

Sales enablement can take many forms, target different stages of the buyer journey, and go out through different channels. But whatever you create will fall into one of these two main categories of sales enablement content: internal, for your sales teams, or external, for your customers.

For example, think about creating a product training video for your sales enablement content strategy. 

  • If your training video is internal sales enablement content, upload it on your company's LMS. New sales reps will watch it and learn about the product's features, benefits, and best use cases. Even though it's designed to train your sales team, it's still a form of sales content because it enables selling.
  • If your training video is external sales enablement content, edit the content to include brand elements and a customer testimonial. Once you upload it on your company website's product page or YouTube channel, this external content will be an informative resource for potential customers.

Both types of sales enablement resources are essential for a robust sales strategy. Below, you'll see their particularities side by side:

Aspect External sales enablement content Internal sales enablement content
Objective Attract, engage, and convert leads into customers — drive conversions and revenue. Educate, empower, and enable sales teams — improve sales teams' performance.
Audience Prospects, customers Sales reps, internal departments
Focus Address customer needs & pains Provide sales training & resources
Tone Persuasive, engaging Educational, instructional
Content examples Product demos, case studies, whitepapers Sales training materials, competitor info
Delivery channels Website, social media, email campaigns LMSs, internal portals

Example 1: AI sales training videos

Sazerac, the largest spirits company in the U.S., had Caroline Goldsmith use AI videos to train regional reps. As a regional sales performance coach, she trained 50+ sales reps across five U.S. states and got a 200% increase in engagement compared to other courses. Her AI training videos were so praised that she adapted them to train 20 other distributors.

Anyone can generate AI sales training videos with AI-powered video software. You've got free trials for video makers like Synthesia, and many others. Make these training videos to introduce new products, teach sales techniques, provide market insights or role-playing scenarios, and even instruct new hires who enter your sales team.

Why use AI videos as sales content?

Video is a super engaging and effective type of sales enablement content. For example, when a company called Cohesity started creating AI videos, its view retention increased by 200%.

AI videos for your sales enablement strategy can be:

  • Updated in minutes
  • Translated into almost any language for any global sales rep or buyer persona
  • Rapidly personalized to the point where you even call the viewer by their name in the video

Example 2: Product sell sheets

Companies often create product sell sheets as texts or PPTs. But you can always try a more engaging format like Safe X did with the video product sell sheet below. In under three minutes, you see the product's key features and how it can benefit customers. It even includes a case study.

Product Sell Sheet (AI Video Template)

Product sell sheets are concise marketing documents that present essential product information in a visually appealing format. They include details such as features, benefits, specifications, and pricing.

Why create sales enablement content from sell sheets?

Imagine having all your product information in a handy one-pager for meetings. Sell sheets do that, giving you all the key details about a product. Using them, agents can explain your product's value proposition to potential customers or distributors in a snap.

Example 3: Sales scripts

Companies don't publicly share their active sales scripts because they contain strategic information that could give their competitors an edge. But Zendesk's guide on how to write a sales script should give you all the info you need to create your own.

To clarify, a sales script is a prepared dialogue designed to help salespeople handle various selling situations. The above resource shows you different role-plays for which your sellers might need scripts.

Did you know? 🤔

B2B tech sales reps should average at least 60 calls/day to improve their chances of booking meetings. Even so, the average success rate for cold calling is only 2%.

Why use scripts as sales enablement content?

Scripts help you communicate the key points clearly and consistently. They also improve the overall quality of interactions with prospective customers and streamline prospecting, which is the most challenging part of the sales process for 40% of salespeople.

Example 4: Internal FAQs and canned responses

These questions and answers vary from one company to another and depend on the offerings' specifics. If you need help mapping out the strategy and language your support teams should use with customers, check out Hubspot's 45 Customer Service Scripting Templates. They're filled with scenarios you can draw inspiration from.

When you take the questions frequently asked by customers and save their canned responses, you standardize and improve the quality of responses your sales teams typically provide.

Tip 💡

You can test how your sales reps master these internal FAQs with interactive scenarios and quizzes like this one.

Why use internal FAQs as sales enablement content?

These documents help maintain consistency in messaging and ensure that all team members can handle common customer queries effectively.

Example 5: Sales enablement emails

Here's a follow-up email example from a customer rep. The goal is to convince a trial user to inquire about a personalized demo. Notice how the message is trying to raise interest by introducing two power features of their software solution:

Email as an example of follow-up sales enablement content.
Email as an example of follow-up sales enablement content.

Sales enablement emails can take different forms, but it always helps to have some pre-written templates. You can craft these for the various customer journey stages, including follow-ups, introductions, and thank-yous.

Why use follow-up emails in your sales cycle?

Email marketing stats show that 60% of consumers want brands to contact them by email, and 71% expect personalized interactions. Emails allow personalization to some extent but offer plenty of other benefits.

Working with templates saves your sales and marketing teams time. It also ensures a professional, consistent communication style across all customer interactions. And because you can use them even to upsell or cross-sell, they ultimately help boost sales with both existing customers and prospects.

Example 6: Sales playbooks

For a sales playbook example, check out Hubspot's free guide & templates for prospecting and objection handling. To dive deeper into the topic, read Forbes Advisor's detailed guide on how to create a sales playbook. The latter also includes a comprehensive template your marketing team can fill in for your company.

TL;DR: A sales playbook is a detailed guide that explains the sales processes, best practices, and strategies your sales team can use across different selling scenarios.

Why does a sales professional need a playbook?

Playbooks are a particularly effective type of sales enablement material that helps generate revenue. When a company uses a sales playbook, the average deal size increases by 3.9%. Plus, playbooks offer a consistent framework that sales reps can follow so everyone is aligned and executes sales strategies effectively.

Example 7: Battlecards

Your sales enablement team will need multiple battlecards customized for different objections or "battles." Here's a great sales enablement content example in this category, an objection handling battlecard from a comprehensive Klue guide on the topic:

Objection handling battlecard as an example of sales enablement content.

Battlecards are concise, easy-to-reference information sheets. They provide competitor research insights and help your reps guide the sales conversation. But you must continuously update them to reflect changes in the market landscape and competitive environment. So, they take a lot of work, yet they're well worth the effort.

Why use battlecards as sales materials?

Your marketing team should create battlecards to help the sales reps better understand what they promote. During sales discussions, they enable salespeople to respond swiftly and accurately to how their products compare with those of competitors.

Example 8: Interactive product demos

This interactive 3D product demo example by Web3D Studio is perfect for communicating your products in an engaging way, especially when played on a huge touchscreen at an exhibition.

Interactive 3D Product Demo made with Unreal Engine

Interactive product demos are highly customized presentations that show your leads the product in action. They are tailored to the viewers' interests and pain points and can be made using different production styles.

If you don't want interactive demos, you can create simpler, live, or recorded demonstrations showing product features and benefits.

Why use interactive demos for sales presentations?

Interactive demos can make a big splash in a sales presentation. They engage customers and streamline the buying process. They don't just help a potential customer visualize how the product solves their specific problems but also adapt in real-time to the user's interests and responses. By doing so, they provide a personalized experience that static demos cannot match.

Did you know? 🤔

Product analytics show that 89% of landing page visitors interact with demos. But when demos are interactive, prospects tend to hop on sales calls 2 weeks sooner!

Example 9: Webinars

Here's a webinar Synthesia created on a very exciting topic, video design for non-designers:

Visual Design for Non-Designers

Webinars are live or recorded educational sessions that discuss relevant industry topics or demonstrate product usage. A sales rep can host them online through platforms like Zoom, allowing participants to join from anywhere with internet access. To make them more engaging, you can always include Q&As and polls.

Why use webinars as sales enablement materials?

47% of B2B professionals say webinars are their best-performing type of content, and 75% claim they lowered their cost-per-lead. Indeed, these virtual events are effective for engaging with a broader target audience, establishing thought leadership, generating leads, and fostering customer relationships.

Example 10: High-value blog posts, whitepapers, and ebooks

An example of valuable content that generates leads is Kore.ai's free retail solutions whitepaper, which you can download for free in exchange for a few contact details. 

Whitepaper download page as an example of sales enablement content.
Whitepaper download page as an example of sales enablement content.

Whether you opt for a blog post, whitepaper, or ebook, you're basically writing marketing content that presents specific industry challenges and the solutions a product or service offers. Blog posts are the shortest, followed by whitepapers and ebooks, which are increasingly more detailed and complex. Typically, you need a mix of these for your sales enablement content strategy.

Why use high-value texts as sales assets? 

These resources help drive traffic, build relationships with your audience, improve SEO, and position your company as a thought leader. Ultimately, they influence purchasing decisions.

Example 11: Customer testimonials

Testimonials from famous people are more impactful, but 9 out of 10 consumers trust what any customer says about a business more than what the business itself says. Slack knows this too well, which is why it dedicated a YouTube playlist to its Customer and Partner Stories.

To use testimonials for your business, talk to satisfied customers about their positive experience with your product or service. Create videos or written endorsements from these conversations and share them on your website, social media, and emails.

Why use customer testimonials as sales enablement content?

Testimonials provide powerful social proof, showcasing a product's real-world applications and benefits. They prove customer success and build credibility and trust among prospects. 79% of people read testimonials to learn about a product, service, or company.

Example 12: Case studies

Persado, a customer engagement platform, created sales training videos 95% faster with AI. Succinct, well structured, and with clear challenge, key results, and customer quotes, its case study is a great model to replicate:

Case studies are detailed stories of customers who have successfully used a product or service to solve their problems. They include specific data, outcomes, and quotes. Unlike customer testimonials, they're made by the company, not the client.

Why add case studies to your sales enablement strategy?

Case studies serve as compelling social proof, providing tangible evidence of a product's value and effectiveness. Because they include a client's comments and offer more information than a simple review, they help sales leaders overcome skepticism and foster trust.

Example 13: Infographics

This audience segmentation methodology infographic by Audiense is a great example of an asset that enables sales. It explains how the company does audience segmentation and kind of makes you trust them to do it for you:

"A picture is worth a thousand words" is the perfect adage behind infographics. These visual representations of information, data, and knowledge quickly and clearly convey complex information.

Why use infographics as sales enablement content?

Infographics make the sales pitch more impactful and guide the viewer through a logical flow that's easier to understand. Because they're shareable, they boost reach and can quickly spread key info across platforms and among decision-makers, which makes them particularly effective sales enablement content.

Example 14: Explainer videos

Last but not least on our list of effective examples of sales enablement are explainer videos. Since we're talking sales, here's a catchy explainer video for a LinkedIn sales tool, Surfe:

High-Converting Product Explainer Video for Surfe (ex-Leadjet)

Want your sales team to create explainer videos for sales enablement? You need short, engaging videos like the one above to explain your product's functionality or your company's value proposition in a simple, easy-to-understand format. These videos don't have to be long; one to three minutes will often be enough.

Why use explainer videos for sales presentations?

These videos directly impact sales, with 85% of users being more likely to buy a product after watching its explainer video. 

Explainers can quickly communicate a product's benefits and how it works, and because they reduce complexity, they increase customer understanding and interest.

Turn text into exciting sales enablement videos

Sales enablement relies on a lot of data, most of which is sent to sales teams as boring documents or PowerPoint presentations.

If you're only going to pick one of the above sales enablement ideas, pick video creation. You can use video at every stage of the customer journey and turn data into videos your reps will happily watch and easily learn from — all in your web browser, without any filming gear or editing skills.

Use this free AI video maker (no credit card required) to create a sales enablement video in the next few minutes.

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