1. Identify pain points at every step of the sales process

What does your partners' sales process look like? It could be quite complicated.

HubSpot's seven-step sales process includes the following steps:

1. Prospecting (sourcing new, early-stage leads)
2. Connecting with and qualifying leads (contacting leads and gauging fit)
3. Research (digging into intel on the prospect and their company)
4. Presentation (giving a formal demo of your product or service)
5. Objection handling (fielding and addressing your prospect's concerns)
6. Closing (arriving at a mutually beneficial, contractual agreement)
7. Nurturing (maintaining a productive relationship and upselling/cross-selling)

Providing your partners with sales materials helps them get the best results at each step – in essence, they become part of your sales enablement strategy. To do that, you'll need to know what kind of materials will be most helpful.

How do you find that out? By talking to sales reps, support agents, account managers, and anyone else who's involved in selling your product. Ask them about the pain points they run into at every step of the process.

Use this formula:

"What difficulties do you run into in prospecting? What kind of materials would be helpful in sourcing new leads?"

It's tempting to start creating sales materials right away. But don't skip this step – ask about each step to avoid wasting time on creating materials your partners don't need.

2. Craft sales materials for each step

Now you understand where your partners need help – it's time to craft your sales materials. The materials you create will depend on what you found out in step 1.

For example, if your partners struggle with qualifying leads, you might share

• more detailed buyer personas,
• statistics on your customers,
• detailed use cases, or
• a sales qualification framework.

(If you're not sure what a sales qualification framework is, check out this great article from Salesmate that explains BANT, ANUM, MEDDIC, and other common frameworks.)

Do your partners get lots of great leads but struggle to close them? Product information sheets, case studies, testimonials, and better presentation materials may improve their close rates.

Be clear and ask your partner if what you have in mind will be useful. It can be as simple as this:

"You mentioned that qualifying leads was difficult; would it be helpful if we provided you with more buyer personas and some data on our most successful customers? Would something else be more helpful?"

Here are some ideas to get you started on brainstorming sales materials for your partners:

• Buyer personas
• Advertising copy/creative assets
• Product information sheets
• Product documentation/support guides
• Case studies/testimonials
• Presentation materials/pitch decks
• Web/email copy
• FAQs

(If this sounds like developing a content strategy for your sales enablement program, that's because it's very similar.)

3. Co-brand the materials you've developed

Sales materials that you share with your partners should have both your branding and your partner's branding visible. This helps your partner by offering a more consistent visual experience throughout the sales process.

Work with your designer or your partner's to ensure a professional look for your co-branded materials.

4. Make materials easily available

Imagine that you've crafted a fantastic pitch deck for your partner – how can you make sure they'll use it?

By making it easily available when and where they need it. Emailing a copy of your sales materials won't cut it.

If you're already providing partner training, you can use your learning management system to store and share files (an organizational knowledge sharing tool like Continu's wiki feature is a great way to do this).

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Without a centralized location for your sales materials, partners may forget about them, use outdated versions, or repeatedly ask your team where to find them.

A shared Google Drive or other file-sharing solution can work, but a more purpose-built solution will help your partners more in the long run.

5. Train your partners

Sales materials are great – but your partners need more than that to effectively sell your products. They need training.

Partner training lets organizations equip resellers, distributors, and affiliates with the knowledge and resources they need to promote, sell, or service that organization's products and services.

If you're working on sales materials and you haven't started training your partners, now is a great time to start. Check out these 7 steps to create effective partner training materials or book a free demo to find out how we can help you most effectively train your partners!

6. Regularly update your materials

All sales materials need updates. Sometimes it's because your product has changed. Other times your marketing messaging shifts. Or you need to respond to a new competitor.

But when partners are using your sales materials, you have to respond to changes in their needs, too. You'll need to stay in touch with your partners and regularly ask about what's working and what needs to be tweaked.

Set your partners up for success

Companies that emphasize partner relationships see lots of benefits, from increased revenue to reduced churn. But your partners need support if they're going to help you succeed.

Supplying effective sales materials is one of the most effective ways of providing that support.

By identifying pain points, supplying appropriate co-branded materials, making those materials and additional training easily available, and updating your sales materials regularly, you'll set your partners up to be a highly effective extension of your sales team.