Saw this report about sales collateral for B2B buyers – according to Netline’s ‘The Content Connection to Vendor Selection’ there is no ‘magic bullet’ content that reaches everyone.

Not surprising that the same survey or case study that catches the attention of the CIO isn’t going to resonate with the Director of Demand Generation, or the VP of Engineering. Or that the CIO is even going to share the information with others in the buying chain. The advice is to go old school: audit the performance of your collateral, map it to the sales cycle and to your customer’s purchase cycle. Understand the personas involved in the purchase decision and take them into account while creating your collateral.

Now, put yourself in the shoes of your channel partners. How can you help them develop the type of content needed by their customers, through the purchase cycle? A joint collateral mapping and development project will get you more information about their customer’s purchasing behavior and help strengthen your relationship. If you can also get information on use of that collateral, even better. A partner portal that allows you to track what’s accessed, by partner, can provide valuable insight to what’s working, and help drive your budget investment.

Are your partners using your collateral? What’s working best for them?