Brand Wings - Blog #Sales

MAKING SELLERS LIVES EASIER

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 14:07:11 +0000

In today's competitive business landscape, sales teams are under constant pressure to deliver results efficiently and effectively. Sales enablement platforms have emerged as invaluable tools to streamline workflows, enhance productivity, and drive sales success.

These platforms provide sellers with the resources and support they need to navigate complex sales processes, engage with clients effectively, and ultimately close deals.

Below are a few areas to keep in mind when researching or looking deeper into platforms that can help and support your sellers.

Make professional sellers' lives easier!

In the fast-paced world of sales, efficiency and effectiveness are paramount. Every minute counts, every interaction matters, and every opportunity must be maximized. This is where the Brand Wings sales enablement platform shines, empowering sellers to achieve peak performance and make their lives easier. Let's delve into how Brand Wings features and advantages revolutionize sales effectiveness and efficiency.

Streamlined Content Management

One of the core challenges for sellers is accessing and utilizing sales-supporting digital assets efficiently. With Brand Wings, all sales materials are centralized in a user-friendly platform, eliminating the time wasted searching for the right content. Sellers can easily access, customize, and share relevant assets, ensuring consistent messaging and branding across all interactions.

Personalized Customer Spaces

Every client is unique, and tailoring sales presentations to individual needs can be a daunting task. Brand Wings' Customer Spaces feature allows sellers to create personalized collections of assets for specific client groups. Whether it's a tailored product catalog, targeted marketing materials, or customized training resources, sellers can impress clients with personalized experiences that resonate and drive engagement.

Learning Management

Continuous learning is key to sales success, but traditional training methods can be time-consuming and ineffective. Brand Wings' Learning Management system offers interactive and engaging training modules that empower sellers to upskill, onboard new team members seamlessly, and stay updated with the latest product knowledge and sales techniques. This not only boosts confidence but also enhances sales effectiveness.

Real-Time Analytics and Insights

Data-driven decision-making is crucial in today's competitive landscape. Brand Wings provides real-time analytics and insights into sales performance, content engagement, and customer interactions. Sellers can track key metrics, identify trends, and optimize their strategies for maximum impact, driving sales efficiency and effectiveness.

In conclusion, the Brand Wings sales enablement platform is a game-changer for sellers, enhancing efficiency, boosting sales effectiveness, and making their lives easier. By leveraging the platform's features and advantages, sellers can streamline their workflows, personalize client interactions, stay informed with real-time insights, and collaborate seamlessly with their teams. It's time to revolutionize your sales approach with Brand Wings and unlock the full potential of your sales team.

When looking at sales enablement platforms think Brand Wings!

More information at brandwings.com

Revolutionizing Sellers with Brand Wings Customer Spaces

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 13:18:46 +0000

In the fast-paced world of sales and marketing, staying organized and professional is key to success. But what if there was a way to not only streamline your sales-supporting digital assets but also deliver them to your customers in a seamless and professional manner? Enter Brand Wings Customer Spaces, the latest innovation from Brand Wings that is set to transform the way you interact with your clients and support your sales team.

What is Brand Wings Customer Spaces?

Brand Wings Customer Spaces is a cutting-edge feature designed to empower your sellers to provide an organized and professional collection of sales-supporting digital assets that is personalized to customer or potential customer. Gone are the days of scattered files and emails; with Customer Spaces, you can centralize all your assets in one place, making it easier than ever for your team to access and share the resources they need to close deals effectively.

What are the Key Strengths for Your Sellers?

Centralized Asset Management: Say goodbye to hunting through endless folders for the right file. With Customer Spaces, all your digital assets are stored in one centralized location, making it simple for your team to find what they need when they need it and personalize for your .

Customizable Spaces: Tailor each Customer Space to suit the specific needs of your clients. Whether you're delivering product catalogs, marketing materials, or training resources, you can create dedicated Spaces for each customer group, ensuring that they receive personalized and relevant content every time.

Professional Environment: Impress your clients with branded and professional-looking Spaces. From custom headers to personalized messages, you can ensure that every interaction with your customers reflects your brand identity and values.

Streamlined Communication: Forget endless email threads and confusing attachments. With Customer Spaces, you can communicate with your clients directly within the platform, providing clarity and context to your sales-supporting efforts.

How it Works?

Creating a Customer Space with Brand Wings is quick and easy. Simply log in to your Brand Wings account, navigate to the Customer Spaces tab, and start building your Space. Upload your digital assets, customize the layout and design to match your brand, and invite your clients to access the Space. It's that simple!

Learn more at..........

1) https://www.brandwings.com/

2) Schedule a discovery call at https://calendly.com/jason-kammes/introduction-to-brand-wings

3) Schedule a demo at https://www.brandwings.com/schedule-a-demo

Content Is King

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 20:49:25 +0000

The Importance of Relevant Content in Closing a Sale

In today's digital age, content is king. A potential customer's buying journey is often influenced by the information they consume, and that's where relevant content comes into play. Relevant content can help close a sale by providing a buyer with the information they need to make an informed purchasing decision.

Why Relevant Content Matters

Relevant content provides value to potential customers by answering their questions and addressing their needs. It educates them about the product or service being offered and helps them understand why it is the best solution to their problem.

Furthermore, relevant content creates trust between the seller and the buyer. By demonstrating expertise and understanding of the buyer's needs, the seller builds credibility and gains the buyer's confidence. This trust is critical in the decision-making process and can be the deciding factor in closing a sale.

Ways to Create Relevant Content

To create relevant content, you need to understand your target audience and their pain points. This understanding will help you create content that speaks directly to their needs and provides solutions to their problems.

Some of the ways to create relevant content include:

1) Conducting market research to understand your target audience and their needs.

2) Creating buyer personas to identify the specific characteristics, goals, and pain points of your target audience.

3) Developing a content strategy that aligns with the buyer's journey and provides information at each stage of the decision-making process.

4) Utilizing a variety of content formats, such as blog posts, infographics, videos, and e-books, to reach a wider audience.

5) Continuously updating and refining your content to stay relevant and up to date.

Relevant content is a critical component of the sales process. By providing value to potential buyers and building trust, relevant content can help close a sale and drive business growth. So, invest in creating and distributing relevant content, and see the results for yourself.

In conclusion, a content management system is an essential tool for sales teams looking to be more effective and efficient. The Brand Wings sales enablement software platform provides sales teams with one central location for all sales and marketing content so they can quickly and easily find what they need, when they need it. Assets can be easily added, and the platform supports any file type. With Brand Wings digital delivery tools, your direct sales team or channels can easily send personalized and brand-approved content to help customers make informed buying decisions.

Find out more at Home | Brand Wings or at Content Management | Brand Wings

The Importance of Using Content in the Customer's Buying Journey to Reduce the Buyer Risk

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 18:17:31 +0000

The customer buying journey is a complex process that involves various stages, from awareness to post-purchase evaluation. During this journey, potential buyers are faced with a multitude of risks, such as making the wrong choice, wasting money, or being disappointed with the product.

To reduce these risks and help potential customers make informed decisions, it is crucial to use content effectively throughout the customer buying journey. Content can provide the information and insights needed to help potential customers overcome their doubts and make confident buying decisions.

Here are the key ways content can be used to reduce buyer risk in the customer buying journey:

Awareness stage: Content that raises awareness of the problem or opportunity a product or service solves is critical at this stage. This type of content helps potential customers identify their needs and understand the options available to them.

Consideration stage: During this stage, potential customers are searching for information that will help them make a decision. Product demonstrations, testimonials, and case studies are all examples of content that can help reduce buyer risk by demonstrating the benefits and value of a product.

Decision stage: At this stage, potential customers are ready to make a purchase. Content that emphasizes the security of the buying process, such as money-back guarantees or free trials, can help reduce buyer risk and build trust.

Post-purchase stage: After the purchase, content that provides support and guidance on how to use and get the most out of a product can help reduce buyer risk by ensuring customers are satisfied with their purchase.

Content plays a crucial role in reducing buyer risk in the customer buying journey. By providing information and insights that help potential customers make informed decisions, content can help build trust, increase customer satisfaction, and drive sales. So, invest in creating and distributing high-quality content that is relevant and valuable to your target audience.

Find out more at Content Management | Brand Wings

Customer Spaces

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 13:54:28 +0000

Brand Wings allows your sellers to easily share assets with current and potential customers. While helpful, there are times when your sellers may want to provide an organized and professional collection of sales-supporting digital assets to a group of customers. With our latest release, this is now possible with our new feature called Customer Spaces. Let's take a look at how to take advantage of this.

To begin, you'll want to set permissions to allow users to take advantage of customer spaces. In Settings-->Sales Team Roles, select the role you want to enable and then click the Permissions tab. Check all the options for Customer Spaces:

Next, go in to the Admin Roles and also enable permissions for any roles you want to empower.

Customer Spaces are based on templates that you, as an administrator, first define. A template is a defined set of assets along with default notes and explanations you create. Think of this as providing a quick and easy starting point for your sellers. When you create a template, you will be able to define whether the seller can modify the list of assets you have selected and change the default text. In this way you can either tightly control how Customer Spaces are used or provide flexibility to your sellers.

To create a Customer Space template in the admin, go to Sales Tools-->Customer Spaces. Next, click the Create Template button. You'll be prompted to provide a name for the template and then be brought into the template administration page:

On the Details tab, you have a number of options:

Primary Image: Upload an image that will represent the Customer Space template. The check box below it indicates if the seller can change this image you have provided.
Name: The name of the Customer Space template
Description: This description will be made available to your sellers, but will not be seen by customers
Default Sales User Note to Customer: A Customer Space includes a note from the seller. You can provide some default content here. You can also indicate if the seller is able to edit this note.
Allow Sales User to Add and Remove Items: On the next tab you will select which assets should be assigned to this Customer Space template. This checkbox indicates if the seller can change this list of assets you are defining.
Labels: Like other sales tools in Brand Wings, you can set Labels that will be associated with this template.

Next, click the Items tab:

In this tab, you can find Assets on the left, and drag them into the Customer Space box on the right. Note that you can rearrange the assets in the Customer Space box by clicking and dragging.

Now click the Permissions tab:

Like other Sales Tools in Brand Wings, you can define which sellers will have access to this Customer Space template. You can select Roles and/or Sales Teams. Just remember that if both areas have selections, both must be true for the sales user to have access.

Remember to click Save when finished!

Now that you have defined a Customer Space, the next step is to make sure the sales portal is properly configured. First, you may want to add a navigation menu item that points to a list of all available Customer Space templates. Click and drag the Customer Space List from the General Items into the appropriate location on your menu:

Two other potential updates to make in the admin are:

On the Inside Pages tab of the Portal Theme area, be sure to map a layout to the Customer Space type.
Since customers can be notified about the customer space via email, you can also define a notification template. Be sure to use the {{Link}} Merge Tag in the template so that a URL to the Customer Space can be added to the email.

Sales Portal

Now that we have created a Customer Space template in the admin, let's review the seller experience. After your seller has logged into the portal, there are a few different ways they see and use the Customer Space templates you have created. If you added the Customer Spaces List menu item to a navigation menu, the seller can click (or tap) this link to see the templates:

Next, your seller can click on "See Details" for the desired template. This opens a detail page:

After reviewing the details, the seller can click the "Create New Customer Space" button to get started. This next screen allows the seller to customize the space (if needed) and share it with contacts:

Depending on the permissions you set in the template, your seller has a number of options:

Update the Customer Space name
Update the image
Update the note to the customer
Add, remove, or re-order assets.

The seller can also select one or more contacts to send the customer space to (if desired) as well as an expiration date. When finished, your seller should click the Save button. Next, your seller is prompted to either send an email to the contacts or generate a link to the Customer Space:

The seller can access this Customer Space through the Activity Stream. By clicking on the detail icon on the right of the activity stream item opens a detail screen:

Note the tabs on this screen that include additional information:

Items: List of assets in the Customer Space
Contacts: The Contacts that have access to the Customer Space
Activity History: Key events such as when Contacts visit the Customer Space

We hope you find this new feature useful for further enabling your sales teams!

What Motivates Customers to Buy?

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 18:47:26 +0000

You’re about to meet with a customer. You’ve done your research and have learned about their circumstances. You have some ideas regarding how you might help the customer achieve a better outcome.

Now how do you start off the conversation?

One approach is to introduce new insights, new technologies, or new methods to accomplish the jobs to be done. When you can present a frame-breaking idea that gets the prospect to say “I hadn’t thought of that before”, and “I think I could benefit from that approach”, you’re framing the conversation in terms of something that is both relevant and important to them. In other words, you’re giving them a reason to listen to you. And if you want to change someone’s mind you need to change their beliefs and the way they think.

The challenge is that most people naturally want to stick with the status quo. They resist change. Even when a problem is known they may simply “live with it”. Our role in sales is to make the current way of doing things more painful - and more risky - then making the change to a different and better way to get the job done.

So how do you structure the conversation? Here is a framework to follow:

Educate or teach your prospect about something new
Inspire your prospect to think differently about how they are currently doing things
Identify a problem or uncover the need to achieve a better result

Understand the impact or implication of the problem, or staying with the status quo
Determine if your customer has a desire to change

When you present a frame-breaking idea, you get your customer talking about their current process, their struggles and challenges. From this discussion they will likely realize what needs improvement. When you listen to their answers, you’ll gain a much clearer picture of their situation and begin to assess whether you have a solution that will help them.

Keep in mind that in the "awareness" stage, people looking for insights into ways to solve problems or uncover new and better ways of doing things. This “top-of-funnel” content is content that doesn’t try to sell your customer on a product or service, but instead educates, helps, and answers common questions.

What type of content can be used at the awareness stage?

Reports or whitepapers, ebooks, webinars or instructional videos can be helpful content to help educate your customer or prospect about something new – new technologies or new methods that can simplify work processes, improve productivity or boost efficiency.

Paint the picture of a better future and give your prospect the perspective of understanding what can be possible if they’re willing to make a change. Only when your customer has made a commitment to change will they be motivated to consider your solution.

How much time are your reps spending on finding or creating content?

Wed, 11 May 2022 16:46:48 +0000

Sales and marketing teams know that high-quality content takes buyers through a journey that ideally results in winning new sales opportunities.

But where do reps get the high-quality content they need?

Are your reps getting timely and relevant content from marketing, or are they creating content on their own?

If the reps are developing the content themselves it takes time away from selling and pursuing new opportunities. Besides, content developed by your reps may not be on brand or consistent with the brand voice. The content may not be up-to-date, or may not present the right image or value of your product or service. Worst case the information developed by your reps could be inaccurate.

If your reps are searching for content, and the content is stored across five or six different content platforms, reps will sometimes waste a lot of time looking for what they need. There are market studies and surveys that indicate that as much as 1/3 of reps time is spent searching for or creating content.

The challenge of providing relevant content to sales teams, while minimizing or eliminating the time reps spend creating or finding content is widespread. In a recent survey, 84% of respondents indicated that content search and utilization was the number one area that could improve sales productivity, yet only 35% of companies are actively working on ways to improve how reps find and utilize content to drive new sales.

So what is the best way forward?

Ideally, marketing teams work closely with the sales team to create compelling content that drives sales. Marketing then organizes the content into a sales enablement content library and makes it easy for reps to access the content. The salesperson accesses the system and searches for relevant assets based on specific criteria such as the buyers current stage in the buying journey.

What type of assets resonates most with buyers?

That depends on the person who is receiving the content, their role in the organization, and the stage of the buying journey. In the early stages content that is informational and educational helps prospects to become aware of better ways to get jobs done. As the buying journey advances, prospects are trying to determine the solution that’s right for them. At this stage, buyers are looking for details to understand how your product or service solves their problem, and how it compares to alternatives. In the later stages content that helps justify the investment and case studies validating the outcomes help prospects make decisions to go ahead.

Having a sales enablement content management system offers functionality that can help you determine when it’s time to refresh or replace content. When a specific piece of content is no longer used, or no longer helping sales professionals move customers forward on their buying journey path, that’s a good sign that the asset has outlived its usefulness. Replacing or refreshing old content, such as an out-of-date case study, improves sales productivity because sales professionals will be using up-to-date content. It also gives them a higher level of confidence in the quality of the materials in the system.

Sales teams need actionable content that's centralized and trackable. The Brand Wings content management system provides a single point of access that saves time for reps before and after every sales call and helps improve the productivity of every interaction with prospects.

For more information;

Schedule a 10-minute Brand Wings introduction call at https://calendly.com/jason-kammes/introduction-to-brand-wings
Complete the contact us form to schedule a demo at Schedule a Demo - Brand Wings

What is a sales enablement Charter and why do you need one?

Thu, 05 May 2022 13:16:09 +0000

A Sales Enablement Charter is a document that sets out your enablement goals and objectives and outlines the activities to achieve your desired outcomes. It essentially functions as your business plan, your roadmap, and your guide for implementation of your sales enablement initiatives.

And why do you need one?

A charter is a tool to communicate and sell enablement internally. It aligns with the organizations goals, and gains senior management buy-in with the outlined initiatives. It also gains buy-in from other strategically important groups beyond sales such as marketing, service, operations and customer support.

So what are some of the elements that should be included in your Sales Enablement Charter?

Byron Matthews and Tamara Schenk, co-authors of Sales Enablement, A Master Framework to Engage, Equip and Empower A World Class Sales Force, offer the following insights to establishing a sales enablement charter.

Meet with executive leadership

Understand the goals of the organization. Not just specific sales goals, but also vision goals for the organization. For example, incorporate market share goals, or pursuit of new markets. The more aligned the Enablement Charter is to the goals of the organization, the more likely the leadership will be to buy-in and fund the initiatives.

Meet with other department leaders

Look for ways to collaborate with other departments to improve processes and create more cross functional collaboration. Align enablement initiatives with established business strategies and sales strategies. Enlist support from other departments to gain support.

Define enablement and the scope of your enablement effort

Defining enablement, such as creating the content, tools, training and coaching to improve sales performance, creates clarity and direction. The scope can further define the enablement focus such as utilizing technologies and systems to improve sales effectiveness and efficiency.

Create a realistic roadmap

Set priorities and timelines for specific development of needed content, tools, training and coaching for the scope of the enablement effort. Keep the focus on the business and sales strategy and the current state of sales execution. Following the roadmap will help support the processes that underpin the end-to-end sales cycle and will result in predictable and consistent outcomes.

Ultimately the charter will keep you on track and enable you to report progress. Justifying your enablement priorities in light of the customer buying journey, and your desired outcomes, will be your guiding light to improvement in your sales performance.

What other resources are available to help with drafting your Sales Enablement Charter?

Consider becoming a member of Sales Enablement PRO at https://salesenablement.pro

Sales Enablement PRO is an online community that helps professionals elevate sales enablement within their organization by learning what others have done before them. Becoming a member unlocks incremental value like access to three annual research reports, sales enablement certification courses, live events, and the ability to private message with other members.

You can also find a Sales Enablement Maturity assessment tool at Sales Enablement PRO that can help prioritize areas of focus of your enablement efforts. You can access the free assessment at https://salesenablement.pro/sales-enablement-maturity-assessment/

Feel free to sign up for a 10-minute introduction conversation at the below link;

https://calendly.com/jason-kammes/introduction-to-brand-wings

https://www.brandwings.com/

Brand Wings Helps ISW Revolutionize Its Dealer Marketing

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 16:34:49 +0000

National Wholesaler Enjoys Greater Sales Efficiency with Brand Wings Through-Channel Marketing Automation

West Chicago, IL — October 26, 2021 — Brand Wings today announced the successful ramp-up of its Sales Enablement platform with Imaging Supplies Warehouse (ISW), a strategic national account. ISW implemented the Brand Wings platform in order to improve its dealers’ and direct sales teams’ efficiency and productivity.

Imaging Supplies Warehouse is a master distributor of printing solutions for the personalization garment and digital decoration market. Thousands of North American businesses that print custom designs on garments order their supplies from 65+ regional independent dealers who source from ISW.

Fast, efficient fulfillment of dealer orders is critical to ISW’s success and it’s one of the wholesaler’s competitive advantages. Its marketing team had limited internal resources to manage, distribute, and update brand assets for its 65+ resellers. Outdated communications processes were being used, like cloud folders, email, and phone calls to share asset updates. These processes were inefficient for tracking and control of its brand assets through its reseller network and direct sales force.

ISW was looking for a digital repository – a centralized portal where its sales teams could quickly access the product information, marketing collateral, and sales content they need. In discovering Brand Wings Sales Enablement platform, ISW was impressed with the solution’s robust sales tools, brand asset management, and performance analytics. Its dealers and partners were delighted with the platform's ease of access, intuitive navigation, and reliable processes.

“Brand Wings was an amazing fit for us, at just the right time,” said Steve Miller, ISW’s marketing director. ““When we introduced our Brand Wings portal to our channel partners, they were in awe. The word we heard from them in describing this solution’s value was ‘revolutionary.’ That’s a powerful word,” Steve said.

With the brand asset management tools, ISW is now able to ensure brand consistency through its various sales teams. Brand Wings’ marketing tools are boosting ISW’s sales team’s efficiency and its performance analytics are providing insights into ISW’s sales team activity.

“Brand Wings’ analytics build our teams’ confidence, helping us to know what information is most useful to reps and what’s not,” Miller said. “With this knowledge, we can respond more quickly to customer needs, providing more relevant educational material that also benefits our end users. It’s a great way for us to re-engage our customers with useful content.”

ISW also estimated that over the course of a month, each of its own sales reps and its dealers’ sales were previously spending a minimum of two hours per month searching for and sharing marketing assets. “Brand Wings has made our jobs easier,” Steve said. “Now everyone enjoys greater confidence in knowing they have the right info and that it is current and accurate. Brand Wings absolutely 100 percent gives ISW a competitive advantage.”

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About Brand Wings: West Chicago, Illinois-based Brand Wings is a SaaS-based Sales Enablement platform provider with a goal to simplify brand marketing and enable sales teams. Its vision is to enable brands and their channel partners to achieve limitless success through greater communication, information, and knowledge. By deploying Brand Wings through their channel partners, brands can grow their channel efficiency, knowledge, and mindshare, while improving their brand consistency. For more information about Brand Wings or to schedule a demo, visit www.brandwings.com.

Personalization provides an advantage

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 18:10:27 +0000