OPTIMIZING

ASSET
MANAGEMENT
FOR SALES
SUCCESS

HOW-TO GUIDE
 Optimizing Asset Management
Optimizing Asset Management for Sales Success
for Sales Success
HOW-TO
HOW-TO GUIDE
GUIDE

Asset Management has historically been seen as a marketing and branding function. This tech-
nology is used to deliver materials to sales, but is not within the sales teams’ direct control or
influence. Today, as more organizations focus on marketing and sales alignment, many tools and
technologies that were once managed exclusively by marketing have become shared marketing
and sales functions.

Despite this alignment progress on many fronts, Asset Management has tended to remain squarely
in the hands of marketing. Demand Metric believes that marketing organizations that retain control
are missing an opportunity to use Asset Management to its fullest capability.

The purpose of this How-To Guide is to provide modern marketers with a clear understanding of
how to effectively use Asset Management Systems as a Sales Enablement tool.

Download your copy of the Sales Content ROI Benchmark Report to better understand
the current state of B2B sales content ROI and the factors that drive it.

What Is Asset Management?

Given the breadth of the term “Asset Management” across a wide variety of industries and disci-
plines, we must give it some context. For the purposes of this How-to Guide, we are defining
“assets” as content, materials, events, and tools that marketing uses to perform its organizational
functions. These assets are digital and physical, tangible and intangible.

In our context, we define “management” as the process of collecting, maintaining, controlling,

upgrading, and disposing of assets to produce the highest marketing and sales performance
enhancements and achieve the strongest ROI.

Asset Management applications for Sales Enablement support the collection, consolidation, and
curation of the knowledge-based information to be distributed to the sales team. The focus of these
applications is to manage access to content and collateral to make the sales team more productive.

Once simple version control and/or check-in/check-out mechanisms, these systems now inte-
grate with marketing content management, marketing automation, brand control and marketing
campaign management solutions. They have evolved to support sophisticated use hierarchies
based on customer type, channels, distributors, and globalization requirements.

2 OPTIMIZING ASSET MANAGEMENT FOR SALES SUCCESS

The Sales Benefits of Asset Management
As marketing and sales organizations become more aligned, asset management systems must
be viewed as a joint marketing and sales advantage rather than simply a marketing resource and
distribution center.

The Sales Enablement benefits of Asset Management, particularly when coupled with marketing
automation, are substantial. They allow marketing organizations to:

Develop marketing materials that are sales-centric based on what is working in the field with
real customers.
Sales benefits are from optimized content for each type of sales situation and customer type.

Distribute content assets more effectively by creating content groups by type of customers,
industries, customer size, stage of the sales cycle, and channel.
Content is preloaded and packaged for each stage of the sales cycle so sales teams don’t
have to “reinvent the wheel.”
Content can be offered to dealer/distributor networks with access control to protect brand assets.

Personalize content for individual customers quickly, based on needs and interest.
Features like dynamic content personalization offer the capability to personalize content for
the individual in real time as they are accessing it.
Functions also provide the ability to personalize channel content for dealers and distributors.

Localize content for geography, culture, and language.

Provide local customer stories for better social proof.

Track content usage with analytics that can monitor and measure how and when content is
being used, which then measures the contribution of that content to the sales process.

Control brand and message consistency through authorization levels embedded in the Asset
Management system.

Enable social and mobile marketing content use and distribution for multi-tiered, multi-
channel sales teams and resellers.

3 OPTIMIZING ASSET MANAGEMENT FOR SALES SUCCESS

Asset Management and Marketing Automation
Tight integration between Asset Management and the organization’s marketing automation system
provides a more effective solution than using two disparate, unconnected systems.

Some marketing automation systems offer digital asset management functions, such as a central-
ized asset repository, user access control, personalization, and localization of content. Asset
Management and Marketing Resource Management systems do more. They integrate traditional,
digital, and social marketing; provide multi-level access control; and offer design tools for content
creation. Further, they include robust publishing and fulfillment operations for sales and channel
marketing that is not always part of a standard marketing automation system.

A critical component of Asset Management is user access control based on a well-defined hier-
archy of users’ rights. Asset Management systems that maintain a solid access hierarchy based
on flexible permission parameters gives marketing centralized brand and message control while
enabling decentralized access and distribution for sales.

In summary, tight integration between Marketing Automation and Asset Management enables
better campaign management, higher sales performance, better brand control, more streamlined
project management, and deeper analytical insights into the effectiveness of content assets.

Asset Management Vendor Selection Criteria

The following features and functions should be considered when selecting an Asset Management
vendor to support your Sales Enablement efforts.

Centralized Repository. Repository must support all types of content, including digital assets,
email templates, brochures, sales sheets, presentations, videos, advertisements, direct mail
pieces, and signage.

Access Control. Asset distribution should be fast and efficient based on predetermined user
access and user rights controls. The marketing or sales operations group should be able to
set permissions based on a wide range of factors. Internally this may include role, respons-
ibility, location, job function, etc. Externally, this may include customers, industries, customer
size, stage of the sales cycle, and distribution channel.

Content/Asset Development. Both preloaded templates and custom design tools should be
supported.

Distribution. Content flow should be streamlined to move easily from the repository to final
fulfillment regardless of whether that fulfillment is to a mobile device for presentation, a printer
for publishing, or a design vendor for tradeshow signage.

4 OPTIMIZING ASSET MANAGEMENT FOR SALES SUCCESS

 Personalization/Localization. Content should be customizable in three key ways: by the sales
team based on customer need; from the sales team to support content needed at each stage
of the sales cycle; and to the prospect, customer, or end user. It must incorporate geographic,
cultural, and language distinctions.

Metrics. The system should track content usage with analytics to monitor and measure how
and when content is being used, as well as the revenue contribution of that content to the
sales process.

Key metrics include: Cost Per Lead (CPL), Cost of Acquisition (CAC), Campaign ROI, Email
Metrics, Marketing Qualified Leads, and Contribution to Pipeline.
Advanced customer insight auto-analytics should alert the sales team immediately when a
prospect responds or clicks through a campaign.

Marketing Automation Integration. Evaluate the level of integration with your marketing auto-
mation system. Is it a seamless integration or is data simply shared through API interfaces? The
tighter the integration with your Marketing Automation system, the higher the Sales Enable-
ment benefits.

Bottom Line
Enabling your sales teams with the content assets they need to close deals and perform at their
peak requires a re-examination of traditional marketing tools in the light of sales and marketing
alignment.

In that context, marketers can no longer afford to treat Asset Management as the exclusive purview
of marketing. It’s time to re-evaluate your Asset Management system and consider re-deploying it
as part of your integrated Marketing Automation and Sales Enablement initiative.

5 OPTIMIZING ASSET MANAGEMENT FOR SALES SUCCESS

 About ANA

The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) makes a difference for

individuals, brands, and the industry by driving growth, advancing the
interests of marketers and promoting and protecting the well-being of the
marketing community.

Founded in 1910, the ANA provides leadership that advances marketing

excellence and shapes the future of the industry. The ANA’s membership
includes more than 1,000 companies with 15,000 brands that collectively
spend or support more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annu-
ally. The membership is comprised of more than 750 client-side marketers
and 300 associate members, which include leading agencies, law firms,
suppliers, consultants, and vendors.

Further enriching the ecosystem is the work of the nonprofit ANA

Educational Foundation (AEF), which has the mission of enhancing the
understanding of advertising and marketing within the academic and
marketing communities.
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