It’s not that their content wouldn’t be valuable. It’s just that creating content isn’t worth their time. It’s just not the best way for them to spend their time to maximize earning potential for themselves, as well as for your organization.
Ask me if sales reps have great ideas for content, and the answer emphatically is yes. Ask me if many sales reps have the ability to create fantastic content, and the answer still is an enthusiastic yes.
But that doesn’t mean it’s worth their time.
The same goes for social media activity, really. Every solid sales executive I know is telling me they want to see less social and more selling.
But what they really mean is that they want their reps to focus on selling. They want their best, highest-paid people focused on the activities that help them build relationships, rapport and velocity with targeted decision-makers at their best prospective accounts. I don’t really care whether you call it selling or sharing or helping or whatever. Your best reps should focus on sales.
There are plenty of social selling strategies that do, in fact, accelerate sales. They can get you new introductions to your dream client, help you get more attention and engagement from early-stage prospects, increase the volume and value of conversations with your best sales reps.
Much of that can be done by curating good content vs. creating it, and you get basically the same external value for your sales reps at a fraction of the time.
Great content drives attention, influence and engagement. It puts your sales reps in a position to win.
Great content is still required, I’d just rather see your best sales reps focus on what they do best – for their benefit and yours.
It’s worth noting, quickly, that I’m not opposed to salespeople creating content. Some are fabulous at it. I just think it’s a huge mistake to ask all salespeople to create content. Most aren’t good at it. They’ll take a long time creating something that’s publication-worthy. And that’s time not selling. Are they salespeople or copywriters?
But there’s another distinction worth noting here. Salespeople desperately need good content. They need to position themselves as trusted advisors, not just peddlers of your products and services.