14 Critical Sales Collateral Types for B2B (+Examples)
See sales collateral examples that drive revenue. Learn the definition & meaning of what is sales collateral for B2B, and grab templates that stand out.
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Why do I need sales collateral?
Any sales effort relies on collateral to construct an effective sales funnel. Even the greatest product or service will fail without a sales funnel to feed its sales team with fresh opportunities. The secret to building a watertight sales funnel lies in choosing only the right sales collateral.
This post will help you chose the right collateral so you can build an effective sales funnel, fill your pipeline, and boost your bottom line.
What are important sales collateral types?
Below is a list of only the mission-critical sales collateral types that effective sales teams use daily to feed their pipeline and move leads from MQLs to won deals.
- Sales decks and sales one-pagers: Used by sales teams during prospecting, in meetings, or between meetings to build awareness and interest, communicate value, inform decision-makers, and enable buyers to more easily close deals.
- Product demo presentations: Used by AEs to demonstrate the product or service during sales presentations.
- Sales landing pages: Used by sales and product marketing to persuade inbound leads, qualify them, and advance them down the sales process.
- Sales proposals and quotations: Used by sales reps at the final stages of the sales process to conclude the value offer, present the deal details, and enable buyers to sign an agreement.
- Company and product brochures: Used to provide detailed information about your products or services as part of prospecting or at sales events.
- Case studies: Used at the early stages of the sales process as proof of capabilities. Case studies show how past or existing clients have successfully used the product or service to achieve their goals.
- White papers: Used at various stages of the sales process to provide decision-makers in-depth information on key industry challenges, and position the product or service as a leading solution.
- Product demo videos: Used throughout the sales process as visual and interactive content that showcases the product in action.
- FAQs: Used by sales reps to provide champions, decision-makers, and influencers quick answers to common questions concerning the product or service.
- Email templates: Used in prospecting and in set stages within the sales cascade to help the sales team write effective emails fast.
- E-books: Used in the early stages of the sales process as in-depth resources that educate prospects on industry topics, best practices, and how your solution can help them.
- Datasheets: Used at the mid-to-late stages of the sales process to concisely provide buyers and decision-makers with technical details, specs, and comparisons of products or services.
- Testimonials and reviews: Used mainly during prospecting as videos or text quotes from satisfied customers to build credibility and trust with potential clients.
- ROI and pricing calculator: Used within sales deck or proposals to enable prospects to calculate the costs and potential return on investment of your solution.
The difference between sales and marketing collateral is that sales collateral is used by sales teams to qualify leads, enable buyers, and accelerate the pipeline. Marketing collateral on the other hand is used by marketing teams to build awareness and interest and generate leads.
Sales enablement collateral is content used by salespeople to enable them to sell better white sales collateral is commonly used to describe types of sales content that enable buyers to buy.
While sales enablement content includes things like battle cards and sales playbooks, sales enablement (in general) includes things like sales decks, case studies, and white papers.
Sales collateral in B2B is mainly content used to support the sales team’s conversation with buyers representing a business and enable them to make a buying decision. Whereas B2C sales collateral is used to persuade individuals to buy small-ticket items for personal use without ever meeting a salesperson.
Sales collateral examples that drive revenue
To help you understand what each collateral type actually looks like brought you examples from organizations that are crushing it. Learn from them and you’ll crush it too.
1) Sales pitch deck
A sales pitch deck is a presentation that showcases the unique value of your product or service.
This example is used by our very own sales team for outbound email prospecting. It makes full use of Storydoc’s interactive content capabilities.
It’s also heavily personalized. Everything from the prospect’s name, logo, and niche-relevant images, down to the pricing (which I had to remove) and the Calendly link used by our sales rep.
The deck is automatically personalized using dynamic variables with the content pulled directly from our CRM or provided by our AI.
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2) Sales one-pager
This sales one-pager example by Gong is a master class in making short, precise, and persuasive sales presentations.
It’s meant to be used on prospecting to provide a strong value offer and a quick overview of what Gong is all about, what it can do, and how it works.
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3) Product demo presentation
This product demo deck example was built to be presented during a sales meeting (whether virtual or in the flesh).
Each slide was intended to be addressed as an item of conversation and to be accompanied by live demos or references to past applications if needed.
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4) Sales landing page
A sales landing page, also called a sales page, or a funnel page is simply a webpage that acts as an entry point for inbound leads to enter the sales funnel.
This could be a software landing page like in the example below, or a page that targets a specific audience or a specific use case.
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5) Sales proposal
Your sales proposal is the most important collateral in your arsenal. This example is a customizable interactive proposal template that would serve the needs of any business.
It includes everything you’ve talked about with your buyer all the way from your value proposition through the details of your offer and down to the quote, contract, and e-signature.
If your proposal communicates all these effectively you did all you could to get that signature and close the deal.
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6) SaaS product brochure
A product brochure can take many forms, from a very technical document with specifications to a catalog-style document with many different products, services, or customizations.
This product presentation example breaks down the main features of a SaaS product for running loyalty programs by Yotpo.
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7) Case study
There are many case study formats, but most follow a content structure that details the challenges faced by the client and how the company’s solution solved these challenges.
This example is a storytelling case study example we made with one of our clients called ScaleHub. And since we offer a sales solution for creating highly effective sales collateral, you may want to read it…
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8) White-paper
A white paper is more often than not a long, text-heavy, and boring document. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Modern white papers can be interactive documents that include multimedia content, like the example below. This type of collateral is much more engaging, memorable, and converting.
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9) Product demo video
Product videos can increase customer engagement and drive conversions. This great product demo video example by MixPanel helps explain a deep feature that’s relevant to power users who are more willing to pay a premium.
It’s easy to follow and easy to understand. It just might be enough to convert lingering doubts into a definite “Yes, I need this”.
10) FAQs page
FAQ pages remove the need for sales reps to cover basic Q&A in their sales calls and spend the time on providing more valuable information and advice.
The FAQ page is sent to champions to help them sell internally after they show interest in your solution. In B2C or B2B self-serve an FAQ page can serve to answer important questions clients need to know before they decide to buy, like issues of security, privacy, and pricing.
The example below is our own FAQ page which we use as part of our sales process.
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11) Email template
Email templates are pre-written emails used by sales teams to communicate with prospects and customers during various stages of the sales cycle. In outbound sales, teams often coordinate these templates with auto dialer campaigns to create consistent multi-touch sequences that combine calls and emails.
The goal of each type of template varies, but the overall objective is to streamline the sales process, increase efficiency of your email marketing software, and enhance the customer experience.
Since email templates are highly specific to your solution, audience, and brand voice, I suggest you create them yourself.
Here are some resources to help you create email templates:
- Best practices for customizing email templates
- Best B2B cold email templates
- Best subject lines for sales emails
- Best mass email service providers
12) E-book
E-books can help potential customers make informed buying decisions about what to buy by providing valuable information about your niche which also involves your product or service.
They also support your sales process by positioning your company as an industry consultative authority and thought leader.
Below is a customizable interactive e-book example you can use to turn your static e-books into engaging and converting content worth sharing.
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13) Testimonials and reviews
It’s very hard to sell anything without proving it worked for others before. Testimonials and client review quotes are your most effective tools to show you can deliver on your promises.
This testimonial video example is by one of our clients – a healthcare solution company named healthy.io.
14) ROI calculator
ROI calculators are a must-have sales collateral for products and services that promise competitive business results.
These sales tools show your confidence in your solution and give your buyer the assurance of a solid ROI number they can take to their superiors.
To create an ROI calculator you’ll need to dedicate development time or use an external tool.
Below is an ROI calculator example by Hubspot for their Sales Hub.
Where to use sales collateral in the sales funnel?
Sales content use by funnel stage:
Collateral | Funnel stage | Who uses it? |
|---|---|---|
Sales pitch decks and one-pagers | Awareness Consideration Decision | – SDRs – BDRs – Account executives |
E-books | Awareness Consideration | – SDRs – BDRs – Marketing teams |
White papers | Â Consideration | – SDRs – BDRs – Account executives |
Case studies | Consideration | – SDRs |
Sales demo decks | Consideration | – Account executives |
FAQ pages | Consideration | – Account executives – Marketing teams |
Sales landing pages | Consideration | – Marketing teams |
Datasheets | Consideration | – SDRs – BDRs |
Brochures | Consideration | – SDRs – BDRs – Account executives |
Testimonials and reviews | Consideration | – SDRs – BDRs – Account executives – Marketing teams |
ROI and pricing calculators | Consideration Decision | – SDRs – BDRs – Account executives – Marketing teams |
Email templates | Awareness Consideration Decision | – SDRs – BDRs – Account executives |
Sales proposals | Decision Action | – Account executives – Sales managers |
What sales collateral do I need to create?
- Align with your sales team – Ask your sales team directly about their needs. What types of information do they need to close deals? What types of materials would make their lives easier?
- Proactively look for gaps in your messaging – Ask yourself if there are any gaps in your messaging, and if filling them would better communicate your unique value.
- Listen to your prospects – Pay attention to the types of questions that prospects are asking. This feedback can help you identify areas where additional collateral might be needed.
- Do a prioritization matrix analysis – This means evaluating the feasibility and importance of creating different types of materials and focusing on creating what’s highly-important and highly-feasible first.
Sales collateral templates that move the needle
If you only want a sales collateral template to work with, feel free to grab any of the samples I gathered for you below.
All these templates were built to stand out, engage, and enable buyers to make a decision and act on it.
Grab one!
