Your marketing team spent weeks creating a beautiful 30-page product overview. Perfect design, comprehensive features, thoughtful layout.
Your sales team sent it exactly zero times.
This is the sales collateral problem: materials designed to be comprehensive instead of useful. Sales reps don't need encyclopedias—they need assets that solve specific problems at specific deal stages.
Great sales collateral isn't pretty marketing materials. It's tools that help reps move deals forward.
Here's how to create collateral that actually gets used.
The Collateral Audit: What Reps Actually Need
Before creating new collateral, understand what problems reps face.
Ask your sales team:
"When you're working a deal, what information do prospects ask for that you don't have ready to send?"
Common answers:
- ROI calculators or business case templates
- Industry-specific case studies
- Security and compliance documentation
- Implementation timeline and process
- Comparison guides (your product vs. manual process or competitors)
These gaps are your collateral priorities.
Also ask:
"What collateral exists that you never use? Why not?"
Common answers:
- Too long (nobody reads 30 pages)
- Too generic (doesn't speak to specific industries or use cases)
- Too marketing-focused (features, not outcomes)
- Too hard to find (buried in drives nobody searches)
This tells you what to stop creating.
The Three Types of Sales Collateral That Work
Type 1: Deal-stage assets (move prospects through pipeline)
Purpose: Advance deal from current stage to next stage
Examples:
- Awareness stage: One-pagers explaining what you do and who you serve
- Consideration stage: Comparison guides, demo follow-up decks
- Decision stage: ROI calculators, implementation plans, customer references
Each asset should have one job: move the deal forward one step.
Type 2: Objection-handling assets (address specific concerns)
Purpose: Overcome common objections without requiring sales rep intervention
Examples:
- Security and compliance one-pager (addresses "is this secure?" objection)
- Implementation guide (addresses "this looks complex" objection)
- TCO comparison (addresses "competitor is cheaper" objection)
These assets let reps send authoritative answers to objections immediately.
Type 3: Stakeholder-specific assets (speak to different buyers)
Purpose: Address the specific concerns of different decision-makers
Examples:
- For economic buyer (CFO): ROI and cost analysis
- For technical buyer (IT): Architecture, security, integrations
- For end user: Day-to-day workflow and ease of use
- For procurement: Contract structure, payment terms, SLAs
One generic deck doesn't serve all stakeholders. Create targeted assets for each.
Design Principles for Sales Collateral
Principle 1: One page whenever possible
Attention spans are short. If you can communicate in one page, do it.
Good one-pagers:
- Product overview (what it does, who it's for, why it matters)
- Specific feature deep-dives
- Security overview
- Implementation process
- ROI framework
Exception: Case studies can be 2-3 pages if telling a complete story.
Principle 2: Lead with outcomes, not features
Bad opening: "Our platform has 50+ features including..."
Good opening: "Companies like yours use [Product] to reduce [pain point] by [outcome]. Here's how..."
Prospects care about results they'll achieve, not capabilities you have.
Principle 3: Make it skimmable
Most prospects won't read word-for-word. They'll skim.
Make skimmability easy:
- Bold key phrases
- Use bullet points over paragraphs
- Include headers that tell the story on their own
- Add pull quotes or callout boxes for critical points
- Use visuals to break up text
Someone should be able to skim your collateral in 30 seconds and get the key points.
Principle 4: Include clear next steps
Every piece of collateral should guide prospects to an action.
Bad ending: "Thank you for your interest."
Good ending: "Ready to see how this works for your team? [Book a demo] or [Download our ROI calculator]"
Don't make prospects guess what to do next.
Principle 5: Make it easy to customize
Generic collateral gets ignored. Customized collateral gets read.
Make customization simple:
- Use templates with [COMPANY NAME] and [USE CASE] placeholders
- Create modular sections reps can mix-and-match
- Provide industry-specific versions
- Include editable comparison tables
If reps can personalize in 2 minutes, they will. If it takes 20 minutes, they won't.
Specific Collateral Formats That Work
The one-pager product overview:
Structure:
- Headline: What problem you solve for whom
- The problem: 2-3 bullet points on pain points
- The solution: How your product addresses each pain point
- Key outcomes: 3-4 quantified results customers achieve
- Social proof: 2-3 customer logos or brief quotes
- CTA: Clear next step
Length: Exactly one page, front and back maximum
The case study:
Structure:
- Customer profile: Industry, size, use case (one paragraph)
- Challenge: Specific problem they faced (one paragraph)
- Solution: How they used your product (one paragraph)
- Results: Quantified outcomes with metrics (3-4 bullets)
- Quote: Customer testimonial emphasizing key benefit
Length: 1-2 pages
Avoid: Generic "success story" fluff. Include specific numbers and real challenges.
The ROI one-pager:
Structure:
- Current state cost: What they're spending/losing now
- Future state cost: Cost with your product
- Net benefit: Savings or value created
- Payback period: How long until ROI is realized
- Assumptions: What data this calculation is based on
Length: One page
Make it interactive: Editable spreadsheet version where prospects input their numbers.
The battle card (internal use):
Structure:
- Competitive positioning (one sentence): How to position against this competitor
- When you win: Situations where you're clearly better fit
- When they win: Situations where competitor might be better (be honest)
- Trap questions: Questions to ask that expose their weaknesses
- Objection responses: What to say when prospect raises common objections
- Proof points: Customer examples of wins against this competitor
Length: Two pages maximum (one page ideal)
The comparison guide (external):
Structure:
- Comparison framework: What criteria matter for evaluation
- Capability comparison: Your product vs. alternative (manual process or competitor)
- TCO comparison: Total cost including hidden costs
- Implementation comparison: Time and effort to get value
- Customer perspective: Quote from customer who evaluated both
Length: 2-3 pages
Avoid: Making it look one-sided. Acknowledge where competitor is strong, then emphasize where you're stronger on what matters most.
Making Collateral Findable
Collateral only works if reps can find it when they need it.
Organization strategies:
Option 1: By deal stage
- Folder: Awareness
- Folder: Consideration
- Folder: Decision
- Folder: Negotiation
Reps think "I'm in consideration stage, what do I send?"
Option 2: By use case / persona
- Folder: Enterprise IT Buyer
- Folder: Department Leader
- Folder: Finance/Procurement
- Folder: End User
Reps think "I'm talking to IT, what do I send?"
Option 3: By objection / question
- Folder: Security & Compliance
- Folder: ROI & Business Case
- Folder: Implementation & Support
- Folder: Competitive
Reps think "They asked about security, what do I send?"
Best practice: Use naming conventions that make assets searchable.
"OnePager_Security_Compliance.pdf" beats "Sales_Asset_Final_v3.pdf"
Testing Collateral Effectiveness
Create collateral, track usage, iterate based on data.
Metrics to track:
Usage rate: How many reps actually send this asset?
If you created something and <10% of reps use it, it's not useful.
Send-to-open rate: When reps send it, do prospects open it?
Track via tools like DocSend or link tracking.
Send-to-reply rate: When prospects receive it, do they respond?
If asset gets opened but doesn't trigger response, it's not compelling.
Deal progression: Do deals that receive this asset move forward faster?
If yes, promote the asset. If no, improve or retire it.
Update cycle: Review quarterly**
Which assets are getting used? Which are ignored? What new gaps have emerged?
Don't let collateral go stale.
Training Reps to Use Collateral
Assets don't sell themselves. Reps need to know when and how to use them.
Include usage guidance:
For each asset, document:
- When to use: "Send this after demo when prospect asks about implementation"
- Who to send to: "Best for technical stakeholders evaluating complexity"
- How to personalize: "Add customer-specific use case in [section]"
- Expected outcome: "Should address implementation concerns and move to business case discussion"
Role-play scenarios:
Don't just hand reps collateral. Practice scenarios:
"Prospect says implementation looks complex. What do you send and what do you say in the email?"
Share success stories:
When an asset helps close a deal, share it:
"Sarah closed the Acme deal last week. The implementation guide we created helped address their concerns. Here's how she used it..."
This reinforces when and why to use specific assets.
The Real Goal
Sales collateral isn't marketing deliverables. It's tools that help reps win deals.
Create assets that solve specific problems at specific deal stages. Make them concise, skimmable, and easy to customize.
Track what gets used and what gets ignored. Double down on what works. Kill what doesn't.
Reps should think of your collateral library as their competitive advantage, not a dumping ground of unusable PDFs.
That's when collateral actually drives revenue.