Winning a sale is a team effort. It doesn't come only from sellers and sales managers but also from the sales organization as a whole. Sales Operations, Customer Success, and Product Marketing are all instrumental in getting prospects to the finish line.

Product Marketing in particular plays a key role in converting prospects to customers. As sellers prepare to move prospects through each stage, they require resources to connect their solutions with buyer needs. Marketers create the content—such as solution briefs, product guides, and sales playbooks—that sales reps need to successfully maneuver buyer interactions.

But despite content's importance in engaging, informing, and nurturing prospects, continued misalignment between sales and marketing teams threatens its impact.

The Persistent Disconnect Between Sales and Marketing

Alignment has long been an issue for sales and marketing teams. Both departments typically work in silos, and the development and usefulness of sales content can suffer.

Fully 57% of respondents to Content Marketing Institute's Creating Content for Sales Enablement survey, including marketing leaders and content creators, said Marketing and Sales rarely or never collaborate on how to assess content effectiveness.

Lack of collaboration on content is the equivalent of working in the dark: No one knows what's going on or where to go next. The impact of that is twofold: Sales reps don't get the relevant and timely assets they need for client communications, and marketers don't know whether the assets they create are helpful.

The problem becomes more pronounced with the move to remote and hybrid work environments. Sellers and marketers now work in various locations and on different schedules; that makes it difficult for them to find time to connect on content priorities.

Both groups need a way to hit the mark with content so sellers always have the most compelling and effective resources. Enter conversation intelligence.

Conversation Intelligence: The Key to Deal-Closing Content

Powered by artificial intelligence technology, conversation intelligence records, transcribes, and analyzes sales calls to generate content and coaching recommendations for sales teams. Conversation intelligence helps sales managers see how deals are progressing, identify missed opportunities and skill gaps, improve deal progressing, and enhance training.

But conversation intelligence also offers benefits for marketers, giving them access to sales conversations that they otherwise wouldn't have. Using conversation intelligence, marketers can find out firsthand how sellers are using content and which content is most effective with buyers, then incorporate those learnings into future content.

Here are three ways conversation intelligence can help marketers create content that resonates with sellers and helps close deals.

1. Gain buyer insight

Prospective buyers today have more options than ever because of the amount of information readily available online. They can (and will) arm themselves with knowledge before ever speaking to a sales rep. That leaves little room for sellers to influence buyers' decisions.

On top of that, the length of time that sellers have to influence those buying decisions is limited, especially if buyers are weighing their options. When B2B buyers are comparing multiple suppliers‚ the amount of time spent with any one sales rep may be only 5-6% of the total journey, according to Gartner.