Chapter 10 Filling the Funnel with Content Marketing Chapter 11 Tools of the Trade By Greg Poirier Now that you have your CRM solution in place, and a sound content marketing strategy, you are ready to execute on your sales plan. As Elay discussed in his earlier chapter, sales enablement resources are critical to the success and repeatability of your sales team to hit their numbers and grow revenue. But what happens in the early days, when you are transitioning from founder-based sales to hiring your first sales reps? In those initial stages of your startup journey, there are simple enablement tools that can be put in place with a little bit of effort and some planning. We’ve all hit the phones and left voice mail messages, followed up with a prospect or landed that initial appointment for that critical demo. Greg shows us what the critical tools of success are for the early-stage startup. One of the most difficult things about joining a startup as a sales team member is the lack of sales enablement tools. Selling at a startup is a very different type of sale and often, tools like first-call decks and case studies are even more important than they are at established enterprises, because the sales team needs them to appear more credible. Positioning yourself as a winning company and appearing to be larger than you actually are is one of the most important roles that marketing has to play in supporting sales at a startup. There are many ways to accomplish this, but here are five tools (that you can create) that will align your marketing and sales teams on the same message: 1. Creative Communications Guide 2. First-Call Deck 3. Product One Sheets 4. Case Studies or Use Cases 5. Sales Quotes, Proposals, and Contracts