Create sales tools

Marketing supports sales pursuits through content tools, information, and process. The enterprise buyer typically qualifies potential partners through the prism of thought leadership—evaluating whether the potential partner is on top of emerging technology, patterns, and best practices. They’re looking for partners that have solved similar challenges in the past, for companies that are similar to theirs.

Marketing creates assets that equip our sales teams and managing directors with thought leadership to use as bait for engaging with prospects. Look for a dedicated section in Devbridge Confluence for a list of all assets available per industry vertical.

White paper

What is it? White papers are in-depth studies on emerging technologies, insights on industries and processes, as well as their applications and possible opportunities.

Why is it important? White papers inform and educate our buyers while demonstrating our expertise in the domain. They are usually industry-specific, technically rich, and take considerable time to produce. Here are a few examples of white papers we’ve published in the past.

Select white papers available for download:

How is it used? We gate each white paper and require anyone wanting to download and access them. We feed the leads into our CRM, notifying the MDs or sales teams of engagement.

Several white papers on a desk — Example of printed white papers

Video

What is it? We produce short- and long-form videos. Some videos are “commercials” enticing the audience to take action (e.g., download a white paper or attend an event), while others are informative (e.g., Full Stack Friday recap or product demos).

Why is it important? An incredibly powerful strategy is to produce videos of our team explaining their thoughts, strategy, and recommendations for our prototypes.

How is it used? We feature videos on our website and our social channels. Videos can be used to seed engagement with prospects or for remarketing to existing accounts.

Article or blog

What is it? Less in-depth than white papers, our blog articles provide commentary on technology, processes, best practices, toolkit evaluations, and more, written by members across all disciplines.

Why is it important? Our teams have a dedicated learning day each month where they can research a subject and then report on it through an article or lightweight prototype. We don’t expect everyone to be the next Shakespeare, but writing about topics that excite us allows us to establish domain thought leadership and results in projects that leverage those technologies.

How is it used? We use the articles featured on our website to showcase our expertise. MDs and sales teams download the articles or mail direct to prospects to use as bait. I don’t know how many times our clients have asked me, “Have you guys built something using machine learning?” Our blog articles are just one way we can share our expertise around hot topics like artificial intelligence (AI), augmented or virtual reality (AR/VR), or blockchain.

Case study

What is it? Case studies describe how we have helped our clients to solve challenges through our digital products. The structure of each case study explains who the client is, what challenge or opportunity was identified, and how the idea was taken to production. The piece includes details around our methodologies and technical decisions and obstacles that were unique to the client’s industry.

Why is it important? Where white papers seek to educate potential clients, case studies prove that we have built software in the chosen industry vertical. Case studies are also a great way to demonstrate technical expertise in a specific toolkit, stack, or solution (e.g., this is why microservices were chosen for this project).

How are they used? Case studies are published on our website and often have an accompanying video produced together with the client.

Select case study examples:

Keynote presentation

What is it? Generally, marketing creates reusable assets in the shape of decks for teams to use across the life cycle of an engagement—branded template decks for miscellaneous communication, capabilities presentations for sales, project kickoff template decks, client case study decks, thought leadership decks, research results, and much more.

Why is it important? Keynotes help teams drive client engagements.

How is it used? We use keynote decks to facilitate presentations with our prospects as well as our clients. We post decks on Confluence and feature them during client meetings, workshops, and capabilities presentations.

Brochures and cut sheets

Several areas of our workflow are unique enough to be differentiators in how we approach challenges. These include Lean Requirements, prototyping, and PowerUp. To aid teams in explaining the process, marketing creates unique printed materials that illustrate the inputs and outputs of the workflow we use. Sales teams can leave these assets behind after their meetings with prospects and clients.

Other marketing activities

A variety of sales tools are available for our team to use in direct outreach and scaled campaigns to target prospects and existing accounts. The marketing team also organizes company and industry events, Sourcery Academy training programs, and whatever else is necessary to help land new business to grow the company.

Create value during sales process