One of the distinct advantages of top-tier CLM platforms is the ability to provide an entire briefcase of marketing material to the sales rep, and allow for any part of this high powered content to be easily retrievable during an eDetail. This powerful functionality enables the sales rep to deliver the appropriate material in any sales situation. It also brings up a new “Branding” paradigm; branding of the main “presentation” interface needs to work across all products being presented. The eDetailing environment should provide a seamless experience to the sales rep and customer for optimal delivery and reception of content across all represented products.
Creating a common “branded” navigation interface and toolset across an entire product portfolio presents many positives for all of the players involved in the creation and consumption of your eDetailing initiatives.
Firstly, Sales Support and Marketing are freed from reinventing the navigation schemes, toolsets, and presentation flow for each individual product and can get down to the business of creating compelling marketing messages about the products and features they are promoting, rather than how to get around the presentation itself. This saves time and money and puts the focus back on the message, not the tool.
The sales rep has much to gain from a standardized navigation structure and branding approach. All presentations for all products will work exactly the same, ensuring that once they are comfortable with one brand, they can then use the majority of the marketing materials almost instantly. Training cost and time is also decreased, and adherence to marketing strategy is increased, allowing for greater overall Rep effectiveness.
Lastly, but most importantly, customers become familiar with a specific navigation look and feel. Less time is spent absorbing the tool itself, and more time is focused on the content being presented. A consistent corporate branding and navigation approach provides a commonality across all brands. This will strengthen corporate brand loyalty with the customer, instead of simply product brand loyalty, assuming a corporate connection between brands is a desirable marketing objective.
In summary, a great deal of benefit can be realized by planning and executing a corporate branding strategy for CLM initiatives. Time and money is saved in the creation of content by centralizing and standardizing the general eDetail interface. Rep effectiveness is increased by decreasing training load and increasing the rep’s level of expertise in delivering eDetails. Finally, a strong corporate brand interface should increase the customer’s brand recognition and loyalty, ultimately driving higher sales.
