What is a Sales Kit?
A sales kit is a promotional tool that can either (1) enable your sales reps for a new product launch as a selling roadmap or (2) educate potential customers about your business and shows the benefits of your products and services.
A useful sales kit consists of educational and promotional material designed to help a sales representative win new customers. As competition grows across all industries, your sales kit can help your company stand out above the rest by demonstrating your legitimacy and product knowledge.
What Does an Effective Sales Kit Look Like?
They vary in size, shape, and complexity. Sales kits can be formal, creative, high-tech, flashy, pocket-sized, and even scary (although we don’t recommend it). Some essential elements of an effective sales kit include marketing collateral, promotional products, and leave-behinds.
What Does it Take to Build an Effective Sales Kit?
1. Know Your Target Audience
The first step is understanding your audience. Are they Fortune 500 companies or small businesses? You can go a step further by researching their demographics (i.e., age, gender, etc.) and psychographics (i.e., values, interests, etc.). These demographics will help you determine the overall design and complexity of your sales kit.
Try to get a feeling for what your recipients would be interested in and avoid the pitfalls of including things that would only interest you or your direct reports. Always be thinking of the interests and desires of the ones receiving sales kits!
2. Focus on the Main Objective
Build your sales kit around one single central idea. A sales kit can be very simple or very intricate. Whether it’s a new product launch or competitive promotional pricing, there should be one fundamental element that ties everything together.
If your sales kit is designed primarily to promote a new product launch, be sure to include items that help remind the recipient of the original product and how they stand to benefit from it.
3. Empower the Sale
This step is all about first impressions. Consider adding branded promotional items to your next sales kit. Branded polos, portfolios, notepads, pens, lanyards, and badges give your company a professional, confident, and credible image. Make sure the sale is the main focus, so don’t let up on using these custom items to help promote and excite your audience.
4. Be Unique and Personable
The last step is closing the deal. Your finished product should tell your company’s story. It can be the beginning of a long-lasting customer relationship. As consumers prioritize personal interactions, your sales kit can create customer engagement and loyalty.
Keep in mind that sales kits do not last forever. A sales kit should not be printed, packaged, passed along at launch, and then left to collect dust. It’s an ongoing project that requires updates making it always current and relevant. From concept to production, a valuable sales kit can be a powerful and engaging tool to help grow your company!
For more bright ideas on how Brightspot can help you succeed, check out sales kickoff events or sales incentive programs.
Adding a Sales Blitz Kit for Internal Use
To boost the initial impact of a new product or focus energy on new lead generation, we recommend adding a “blitz kit” that sales offices can deploy on sales blitz days to drive home the importance of the campaign and add extra emphasis.
Promote your sales blitz with a blitz kit that includes some elements that match the theme of your sales kits. Here are some commonly included items included with the kit:
1. Themed Collateral
Take the designs from your sales kit and use it for posters, banners, pop-up stands, etc., that can be placed throughout the office for the duration of the program. Not only does it increase recall of the program by seeing a daily reminder, but it also adds another layer of legitimacy to the overall announcement. It’s easy to say, “we’re awarding gift card incentives for new product sales in Q2,” but it’s also quickly forgotten. Make sure your spiff is at the forefront of your team’s mind.
2. Decorations
In the same vein as themed collateral, having decorations like balloons, streamers, and confetti that’s all within theme helps build the importance of the sales program. The more effort you put into making the blitz kit a comprehensive “event-in-a-box,” the easier it is to implement and standardize across multiple office locations. Adding the decor with the kit is especially recommended for programs that span nationwide. Seeing other offices buy into the hype of the program with the same kickoff event your office is putting on enforces the FOMO (fear of missing out) in participants, ensuring they take advantage of the spiff like everyone else.
3. Interactive Piece
It’s great having themed collateral around the office to remind the team of the program, but adding an interactive element with the blitz kit will focus attention and become a conversation piece that is invaluable to the longevity of the spiff. The interactive element can come in the form of a sales leaderboard that has a playful side, such as photoshopped pictures of the sales team’s faces accompanying their name within the theming of the program. Prize wheels can be used for random weekly drawings that winners can come up and spin in front of the office to shine a spotlight on individuals and the kickoff. The interactive piece is where you can think outside-of-the-box (pun intended) to be creative and stir up buzz among participants.
Your sales kits are effective ways of promoting your products and services, but making sure your sales team is well aware of the importance of using them as a tool to close is a challenge within itself. Brightspot is here to help you with incentive program design, sales kit creation, and much more. Drop us a line and see what bright ideas we have in store for you!
