Content and campaigns
How do you ensure that sales teams actually use the materials you create? What’s your adoption strategy?
Adoption is mostly decided before the asset exists. Build what reps already hunt for mid-deal, draft it with two or three of them, and put it inside the tools they use every day.
Give front-line managers a short prompt to raise it in deal reviews. Then measure use on real calls, ask the reps who skip it why, and retire anything nobody touches in a quarter.
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Why reps skip most marketing material
Reps spend their time on whatever gets deals closed this month. A new asset competes with everything else asking for their attention, and most lose. A good answer treats reps as customers with a job to do and brings their managers along. That is most of what the rubric means by cross-functional influence here.
The phrase “adoption strategy” invites an answer about launch emails and training sessions. Interviewers have usually watched those fail. What they listen for is the work that happens before the asset exists, and the evidence you use afterward to decide what to cut.
Who has to change habits, and what moves them
| Stakeholder | What they care about | What moves them |
|---|---|---|
| Account executives | Closing current deals with the least wasted time | An asset that answers a question they already get, found inside the tools they use |
| Top performers | Their own methods, which already work | Being asked to shape the asset, with their language and their name on it |
| Front-line managers | The forecast and rep coaching | A short prompt for deal reviews that makes the asset part of how they coach |
| Sales operations | Clean systems and fewer tools | Material placed in the CRM or call tool, with no new portal to maintain |
| Sales leadership | Win rate and ramp time | Evidence that reps who use the material close faster or ramp sooner |
Managers are the row most answers skip. A rep hears about an asset once from marketing and every week from a manager. If the manager asks about it in a deal review, it gets used.
A spoken answer from a contract software company
“Adoption is mostly decided before the asset exists. If reps didn’t ask for it, they won’t open it. At my last company, which sold contract management software, I started by listening to calls and asking two reps what they searched for in the middle of a deal. Both said the same thing. Buyers’ legal teams kept asking how our AI handled redlines, and reps were forwarding long documents to answer it. So I built one page with those two reps, in their words, and put it on the opportunity record in the CRM, where they already worked. Their manager got a two-minute prompt to raise it in the weekly deal review. At thirty days, about a third of reps had used it on a live deal. I didn’t send the rest a reminder. I asked three of them why, and they said the page was buried two clicks deep. We moved it, and use roughly doubled the next month. Anything nobody touches in a quarter gets retired, and I tell the team what I cut.”
What makes this Strong is that the manager and the placement do most of the work, and the measurement leads to a fix instead of a reminder email. An Exceptional answer shows reps coming to PMM before a deal to ask for material. The rubric describes that as other teams seeking your view before they make key decisions.
Three ways sales adoption plans stall
Launch and announce
The asset is finished, a message goes out, a training slot is booked, and usage spikes for a week. The plan treats adoption as awareness. Reps knew about the asset and still didn’t use it, because it didn’t match a moment in their deals. Build from those moments first.
The portal nobody visits
A content platform makes material easy to find for people already looking. It does nothing for a rep who doesn’t know the answer exists. Put the asset where the question comes up, such as the opportunity record, the call tool, or a saved reply in team chat.
Counting opens
Opens tell you someone clicked. They don’t tell you the asset reached a buyer or changed a deal. Listen for it on recorded calls and ask managers whether it came up in deal reviews. You can also compare deals where it was used with deals where it wasn’t, carefully, since better reps may simply use more material.
Follow-ups on sales adoption
| Likely follow-up | Why it gets asked | A good way through |
|---|---|---|
| A manager won’t support it. What do you do? | Influence without authority | Find out what they are coaching on this quarter and show how the asset helps with that. Start with a willing manager and share the results. |
| How do you know reps use it on real calls? | Measurement beyond opens | Search call transcripts for its language and ask managers what they hear in deal reviews |
| What do you do with content nobody opens? | Willingness to cut | Ask two or three reps why, fix it once if the problem is placement or length, and retire it if the need was never there |
| A top rep ignores everything you make. Now what? | Handling a skeptic | Ask what they say instead and build the next asset around it, with their name on it |
More questions in this category
Frequently asked questions
- Is a content platform enough to drive adoption?
- Rarely on its own. A platform makes material easier to find, but reps open what helps them in a live deal. Say how you would put the material in their path and earn their trust.
- What adoption number should I quote in the interview?
- Quote one you measured, such as the share of reps who used an asset on a live deal within a month, and say how you measured it. If you never tracked adoption, say what you would track and why. A number you can’t explain tends to fall apart at the first follow-up.
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