What is your tactic when salespeople continually ask you for materials, when you've shown them where they live multiple times? And no one else is confused by that but one specific salesperson?

If it’s a specific rep you’re having trouble with, I’d recommend just having a quick conversation with them about where the confusion is stemming from. They might have some useful feedback on how to organize or disseminate content that is more in line with their day-to-day or use case.

The added benefit of talking in person or getting on a video call is that they’re more likely to empathize with you. They may have good intentions (wanting to use the best materials to be effective in their role) and simply not realize that what they need is right under their nose.

To speed up the “learning process” for them, try sending a link to the folder that a document is in rather than a direct link. It’s a subtle hint and also provides more context.

When I have a good relationship with a sales rep I’ll sometimes jokingly say, “let me Google that for you,” but the situation has to be right for that to have the desired effect :)

It sounds like the salesperson needs tools training. I wouldn’t get them all the resources they need to learn how to search in your asset database/software. I would assign them a “buddy” in sales who can answer their questions on this quickly. Seeing their peers being good at something this person needs to be good at should motivate them to catch up. Other than that, I wouldn’t waste my time getting one person to learn how to use a basic tool. It’s not fair use of time for the rest of the team who can benefit from your work at scale.

I've learned that the best way to solve this sort of problem is to stop spoon feeding them every time. Yes, once at first is fine, but if this is one particular sales person every single time, then don't give them the direct link to what they needed and instead tell them where to find it and let them find it on their own. Here is what that looks like:

Sales Rep: Hey marketer/enablement lead, do you know if we have any one pagers about X?

Marketer: Hey there, yes I believe we do have what you're looking for. Have you looked in our enablement platform by searching for it? It should be there. If not, let me know.

Just like all humans... if we get comfortable with someone spoon feeding us, we'll continue wanting to be spoon-fed instead of figuring it out ourselves. But if you can help nudge them towards the right behavior without giving them the answer/content up front, you'll help them learn the desired behavior. Ultimately, if this tactic doesn't correct it, then I'd mention something to their manager in a nice way (again, frame it around wanting to help their rep be productive vs looking for answers).

Tell Kevin to pay better attention!

Seriously though, that's frustrating, but I'd make sure it's not just isolated to that one sales member (are there other reps that can't find artifacts, but just aren't saying anything?)

A lot of times, if I'm having a specific issue with an account executive or solution engineer not getting what they need or giving lots of feedback, I'll recruit them into a braintrust working group so they can help serve as a champion or expert for the specific initiative.

Maybe Kevin could turn into your biggest advocate for your next sales play.

The first thing to remember in situations like this is to lead with empathy. Sales is the toughest job in the business. It takes a lot of guts to be on the front lines of go-to-market - cold calling people who don't want to talk to them, pitching solutions to teams that are inherently skeptical, and constantly having to chase the number that determines whether or not they get paid. Just like everyone in the organization, they have a lot on their plate, and it's hard to keep a lot of things in your head.

That being said, I also know how frustrating it can be when a salesperson can't seem to remember where you've hosted materials. I try to break this pattern by doing a couple of things:

• Make sure I meet them where they are, and I mean EVERYWHERE. You might host all of your materials in Google Drive, but in my experience sales aren't spending their time looking through folders to try and find what they're looking for. Instead, I might take my most utilized assets and put a link directly to them as bookmarks in visible Slack channels. Perhaps I use a tool like Crayon for battlecards, but salespeople aren't logging into yet another tool to find what they're looking for. That's where I would leverage a Salesforce integration to surface that information directly in their workspace. It increases the odds that they will find what they are looking for.

• Find champions within the sales team who can help nurture good patterns. Find ways to elevate that salesperson who knows where to find assets within the team, and have them show other members best practices. This can be done during dedicated enablement sessions, or more ad hoc. If a salesperson is asking in Slack where to find materials, ask that champion to answer the question, and walk them through the process of finding it. It's a great way to crowdsource coaching, and I've found that having it come from a team member has even more impact.