---
title: Creating The Best Collateral For Your Company
description: While the concept of content marketing (the basis of an effective cultivation/engagement process) is old news for me, it’s still something foreign to the vast majority of small and mid-market B2B companies.
---

[Making Sales Growth Predictable, Sustainable & Scalable ](https://www.liftenablement.com/blog)

# [Creating The Best Collateral For Your Company](https://www.liftenablement.com/blog/creating-the-best-collateral-for-your-company)

 Written by [Doug Davidoff](https://www.liftenablement.com/blog/author/doug-davidoff) | Jun 12, 2012 4:12:00 PM

I was discussing the importance of developing an effective marketing cultivation and engagement system with a client recently.  As we were laying out the path and approach, my client said something that struck me.

“Doug, this is a really good model and I definitely want to do it. But, I don’t even have good collateral material.  My brochure is out of date, I have no fact sheets on my products; and I really think I need to take care of that first.”

It struck me because I realize that’s probably what a lot of people think.  While the concept of [content marketing](http://blog.junta42.com/2012/06/content-marketing-definition/) (the basis of an effective cultivation/engagement process) is old news for me, it’s still something foreign to the vast majority of small and mid-market B2B companies.

As we share in our on-demand webinar *[Making Marketing Work](https://info.imaginellc.com/makingb2bmarketingwork)*, an ineffective or non-existent cultivation/engagement process [restricts the effectiveness of your sales effort by 30 – 70%](https://blog.imaginellc.com/someone-has-to-write-it).  This means that you must sell twice as hard without such an asset.

So, I thought I’d share my advice to him with you.

**The very best piece of collateral you can have is content that challenges, educates and provokes a customer.  Content that enables *them* to learn and do a better job.**

While a brochure or fact sheet enables you to tell your prospect that you’re a rock star, [a cultivation and engagement asset enables you to demonstrate it](https://blog.imaginellc.com/build-marketing-assets-dont-spend-resources).

Does this mean that you shouldn’t have a corporate brochure, fact sheets and other collateral?  Not necessarily (though as long time readers of this blog know, [I’m not a big fan of traditional brochures](https://blog.imaginellc.com/why-brochures-kill-profits)).  But, if you’re looking to drive sales, improve business performance and separate yourself from your competition, you’re far better off building the content first.

[View full post](https://www.liftenablement.com/blog/creating-the-best-collateral-for-your-company)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Doug Davidoff"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2019-07-26T13:56:40.677Z",
  "datePublished" : "2012-06-12T16:12:00Z",
  "headline" : "Creating The Best Collateral For Your Company",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 400,
    "url" : "http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/100473/file-359964228-jpg/blog-files/services_image.jpg",
    "width" : 465
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://www.liftenablement.com/blog/creating-the-best-collateral-for-your-company",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60,
      "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
      "width" : 60
    },
    "name" : "The Demand Creator Blog"
  }
}
```