Digital Leave Behinds – One of the Most Important Tools in Your Toolbox

A leave behind is a physical object that you leave behind to help the prospect remember you and your company after an in-person sales call.

Many of us in sales give our prospects a sales packet, or email a bunch of documents in the hopes that our prospect will read them later. Leave behinds are an essential way to communicate your brand and how you can help solve their problem. They need to be very creative and something that stands out.

Even in this digital age a leave behind is a really nice touch. Think about how many Thank You cards you get on a regular basis when you first meet with a professional colleague.

If you really want to wow a prospect, there are firms that can be commissioned to creating a one-off custom packaged leave behind. In full disclosure, SA Interactive has a lot of experience in custom packaging solutions. We think it’s pretty cool and when you are chasing that huge deal and put the time and effort into creating a unique custom made leave behind could mean the difference in landing that deal.

If it’s a unique leave behind, it stands out and isn’t easily put into a pile on the corner of your desk. We’re all really busy people and we all have stacks of things that we promise to get to later. Our advice is go bold and present something that is has a lasting impression.

What is a Digital Leave Behind?

The Digital Leave Behind can be an online space where you can showcase products, design work, a portfolio of sorts. There are businesses out there that offer an out-of-box solution where you can sign up for an account and pay on a monthly basis.

These are like e-Brochure’s and you see them as a PDF document or a slide deck in most cases. They are extremely helpful in telling your story, but they are static online documentation. Inside an e-Brochure, you may be able to play a video demo but it’s still static.

A Digital Leave Behind is more of an interactive tool and a collaborative working space during the life-cycle of a deal. Think of it as a private website, which can be accessed by the sales representatives as well as the prospect and their team. The Digital Leave Behind can include staff bios, case studies, surveys, links to resources, and much more. This is different than an e-Brochure where that highlights the company and what is does.  A Digital Leave Behind is much more personal and a clearinghouse of information related to the deal in play.

Advantages of creating a Digital Leave Behind:

More people are using iPad and tablets for work on a daily basis.  A Digital Leave Behind is optimized for viewing on those devices and encourages your prospect to look at the Digital Leave Behind frequently because you have made it so easy for them to review the material.

There is a good chance that none of your competitors have adopted this strategy.  Well maybe after they read this…What better way to demonstrate that your company is innovative above and beyond your competitors than offering a Digital Leave Behind?

Unlike a paper proposal, or Power Point, you can plug in new samples whenever you want, and you can host a lot more digital samples of your work online.

The Digital Leave Behind allows you to expand on the initial conversation you had with the prospect.  Your prospect’s time is limited and if they had all day to talk to you, then you would have included the items that can be found in the Digital Leave Behind, but are not necessarily found in a proposal.

Some Tips For You to Consider

If applicable, you should add videos as part of the Digital Leave Behind.  This would showcase your capabilities and past work or demonstrate your product and how it’s used when applicable.  You could integrate a video sales message, which is an additional way to connect with the prospect.  It is almost as useful as a one on one meeting, as your message will not be interrupted and you can personalize it.  Finally, you could host an online photo gallery to demonstrate the scope of your work.

This space should also include a mini CRM capability plugin where your team and the prospect can import documents, add notes, post videos, comment, etc. Maybe integrate with a business CRM like Sales Force, Sidekick by HubSpot, or 37 Signals and just include CRM functionality as a section of the Digital Leave Behind.

Like your website, the Digital Leave Behind must be trackable.  Consider incorporating click-through’s into your CRM for the deal.  The more clicks on the links in the Digital Leave Behind the more the prospect is seriously considering your company’s product or service.

Items that could be included in a Digital Leave Behind

As the late TV anchor Peter Jennings would say “Finally tonight we leave you with…” We’ve put together a list of items that are important to consider if you do adopt a Digital Leave Behind.

• Proposal & other supporting documentation
• List of all your company’s products and services
• Case studies/white papers
• Completed prospect Discovery notes
• Listing of professional organizations/awards received
• Copy of the Company Profile Report (CPR)
• Demo videos
• Links to Industry News or industry trends, etc.
• Sample of best practices
• Feedback/Survey feature (sales process & on-boarding)
• Links to your company social media platforms
• Define the sales process stages & timeline
• Define the client on-boarding steps
• Add “Tell A Friend” button
• Company Bios/Meet Your Team
• Working With Us FAQ’s
• Projected Costs

What do you think of the idea of a Digital Leave Behind? Would you adopt it in your daily sales routine? Did I leave anything out? If so what would you add? Let’s make this an even better list together by sharing and discussing in the comments below.

Bill Reynolds

I have been in marketing and technology for more than 20 years and have worked in many industries and worn many hats. From independent consultant, to cooking school, to establishing technology centers, it was a Spirit led adventure that landed me in the president & owner’s seat at Element 502. View all posts by Bill Reynolds