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Google Drive is commonly used for a number of different purposes— even when it’s maybe not the best solution. It is, for example, often used to store and organize sales asset management, which is possible but not _ideal. _
When using Google Drive, sales teams frequently report issues like assets, not being able to track the right data around asset usage, or issues with permissions and access.
If you do want to use Google Sheets when it comes to managing your marketing and sales assets, good news: We’re going to show you the right way to do it so you can avoid the worst of the above concerns. We’ll also have suggestions for other options that may be more effective.
Ready to get started? Let’s go.
There are plenty of good reasons why Google Sheets is commonly used for sales asset management (including creation, organization, storage, and collaboration).
These reasons include the following:
Before we go much further, we do want to acknowledge that there are clear advantages to using Google Drive for managing your marketing and sales assets, in addition to the reasons above. The pros include:
That being said, there are also significant disadvantages to consider, which include:
Still want to use Google Sheets and Google Drive for sales assets management? We get it.
We’re now going to take you through the steps, tools, and strategies that can help you best manage your assets in Google Drive and Google Sheets.
First, you’ll want to consider that most people who use Google Drive to organize and store their Google Assets rely heavily on a Google Sheet.
They’ll use that Google Sheet (which is Google’s spreadsheet tool) to list, link to, and comment on different content. The idea is that every sales asset will be linked in one place so that it’s easy to find, browse, and search for.
To create a new Google Sheet, start here.
You’ll choose to create a new Spreadsheet using a blank template.
Next, you’re going to add in all the relevant categories of information you’ll want to track for each sales asset. Sometimes, you’ll have each asset listed under a single section, like you can see in the example below.
In other cases, you’ll see these lists broken down by categories of resources, with distinct sections to track content like pitch decks, battle cards, and more.
Common types of information to track here includes:
There should be a documented process for how new content is organized and uploaded.
Team members can use this Sheet to quickly review and access different assets, as well as commenting on them (even tagging other team members from different departments) to ask questions, request changes, or even find an additional resources.
It is worth noting that all the comments here can be a little chaotic, as they often accumulate on the single document and can sometimes tag everyone who has access. Some brands clear them out regularly, while others avoid doing so in order to best track what’s happening.
It’s essential to categorize and label your assets well when you’re uploading them. Again— having a system in place for this can be essential to successfully using Google Sheets.
This can all be done manually— you can have a “labels” category, and then type in relevant labels. Some brands also use the highlight feature to “label” different types of content.
You can also use Google’s label feature for improved organization that scales well.
Be consistent about how you categorize and name assets.
It’s often a good idea, for example, to organize assets by category and to sstick to naming formats like these:
You want your assets to be easy to find, and that means relying on descriptions and metadata in the Sheet itself. This can help sales team members browse through the resources and find what they need, whether they have a specific resource in mind or not.
It’s why we recommend having a description front and center for each asset type. You need people to be able to review it quickly, and putting it next to the asset name makes it easier to do that.
Make sure you have information fields for any metadata that you need here, including labels about whether it’s a brochure, online blog post, video, or infographic.
If you’re serious about Google Sheets for asset managements and you want to scale beyond a five-person team, you’re likely going to benefit extensively from third-party software integrations.
These integrations can streamline your organizational efforts, and while there are sometimes bumps in the road that come with using third-party software, it can still be beneficial.
Examples include:
Many brands choose to import sales assets manually into Google Sheets one at a time. They’ll create a new column and drop relevant text, images, links, and documents into one place.
You can add links, charts, and images by clicking “Insert” in the top navigation bar and finding the media type in question. And to link to documents, in many cases, teams will add PDFs of different sales resources into dedicated folders through Google Docs and link to those.
In many cases, a manual approach is the most effective option here. There are tools that can, for example, automatically log new blog posts into a Google Sheet for you, or that tracks your ad campaigns. These are more effective for marketers, though.
And since most sales assets are meant for internal usage— like pitch decks and battle cards—, manual upload is going to be effective.
Finally, there’s one more essential consideration when you’re using Google Sheets for sales asset tracking and management: Version control and editing.
You need to have a system in place so that your team knows when edits are needed or in-progress. You also need a way to track assets to know which version they’re looking at, and whether or not it’s the most up-to-date.
Maybe you’ve gone through a rebrand, for example, and you’ve begun updating your assets. You need to track which ones are new, and which your sales team should use.
This also holds true for product interface updates, updated competitor information in pitch decks or battle cards, and so much more. Sometimes, there might even be an initial draft of a resource and a final version.
As a result, it may be best to add information about versions or status completion in your asset name, description, or notes. The notes may reflect that an item needs to be updated for a rebrand, for example, but that hasn’t happened yet so you need to use the out-of-date one.
Or it may mention that there’s a new updated version of an older resource you should switch to instead.
This can also help with data validation and error handling, because you want to ensure accuracy in the Sheet.
To further facilitate accuracy in data someone on the marketing or sales team should go through the document regularly to check for any potential errors, look for assets that need to be reviewed, and to assess access and permissions.
Google Sheets is a perfectly fine solution for sales asset tracking and management: It’s not great, but it’s not really terrible.
That being said, handling assets is often much more effective when you’re using a dedicated content management tool that was designed for sales enablement, and sales and marketing alignment. Content Camel is the perfect example.
Content Camel allows you to upload every marketing and sales asset you have (including published and unpublished resources of all media types).
We offer easy-to-use organizational features like labeling and categorizing so that your team can always find the content they need fast, whether they’re browsing or searching for something specific.
We also have built-in collaboration features; sales team members can comment directly on different assets and even request assets through our “Wishlist” feature.
We were designed for sales asset management. Google was not. We can help you scale and accelerate your sales pipeline just by helping your team have the content they need when they need it.
Want to get started with Content Camel? Start your free trial here.
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Content Camel is a sales enablement tool used for sales content management. High-growth sales teams use our system to quickly find and share the right content for each specific sales situation and measure content use and effectiveness.