The core visual aid (CVA) has been the go-to communication vehicle for sales reps for decades, but the introduction of the tablet and the interactive visual aid (IVA) has challenged the preeminence of the printed CVA. Print might be old school, but that doesn’t mean it’s over. Depending on your team’s needs and challenges, print might still be the right choice. Check your reality with these four key considerations:

Cost.
It’s true that if you plan on revising or adding to your content in the near future-or often-the IVA may serve you better since it can be revised more quickly and economically. But, a printed piece is far less costly to develop and produce up front. As for updates, could they be accomplished with a simple insert to an existing printed piece? Maybe so. Especially if you plan for that from the beginning

Timing.
An IVA is the right choice if your team will need integral updates on a regular basis, and you can afford the development time upfront. But if getting materials to your sales team ASAP is the goal, print is probably the right answer. In this case, an IVA might make more sense as a follow-up project.

Style.
How do your sales people like to interact with their prospects? Do they like to highlight or circle key features in the CVA? Do they like to leave prospects with something tangible when the sales call is over? Print provides for a stronger connection with your materials and messages. Print pieces can be left behind, and a brochure on someone’s actual desktop is more eye-catching than a file on someone’s virtual desktop. Technological bells and whistles like video, interactive infographics, and pop-ups are obvious advantages for the IVA. If your sales team is truly working well with IVAs, it might make sense to enhance the impact of their sales calls with a printed leave behind.

Analytics.
An IVA gives you the ability to collect data and review the performance of your sales team on the back end. But will you? Too often, the accumulated data is not leveraged and the cost of programming is wasted. Be real about your organization’s ability to analyze and leverage the data your IVA enables you to collect. Does your team have the time? Will the job get done?

What really makes sense.
In short, take a good look at your reality, and choose the type of CVA that suits it best. If you need some help with that, call on us. Old or new school, we’re experts in dealing with your marketing reality, and we’d be happy to help.

Let us know.
Is this helpful? Interesting? Whatever you think, we’d love to hear from you.