Customer marketing is not just about creating content anymore. It's about building partnerships, staying curious, and using technology to actually help your sales team sell.
In our recent Customer Marketing Masterclass, Chris Dalton, Director of Customer Marketing at Clari/Salesloft, Alexie Glover, Co-founder at Frank Advocacy, and Gareth Pembroke, Head of Customer Success at Peerbound, tackled the real challenges of turning customer storytelling into sales enablement. If you've ever wondered why your carefully crafted case studies sit unused, here's what you need to know as you build your strategy for 2026.
Sign up for our next Customer Marketing Class which will challenge how you think about advocacy programs. Kerry Wheeler, Director of Product Marketing at Lattice will show you a proof-first approach that turns customer marketing into a predictable revenue lever instead of a nice-to-have program.
The Problem: Great Customer Proof That Sales Can't Find
The disconnect is stark. While 65% of sales content goes unused (Forrester), customer proof influences B2B purchasing decisions three to four times more than features or price points (LinkedIn). The opportunity is massive, but there's a clear breakdown between creating customer proof and getting it into reps' hands.
The issue isn't the quality of customer proof. It's access. Sales teams either don't know your content exists, can't find it when they need it, or don't trust it fits their specific use case. When finding the right story feels like a chore, even great assets get ignored.
As Chris Dalton, Director of Customer Marketing at Clari/Salesloft, put it: "What's more valuable? 50 case studies no one knows exist, or three that everyone uses?"
Five Ways to Drive Sales Adoption
1. Understand Sales Needs Before Creating Content
Stop assuming what sales needs. Start asking.
Go directly to revenue teams and ask: "What can I do from a customer proof perspective to help you hit your goals?" The answer often isn't "more case studies." It might be a single customer quote that speaks to a specific pain point.
"Let's not be proactive before being curious," said Alexie Glover, Co-founder of Frank Advocacy. Without understanding what sales actually needs, you risk creating content that never gets used. Our research on what types of customer proof sales teams actually search for shows that sales reps prioritize industry-specific stories and use case matches.
Building useful customer intelligence starts with understanding sales needs. This transforms you from a request taker to an insights provider. Reps are focused on closing deals fast. When you understand how they actually work, you can deliver resources that fit naturally into their process.
2. Deliver Content Proactively
If your customer proof lives in a CMS but your sales team lives in Slack, you've already lost.
Technology should surface the right content automatically, reducing friction instead of adding to it. At Clari, AI-powered Slack bots answer content questions in seconds, eliminating the need for what Chris calls being a "human Slack bot."
Even better than search is proactive delivery. Using Peerbound's Proactive Proof emails, Clari automatically sends reps relevant customer stories after every prospect call based on the challenges discussed. The result? A 96.5% open rate.
The takeaway: meet reps where they already work, and deliver content before they even ask for it.
3. Make Stories About Real People
Stop writing about how "Company X solved Problem Y with Product Z." Start telling stories about how real people advanced their careers.
"If you're scrolling LinkedIn and you see that Apple did something with a product, or that Alexie Glover (your peer) did something with that product, which feels more believable?" Chris asked.
Buyers want to see themselves in your stories. They want to know how other individuals like them solved similar problems and got recognized for their work. Individual-focused stories tap into career aspirations in ways company-focused stories never will.
This also means keeping stories fresh. "A customer story should be a living, breathing representation of your relationship with that customer," Alexie emphasized, not a delivered asset that ages out.
Want to learn more about capturing and managing customer proof? Check out our complete guide to customer proof for best practices on formats, frameworks, and distribution strategies.
4. Create Multi-Format Assets
Different reps need different formats depending on their selling style and where they are in the sales process.
Start with your largest asset, like an hour-long video interview, then break it into derivative pieces: a written case study, video clips for social, quotes for slides, and more. AI tools make this faster than ever. Chris shared that when a rep needs a slide that doesn't exist, he can use AI to pull from internal resources and generate a customer story slide in five to ten minutes.
"It won't be perfectly polished, but if it meets the need in the moment, it's worth doing."
For marketers juggling competing priorities, this waterfall approach squeezes maximum value from every customer conversation.
5. Track Requests and Align to Strategy
Every content request from sales is a signal. Track them.
If sellers keep asking for content about X and all your content talks about Y, it's clear you need to adjust your strategy.
But don't chase every request. Alexie cautioned against pursuing "good logos" that don't tell good stories: "Sometimes the CMO wants a case study from a big brand, but that customer isn't using your product in an interesting way. Maybe one person out of a thousand at that company uses it. That's not a good story. It's just a good logo."
Instead, ask: does this customer proof contribute to your company's overarching goals? If your company is targeting a specific product or persona next year, prioritize stories that support that focus. It makes saying no to low-priority requests much easier.
The Bottom Line
"Even if you have the best customer proof built for sales, if the discoverability isn't there, it's not worth it," said Gareth from Peerbound.
Effective customer marketing isn't about content volume. It's about making sure the right content gets to the right people at the right time.
Key takeaways for driving sales adoption:
Gather customer proof needs through real conversations with your sales reps
Invest in tools that surface content proactively and on-demand
Tell human stories to connect with buyers
Track content requests from sales and align to company goals
Remember that three impactful pieces of customer proof your team uses will always beat fifty that gather dust
Get these five things right, and you'll transform how sales teams discover and use your customer proof. And if you want more tips, you can watch the full Masterclass here.
Stop being a "human Slack bot" for customer proof requests. See how Peerbound helps sales teams find the right stories automatically. Sign up for a personalized walkthrough.
Learn how to drive sales adoption of customer proof. 5 strategies from Clari, Frank Advocacy, and Peerbound on making customer stories actually get used.
