What is 'Assignment Selling'? Using Content to Close Deals Faster

Assignment Selling is the strategic practice of requiring prospects to consume specific educational content before sales conversations to improve close rates and reduce sales cycles.

One of the most frequent complaints we hear about content marketing is how long it takes to see results.

You write a helpful article, hit publish, and often have to wait several weeks (or even months) before it ranks in search engines and gets found by qualified buyers.

For businesses looking for a quick return from their content, this can be discouraging, leaving many wondering if the wait is worth the effort.

Rest assured, your high quality content will deliver results and is well worth the wait, but that content can also deliver quick wins. 

That’s where Assignment Selling comes in. 

Assignment Selling is a key framework of the Endless Customers System™ (the next evolution of They Ask, You Answer). It helps companies use content strategically in the sales process to increase close rates and speed up the sales process. When you do this, your content can have an impact on revenue tomorrow. 

Here's how.

What Is Assignment Selling?

Assignment Selling is the strategic practice of requiring prospects to consume specific educational content before sales conversations to improve close rates and reduce sales cycles.

Think of it like homework, but the good kind. You're saying, "Before we meet, here's what you'll want to know."

This approach does three things:

1. Eliminates common objections before they ever come up.
2. Qualifies prospects more effectively.
3. Shortens the sales cycle.

The idea was developed by Marcus Sheridan, author of Endless Customers, when he was running his swimming pool company River Pools and Spas.

Marcus was writing a lot of marketing content for his website that was bringing in tons of traffic, and a good number of leads. He wanted to dig through the data to see what conclusions he could draw about his customers.

Marcus realized he had two very different groups of people requesting sales calls — and he was seeing dramatically different close rates depending on which camp someone came from.

The first group had only viewed a handful of pages on his website. They had a closing rate of around 25%. 

The second group had viewed an average of 30 pages of his website and had a closing rate of around 80%.

In short, the more well-informed the buyer is, the more likely that buyer will close.

Shortly after making this connection, Marcus decided it was in his, his team's, and even his buyers' best interest if all potential customers were as educated as possible before they had a sales conversation. 

He made it mandatory for any prospect requesting a sales call to review specific pieces of content from the company before the call.

If they wouldn't review the content, Marcus and his team wouldn't let them move forward. 

As a result, the team had fewer overall calls, but the calls they were having were with more serious, more well-informed buyers. Closing rates and revenue went up. And his sales team wasted less time with unqualified prospects.

How Assignment Selling Benefits You and Your Buyer

Initially, just like with Marcus, Assignment Selling may result in fewer sales calls, but in the long run, it's more beneficial for everyone involved. 

For your business, Assignment Selling can lead to:

• Better informed buyers: Assignment Selling allows buyers to be better educated about your business and what you sell, so they have fewer questions and doubts.
• More effective sales conversations: Assignment Selling content addresses general questions ahead of time. Since buyers are better informed, sales conversations can focus on each buyer's specific needs.
• Faster sales process: Less time spent on educating means the sales process can move along more quickly. In other words, deals can close faster — while leads that aren't a good fit can be disqualified earlier.
• Larger deal size: When you educate, you explain value. Buyers are less likely to choose a cheap option if they understand what they're paying for. 

Meanwhile, for the buyer, Assignment Selling means:

• They don't feel like they're in the dark. Modern buyers want to own more of the buyer's journey. They want to be able to research products and solutions on their own without having to go through a salesperson. Assignment selling helps them do so.
• They can qualify or disqualify themselves. When you share educational content, buyers are better equipped to figure out if yours is the solution they truly need. When you create and share high-quality, unbiased content, they can decide on their own if you're the right solution for them.
• Less wasted time in sales meetings. When people are able to self-qualify or disqualify, they (and your business) waste less time in sales meetings that go nowhere. They also ensure their time is better spent on questions and solutions specific to their needs when they do reach out to sales.

3 Steps to Implement Assignment Selling

The benefits of Assignment Selling are substantial, but getting started can be a challenge. Here's what you need to know.

Before step 1. Understand your sales process

Before you can even begin, you (and your company) need to document your sales process. You need to know the progression a buyer takes, from initial inquiry to closed deal.

Too often, we see teams where every sales rep has a slightly different process, which gets messy and hectic. Even worse, this creates an uneven experience for buyers.

Without a well-defined process, Assignment Selling will be more difficult and less effective. A clear sales process is a prerequisite. 

1. Create the content your buyers need

For Assignment Selling to work, you're going to need the right kinds of content.

Your content strategy should align with your prospect’s buying journey, delivering the right information at the right time. Remember: A prospect’s willingness to consume content directly correlates with their readiness to buy.

Here are some types of Assignment Selling to consider and where they would fit in each stage of your sales process:

• Before the First Appointment
  • Bio Video: A quick personal intro builds rapport.
  • What to Expect Video: Set the tone for your call and reduce anxiety.
• During Assessment & Discovery
  • Self-Assessments: Let buyers self-diagnose needs.
  • Cost/Price Content: Explain value and consequences of inaction.
• As Prospects Compare Options
  • Buyer’s Guides, Comparison Articles, and Product Demos: These deepen understanding and make you the go-to source.
• Before the Proposal
  • Answer the most common questions you get asked on sales calls time and time again with a video. We call this video the 80% video and it’s part of the Selling 7.
  • Customer Journey Videos: Reinforce confidence with proof.
• After the Sale
  • Welcome and onboarding content: Keep momentum going and build loyalty.

2. Empower your sales team to use the content

Once you've created Assignment Selling content, don’t wait for people to find it on their own.

Instead, empower your sales team to start sharing it.

Your sales team can now use this content to save time and help prospects better prepare for sales conversations — or even disqualify themselves.

In our experience, many salespeople would be more than happy to use content in their sales cycle, but often don’t know when or how to.  

Marketing should educate sales reps on the different use cases for each piece they create. 

Use your revenue team meeting to keep sales apprised of what content has been created and explain how they can use it. 

3. Make the content easy to access

If your content isn’t easy to find on your website, both your website visitors and your salespeople won’t be able to get the answers they’re looking for.

With this in mind, organize your content so it's easy to find.

Much of your sales content should be readily available on your website, either from your service pages or in your learning center. Some specific information like pricing should even have its own dedicated page. 

But won't assigning content scare buyers away?

One of the biggest objections sales reps have about Assignment Selling is this: If I assign content, will it make the prospect cancel the sales appointment? 

And it’s true:

• Some people might balk at the idea of having to read or view content, but let's be honest, would those people be likely to become customers anyway? Probably not.
• Others might learn enough to know they're not a good fit for what you sell. But the sooner you can get these folks out of the sales process the better. They, too, were unlikely to become customers. Assignment Selling may influence some unfit customers to exit the buying funnel, but that’s a good thing.

Just as Marcus saw the number of sales appointments decline, his closing rates for the remaining sales appointments increased. 

Assignment Selling may influence some unfit customers to exit the buying funnel, but that’s a good thing.

That's because he was only meeting with prospects that had been educated thoroughly on his products and wanted to continue forward. 

When you use Assignment Selling, you help yourself avoid sales appointments that end in a quick disqualification.

Real-World Example: How CSI Accounting & Payroll Increased Average Sale Price by 39.7%

When CSI Accounting & Payroll decided it was time to overhaul their sales process, they had one clear goal: attract the right clients—those who valued their work, not just the lowest price.

With help from IMPACT, they introduced Assignment Selling into their process. The goal? Stop wasting time on prospects who weren’t a fit, and start having better conversations with those who were.

CSI created a series of targeted content pieces, including an article called “What It’s Like Working with CSI” that walked prospects through the client journey from onboarding to monthly check-ins. They also built an 80% video that tackled the most common questions up front. Each piece was crafted to educate, set expectations, and build trust.

Here’s the key: Prospects were required to review this content before the initial sales call. If they didn’t, CSI didn’t move forward with the meeting. Bold? Yes. But also incredibly effective.

In the first year alone, CSI saw their average sale price increase by 10.19%. By year two, it had jumped by a staggering 39.7%.

Now that’s what we call a win.

Start Selling Smarter

At its heart, selling is teaching. You help a buyer understand his problem and understand the solutions you sell. The more you can do this with content, the more smoothly that buyer can move through the sales process — or decide he is a bad fit and opt out. 

If you do Assignment Selling right, you'll see higher close rates, shorter sales cycles, and increases in deal size. But it's not just you who will benefit. Your buyers will feel more informed, less pressured, and more trusting of your business.

Ready to Start? Here’s What to Do Next

1. Create the content your buyers need.
2. Train your sales team to use the content.
3. Make the content easy to find. 
4. Track results and optimize.

Assignment Selling is just one piece of what makes the Endless Customers System™ work. When it's combined with the right website strategy, aligned sales processes, performance coaching, and modern tools like AI, it becomes even more powerful. It’s a playbook for building a fully integrated, trust-first growth system for your business.

If you're ready to align your sales and marketing, empower your sales team, and create a system that scales your growth, talk to an Endless Customers advisor.