65% of the Content You Produce Never Gets Used

Darrian Peck ·Production, Eller Media ·

65% of the Content You Produce Never Gets Used

Your team shipped more content this quarter than last. More case studies, more one-pagers, more decks, more posts. The output chart points up and to the right, so the work feels like progress. Then a rep rebuilds a slide from scratch the night before a call, because nothing in the library fit the conversation. That gap, between what gets made and what gets used, is where most marketing budgets quietly leak.

Key takeaways

  • Forrester finds about 65 percent of the content marketing produces is never used by sales, a figure stable for over a decade.
  • Forrester estimates roughly $2.3 million is wasted per enterprise each year on unused or underused content.
  • Reps spend about 55 percent of their selling time, roughly 440 hours a year, searching for or rebuilding content.
  • More output is not leverage when most of it dies on a shelf. Leverage is a system that produces what sales will actually carry into a deal.
  • The fix is not more production. It is a shared source of truth that aligns what marketing makes with how sales sells.

How much of the content marketing produces does sales actually use?

About 35 percent of it. Forrester’s research puts content that sales never uses at roughly 65 percent, and some companies find non-usage above 80 percent once they audit their libraries. For every three assets your team produces, close to two are never opened by the people meant to sell with them.

That number has barely moved in more than a decade, which tells you it is structural, not a fluke of one quarter or one team. Forrester’s work on zero-waste B2B marketing frames it bluntly: a large share of content spend produces nothing because it never reaches a buyer. The same body of research, summarized in these sales enablement statistics, estimates about $2.3 million wasted per enterprise every year on content that sits unused. The waste is not visible on the output dashboard, which is exactly why it survives.

Why does so much content go unused?

Because it is built without a clear line to how sales actually sells. Marketing produces to a calendar, sales sells to a conversation, and the two rarely share one source of truth. The result is content that is hard to find, off-stage for the deal in front of the rep, or already out of date by the time anyone looks for it.

The cost shows up in the rep’s day, not just the marketing budget. Sellers spend roughly 55 percent of their selling time, around 440 hours a year, hunting for the right asset or rebuilding one that almost works. When the library is large but unmapped, finding the right piece is slower than making a new one, so reps do, and the official content goes untouched. This is the Leverage, Not Labor failure in its purest form: effort is high, output is high, and almost none of it compounds into a closed deal.

Is producing more content leverage, or just more labor?

It is labor wearing the costume of leverage. Volume feels productive because the output chart climbs, but if most of it goes unused, you have added cost without adding sales. Real leverage means each asset earns its keep across many deals. More unused content is simply more work that compounds nothing and buries the few pieces that do work.

This is the same trap as believing a flat budget gets fixed by adding vendors. More inputs against a broken system raise spend without raising results. It also mirrors why new customers cost far more than the ones you keep: chasing fresh volume is expensive when the value you already created sits unused. A team producing fifty assets a quarter where sales uses eight does not need a sixtieth asset. It needs to know why fifty-two went nowhere.

The distinction matters because the two paths look identical on a status report. Both show work shipped, deadlines hit, a calendar full of green. Only one of them shows up in closed revenue. When leadership asks marketing to do more with the same budget, the honest answer is usually that the budget is already large enough. It is aimed at production when it should be aimed at fit. Cutting the unused two-thirds is not austerity. It is redirecting money you are currently spending to make things nobody uses toward the smaller set of things that actually move a deal forward.

How do you make content sales actually uses?

Start from the deal, not the calendar. Codify who you sell to and how they buy in one living document, then produce against the moments where reps genuinely need help. Fewer assets, mapped to real buying questions, beat a larger library nobody opens. Measure usage, not just output, so the unused pile stops growing.

The mechanism is alignment, not motivation. When the same source of truth governs what marketing makes and what sales says, the content fits the conversation by design. In the Growth OS this is what the Brand Brain does: it holds the ICP, the messaging, and the buying questions in one place, so the Amplifier produces against them instead of against a publishing quota. The Scorecard then tracks which assets actually move deals, and the ones that never get used stop getting made. The teams that publish less reputable, higher-fit research learn this fast, as these broader sales enablement statistics show: the gain comes from relevance, not volume. Cut the 65 percent, and the budget you free up is real money, recovered from work you were already paying for.

Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of marketing content does sales actually use?

Forrester’s research puts it at about 35 percent. Roughly 65 percent of the content marketing produces is never used by sales, a figure that has held stable for more than a decade, and some companies find non-usage above 80 percent once they audit their own libraries.

Why does so much sales content go unused?

Because it is built to a content calendar rather than to how sales actually sells. Marketing and sales rarely share one source of truth, so assets end up hard to find, off-topic for the live deal, or out of date by the time a rep needs them.

Does producing more content help?

Rarely. If most of what you make already goes unused, adding volume adds cost without adding sales. The constraint is not how much you produce, it is how well what you produce maps to the questions buyers actually ask during a deal.

How do you make content sales will actually use?

Start from the deal, not the calendar. Codify who you sell to and how they buy in one living document, produce against the moments where reps need help, and measure usage rather than output. Fewer assets mapped to real buying questions beat a large library nobody opens.

Pull your last quarter of content and ask one question of each piece: did a rep use this in a live deal? If the honest answer is no for most of them, you do not have a content shortage. You have a leverage problem, and the next asset will not fix it.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of marketing content does sales actually use?
Forrester's research puts it at about 35 percent. Roughly 65 percent of the content marketing produces is never used by sales, a figure that has held stable for more than a decade, and some companies find non-usage above 80 percent once they audit their own libraries.
Why does so much sales content go unused?
Because it is built to a content calendar rather than to how sales actually sells. Marketing and sales rarely share one source of truth, so assets end up hard to find, off-topic for the live deal, or out of date by the time a rep needs them.
Does producing more content help?
Rarely. If most of what you make already goes unused, adding volume adds cost without adding sales. The constraint is not how much you produce, it is how well what you produce maps to the questions buyers actually ask during a deal.
How do you make content sales will actually use?
Start from the deal, not the calendar. Codify who you sell to and how they buy in one living document, produce against the moments where reps need help, and measure usage rather than output. Fewer assets mapped to real buying questions beat a large library nobody opens.