THE CHALLENGE
Sales and marketing silos left sellers searching — and buyers waiting
At LANXESS, sellers faced a problem that compounded with every new product line and market: content was spread across multiple libraries with no clear way to find the right asset for the right buyer moment.
Marketing teams invested in materials that went unused. Sellers spent more time hunting for presentations and one-pagers than preparing for the conversations that actually move deals forward. When they did find something, it was often outdated or too generic to land with a specific buyer.
The disconnect wasn’t just slowing teams down internally — it was showing up in front of customers. Static, broad collateral couldn’t answer targeted buyer questions or guide a complex purchasing decision. That gap matters even more when a third of B2B buyers prefer to navigate the sales cycle without a seller at all. In specialty chemicals, where product portfolios are vast and technical precision matters, every touchpoint with a buyer has to earn the next one.
Anke Horenkohl, Former Process Expert of Marketing Solutions at LANXESS, and her team set out to fix the root cause: give sellers a single, reliable place to find, share, and track the content that matters.
“This is the most difficult factor in aligning marketing and sales,” Anke says. “Not only are the documents or applications divided into different silos, but also the mindsets of colleagues from sales and marketing.”
THE SOLUTION
A single source of truth that transforms every stage of the buyer conversation
LANXESS deployed Showpad to centralize its entire content library and connect sellers directly to the assets they need at every stage of the buyer conversation.
Before the meeting: With all content in one governed location, sellers filter for the right materials instead of combing through disconnected folders and drives. If a rep has questions about a particular asset, they can see who authored it and reach out directly. The result? Personalized, high-impact presentations prepared in a fraction of the time.
During the meeting: When buyers raise unexpected questions or objections mid-conversation, sellers pull up relevant documents and address them on the spot — no scrambling, no “I’ll get back to you on that.”
After the meeting: Reps share tailored follow-up content in just a few clicks. Analytics & Insights show them exactly when content is viewed, which assets buyers spend the most time with, and whether materials get shared further. Those signals shape the next touchpoint, keeping every follow-up as relevant as the first conversation.
“The technology can be outstanding, but if the users are missing something, they don’t like to work with it. The application should make our employees like to work with it — and we have achieved that with Showpad.”
Anke Horenkohl
Former Process Expert of Marketing Solutions at LANXESS
LANXESS also reviews aggregate analytics to identify what’s working at each stage of the buying journey — then scales those wins across the organization.
As a major chemicals manufacturer, LANXESS exhibits at trade fairs around the world. With Showpad, their booths now feature an interactive board where visitors explore content on their own terms and send materials directly to themselves. New leads land straight in a connected CRM, so sellers follow up fast — accelerating the buyer journey from the very first interaction.
THE IMPACT
Stronger alignment, faster follow-up, and a revenue team that builds together
Breaking down the content silo was the starting point. But LANXESS went further — using Showpad’s in-app commenting to make cross-departmental communication part of the daily workflow, not an afterthought.
“Thanks to Showpad, we’ve been able to overcome numerous challenges in customer conversations, and all employees are now pulling in the same direction.”
Anke Horenkohl
Former Process Expert of Marketing Solutions at LANXESS
To sustain that momentum, LANXESS established a Business Advisory Group where colleagues from different departments exchange ideas about use cases, create shared content templates, and develop internal resources together.
This company-wide collaboration strengthens alignment between sales and marketing, and gives the team a shared foundation for delivering better buyer experiences. At every stage, sellers now work from content they trust, conversations they can track, and insights they can act on.