How much does unused sales content cost?
Unused sales content costs what you paid to create it, plus the time reps spend searching for or recreating material. In Revspire customer libraries, 35% of active assets had no shares and no opens in 90 days. Multiply your active assets by that share and by your average cost per asset, then add rep time.
The calculator starts with an illustrative library. Replace each number with your own; the estimate updates as you type.
Your estimate
Unused assets
140
35% of 400 active assets
Creation cost of unused assets
$210,000
Already spent on content nobody shared or opened
Rep time per year
$90,000
1,200 hours a year searching or recreating
Total
$300,000
Creation cost plus one year of rep time
At 60–70% unused (the 2013 SiriusDecisions figure for B2B marketing content), the creation cost would be $360,000–$420,000, and the total $450,000–$510,000.
How is the cost of unused content calculated?
Two costs add up: the money already spent creating content nobody used, and the rep time lost every year to searching for or rebuilding material.
- Unused assets
- = Active assets × share unused in 90 days
- Creation cost of unused assets
- = Unused assets × average cost to create an asset
- Rep time cost per year
- = Reps × hours per rep per month × 12 × loaded hourly cost
- Total
- = Creation cost of unused assets + rep time cost per year
Worked example
A team has 400 active assets that cost an average of $1,500 each to create, and 50 reps who each lose 2 hours a month searching for or recreating content, at a loaded cost of $75 an hour. These inputs are illustrative, not benchmarks.
| Revspire benchmark (35%) | SiriusDecisions, 2013 (60–70%) | |
|---|---|---|
| Unused assets | 140 | 240–280 |
| Creation cost of unused assets | $210,000 | $360,000–$420,000 |
| Rep time per year | $90,000 (1,200 hours) | $90,000 (1,200 hours) |
| Total | $300,000 | $450,000–$510,000 |
Which unused share should you use: 35% or 60–70%?
Use your own 90-day usage report if you have one. Otherwise start with 35%: Active sales assets with no shares and no opens in the last 90 days, in Revspire customer libraries (about 40 B2B companies, October 2025 to September 2026). See the Revspire sales content benchmark.
The 60–70% figure is the one most often quoted. Content produced by B2B marketing organizations that went unused, presented at the SiriusDecisions Summit in 2013. It measured marketing content in general, not sales libraries, and the method is not published. Its origin is described by Forrester (SiriusDecisions research). Treat it as an upper scenario, not a current measurement of sales content.
Assumptions and limits
- Creation cost is already spent. The money that went into unused assets is sunk. The number shows what the library cost, and what the next round of content will waste if nothing changes.
- Rep time is your estimate. No current independent benchmark measures how long reps spend searching for content, so the calculator uses your figure. A short survey or a week of logged searches gives a better one.
- The 35% is a 90-day measure. It counts active assets with no shares and no opens in 90 days. Seasonal content, such as an annual report, can look unused in a quiet quarter.
- Upkeep is not included. Reviews, legal approval, translations, storage and the cost of a rep sending an outdated version all add to the total. Leave them out to stay conservative, or add them to the cost per asset.
- Libraries in Revspire may be better governed. The benchmark comes from libraries managed in Revspire, and content sent outside it, such as email attachments, is not counted, so unused rates elsewhere may be higher.
What to do next: audit, retire and govern
The fastest saving is the content you stop making. Work through these steps before the next content request.
Step 1: Audit the last 90 days
Run a usage report on every active asset: shares, opens and buyer views. List the assets with none, and note who owns each one.
Step 2: Retire or merge before you create
Archive what is out of date, merge duplicates into the newest version, and keep one current asset per need. Archive rather than delete so links and history survive.
Step 3: Fix what reps cannot find
Some unused assets are good but invisible. Check their titles and tags against what reps search for, and surface them in the playbook stage where they help.
Step 4: Set governance rules
Give every asset an owner, a review date and a sunset rule, for example archive after 180 days without use unless the owner renews it.
Step 5: Measure every quarter
Track the unused share, the cost per asset and requests for new content. If the unused share falls while requests are met, the library is getting healthier.
Frequently asked questions
How much does unused sales content cost?
Multiply your active assets by the share nobody used and by your average cost to create an asset, then add the cost of rep time spent searching for or recreating content. For example, 400 assets at $1,500 each with 35% unused is $210,000 of creation cost tied up in content nobody shared or opened.
What percentage of sales content goes unused?
In Revspire customer libraries, 35% of active sales assets had no shares and no opens in the last 90 days (sales content benchmark). The often-quoted 60–70% comes from SiriusDecisions research on B2B marketing content presented in 2013.
Is the “65% of content goes unused” statistic still true?
Treat it as historical. The verified origin is SiriusDecisions research presented at its 2013 Summit, which found 60–70% of content produced by B2B marketing organizations went unused. It measured marketing content in general, not sales libraries, and its method is not published.
How do you calculate the cost of reps recreating content?
Multiply the number of reps who search for or rebuild content by the hours each spends on it per month, by 12 and by their loaded hourly cost. Fifty reps losing two hours a month at $75 an hour is $90,000 a year.
How do you reduce unused sales content?
Audit 90 days of usage, archive or merge what nobody uses, fix titles and tags for good assets reps cannot find, and give every asset an owner, a review date and a sunset rule. See sales content governance.
Sources
The default share is Revspire data. The 60–70% source was opened and checked on 17 October 2026.
- Revspire. Sales content benchmark: how much content goes unused, and what wins. October 2025 to September 2026 data.
- Forrester (SiriusDecisions research). It’s Not Content – It’s a Lack of Buyer Insights That’s the Problem. Blog undated; figure first presented at SiriusDecisions Summit 2013.