Companies who have some form of sales enablement program and resources has grown from 19% in 2013 to 59% in 2017, according to a survey from CSO Insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same survey also found that the sales enablement initiatives that were implemented met or exceeded most if not all of the expectations of the organizations using them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, 51% of those surveyed said their sales enablement program met some or few of their expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What could be causing this disparity? One is clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems as more organizations adopt sales enablement<\/a>, less of them agree on an objective definition of sales enablement. And because of this confusion, organizations don\u2019t know what tools to use or what sales enablement strategies to execute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We want to clear up this mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It won\u2019t be the last word on sales enablement, but it will help you get started on the right foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So let\u2019s begin with the primary sticking point:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u200d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sales enablement definition we like to use is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The process of aiding salespeople to sell better using tools, strategies, knowledge, and resources.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In practice, this means collaboration between sales, marketing, and other areas of your organization to create this content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales teams are the main benefactors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But marketing plays an important role in implementing the sales enablement strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it should be stated that you\u2019re probably already doing some kind of sales enablement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, if you help a sales rep improve a customer relationship, close a deal, prospect, etc., then you\u2019re involved in sales enablement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Successful sales enablement plans include 7 major components:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before you implement your sales enablement program, it\u2019s important to create a sales enablement plan that\u2019s tailored to your company\u2019s unique needs, structure, and existing processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A plan that plays to your strengths and shores up your weaknesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are a few steps to take to do that effectively:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You won\u2019t be effective if your only objective is to \u201cenable our sales staff to sell more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIncreasing revenue\u201d is also insufficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A clearer, more precise objective could be increasing a sales rep\u2019s \u201cactive selling time.\u201d Since most reps spend around 30% of their time actually selling, sales enablement can help push that number up to 40% or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal would be to eliminate manual work, redundancies, unnecessary work, and anything that can be cut or streamlined to allow sales reps to do more of what they\u2019re there to do: Sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously, you want increased revenue. But that\u2019s an organization goal, not a sales enablement goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By structuring sales enablement objectives over tangible, actionable, measurable, objectives that salespeople and those helping them are in control over, you end up reaching your organizational goals faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to get buy-in right away from your sales reps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without it, your exciting new sales enablement program will fall flat and die quick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More importantly, talking to your reps about sales enablement will reveal exactly where sales reps are struggling, where the chokepoints in the pipeline are located, and what you need to do and provide to help them succeed where they\u2019re failing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales reps are in the trenches day in and day out.But they\u2019re not the only ones you should talk to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marketing, sales operations, account managers, and even customer service reps should have their voices heard and opinions considered. They\u2019ll have insights that sales reps simply won\u2019t, and vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This should go without saying, but we\u2019re saying it anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have to understand the buyer\u2019s journey generally, and who your specific customer is and the buyer\u2019s journey they\u2019re on when getting closer to your product specifically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means moving beyond basic pain points and challenges. Going deeper than superficial demographic data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to analyze buying signals and trigger events.Assess their behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And anticipate what they\u2019ll need when they\u2019ll need it to feel confident in buying from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you understand the buyer\u2019s journey, you can sync up your sales process with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Too often sales leaders only consider their salespeople when planning a new strategy, completely neglecting the customer, when the customer is the most important part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, look at the experience of the buyer. The various touchpoints with your company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then consider how you can design the sales funnel to optimize each point along the way, providing the necessary resources, content, and tactics to customers as they need them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you get this right, the customer will feel like you truly know and appreciate them. And they\u2019ll give you all their business as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After you have a clear plan for what you want and need to do, now it\u2019s time to implement your sales enablement program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are a few steps you can take:\u200d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a theory for how sales enablement came about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales reps needed some way to leverage the content that marketing was creating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admittedly, there\u2019s a lot of crap content created, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, there\u2019s plenty of valuable content that could be optimized to aid in the sales process by helping reps establish expertise and build trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But many reps don\u2019t know where to find that content or how to use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales enablement will help you organize this content and make it useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means gathering:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales enablement training encompasses much more than basic sales skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It brings in product knowledge, ways to cooperate and coordinate with marketing, how to manage projects, how to use various CRMs and other tools, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Training also reinforces the processes and methods learned and being used in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem most organizations have is that they conduct training once a year when it should be conducted once a quarter, maybe more. Because what\u2019s the use of training if it\u2019s not being reinforced, remembered, or refreshed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is distinctly different from coaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coaching is about personal and professional achievement and development. It\u2019s personalized and centers on behaviors and attitudes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Training seeks to instill the same skills and capabilities into every single sales rep. It\u2019s standardized and ensures everyone is using the same strategies when dealing with customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, while coaching can and should be undertaken by management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Training is fully in the realm of the sales enablement program and the people they elect to conduct the training.\u200d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s make something clear here: Tools come last in the order of priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\u2019re simply a means to an end. A better way to execute strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales enablement doesn\u2019t start with technology, it always starts with what\u2019s best for the customers first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That includes technology that helps your sales reps better track and communicate with them, but more importantly it includes content that helps customers better understand the value you offer and training to help reps maximize the customer\u2019s understanding and receiving of that value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s important to keep this in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Too often executives and managers get geeked out about the latest sales tool, falsely believing it\u2019s going to be a silver bullet or a shot in the arm for the bottom line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Technology is only as good as the people using it. Which is why tools come last in how you implement sales enablement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But after your processes, strategies, content, training, and everything else has been understood and organized, tools should be brought in to optimize its implementation. This goes hand-in-hand with training to effectively use these new tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The major categories we see sales enablement influencing are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your starting sales enablement strategy will constantly change over time.And it should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales enablement is a fluctuating program, not a static one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New tools, processes, pieces of content, content delivery systems, technologies, and strategies are always being invented, adopted, and tested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why you need to track, analyze, and improve upon your sales enablement program year after year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Validate what works and what doesn\u2019t.Iterate the good, scrap or change the bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is another reason why clear objectives are so important. Without them, you won\u2019t know what\u2019s working, how to adjust, or where to pivot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is very NOT fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants selling. You should work to eliminate randomness and haphazard processes.It\u2019s fine if it somewhat begins this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But over time, your sales enablement strategy should become more refined, more streamlined, and easier to execute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once your program is at work in your organization, here are a few techniques you can use to optimize your strategy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales reps are underperforming.You wouldn’t be reading this if that weren\u2019t true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the primary sales enablement strategies you can use is on-demand consultation. It\u2019s an agile way for you to supply support to reps, including advice, coaching, and resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first step is to document sales rep\u2019s requests.Identify patterns and recurring issues.Then start working with each sales rep individually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Work through sticking points such as being able to anticipate what the competition will offer and knowing how to beat that offer. Or identifying choke points in the pipeline and moving deals to close. Or simply responding faster to leads to qualify them quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re not going to be available to answer every question from sales reps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Especially using sales enablement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your time is best spent on higher-priority, high-value questions and problems your reps need help resolving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most everything else can be given a templated response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can even combine this strategy with the last one. As you listen and provide advice on individual problems that repeatedly crop up, you can turn your answers into basic responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can send these responses via email, but that wouldn\u2019t really be automating it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We recommend using a chatbot service like Slack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This way you can give them a complete answer very quickly, without repeating yourself over and over again, allowing your knowledge database and chatbot to do that for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which brings up something else you can do:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Create an internal knowledge base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This should be a repository for frequently asked sales questions your reps can reference at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s the truth:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can put your whole team through as much training as possible, give them all the high-tech tools available, and some of them will still fail and lag behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now you have 2 choices:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If they have the right soft skills and are teachable but seem to struggle with group training sessions, then you should go for option #2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your high-performing reps will most likely continue to be high-performing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But your entire sales operation will benefit from raising a few bad apples into good ones, even if they never become great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Analyze their needs and create a learning and training program that suits them. This is not the time for slides and lectures. They need a competent teacher who will walk them through whatever they\u2019re learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Give them that, and they\u2019ll hopefully start firing on all cylinders like the rest of your sales team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u200d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales enablement is about empowering your sales reps to better persuade customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are 4 things you can use for persuasion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, of course, your voice. What do you think customers prefer? Overwhelmingly, it\u2019s images and videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to present your products in the best light, solve customer issues while forming a human connection, and effectively communicate internally to turn prospects into customers, you need a tool that can create the visual content you need to sell better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s what you get with Zight (formerly CloudApp).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zight (formerly CloudApp) has consistently been ranked by G2 Crowd as one of the top sales enablement tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This one, easy-to-use software allows your sales team to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Download Zight (formerly CloudApp)<\/a>, the essential sales enablement tool<\/a>, today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u200d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this post, we\u2019ll show you how to create a sales enablement strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"7374,7342,7349,7337,7356,7350","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[479],"tags":[483],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is Sales Enablement\u200d?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Establishing a Workable Sales Enablement Plan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Clarify Your Objectives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Discuss Sales Enablement with Your Sales Reps<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Understand Your Customer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Align Your Sales Process with the Buyer\u2019s Journey<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4 Steps for Implementing a Powerful Sales Enablement Program<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Organize the Content You\u2019re Going to Need<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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2. Prepare the Training Required<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Gather the Required Tools and Technology<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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4. Implement, Analyze and Iterate<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
3 High-Return Sales Enablement Strategies to Optimize Your Program<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Consult and Coach Sales Reps on Their Sticking Points<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Use A.I. to Answer Common, Low-Value Questions from Sales Reps<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Offer Personalized Training for Underperforming Sales Reps<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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One Tool You Should Include In Your Sales Enablement Strategy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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How to Create a Sales Enablement Strategy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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