Sales enablement is a topic of choice in many B2B organisations. It accelerates sales leaders to achieve better results, drive revenue figures, generate higher sales figures and increase conversion rates. But what exactly should you know about sales enablement?
Desired by many, achieved by a select few, sales enablement has the potential to become a mythical buzz word. Harnessing the power of sales enablement is no simple process, but it is entirely possible. Which is why we’ve put together are 4 key things that every sales leader should remember when considering how to streamline their sales processes with sales enablement:
1) Sales enablement empowers your sales team
Even your best sales team member will inevitably face rejection. But by empowering your team with the ability to take business winning action quickly and streamline laborious processes, you foster an optimistic attitude and empower your sales reps to be proactive in their role. You are able to take your best sales team and make them better.
By providing your sales team members with the systems, processes and knowledge they need to really engage with a prospect you can allow them to be much more efficient within their role.
CRMs which record complete contact histories, and documents their movements across your website will give your team the ability to really understand the needs of the prospect they are speaking with, and in turn, allow them to engage them in really meaningful conversations through providing them with the content they need.
By giving them access to key tools, your sales team can be granted access to a wealth of data and metrics, arming them to make more effective business decisions and automate key processes. Moving them firmly away from the days of blindly dialling into their markets every day, without a clear idea of who they were reaching out to.
Sales enablement processes are not only about providing your sales teams with the insights they need but business leaders too. The ability to measure and report on the performance of your sales team is critical in understanding what and where the bottlenecks are in your whole sales process. By measuring a multitude of performance metrics you can begin to uncover a clear picture of what activities produce results and which simply waste resources, streamlining your sales processes from beginning to end.
2) Sales enablement helps to align Sales and Marketing
Large business often face the problem of rigid departmental segregation and team misalignment but more often than not, no departments can be more divided than Sales and Marketing. It is common for a marketing department to deliver what they would consider to be a successful lead generation campaign that ultimately goes nowhere. Where as it is as equally common for sales teams to believe they are unsupported by marketing who waste their time with irrelevant or under qualified leads. When in reality, these are often two sides of the same coin. You should be looking to align sales and marketing with common revenue goals.
Misalignment between Sales and Marketing can be so costly, that HubSpot has reported the decreased sales productivity and wasted marketing efforts that arise due to misalignment cost a massive $1 trillion a year.
By reviewing the interactions – or lack thereof - between your sales and marketing teams you can begin to develop new processes and systems which support both sales and marketing. Shared definitions, targets, goals and processes can go a long way in realigning the work carried out by both teams and achieving increased but targeted productivity, making it much easier for sales to engage, nurture and close prospects.
3) Sales enablement isn’t just training or coaching. It’s a state of mind
Training and coaching plays a huge role in the development of any successful sales team, and it undoubtedly plays a huge role in cultivating a team which has the ability to effectively identify leads and close opportunities.
Training ensures your sales team are operating with current product knowledge and sales best practices while coaching provides them with the guidance and accountability they need to perform their role. Both of which they require to sell much more effectively at a higher volume.
However, successfully empowering your sales people is much more about streamlining your sales processes and putting in place the tools, systems, processes and training that they need to increase productivity levels, resulting in a much more efficient and effective sales process.
When implementing a program of sales enablement, it is one which is applied across the business and not just the sales department. In order to ensure it is deployed successfully a new frame of mind must be adopted. One which constantly seeks to understand the current systems so as to identify the ways in which they can be modified or improved to yield greater sales results.
4) Sales enablement benefits the prospect & the customer
The processes and tools behind sales enablement allow your sales team to demonstrate to the prospect that they are able to work with them to find a resolution to their daily challenges and goals.
By taking a step back from hard line sales, and instead of taking a more consultative approach your sales teams are able to close sales much more efficiently. The content and knowledge with which your sales teams are able to engage your prospects with increases transparency, eliminating prospects’ suspicions that you are only out to meet a sales quota.
As your customers make more confident purchasing decisions, empowered by the knowledge you were able to provide, long lasting relationships can be built, centring around repeat purchases.
These customers are much more likely to be satisfied, making them one of your most powerful sales tools as they recommend you to peers and colleagues; participate in case studies and leave positive reviews.
Make sure you harness the power of sales enablement by downloading our eBook and get our complete insight into streamlining your sales processes for more effective sales at a higher volume.
