"Sales enablement" is a term that's been thrown around a lot over the past several years. It's far more than another marketing buzzword, however; in fact, sales enablement could very well be the key to unlocking the true potential not only of your sales team but of your other customer-facing departments, too.
This article is designed to give you a high-level, yet a comprehensive breakdown of what sales enablement is, what it involves, and why it's so important. They say that "knowledge is power" — and the more knowledge you gain around sales enablement, the easier it will be for you to unlock its power for your brand.
With that being said, let's dive in!
Sales enablement is defined differently depending on whom you ask. For instance, HubSpot defines sales enablement as:
"The iterative process of providing your [business'] sales team with the resources they need to close more deals. These resources may include content, tools, knowledge, and information to effectively sell your product or service to customers."
According to Brainshark, sales enablement is:
"A strategic, cross-functional discipline designed to increase sales results and productivity by providing integrated content, training and coaching services for salespeople and front-line sales managers along the entire customer's buying journey, powered by technology."
Sales Hacker has a simpler definition than either of the companies above:
"Getting the right people in the right conversations with the right [decision] makers in the right way."
As you can see, there's quite a bit of variation when it comes to pinpointing exactly what sales enablement is. However, there are some key features that are shared (or at least implied) by almost every definition of this term:
Of course, sales enablement involves the use of specific tools, software, platforms, and training initiatives to optimize the sales process. And if you are a little skeptical about how important a well-defined sales enablement program actually is, just glance over these statistics:
Now that we've discussed what sales enablement is all about, and how it can drive tangible results, let's drill down into some of the specifics around this concept.
Since sales enablement encompasses a broad range of operations and business processes, let's break down some of the key elements of an effective sales enablement program. We'll start with:
Big data can be a wonderful asset — but it can also overwhelm your sales team with non-vital information. A well-designed sales enablement program can help your employees to harness the power of data without losing sight of what's relevant to the bottom line. For instance:
In today's Digital Age, so much of selling revolves around the development and distribution of content — specifically, the right content, for the right consumer, at the right time. Granted, content creation is primarily identified with marketing; but that doesn't mean your sales team can get by without effective content. From testimonials to personalized emails, sales content plays a big role in closing deals.
With that in mind, here are some ways sales enablement can optimize your content:
Sales enablement also involves automating routine processes for your sales reps so that they can focus on the more important aspects of their job — namely, connecting with high-value prospects and closing sales. Some common avenues of automation that a sales enablement program can tap into include:
As you can tell from our discussion up until now, sales enablement is not something to be taken lightly, or implemented in a haphazard fashion. It has many moving parts and requires a certain level of expertise for the best results. Nevertheless, the benefits of executing a well-rounded sales enablement program almost always outweigh the upfront costs.
We could talk about scores of benefits that come from sales enablement, but let's just focus on three big advantages:
By establishing a solid, yet flexible sales enablement program, you're setting your company up for increased revenue for years to come. Why? Because past successes do not predict future results. Sales reps, no matter how skilled or experienced they are, need regular, ongoing training in order to achieve peak performance. In fact, research indicates that sales reps will likely forget up to 90% of a given training program within a week!
This is where sales enablement comes into the picture. A well-established sales enablement program allows you to:
The sales cycle is a relatively simple concept, at least in theory. The longer your sales cycle is, the fewer sales your company will make; in other words, if your reps are spending a big chunk of their time on sales-adjacent activities instead of actually selling, then it will take longer to close deals, and you won't be able to connect with as many prospects.
The converse is also true: if you can shorten the sales cycle for your reps, then your company will acquire more customers and experience a higher growth rate. By leveraging sales enablement best practices, you'll be able to do just that. For example:
One of the biggest and most common pain points for modern companies lies in the disconnect between their sales and marketing departments. There may be disagreement over what constitutes a "marketing qualified lead" versus a "sales qualified lead," what type of content is needed to move a prospect down the funnel, and at exactly what point a lead should transition from one department to the other.
A high quality sales enablement program can make a lot of those problems vanish. For example:
You may have several questions about sales enablement. For instance: What exactly is it? How does it work? What benefits can it offer my company?
In the sections below, let's answer some frequently asked questions around sales enablement.
HubSpot defines sales enablement as:
"The iterative process of providing your business' sales team with the resources they need to close more deals. These resources may include content, tools, knowledge, and information to effectively sell your product or service to customers."
That's certainly an accurate definition, but let's simplify it even further. Basically, it is the process by which you help your sales team to sell smarter and faster. It includes your strategy, your tech stack, your content, and your training program for sales reps.
For the most part, these tools are software programs that can help your reps optimize various selling activities. Whether your reps need help prospecting, generating leads, creating email templates, or scheduling follow-up calls, an easy-to-use sales enablement tool with a range of practical features can be an invaluable resource for your team. And as your business grows, the tools in your tech stack should be able to scale with it.
A sales enablement platform is a powerful type of tool that you can use to accomplish several key objectives. For example, your platform should be able to:
Examples of popular platforms include well-known options such as HubSpot, Zendesk, Highspot, and Salesforce. Other platforms may be native to one of these key systems. However, they provide a unique set of features for their users.
Sales enablement content is any piece of content specifically designed to help your sales team move leads down the "sales pipeline" toward conversion. You want to make sure that your reps have the content assets they need to overcome potential objections, and alleviate (or eliminate) pain points.
As an example, if your team is working with a B2B buyer that's hesitant to purchase your product due to pricing concerns, you want your reps to have ready access to content that can help overcome the buyer's objection. Such as case studies that demonstrate the value of your product, or testimonials from other customers that benefited from their partnership with your brand.
The simple answer is: an effective sales enablement strategy will help your sales team avoid bottlenecks in the buyer's journey. For instance, one study from Salesforce found that 58% of pipeline stalls occur because reps are unable to add value. In other words, the reps either don't know how to navigate around certain pain points, or they don't have the needed resources to do so.
An effective sales enablement plan will not only include a robust content library that reps can tap into at any time — it will also provide them with training on when and how to use the available content for maximum impact. Something as simple as asking prospects the right questions can make a huge difference in terms of results. When your reps know the right time to whip out a case study as opposed to a high-level blog post, and they know how to use that case study to address the prospect's objections, then your team will be able to guide prospects to a favorable decision more quickly.
Think of your sales reps like a team of lumberjacks. They can do the job with regular axes, but it will go a lot faster when they have chainsaws. Sales enablement tools are those "chainsaws."
For example, a solid sales enablement strategy takes away the guesswork that many salespeople tend to engage in. In many cases, sales reps are tempted to "reinvent the wheel" for every situation. They want to change up their email template for a particular prospect, get overly creative with a social media post, or pull content from unknown sources. Bottom line? These reps spend a ton of time searching for resources or trying to create them out of thin air.
This is where sales enablement comes into the picture. With one centralized platform — and/or a suite of sales enablement tools — reps don't have to spend all that time and energy looking for help. Instead, they can easily locate helpful content from a well-organized library, use pre-designed templates for their email marketing campaigns, as well as gain increased visibility into their own performance metrics. It speeds up the entire process and helps your team improve their win rate.
A robust sales enablement strategy contributes to an open channel of communication between your marketing and sales teams. When both departments are on board, each team can receive the help they need to perform at high levels.
For instance, your sales team can provide valuable feedback to marketing as to which pieces of content are most useful in moving a prospect down the funnel. In turn, marketing can develop content marketing campaigns that will win them more leads, and drive their success. In addition, having all content organized within one centralized database helps marketing and sales to stay "on message" in their interactions with prospects.
In summary, sales enablement is an impactful, holistic approach to sales and customer retention. It can make your sales team more effective, streamline the overall sales process, and improve alignment between your sales and marketing departments. If you'd like to learn more about the many benefits of sales enablement, and how to implement it in your company, reach out to our sales enablement experts at OverGo Studio today for a free consultation.