Hi Program Managers and Admins,

Sales enablement isn’t a term unfamiliar to most of you. It has been on the rise in the world of sales in the last decade and really gained momentum and precedence in the last few years. At the core, sales enablement equips your sales team with strategic resources it needs to excel, from tools to technology and from content to data and beyond. And in our increasingly digital and virtual environment, B2B sales enablement solutions are buyer-focused and aim to provide sellers with the right intel to engage with buyers effectively throughout the customer journey. 

Before we dive into how to set up your company’s sales enablement process, let’s break down some of the significant benefits:

1. Being able to scale success — Once your entire sales force is equipped with the right tools, methodologies, and resources, top performers don’t have to bear all the responsibility of carrying the team to hitting quota.
2. Working with stronger sales data — Data houses the power for building and nurturing sales relationships. Without precise and up-to-date data, sellers won’t have the right insights to engage with buyers, which can lead to missed opportunities or increased risks. Take a look at this post if you’d like to know how to clean your sales data.
3. Close deals faster and win more deals — For many organizations, this may be the biggest ROI of your virtual selling program or sales enablement process. When your sellers have easy access to adequate resources and refined data, they will have more meaningful conversations with the buyers and become more effective sellers.
4. Improved sales and marketing alignment — It’s always good when you have Marketing on your side and aligned with your goals and strategies. When Sales have the right data to work off of, Marketing will also be able to create assets that are relevant and specific to the buyers. This in turn allows sellers to engage with buyers at the optimal time, gradually forming a positive feedback loop. Don’t forget to check out our Community Member Insights Series on Sales and Marketing Collaboration for how your fellow peers have achieved alignment between the two departments.
5. Elevated company reputation — Whenever your sellers (whether in a hunter vs. hybrid role, or on the field vs. inbound) are interacting with an external party, they are representing the business and the company’s values. Remember that in the Buyer First era, it’s not enough to be a thought leader in your field and industry, it’s also necessary to become a trusted advisor for your buyers too. When your sales team is supplied with proper training and the right resources, they become more informed and powerful, and it will reflect well on your organization.

With all those benefits, it is easy to see why more than 60% of companies surveyed in the 2019 CSO Insights Sales Enablement Report now have a dedicated person, program, or process for sales enablement. Now that you know the advantages of sales enablement, let’s take a look at three important things to keep in mind set up yours for success:

1. Imprint a culture collaboration and adoption — Without having sellers, sales managers, and sales leaders on board, not much can be done with the tools and resources that your team invested in. Check out our Community Member Insights Series on Gamification and Competition Strategy for how to engage your sellers to participate in these processes and help scale the success of the business.

2. Choose your sales enablement tools, content, and practices — With the rise of AI, and machine learning in technology, there are now a plethora of tools and software aimed to make a seller’s job easier. They can be categorized into the following:

• sales intelligence, i.e. Sales Navigator which you all have and are familiar ;)
• sales acceleration, i.e. SalesLoft and Yesware
• customer relationship management (CRM), i.e. Microsoft Dynamics 365, HubSpot and Salesforce
• content management/sharing platforms
• sales/marketing automation

Knowing your industry, business goals, operational structure, and sales strategy and even understanding what is currently lacking will help your organization find the right mix of solutions.

3. Put a team in charge of management and oversight — Once you have your sales team and the right tools in place, you will also need leaders, specifically C-level executives, to sponsor and champion your sales enablement / virtual selling program so that it can continue to run smoothly and successfully. If you are a Program Manager (PM) or Admin at your company, I’d definitely suggest taking a look at our Community Member Insights Series on Driving Program Adoption and Gaining Executive Support. You will hear from your fellow PMs and Admins on how they’ve increased adoption and usage of their virtual selling program as well as gained executive buy-in.

As always, what do you think of the above benefits and key points? If your organization already has a sales enablement function in place, I’d love to hear any best practices you have for the rest of the Community. If you know certain areas in your company’s sales enablement that could be improved, I’d also like to hear what you’re prioritizing and how you plan on improving your processes.

Thank you, and I look forward to the discussion!

Eva C.