What is Sales Enablement

Sales Enablement is a sales term that refers to the sales process of providing salespeople with all the information and sales tools they need to close sales. With an increase in competition, sales enablement has become more and more critical for sales teams. This blog post will provide you with everything you need to know about sales enablement - how it's defined, what its function is in your organization, and everything in-between!

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What is Sales Enablement?

Sales Enablement is the process of providing salespeople with all the information and tools they need to close more deals. Sales teams must have access to account-specific documents, customer data, forecasts, emails templates - you name it! We've seen before that for sales to be made, each party involved needs to understand their role, so it's no surprise that Sales Enablement is important - the more information you give your reps, the better they can understand where they fit in.

What Does Sales Enablement Do? 

As mentioned before, good quality sales enablement will allow every party involved to understand their role in the sales process fully. Sales enablement will also allow everyone to have access to account-specific documents, forecasts, and customer data so they can better focus on closing deals - it's not just about giving information!

Sales enablement streamlines your sales cycle by providing reps with everything they need to know at every stage of the sales process. It also helps your reps close more deals because they have instant access to all relevant information - no more hunting for emails or documents at crucial points in the cycle!

Why is it Important?

Sales Enablement is vital because it allows everyone involved to understand their role better and ensure that every party has access to what they need when they need it. When everyone is on the same page, it means more deals get closed!

How to Implement Sales Enablement in Your Organization?

Sales enablement tools like InsideView and Leadspace ensure that you're always up-to-date with what's going on in your customer accounts - including changes in contact details, new hires at key decision-maker roles, and more.

These tools allow you to keep track of your sales process at every stage - from prospecting to closing deals. You can also automate workflows so that reps are automatically notified when an opportunity moves into a new phase in the cycle! 

Once Sales Enablement is implemented throughout your organization, reps can focus on selling  because they have everything they need to do their jobs at the touch of a button.

Who Owns Sales Enablement?

The marketing department does not own sales Enablement, but it's an integral part of marketing. The people who own sales enablement manage day-to-day activities like campaign planning and design, website development, email campaigns, or any other aspect that helps increase revenue (aka Sales). This means that every person involved in determining revenue goals should be involved in sales enablement.

How is Sales Enablement Practiced?

Sales Enablement can be practiced in several ways, but one way is to use the customer journey map. With this approach, you will look at each stage of your prospect's journey and define what content needs to be available for them during that period. 

For example, suppose someone just joined your company as a new hire. In that case, they may need access to an internal orientation guide, or if they are reaching out to partners with their first questions about your company, you may want them to have access to the various ways people can contact your team.

How Do I Know What is Working?

Sales Enablement helps make sure everyone's on the same page and has all of the information they need to do their job. One of the best ways to achieve your goals is by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) across all stages in the customer journey map. These KPIs will also be used to track overall revenue growth, which helps determine if sales enablement efforts are practical or not.

Sales Enablement Benefits

Sales Enablement is one of the most important elements to driving revenue growth. Instead of sales teams having to search for information, it's readily available at their fingertips where they can get answers quickly and easily. This allows them to focus on what matters - closing deals.

●     It streamlines the buyer's journey.

●     It helps to find and retain high performing reps.

●     It ensures consistency in your messaging and value proposition across all platforms of engagement.

●     It improves customer experience with on-demand information.

●     It upgrades the talent evaluator process.

●     You do not have to rank or prioritize the benefits since they are all equally important. 

●     There is no need to add numbers or bullet points. 

●     It focuses on writing a complete sentence and not just partial sentences.

Best Practices of Sales Enablement

Here's a list of the best practices of sales enablement that companies can integrate into their org to attract more leads and increase revenue.

●     Ensure the sales team is productive and profitable.

●     Build a strong foundation for success with a predictive ROI calculator.

●     Incorporate new technologies to serve your customers better.

●     Measure and optimize your sales process.

●     Create a differentiated customer experience.

Five Steps to Set Up a Winning Sales Enablement Process

Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how to set up a successful sales enablement process:

Define the Customer Experience.

The first and most important step is to define the customer experience. You need to know what kind of information your potential buyers are looking for — whether it's high-level comparisons, product training resources, or case studies – and where they might find that information in order for you to create an effective sales enablement process.

Create the Sales Enablement Team.

The next step is to build a sales enablement team. This group of people should include representation from your marketing, product management, and sales teams to understand each audience member's needs truly.

Get Focused on Your Data to See Your Results.

If you are starting with your sales enablement efforts, it's important to get focused on the data to see what needs improvement. Data is an integral part of any successful business. If you aren't collecting accurate information about how your current strategy is working for or against your bottom line, it's time to get started.

Work with Content Marketing to Develop Your Strategy.

Content marketing is an integral part of any sales enablement process, and it's important to work with a professional content writer when developing buyer personas. This information should be used to help them understand the needs of each customer segment so that they can communicate effectively through their messaging across all channels. 

Find Ways for Cross-Functional Collaboration.

Lastly, it's essential to develop a process where all cross-functional team members can create and distribute content. Find ways for your sales reps, product managers, marketing teams, customer success professionals – anyone who interacts with customers daily -to collaborate so that they are motivated by the same goals and have the same information to share with their customers.