What is
Sales Enablement?

Sales enablement is a powerful method used to improve the performance of your sales force by aligning your sales and marketing teams with the help of strategic tools and resources. In this extensive guide of sales enablement, you’ll discover what it is, how it works, tools you can use, and how it can benefit your company by increasing workplace efficiency and boosting your bottom line.

Sales Enablement Explained

Sales enablement is designed to streamline and improve the performance of the sales force of a company. Different departments work together to support and assist sales to be successful. Today, more and more companies are jumping on board with sales enablement to achieve a consistent and profitable level of outbound and inbound sales. Many companies have a sales enablement team that’s devoted to this, or at least have implemented a sales enablement solution into their workflow.The core objective is to provide sales with the necessary training, tools, and technology they need to successfully engage with prospects and close deals. Providers, like SoloFire, offer a variety of tools, platforms, and resources all geared toward the development and success of your sales team.

What makes sales enablement so powerful is that it incorporates five factors that are all very different and very essential in creating a successful sales team.

Resources and Information Tailored to the Buyer

Knowing your buyer is arguably the most important factor for selling anything to anyone. Sales enablement platforms provide sales teams with the resources they need to fully understand the buyer’s intent, purchasing habits, motives, demographics, and any other information needed to effectively engage the buyer. With ample resources and information tailored specifically to your audience, your sales team can successfully communicate, engage, and connect with each individual.

Training and Development

The second factor in sales enablement is the training and development aspect, which needs to be a continual and consistent piece in improving employee performance. A sales enablement solution provides sales reps with the initial training and continual development they need to be effective and efficient whatever they are selling. With the right training and tools, your reps can be confident in every sales conversation. Training and development can include print resources, informational videos, interactive collaboration platforms, skill-building activities, refresher courses, and more. The main advantages of the training and development gained from a sales enablement tool are that it’s designed by experts and benefits you continuously, unlike standard initiatory training programs.

Content that is easy to Understand and Implement

Content accounts for a massive portion of sales enablement and includes your marketing team, sales force, and your buyers. Sales enablement software makes managing and finding content easy. The marketing team can easily add or update content, while reps can quickly find content they need. This content is designed strategically to resonate with each buyer, while guiding them through an personalized buying journey. This content comes in a variety of forms that can be used by the sales team to educate themselves and help influence the buyer’s decision. Common forms of content are blog articles, product sheets, videos, case studies, research reports, etc.

Tools that can be used to Track Sales Force Progress and Buyer Analytics

What is sales without precision? Modern sales enablement platforms are equipped with a user-friendly dashboard and easy-to-read data that enables sales reps to track their progress. With these insights they can know how their buyers are interacting with their content, discover the flaws in their strategy, and learn more about the typical customer journey and behaviors of their customers. This component of sales enablement marketing has the potential to greatly improve your sales processes and reduce the time and overhead costs you’re currently spending to monitor progress and better understand your buyers. No more sharing content and not knowing how your buyers interact with it!

Precise Measurements of KPIs

Not only can sales enablement software help you achieve your business goals, but it can also help you determine exactly what those goals are and the specific steps to take in order to reach them. A crucial step in any good sales enablement strategy is to set clear, concise goals and provide your sales team with transparent and realistic objectives to achieve them.

With progress tracking and precise measurements of key performance indicators, you can monitor the performance of your team in great detail without needing to spend a lot of time looking over shoulders and compiling and comparing numbers. Both marketing and sales get real time analytics so they know what’s working, and what’s not.

The Importance of Sales Enablement

Without sales enablement software, it’s all too easy for a company to suffer from weak spots in their sales department, such as disorganized workflow, hard time finding content, inconsistent service, and the inability to accurately track and use actionable data.

Here are five good reasons why sales enablement is so important.

Provides Effective Solutions for Teams of all Types and Sizes

Whether you’re a small startup with an inexperienced sales team or a large corporation, you can take advantage of the power of sales enablement. The beauty of the service is that it’s tailored to you, your sales staff, and your buyers.

Provides a meticulous understanding of your target audience

Once your sales team thoroughly understands the behaviors and thought processes of your ideal customer, they will be able to effectively communicate with and create a personalized buying experience for their prospects.

Measures the performance of your content and sales force

Track how your content and sales force are doing every step of the way. Uncover hidden potential, discover weak points, and fully utilize your key players (and content) with user generated insights. Use performance reports to strengthen the weak links and establish a sales force to be reckoned with.

Ensures every single sales person is achieving quotas and goals

With an abundance of lead-generating content, training resources, and continual development, you can ensure that every single sales person is achieving department-wide goals and meeting their standard quotas.

Helps companies to create an effective and consistent sales process

With sales enablement, companies can stop floundering in their attempts to develop a competent sales staff. Additionally, they can effectively improve sales processes and streamline their day-to-day operations. Work smarter, not harder.

5 Signs of a Business in Need of Sales Enablement

How do you know if your company is in need of sales enablement?

Here are five unmistakable signs that a sales force could benefit from a powerful sales enablement platform.

CONVERSION RATES HAVE PLATEAUED OR DECLINED
INCONSISTENT SALES SCRIPTS AND SERVICE
FAILURE TO MEET QUOTAS
INEFFECTIVE SALES PROCESS/FUNNEL
INABILITY TO ACCURATELY TRACK PERFORMANCE AND ANALYTICS

How Your Company Can Benefit from Sales Enablement

Sales enablement provides a myriad of benefits to companies of all types and sizes. To show just how much there is to be gained from this powerful growth method, we’ve laid out our favorite benefits of sales enablement: