Buyer behaviors have changed drastically. Needless to mention, sales tactics need to adapt to the changes. Some age-old methods are still evergreen, but being aggressive and manipulative won’t work today. Nor will calling your prospects at the wrong time help the cause. Sales is getting tougher day by day because of changing markets, new buying habits, and aggressive growth goals. Salespeople are finding it difficult to stay on par with the expectations. As a result, over 50% of sellers missed quota in 2018, sales training firm Aslan reports. Sadly, this has happened for five years in a row now. Sales Enablement can make this easier.
What exactly is ‘Sales Enablement’?
The failure to meet yearly quota can be largely attributed to the knowledge and skill level of the Sales representatives. They need to be more informed, skilled, and productive in order to reach their numbers. It’s not surprising businesses around the globe have understood the true essence of Sales Enablement and started focusing on this area. CSO Insights reports that 61% of companies have a dedicated Sales Enablement function today.
It is a relatively new term. It’s on the minds of Sales Managers and Executives everywhere! But it’s not a passing shower.
As per Forrester, “Sales Enablement is a strategic, ongoing process that equips all client-facing employees with the ability to consistently and systematically have a valuable conversation with the right set of customer stakeholders at each stage of the customer’s problem-solving life cycle to optimize the Return On Investment (ROI) of the selling system.”
Basically, it is the practice of providing your Sales team with more information, tools, resources, content, training, etc. to help them sell more and sell more effectively. In simple words, it can be described as the practice of making selling as easy as possible. Provide them with relevant content, training, CRM – and you are good to go!
Gartner defines Sales Enablement as “The activities, systems, processes, and information that support and promote knowledge-based Sales interactions with clients and prospects.”
Aberdeen reported that companies with excellent Sales Enablement process in place had:
- 32% higher team Sales quota attainment,
- 24% better individual quota achievement, and
- 23% higher lead conversion rate.
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Where does Sales Enablement fit in?
If we consider the Sales process as a funnel with four basic stages, Marketing Automation and Sales Enablement will share two stages each. Marketing Automation takes care of the awareness and consideration stages, while Sales Enablement helps with the evaluation and purchase stages.
This is where the actual Sales happen and revenue is generated. In a nutshell, Sales teams are the essential stakeholders that can improve the quality of customer engagements as a result of Sales Enablement.
Ways in which Sales Enablement can help boost the bottom line:
Better training, low turnover
The whole point of Sales Enablement is providing the Sales reps with the necessary knowledge and training to boost up their confidence and morale. Highly-trained Sales folks would be able to answer customers’ questions with ease. This will help them close deals easily and meet their targets efficiently.
This, in addition, will reduce employee turnover as they won’t lose motivation at the sight of not achieving their targets. At a time when a large number of organizations are struggling to retain second and third year Sales representatives, Sales Enablement may prove to be a cost-effective measure.
It helps Salespeople get back to “basics”
Jim Ninivaggi, Chief Readiness Officer at Brainshark says, “Sales Enablement departments are recognizing that even though buying behaviors have changed over the last 15 years, the fundamentals that make or break a Sales call are still the same.”
He cites that many Sales teams have gotten away from the basics of good selling. Thorough pre-call planning, agenda-setting, call execution, consultative skills, and improvisation are the keys still today and Sales Enablement can help them with this. It can help them hone their basic skills in order to have more valuable conversations in each stage of the Sales funnel and thus, drive more Sales.
Better customer experience
67% of consumers cite bad experiences as the reason for churn, as per Esteban Kolsky, Founder and Principal of thinkJar. This makes it imperative to invest in the Sales Enablement process to hold on to the existing customers and win over new ones. There are various ways to do this. Train your Sales team to keep an eye on customer feedback on social media, engage with them, and provide value. In order to build relationships that last, it is necessary to adopt a customer-centric approach to Sales Enablement.
Bridges the gap between Marketing and Sales
It is a no-brainer that Marketing and Sales teams need to work in unison in order to achieve the best results. Sales improve when these two core divisions of a company work together. Sales Enablement will help advance your Inbound Marketing strategy and enhance ROI by making sure every team member is on the same page, with the same goals, strategies, and mindsets.
Sales Enablement is a necessity in today’s digital world. It will help organizations democratize and update their Sales processes while preparing every member of the Sales team to be more efficient. Employee retention will be high and the companies can save a lot owing to reduced employee turnovers. In addition, onboarding and training new Sales reps would become easier with standard training plans in place.
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