SoftwareReviews’ latest research reveals that sales enablement activities often happen without strategic foresight, highlighting the need for an effective sales cycle program that will enable organizations to more effectively compete in a tight market.
The modern business landscape poses an array of challenges for sales and marketing teams. Many organizations quickly point to external market factors when confronting stagnating sales velocity. However, SoftwareReviews’ latest insights suggest that the root of the problem might be internal.
A significant challenge identified by SoftwareReviews is the lack of leadership and direction in sales enablement. The gap between marketing and sales teams has grown wider, with both groups often working reactively. This lack of synchronization not only wastes valuable time but also slows down, and at times loses, potential deals in the pipeline. This internal disconnect is further exacerbated by the inadequate technology stacks that these teams rely on. These platforms, often insecure and cumbersome, fail to capture essential insights for successful content delivery. The IT departments, as a result, are perpetually in crisis management mode, tackling integration issues, data quality checks, and cybersecurity concerns. To tackle these issues and provide insight on the best practices to successfully and sustainably create customer advocates, SoftwareReviews has published its latest research-backed blueprint Improve Sales Enablement Strategy.
“When we understand sales enablement as a maturity process, marketing staff can identify and act on concrete initiatives to build proactive relationships with the sales team. This opens the door to advanced marketing strategies, such as account-based marketing, which more readily beats out the competition and increases win rates,” says Thomas Randall, advisory director, research, Info-Tech Research Group and SoftwareReviews. “Consequently, stagnating sales velocity may not be due to external market factors. Business leaders can empower their sales teams to drive sales velocity and boost revenue by diagnosing their current sales maturity level and creating a best-in-class sales enablement roadmap.”
SoftwareReviews suggests a holistic approach to tackle these issues. Before hastily attributing diminishing win rates to external factors, organizations need to introspect. Acknowledging past sales enablement mistakes is the first step toward empowerment. The company emphasizes the importance of unity among sales, marketing, and other essential departments to steer the organization toward a brighter future.
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To help businesses navigate this challenge, SoftwareReviews introduces a comprehensive four-phase methodology for sales enablement:
- Ad hoc – Tactical, one-off sales enablement initiative. No formal vision or strategy.
- Defined – An understanding of sales enablement and its business. The formal process that has not yet been executed.
- Managed – Documented vision and strategy executed. Aligned with business objectives.
- Optimized – The center of excellence created, with funding for innovation and best-in-class supporting technologies.
Following this approach, organizations can expect a robust sales enablement strategy, all encapsulated in the SoftwareReviews’ executive presentation template.
To provide a deeper understanding, SoftwareReviews offers a range of tools and resources. These include:
- Blueprint for Sales Enablement: Assess the maturity of your existing sales enablement processes and develop a strategic plan moving forward.
- Executive Presentation: A boardroom-ready presentation capturing pivotal initiatives to elevate the company’s sales enablement processes.
- Sales Enablement Maturity Diagnostic: A tool to benchmark your sales enablement process maturity and to derive actionable steps for improvement.
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“Sales enablement, when approached correctly, can be the catalyst for transformation. A cohesive strategy can rejuvenate sales velocity and drive revenues,” concludes Thomas.
Download the Improve Sales Enablement Strategy blueprint to gain comprehensive insights on establishing a customer advocacy program that effectively translates customer satisfaction into significant revenue growth.
SoftwareReviews’ research-based resources are developed by industry experts to provide instructions, tools, and project artifacts to help organizations dramatically reduce project duration and improve project outcomes.
