Let’s start with a simple definition: sales enablement is the empowerment of sales professionals to sell.
Structurally, it involves a melding of technology, content, and processes. The available technology defines the boundaries of what you can do. The content is the creative portion. The process is how you run your content through the technology.
The three aspects inform each other. Content and process suggest new technological features, technology and process present new opportunities for content, and technology and content can be combined in many different ways according to your process.
Technology is at the heart of Sales Enablement
If you’re still juggling complicated, decades-old spreadsheets of contacts, you’ll be relieved to know that sales technology has indeed progressed. With the right CRM software, salespeople now have the ability to store their data in a more ordered way.
Of course, it goes much further than that. Contacts can be sorted intelligently, and you can automate new additions. By understanding your contacts in a deeper manner — how they got added in the first place, what content is connecting with them — you can figure out which leads are qualified and focus your efforts on reaching them rather than getting lost in a deluge of data about people who aren’t likely to actually buy.
The Content that Prepares and Convinces the Lead
Modern customers buy based on their research — not what a salesperson tells them. Your content informs that research, by providing answers to questions they have about their problems. A blog post explaining how to get started with beefing up cybersecurity they found on a search engine or social media, for example, can lead them to an ebook and an email newsletter list that educates them further.
You use the CRM technology to track how all of this content is read. Amid the rest of their research, you can make time-appropriate, relevant contact with them. When the moment is right for sales to take over, you can do so knowing that they’re primed on all sorts of things having had multiple points of contact with the company. And you’re ready with more content: decks, case studies, and anything else you need to have on hand to close the deal — and it can all be personalized based on what you’ve been finding out.
Perfecting the Sales Enablement Process
The content and technology without the strategy of the process is just that: a tool and materials.
Knowing how to tie them together is the trick that elevates you into the world of modern sales. If the technology is a bow, the content an arrow, and the sale a target, then the process is the how you wield the technology and content — your aim. The means by which you hit the bullseye.
If your content doesn’t hit the mark, adjust it. If the technology enables greater reach or more precision, take advantage of that. If they both need some work, do a review, and see if there’s a better model out there. If you know you’ve got great content and technology but it’s still not working, you need to work on your process — your technique.
Perfecting all three aspects is how you truly unlock your sales potential.
Sales Enablement is a Crucial Part of B2B Sales
Losing a promising B2B sale is a big deal. The reality is that many salespeople are losing more than they even know about, because they’re still operating with old, traditional methods that are fast losing ground to the success that sales enablement transformations produce in companies open to them.
This stuff is new for many companies. They may have heard about CRM software but not know where to start, or they may have ended up with so much data they don’t know how to deal with it all. That’s where a sales enablement partner comes in.
Are you ready take that step forward and get some of that growth for yourself? We’ve helped more than 60 B2B organisations across Canada and the US realign themselves with modern sales techniques and are always happy to meet for a quick advisory call.