What is Sales Enablement?

If you work in sales (or even if you don’t), you’ve probably heard the term sales enablement a time or two. This buzz word is rapidly circulating across industries, but what exactly is it?

You’ve got questions. We’ve got answers. Let’s take a look at three simple questions about sales enablement:

1. What is sales enablement?
2. Why is sales enablement important?
3. How can you implement sales enablement?

1. What is sales enablement?

Sales enablement is the process of supplying your sales organization with the content, information, and resources needed to help them sell most effectively. The purpose of sales enablement is to supply your team with what they need to be the best at what they do.

Your employees are your greatest asset, so you want to equip them to be the best in the industry. With a constant influx of information and innovation, your reps cannot thrive with stagnant knowledge. They have to have access to continual learning and engagement in order to stay ahead of the industry competition.

Here’s where sales enablement can get tricky. This information has to be easily and readily accessible for your team. Sales enablement information should be easy to access and reusable for every potential customer and every potential use case.

Let’s take a closer look at a few defining attributes of sales enablement:

• The overall objective of sales enablement is pretty straightforward: you want to provide your people with the resources they need to succeed. It really is that simple.
• Sales enablement is less about your sales team and more about better understanding your buyer and selling to their direct needs.
• The depths of your sales enablement program will define your organization. If your reps have limited access to information, they can’t sell effectively to prospective buyers.
• On that same note, your reps need to understand how to effectively use the information that you are providing them with. This reminds me of the saying you can “Lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” As a team leader, you want to set your team up for success, by providing the resources they need and teaching them how to effectively use them.
• Whether you have 5 reps or 5,000 reps, sales enablement is a vital resource for your organization. Easy functionality in your program allows any and every rep to continually develop their career and their industry knowledge.

2. Why is sales enablement important?

What story are you trying to tell your buyers? What journey do you want to take them on? Believe it or not, these things matter. Using a blanket sales pitch for each prospect is a fast track to destroying your pipeline. Sales enablement takes industry knowledge and sales best practices and teaches your team how to have a cohesive selling message while catering to each one of your prospects in a unique way.

Sales enablement plays a key role in scaling your team beyond the competition. It paves a clear path for your reps so that they are able to fully see what it takes to be a successful sales rep.

3. How can you implement sales enablement? 

Let’s highlight a few best practices that can be a catalyst as your organization defines or refines your current program.

• First, cultivate a few key goals and objectives that are vital for your reps success. Then map out tactical steps that they can take to effectively implement these goals. Know the what, how, why, and when behind each one of your goals. This maps a clear direction for where you are going and allows for benchmarking to ensure that your sales enablement program is the most effective it can be.
• The foundation of your sales enablement program should be all about your buyer experience. Sales is all about telling the best story to your prospective buyer. Therefore you should first and foremost have a buyer’s perspective at the cornerstone of your training program. It is critical for your reps to understand buyer personas, buyer journeys, and how your solution is perfect for buyer pain points.
• Content matters. What you create is the lifeline for your sales reps. As a team leader, your time is valuable. Truthfully, you don’t have the appropriate time to provide all the knowledge that sales enablement resources can to each individual reps on a continual basis. Having content that is easily accessible and last over a long period of time is important for your training efforts. Here’s where content can become problematic: if your content is becoming a crutch for your reps then you have an issue. Your reps should use sales enablement resources for exactly what they are: a foundation to cultivate deeper conversations and build better relationships with your prospective buyers.

Are you ready to take the next step in boosting your sales enablement? vidREACH is ready to help.