50 TD | December 2018
SALES ENABLEMENT
December 2018 | TD 51IMAGE | MICROSTOCKHUB/GETTY IMAGES
P O D C A S T
WAYS SALES ENABLEMENT WILL DRIVE REVENUE IN 2019
The enablement team is a key part of business success.
5
52 TD | December 2018
1 Support sustainment effortsTo outsell an equally armed competitor, sales organi-zations need more-effective selling behaviors. Moreover,
this effort to sharpen skills must be ongoing. Consider that
“mature companies spend 34 percent more on training and
development than their less mature counterparts,” according
to research from Bersin by Deloitte. These well-established
companies understand that improvement is an ongoing
practice. As a result, they earn a profit growth three times
that of their competitors.
Earning results like those requires sustainment. However,
the problem is that sustainment is elusive. This challenge
is best illustrated by the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, whose
downward sloping line represents how people forget infor-
mation over time. Fortunately, researchers have discovered
that diminished recall is preventable. The key is to make the
information meaningful and more salient. Learners retain
more information when they see the connection between
the material and the sale—the greater the relevance, the
greater the recall. Here is where sales enablement enters
the picture.
Enablement professionals help tie training lessons to
real-world selling scenarios. They make concepts salient
by working with L&D to align skills with corporate goals
and customer needs. Enablement teams also work with
sales leaders to develop a list of critical skills that resonate
with today’s market.
Having the appropriate resources is only half of the equa-
tion. Sales professionals also must have a support team
capable of isolating the material that matters by distributing
assets that underscore how lessons from training connect
with selling. These assets can include assessment tools,
conversation guides, and client-facing collateral. When
one group owns this responsibility, there is consistency
across the organization.
2 Bring efficiency to the onboarding processTime to productivity is a major influence on revenue, and sales enablement professionals are well placed to affect
this lever.
Sales enablement teams should have an in-depth understand-
ing of buyer needs and sales best practices. They understand
market-facing resources and how they align to the selling pro-
cess. Therefore, enablement teams can play a more involved role
in onboarding new hires.
There was a time
when the sales pro-
fessional’s arsenal
was a telephone
and a list of con-
tacts. Since then, technology
has changed the game. Selling
organizations now have access
to nearly limitless data and out-
reach capabilities. However, these
tools often function like more
pistons and valves on an already
complex and noisy machine.
According to the Accenture report Selling
in the Age of Distraction, 59 percent of sales
professionals say they have more tools than
they can use. The researchers also found
that sales professionals “are simply awash
in more product data, competitor data, and
customer data than they now can effectively
absorb or use.” This challenge has given rise
to one of the fastest-growing titles in sales
today: sales enablement.
Sales enablement professionals make
information actionable. Enablement is
about organizing decentralized infor-
mation and leveraging resources to their
fullest extent. These resources include
digital tools, marketing materials, and,
of course, people. Doing so leaves sales
professionals unencumbered and free to
pursue the next opportunity. Enablement
teams deploy marketing collateral and
selling tools to the appropriate sales pro-
fessional; the strongest teams are those
able to yield the greatest value from avail-
able resources.
Given that, these are the five new ways
that sales enablement will drive revenue in
the coming year.
BY ANDREA GRODNITZKY
December 2018 | TD 53
Sales enablement professionals have experience with
learning management system software, back-office systems,
messaging, and overall strategy. By leveraging their experi-
ence with sales and learning leaders, enablement professionals
can build a tiered onboarding routine. The result is a layered
approach in which foundational skills come first, followed by
more specialized skills.
New hires benefit because the sales enablement team com-
municates with both sales and marketing. This exposure
helps new salespeople understand more about the organiza-
tion in less time.
The pairing of new salespeople with sales enablement pro-
fessionals is appropriate because the enablement team often
tracks the use and effectiveness of materials among salespeo-
ple. This insight gives the team a fast read on which practices
and messaging move the sale. These measurements extend to
win rate, quota attainment, contract value, and profitability.
Enablement teams know what drives these numbers and un-
derstand the best practices for compelling customers to buy.
3 Develop talent from withinProductivity is about more than getting new sales pro-fessionals up to speed faster. It also relates to experienced
sales professionals.
Developing internal talent avoids the time and expense of
sourcing external talent. Aberdeen data show that the aver-
age cost of replacing a sales professional is more than $29,000.
Moreover, the average training time is 7.3 months.
Enablement teams are critical to avoiding these costs, be-
cause they help internal sales professionals develop their
skills. Doing so can develop an inside sales professional into
a field rep or a field rep into a global account manager. Sales
enablement teams can chart this path because they know the
customer and product and where value lies. Therefore, they
know how to support sales professionals with the messaging
and skills that connect with buyers.
A salesperson’s tenure with a company is connected to his
sense of satisfaction. When someone feels that his actions create
meaningful influence within the business, he is more likely to
stay and thrive. Enablement teams become part of this process
by helping sales professionals acquire new skills that make sell-
ing behaviors more effective. As a result, sales professionals are
more influential to the business.
Bringing sales enablement and talent management together
means companies are better able to yield the full value of re-
sources within the company. They also are positioned to help
inform the marketing team of emerging customer needs. Mar-
keting can use these insights to develop new material that
resonates with the marketplace. This routine underscores the
value that sales enablement teams provide; communication
between sales and marketing is a feedback loop. By developing
talent from within, enablement teams create a bank of talent
that makes the content meaningful.
COMPANIES WITH A STRONG ENABLEMENT FOCUS GENERATE A 32 PERCENT HIGHER TEAM SALES QUOTA ATTAINMENT.
4 Yield revenue from digital toolsSales professionals have an arsenal of tools
at their disposal. In fact, they have so many
tools that the challenge is often determin-
ing which ones to use and how best to use
them. More digital tools often leave sales
professionals with diminishing returns.
McKinsey researchers found that the “ma-
jority of sales executives said that their
companies are increasing their investments
in digital sales tools and capabilities for the
near term.” Despite this, the same study re-
veals that less than 40 percent believe they
are even moderately effective. Sales enable-
ment teams can solve this problem.
They communicate with the market-
ing and sales teams. This ongoing dialogue
enables the sales enablement team to un-
derstand the macro- and microfocus. The
marketing team watches broad industry
changes. In contrast, sales professionals
watch individual customers. By understand-
ing these two sides, sales enablement teams
can develop a shared list of capabilities.
With this information, sales enablement
professionals make informed decisions
about which tools are relevant. They’re also
54 TD | December 2018
prepared to list measurements that both
sides will accept. Enablement teams can
use this information to decide which digital
tools to use. The result is capabilities that
are more in tune with the organization’s
everyday needs.
5 Draft and measure critical selling metricsSelling metrics are one of the sales enable-
ment team’s vital responsibilities. Such
metrics as quota attainment, win rate,
and average deal size inform major busi-
ness decisions. As the pace of competition
increases, enablement teams need to be
able to generate this information fast.
Doing so enables sales professionals to
outpace the competition.
A formalized measurement process also
simplifies today’s dynamic sales cycle. The
SiriusDecisions State of Sales Enablement
2017 found that 65 percent of respondents
face an increasingly complex sales process.
However, salespeople equipped with a sales
enablement process are two times more
likely to see reduced complexity in their
sales process. This simplification comes
from the fact that a single enablement
team has ownership of the data.
When enablement teams own the measurement process,
they gain a broad perspective of the business—they’re able
to understand cause and effect. The net result is a more
insightful view of which selling behaviors and marketing
materials compel customers to buy. Enablement teams
focus on more than measurement—they focus on meaning.
By interpreting the analytics, the enablement team can
release the right tools or message at the right point in the
sales cycle.
As this cycle becomes more complex, this capability is
increasingly important. For example, as a sales professional
works to build consensus among stakeholders, the sales enable-
ment team can be effective in sharing various marketing assets.
An effective enablement professional will ensure that each of
these pieces addresses each stakeholder’s unique perspective.
TakeawaysMarketing and sales teams are not enough. Winning the sale
today means companies need professionals who can drive
more from those two groups. The sales enablement team ful-
fills this role by optimizing both teams’ capabilities.
For this reason, sales enablement has become a critical
function in sales organizations. Aberdeen research shows that
companies with a strong enablement focus generate a 32
percent higher team sales quota attainment. These organi-
zations also generate a 23 percent higher conversion rate.
Simply put: Enablement keeps the wheels greased.
Though many companies have a sales enablement function
in place, success comes from knowing how to focus that tal-
ent. Selling organizations can do so by asking themselves
five questions:
• How can my enablement team ensure that sales profes-
sionals retain the skills they have learned?
• What materials can the enablement team supply to new
hires so that they can be up to speed faster?
• Where do existing sales professionals need assistance in
enhancing their productivity and building their careers
internally?
• When in the sales cycle are digital tools helpful, and how
can we maximize our return on investment?
• Which sales metrics reveal our progress toward company
goals?
Answering those questions gives organizations a way to
build the efficiencies that are integral to winning the sale.
Efficiency is essential to succeeding today because technol-
ogy is putting organizations, large and small, on a more even
playing field. Thus, success doesn’t come from having more
technology—it comes from the ability to use technology in
more meaningful ways. Sales enablement is the function
making that approach possible.
Andrea Grodnitzky is chief marketing officer for Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company; [email protected].
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