improving sales enablement keeping it simple
TRANSCRIPT
IMPROVING SALES ENABLEMENT KEEPING IT SIMPLE
FOR SALES INTAKE
Lisa DennisPresident
OVERVIEW
Top 5 sales enablement misfires that too many companies make
Sales enablement best practices and next practices
How content marketing fits into the sales enablement strategy
How to assess if technology has taken over your smart sales enablement process
SALES ENABLEMENT – DEFINITIONS Getting the right information into the hands of the right sellers at the right time and place, and in the right format, to move a sales opportunity forward.
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 of investment of the selling system.
IS THE TERM A MISNOMER?
Sales Enablement Buyer Enablement
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
SALES ENABLEME
NT
FIELDMARKETIN
G
SALESOPERATIO
NS
MARKETING
OPERATIONS?
TRENDS, THOUGHTS THAT MATTER
24% less B2B sales people will be required by 2020
Andy Hoar, Forrester Analyst
Marketing = Enablement Paul Gottsegen, Sr. VP Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, Mindtree
The nature of marketing has exploded from an ancillary communications function to the Grand Central Station of customer experience.
Scott Brinker, ChiefMarTech.com
SALES ENABLEMENT MISFIRES Mistake #1: Equating sales enablement with just sales collateral creation & delivery
Mistake #2: Adopting a top-down approach to sales enablement
Mistake #3: Defining Content from a Marketer Point of View
Mistake #4: Sales Enablement is not goaled and measured.
Mistake #5: Don’t publish results of sales enablement efforts
MISFIRE REDIRECTS
Redirect #1: Focus on the Buyer, not on Marketing or Sales
Redirect #2: Identify and engage a sales “Poster child” to help deploy
Redirect #3: “Install” Content and how to use it with Sales Team
Redirect #4: Define enablement metrics WITH Sales
Redirect #5: Announce deals won & highlight enablement contribution
GOALS OF SALES ENABLEMENT Identify and install the right seling behaviours that
drive execution Drive the customer value proposition in all
communications Deliver the right materials and make it easy for
sales people to access and locate Cover all the bases of training, content, tools,
communication and measurement. Increase the speed at which sales people can
respond and deliver a presentation or a proposal to drive opportunities more effectively
THE RIGHT STUFF@ THE RIGHT TIME
ENABLEMENT IS EVOLVING
THEN
Automating sales materials
Sales portal as a storage vault
Standard content for sales person to customize
Management decides what collateral is needed
Now
Collateral + content/assets, process, skills, people, technology, metrics
Cloud for anytime / anywhere access
Version control: latest & greatest
Sales input on necessary content & tools
Move to mobile delivery
Tracking of buyer engagement with content
REALLY?
1,876 VENDORS REPRESENTED ACROSS 43 CATEGORIES
OVER 50% GROWTHSINCE 2014
GETTING CLEAR ON NEEDS IS AN IMPERATIVE
ASSESSING TECHNOLOGY TAKEOVER Is the sales enablement process entirely determined by the
software?
How many “work-arounds” or manual inputs to you have to address this?
Are you more focused on delivery than on impact?
Is content asset consumption factored into your usage of tools?
How much integration is possible across marketing, sales, and enablement tools?
What is the state of compliance in using the tools?
BEST PRACTICES IN SALES ENABLEMENT Define best practices on attributes that matter to your own organization
- what do your top performersUse for contentTotal sales generatedPercentage of quota attainmentAverage time to close deals by productProduct mix soldTools used and howRelationship management practices
NEXT PRACTICES IN SALES ENABLEMENT• Are you serving up the content across device types?
•Do you have a mobile strategy?
• Is training on demand, interactive, as well as delivered quarterly?
• Are you enabling regular, online role-playing?
• Are you measuring content usage?
CONTENT IN SALES ENABLEMENTDevelop content strategy and SEO strategy in tandem or review SEO strategy and embed in content development.
Go conversational, use story telling as the primary approach.
Which content assets are driving the best results in:Lead generationField activitiesSales usage
Develop a content map aligned to YOUR buyer’s journey
IN ACTION – PROGRESS SOFTWARE Asset Inventory – all product & industry managers STATUS CATEGORY TITLE DESCRIPTION ASSET TYPE BUYER TYPE INDUSTRY URL
IN ACTION – PROGRESS SOFTWARE GLOBAL FIELD ORGANIZATION PORTAL
- Defined content requirements & limitations
Prod 1 Prod 2 Prod 3 Prod 4 Prod 5 Prod 6
IN ACTION - WEBBMASON
SOLUTIONS PACKAGES DEFINED
QUICK REFERENCE GUIDES
LIVE TRAINING
8 WEEKS OF VIRTUAL COACHING
IN ACTION - WEBBMASON
PITCH BOOKS
- PRESENTS OFFERING
- ALLOWS BALL PARK PRICING
- ACTS AS DRAFT OF PROPOSAL
- FINAL VERSION OF PITCH BOOK
BECOMES THE PROPOSAL
FINAL THOUGHT
LESS IS MORE
