As 2014 winds down, we find that the world of sales enablement remains largely in uncharted and evolving territory. It’s not a game of one-size-fits-all. This presents as an exciting adventure to some sales leaders, and as a baffling no-go to others.
Are you part of the second baffled party, but are ready to debut 2015 with an effective sales enablement strategy on your side? Ask yourself the following questions. They’ll help you get your bearings in the flexible and fluid world of sales enablement strategy.
1. What does sales enablement mean to you?
“If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution,” said Albert Einstein. Genius says: look before you leap. Should you fail to spend ample time on this step, you’ll likely take off in the wrong direction.
Gather your internal sales leaders together, and ask: where does our sales team stand now, and where do we want to be at this time next year? Sales enablement solutions will be the tools that help you to remove obstacles.
Clearly define what stands in your way. Are you struggling to keep marketing materials up-to-date and available to reps? Are your sales resources scattered throughout disjointed platforms? Is sales content available on-the-go, or only on a desktop? There are sales enablement tools and platforms to address each of these issues.
2. Who will man the sales enablement initiative?
Once you position yourself to fight the demons that stand in your sales team’s way, you’ll need someone to spearhead the action. Are you willing to create a position dedicated solely to the management of sales enablement initiatives? Or, are you looking for an easily integrated strategy? Perhaps you’d like to have a few departments work together for the betterment of your sales enablement.
In the beginning, most teams use a combination of existing marketing and sales team members to guide the sales enablement initiative. These types of operations use sales enablement platforms that shoulder a lot of the responsibility: sales enablement platforms that automatically distribute updated marketing materials, platforms available on all mobile devices, or platforms that integrate with existing CRM software.
3. How will you gauge sales enablement success?
Sometimes, rise in revenue isn’t enough to give an accurate read on sales enablement success. You’ll notice that your sales enablement solution is working when you see sales reps collaborate more effectively with the marketing team, or when sales content is more regularly accessed, or when the pipeline becomes easier and easier for new reps to navigate.
For those who are looking for a more hands-off approach, analytics can take care of this end of the deal. They’ll collect and analyze team performance data and present it in an easily understandable fashion. If you find you are not seeing the results you hoped for, then return to the first question and repeat.
Are you looking for a platform befitting of your unique sales enablement needs?
