The average sales cycle is 22% longer than it was five years ago,1 which is not good news for sales professionals. In a world with more options and less patience, it’s important that sales organizations are providing potential customers with everything they need at each step of the buying phase and in a timely manner. But this is much easier said than done.
In concurrence with the stat above, Aberdeen Research has identified the top barriers to success2 for sales professionals:
- 39% of sales organizations are struggling because of the lengthening sales cycle,
- 37% have difficulty identifying which marketing campaigns and content are yielding results and supporting the sales organization,
- 33% don’t have insight into how prospects react to marketing-generated content, and
- 30% feel as though they are disconnected from the changing needs of sales professionals.
In other words, sales professionals do not have as much insight into the buying cycle as they would like, which is hindering their ability to do their job effectively. And, in some ways, making it harder for marketing to create prospect-appealing content. Even with all of the software and tracking tools at our disposal, the sentiment towards a brand and content is still hard to capture.
Regardless of what role you have in the company, all of the information above works to support the overall objectives on the executive team, sales organization, and marketing department. They may be defined as separate entities, but they have to act as one. That is where the idea of sales enablement comes in.
While there are many definitions, the basic concept of sales enablement is providing prospects with the right message to the right person at the right time across the right channel.3 Whether we like it or not, people are going to interact with our brand how, when, and where they want to. But these sales enablement platforms are trying to close this gap in order to shorten the sales cycle and increase sales.
The bottom line? Sales intelligence will define how the organizations perform, and without adaptive sales enablement environments, it won’t yield results.
Looking for adaptive insight into your sales organization?
Sources:
2. http://www.aberdeen.com/Aberdeen-Library/8669/RA-sales-marketing-alignment.aspx
3. http://www.skura.com/roles.php
Google+ Kent Potts
