In a perfect world, sales and marketing should be feeding off each other in order to support a more efficient and collaborative sales cycle. This includes content creation, seamless use of tracking software to provide insights and active conversations on how to improve lead nurturing tactics, all of which are sales enablement activities. Whether you’re in the sales department or on the marketing team, all of these activities are going to help you do your job better. So, why shouldn’t all of these teams be working together on sales enablement?
While the concept and implementation of sales enablement has grown exponentially over the past few years, the departments who have ownership of it have varied across the map. Some companies give the responsibility to marketing, while other give it to sales. And some simply say both have ownership, but they don’t give guidelines as to how both are to play a role. When you’re working to achieve a more successful sales organization, these types of uncertainties can’t be present; it needs to be clear who owns sales enablement and how it fits into the sales cycle. And it’s becoming clearer that both departments need to be involved.
In fact, Aberdeen Sales Enablement Study shows that 56% of Best-in-Class companies1 have marketing support sales enablement, where both departments are equally involved. The study also showed that 56% of Best-In-Class companies implemented two-way feedback1 between marketing and sales leaders to identify the most effective messaging, leading to more targeted content creation. Finally, 27% of Best-In-Class companies used predictive analytics or “big data” for marketing effectiveness and sales forecasting. In other words, sales enablement is becoming increasingly more dependent on communication and tracking programs that will lead to more insightful conclusions and actionable insights.
Sales enablement is necessary for a sales organization to grow and succeed. Whether you’re a C-level exec or a new sales rep, insight into how prospects are reacting to your content and sales activities will help you improve in the future. Create transparency between your sales and marketing teams, use predictive analytics to glean insights and incorporate your findings into your lead nurturing program.
Do you want full insight into how your content and sales activities are affecting your prospects? Check out Skura if you want to learn more about adaptive sales enablement and sending the right message to the right person at the right time.
Google+ Kent Potts
1. http://www.aberdeen.com/Aberdeen-Library/8669/RA-sales-marketing-alignment.aspx
