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At ShareBloc, we ran a contest to find the best content marketing posts of 2013 as part of our open beta launch. From December 3 to December 17, more than 640 voters cast their ballots 7,678 times to narrow a competitive field of 175 nominations to the top 50.
One area of focus was on sales enablement, which depending who you talk to can be strategy or process or both. To shed some light on this topic, we present you the top five sales enablement posts of 2013.
Why it was chosen: The SAP team put together a great overview of the changing nature of business. A critical part of sales enablement is empowering your sales team with insights on customers, their industries and the macro trends that impact their lives.
What it means for sales enablement: With so much data about your customers online, you are not doing your job if you don’t integrate this content into your sales process. Make it easier by downloading a sales intelligence app from AppExchange so you’re not left in the lurch.
Key Quote: “Over 40% of the companies that were at the top of Fortune 500 in 2000 were no longer there in 2010.”
Why it was chosen: Sales Development, the phone-based team that identifies, connects with, and qualifies leads, is a critical cog in the marketing-sales machine. Craig tackles this topic with gusto, providing a detailed framework on designing the sales development organization from hiring, training, compensation, metrics and technology.
What it means for sales enablement: A key aspect of successful sales enablement is good process. A strong sales development process aligns marketing and sales and dramatically improves lead to conversion ratio. In his post, Craig outlines some valuable sales development technology that leverages good process, including Salesforce and Data.com.
Key Quote: “Marketing can only optimize programs if they have the data they need to be successful. Sales reps are notoriously bad at maintaining good data and sales leadership cares about sales forecast data (with good reason). On the other hand, well managed sales development teams are remarkably good at providing data. Sales development teams literally “live” in the CRM application all day and are incented to get good data to marketing to make their lives easier.”
Why it was chosen: Like Liam Neeson from Taken, modern sales professionals have a unique set of skills. They need it in this age of buyer empowerment, which according to Kyle’s reporting, the average buyer is nearly 70% through the sales process before they contact a rep. This post is to-the-point on what you need to succeed in today’s sales enablement world.
What it means for sales enablement: As we discussed in previous posts, good process and technology can uncover critical customer insights. #1 Qualification Talents, #3 Digital Savvy and #4 Research Habits on the list are great pro-tips on how to improve sales enablement with good data processing.
Key Quote: “No longer is 'just winging it' sufficient for the sales professional. Treat your career like a calling and become an expert in these areas. Meeting these demands will allow you to realize your full potential as a sales professional.”
Why it was chosen: While the article is about a B2C transaction between Groupe Casino and a grocery shopper, the takeaways from the post are universally sales enablement oriented. Affinity marketing, precision retailing and product discounting are synchronized with the shopper’s behavior and should be familiar with brining a customer down the sales funnel.
What it means for sales enablement: Technology is the enabling agent here, particularly on mobile. What is your sales organization doing on mobile so that you are delivering value to reps and closing leads? This is why the recent announcement of Salesforce1 should be a critical milestone in bringing the sales enablement process into your smartphone.
Key Quote: “The modern and mobile customer is more demanding, more discerning, and more tech-savvy than ever. They yearn for deeper connections with the things they buy, but rarely have the patience to wait for it.”
Why it was chosen: This is the final sales enablement entry in the top 50 and like #22, it gives a succinct blueprint on how the today’s sales rep has to pitch differently in a buyer empowered world. There’s also great hiring advice. As the industry moves away from the Always Be Closing hunters, is there room for socially attuned introverts? The research says yes.
What it means for sales enablement: If the market is rewarding more balanced sales reps, or the ambiverts, then the hiring practices must change. As sales enablement becomes more data-driven, for example, an analytically gifted sales associate may be more successful in processing tertiary data around a customer and have a higher conversion rate.
Key Quote: “The most successful salespeople, especially in B2B, will be the forward thinkers who can help buyers “uncover problems that they didn’t realize they had.”
The contest may be over but the conversation continues on ShareBloc. Hundreds of users read content every day on ShareBloc’s sales and marketing feed. Like the contest, the content is all posted and curated by our users. Come post your favorite sales content, even if it’s your own, and let the community know how you feel about their content.
David Cheng is CEO and co-founder of ShareBloc. ShareBloc is building a community of like-minded professionals whoshare, curate and discuss business content that matters to them. In my prior lives, I worked in investment banking, venture capital, and ran the online research platform for the leading cleantech market research firm.
Read more top-performing sales posts in this blog post. Then, check out this Salesforce ebook to get your sales team on the right track for 2014.
