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More revenue: as sales and marketing leaders, it’s our constant aim. Sales Enablement has received a lot of attention this year as a quick route to get to that goal. Why? Because it’s about setting up best practices across the sales organization — best practices that reduce wasted time and make reps more productive.
So, you’re looking to roll-out or update your sales enablement plan for 2015. What steps should you take to get your arms around the challenge? Let’s take a look at 6 steps to getting your Sales Enablement plan in place fast.
Aberdeen’s Peter Ostrow found that sales reps were twice as likely to hit quota when their company implemented best practices across the organization. Best practices could be focusing on a particular persona, using a certain script, following a defined methodology, or using an effective presentation.
Look critically at what worked across wins (throughout the funnel), and use them as potential inputs into your 2015 plan. And, as we’ll see in #4, look for what broke down or was common across losses too.
Surveys of B2B companies show that 50% of Sales Enablement functions are managed by the sales organization. No matter where the organization is managed, other teams play a key role. Marketing might provide content, qualified leads, sales tools, and market information. Finance and legal could give tools for the final mile of a sale. Product Management may contribute product information and positioning.
Learn how other teams are contributing to sales performance. Your role as Sales Enablement is built around harnessing these various teams as part of your plan.
There’s no plan without goals. But according to a survey by Vantage Point, only 40% of sales enablement efforts are measured. Not measuring results can hamstring your plan and credibility. Sales people are perhaps more connected to a defined goal than any other organization. So, it’s imperative that you show the same drive to a number.
Measure your sales enablement program with ‘harder’ numbers than number of training classes. Look to quota attainment by rep or improvements in conversion numbers throughout the funnel.
You’ve set your goals, researched what’s effective, and gotten the team on board. Now it’s time to get down to specifics. That means identifying the tools, programs, and processes that will get you to your goal. This is where the plan can fall apart. Too often there’s a temptation to revert to a piecemeal approach that doesn’t recognize sales needs.
Sales is a process. Evaluate each stage in the lead-to-revenue process to address the weaknesses, aggravations, and stalls you identified in Step 1. Apply your tooling and process improvements to these weak points. And continue to look at additional Sales Enablement programs by stepping through each individual step in the lead to revenue journey.
Consider the reality from a sales person’s perspective. Sure, there’s a new tool. Yes, there’s sales process guidance. OK, you have a revamped CRM. But if a salesperson doesn’t feel that it’s going to translate into quota attainment, they’re not going to do it.
Get sales leadership and key sales teams involved early in the process to increase buy-in. And critically, it’s powerful to have top sales reps on board to increase peer support.
But the number one thing you can do to get adoption up, increase effectiveness, and get more support for your sales enablement effort? Measure and publish those results. If you’ve chosen targets that are traceable and robust, like boosting conversion rates, you have a defensible position. Show off these wins and how the team worked together to boost those results. It’s hard to argue with success – especially a success (like revenue!) that the whole team cares about.
So get rolling on your sales enablement plan, and start influencing your 2015 results!
Peter Mollins is Vice President of Marketing at KnowledgeTree. Peter has led marketing organizations and programs at software companies in Europe and North America. Most recently he ran product marketing for the Borland unit of Micro Focus. He holds a Masters of International Management from Thunderbird. He's also the voice of dozens of voice mail greetings for people around the world.
