Sales Enablement: The Definitive Definition - According To Me. ??

Sales Enablement is a hot topic on everyone's lips right now.

Done right it can work wonders and really live up to its name. Done poorly it can become more "business prevention" than sales support.

First: What Exactly Is Sales Enablement?

Even though the term is self-explanatory, it is surprising how this seemingly simple question can cause a lot of debate.

The Sales Enablement Society defines it as:

“Sales Enablement ensures buyers are engaged at the right time and place, and with the right assets by well-trained client-facing staff to provide a world-class experience along the customer’s journey.”

Too long-winded for you?

Maybe you like Gartner's version better:

"Sales enablement is the process of providing the sales organization with the information, content and tools that help salespeople sell more effectively."

So, basically, Sales Enablement is about speeding up sales.

How do you know whether your Sales Enablement is effective?

You measure it, of course.

But what metrics do you apply?

There are a number of before /after comparison metrics that can serve to measure the effectiveness of your Sales Enablement.

Here are just a few:

• Ramp-up time for new reps
• Sales cycle duration
• Reps' time spent on actual selling activities
• Revenue per rep

OK, all that seem pretty reasonable arguments in favor of Sales Enablement.

But how easy is it to implement?

Unfortunately, everything about Sales Enablement is more complex than it looks.

Why?

I am listing a few aspects for you below:

Where Does Sales Enablement Fit Organizationally?

Operationally, the Sales Enablement function sits somewhere between Sales, Marketing and Product Management (possibly also Customer Success).

So, where is the right place for SE to report into?

Should it be into Marketing? Into Sales? Into the C-suite?

That is one part of the big dilemma.

Who Is Responsible?

The other is what to do (or, rather, whom to blame) when Sales Enablement does not produce more and faster sales.

Do you blame the head of Sales Enablement (whoever that happens to be, given the above-mentioned organizational complexity)?

Do you blame Sales because they may not be utilizing the support that Sales Enablement says they are providing?

Either way, ready yourself for a whole bunch of finger-pointing.

Who takes the blame if faster sales fail to materialize?

Who claims the glory if faster sales do eventuate?

But there is more.

There is one aspect of Sales Enablement that I find super-intriguing:

How Mature Is YOUR Sales Enablement Right Now?

Other authors have identified three, four, and even five different levels of Sales Enablement Maturity.

Their maturity definitions range from "Zero", i.e. no Sales Enablement at all, to "Strategic", and even "Optimized" (with usually just a loose description of their Sales Enablement nirvana).

Perhaps not surprisingly, me being me, I too, have a perspective on SE maturity levels. ??

However, I think mine is less theoretical and more hands-on practical, compared to some of he others I have seen.

Here is my Sales Enablement hierarchy:

Maturity Level Zero - No Sales Enablement (OK, this one doesn't really count, does it?)

Maturity Level One: Onboarding of new Reps + Basic Sales Collateral

This level is pretty much limited to fast-tracking the onboarding of new reps. Usually, reps must watch a bunch of company policy, legal compliance and product information videos, and pass a series of online tests.

Additionally, Marketing is providing a central repository (such as an online folder or a SharePoint repository) for sales collateral, such as brochures, presentations and proposal templates.

The brochures are often product-focused and are presented as locked PDFs or other non-editable formats, while the customer presentations are usually in PowerPoint or some other editable format, so that the reps can tailor presentations to their prospects and opportunities.

By the way, this arrangement gives the reps more liberties than Marketing often is comfortable with, as reps can freely edit texts and images without checks or balances.

Plus: It frequently leads to a "black hole effect". Meaning that more files go into the online repository than come out again. Or, reps create their own personal versions, and keep them offline on their personal devices for future "easy access".

Can you imagine the huge version-control and brand compliance issues that can arise from this scenario?

Maturity Level Two: Sales Training and Advanced Collateral

This level is similar to Level One in execution:

Reps undergo online training on selling, on customer engagement, and on closing techniques. Sometimes this is supplemented with in-person training, or with on-the-job sales coaching. It may even include mentoring for the Sales Leaders to help and enable them to become success coaches for their reps.

At this level, Marketing often provides more sophisticated sales material than at Level 1, including customer success stories, ROI calculators, and self-assessments to help reps make their sales conversations more meaningful for their prospects.

Since COVID-19, a lot of selling has moved from in-person to remote selling via Zoom and other online communication platforms. For that reason, Sales Enablement at this level may also include tools to help reps with their remote selling activities. Examples include updated digital sales playbooks, VR product demonstration tools, and interactive online presentations, as well as remote sales and product training to update reps' skills.

Marketing may be using dedicated apps to provide sales collateral that has certain content locked out to prevent undue tampering by reps.

For example, marketing may elect to lock certain elements of their customer presentations so that reps can only tailor the parts of the content that relate to the specific prospect or opportunity. This is to preserve brand image, rules and guidelines. Sometimes it is to prevent reps from inventing product features, or from making claims that Marketing or Product Management might consider questionable. (But that would never happen, right?) ??

Maturity Level Three: Sales Acceleration & Smarketing

OK, this is the one that in my opinion is the really interesting one.

In fact, I think the previous levels are all BAU (business-as-usual) and should exist in any sales organization. To me, this one here is the level where Sales Enablement comes into its own, where organizations move from merely supporting sales to accelerating revenue.

To me, this is the level where Sales Enablement comes into its own, where organizations move from merely supporting sales, to accelerating revenue.

Given this objective, it comes as no surprise that this Level is also the hardest to implement. This is largely because it requires the highest level of sophistication and the largest amount of change and change management skills.

Sales Enablement at this level requires for the often siloed Sales and Marketing teams to come together, to work together, to collaborate more closely and more effectively than before.

Why is this hard to do?

Because you need to beware "the 7 most dangerous words in business":

"We have always done it this way."

Plus, there can be a fair bit of historical antipathy and even mistrust between Sales and Marketing.

So, how do you overcome these obstacles? How do you start this journey?

How can you ensure success?

I describe WHY and HOW this can be done in my most recent book, titled "Smarketing - Sell Smarter, Not Harder".?

In the book, I describe a proven step-by-step methodology to:

1. Kick-start a constructive conversation about what good sales and marketing alignment looks like,
2. Identify the benefits for all stakeholders, and
3. Realize and achieve positive outcomes

Download a free copy of the book here.

What's Next?

First, Test your Sales Enablement Maturity here .

This is a quick and free service.

Then, let's talk about how you can achieve effective Sales Enablement for your business.

To your selling success!

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About The Author

Peter Strohkorb is the Founder and Principal of Peter Strohkorb Advisory , an international firm that is showing Sales and Business Leaders in the USA, in Australia and in the UK how they can modernize sales and accelerate outputs.

Contact

[email protected]

peterstrohkorb.com