What is Best Practice Sales Enablement?

The growing field of Sales Enablement has increasingly taken significant shape particularly over the last 10 years.

A great part of that movement has been due to the growth of communities such as the Sales Enablement Society (SES 2016), the Sales Enablement Collective (SEC 2019), and Sales Enablement PRO (2016); as well as sales enablement tools such as SalesHood (2016), Allego (2013), Seismic (2010), BigTinCan (2010) and many more (contact me for a longer list).

Two prominent figures in the global sales enablement community is Sheevaun Thatcher , VP Global Sales and Success Enablement at Slack and Elay Cohen , CEO & Co-founder of SalesHood and former VP of Enablement for SalesForce, who both champion the 4 pillars of sales enablement. You can learn more about the 4 pillars, along with other excellent content, in SalesHood’s Sales Enablement Leadership Course which is a fantastic way of making sure you’re across the many different facets of enablement whilst learning from the leaders in our industry.

Over the years I have built and implemented sales enablement strategy for many organisations, and employed these 4 pillars interpreted and articulated in my own way. I recently presented some of my plans to a group of enablers and it was suggested that I should write a LinkedIn post briefly outlining my own take.

Here’s my take on what’s needed for best practice Sales Enablement

First, there needs to be messaging and strategic alignment across the entire business so that all sellers (and marketing) take the same clear message out to market. The ELT need to continuously communicate this messaging internally so that everyone across the organisation and all its stakeholders are 100% clear on all messaging regarding differentiators, USPs, Value prop etc.

Second, we need effective assets/content that the sellers and the entire organisation can share in a timely fashion. This includes the sellers easily having access to it. Often, buyers are faced with outdated information, sales pitch decks with conflicting and unclear messages presented on slides with different branding. Additionally, sellers are wasting time creating and searching for content that they should be spending with customers.

Third, we must ensure efficient systems, processes and technology to support the sellers work ecosystem (SalesForce, SalesHood, Outreach, Tableau, SalesNav, G Suite etc). This includes reviewing which tools sellers do and don’t need, capturing and transferring knowledge internally and externally, implementing process maps and designing buyer journeys etc.

Enablement 2.0.

It is important to note that whilst the sales enablement department do whatever is necessary to support the sales org and help sellers sell, the ultimate goal is to help buyers buy. Companies need to make it easy for buyers to find the information necessary to purchase what they need to run their business more effectively. The seller can then take a consultative approach where they coach their buyer on their journey, whether they end up buying their product or not. In contemporary sales practice, the seller is an expert or consultant to their buyer.

Sales Enablement and Sales Operation

Of course we can and should measure sales enablement ROI. This is a post of it’s own, however I need to mention that enablement needs to work closely with sales opps to measure the return on investment (ROI) of their new initiatives. For further learning, I recommend ‘The Complete Guide to Sales Enablement ROI’ by Allego, and the Sales Enablement Leadership course by SalesHood that covers real caste studies from enablement leaders.

If sales operations is your metrics tracker (such as your apple watch or fitness app), then sales enablement is your personal trainer.?You don’t see a PT because you don’t know how to do squats and push ups, you see one to perfect your form, commitment and motivation.

Fourth, we need to encourage knowledge sharing and a coaching culture. Coaching should be part of the furniture, part of daily practice, daily conversations. This often starts with the executive team and sales coaches, then sales leaders, then flows to peers, and eventually the sellers will be able to coach their buyers. Everyone is responsible for their own learning and interest in learning and the organisation should also make this easy and fun for their sellers.

Coaching in Sales Enablement

Whilst I have been responsible for managing all 4 pillars or areas of enablement, it is the 4th pillar that is the closest to my heart, coaching. I have been a teacher and a coach since I was 19, working to get the most out of people from all walks of life, teenagers, university students, sales people, sales leaders, business owners. Even my friends praise me as a personal councillor that help them uncover and go for what they want.?

Recently, I learned form a leadership course that many people mistakenly downplay their natural skills and talents because it comes easy to them - and I‘ve especially seen this play out around enablement because enablers are often jacks of all trades who adapt and support in every way they can and this ability should not be undervalued. My fellow enablers are highly skilled, experienced and talented coaches. They’re confident, empathetic, and great listeners. They often?have a knack for sales and entrepreneurship alongside the ability to build strong relationships.

Enablers are required to be Innovative Change Agents.

I, for example, have moved country and continent on my own, built a business, a chamber of commerce, and made a career for myself in a field that has only really come about in the last 10 years. I’ve had to influence many people to make that work. I have experienced a lot of change in my own life and therefore know how to be a change agent and inspire others on their journeys.?

The best enablers I know have the sophisticated mix of communication skills and leadership abilities to bring others around to their ideas and proposals. They are effective change agents who?can inspire others to action and draw them into their vision. They can positively help others embrace new systems and processes or methods. They have mastered the art of persuasion.

If you work in enablement or with enablement, I’d love to hear your ideas, thoughts and experience. I imagine I will update this post many times.

Please also let me know if you think I should add more resources to this post and which. I love to learn and I love to share.

Thanks for reading,

Sophia

The below list of enablement tools and organisations were part of a personal study and they are not listed in a particular order.

CompanyURLUhubshttps://www.uhubs.co.uk/ Seismichttps://seismic.com/ BigTinCanhttps://www.bigtincan.com/ HighSpothttps://www.highspot.com/ WorkRamphttps://www.workramp.com/ BrainSharkhttps://www.brainshark.com/ SalesHackerhttps://www.saleshacker.com/ MeetAlfredhttps://meetalfred.com/ MindTicklehttps://www.mindtickle.com/ Gonghttps://www.gong.io/ ShowPadhttps://www.showpad.com/ SalesLofthttps://salesloft.com/ SalesRockshttps://sales.rocks/ Outreachhttps://www.outreach.io/ bChannelswww.bChannels.com Databookhttps://trydatabook.com Qstreamhttps://qstream.com/ Sales Hoodhttps://saleshood.com/ Eightfoldhttps://www.eightfold.ai/ CoachHubhttps://www.coachhub.com Docebohttps://www.docebo.com/ Revegyhttps://www.revegy.com/ Spekithttps://spekit.com/ HubSpothttps://www.hubspot.com/ Sales Enablement Society (SES)https://www.sesociety.org/home Sales PROhttps://www.salesprocrm.com/ Sales Enablement collective (SEC)https://www.salesenablementcollective.com/ Women is Sales Enablement (WiSE)https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/wise-women-in-sales-enablment/?originalSubdomain=au Enablixhttps://www.enablix.com/ Leadscope Inchttps://www.leadscope.io/ SapienCorphttps://sapiencorporation.com/