Sales enablement is a very effective strategy that’s designed to increase the productivity and effectiveness of your company’s sales team. When applied to B2B companies, it involves providing the sales team with the high-level content, training, analytics, feedback, buyer personas, insights, industry data, email workflow, integration between marketing and sales, understanding of pain points, and resources they need to have more successful sales conversations with prospects.
Today, we’re taking a look at the four sales enablement best practices for B2B organizations of all sizes:
1. Create high-quality content, resources, and trainings for the sales team.
At the core of sales enablement is a collection of resources, trainings, and content designed to help the sales team do their job more productively. These resources should be in alignment with the conversations the sales team is having, so they can easily reference them while on a call to provide the prospect with the precise information they need.
Providing a sales team with better content can be a powerful for sales nurturing.
To get started, the marketing team should work with the sales team to gain insight into the types of conversations they’re having with prospects. Specific content should then be created to answer the questions prospects ask at every stage of the buying cycle, as well as to speak to various customer personas and the challenges faced by different industries. In addition, we recommend creating content that highlights the most popular product features with customers.
2. Communicate with sales about the resources available to them.
One major roadblock to sales enablement is making sure the sales team uses the resources that are available to them. To overcome this roadblock, have the marketing team send regular newsletters to alert the sales team when new content is available. It’s also a good idea to advise them on the importance of the latest content and how it will enable them to do their jobs more effectively.
3. Maintain the content in a centralized database.
It’s important that your sales enablement content is housed in a centralized database that’s easy to access. Organize the content according to type (video, product demos, data sheets, client testimonials, etc.), the product or service it references, and the specific industry or type of consumer it was created for. But most importantly, make sure all of the content is easy to access and consume. Doing so will ensure the sales team uses the resources as often as possible.
4. Measure your effectiveness.
It’s also important to measure the effectiveness of your sales enablement efforts. This allows you to identify what is and is not working, and make adjustments accordingly. To begin, we recommend measuring completion of sales training and content utilization, as well as revenue.
It’s also a wise idea to track your top members on the sales team to see which content they use most often and why. Leverage all of this information moving forward to continue improving your sales enablement program and providing your team with the precise information they need to be successful.
See also: What is Inbound Sales?