Sales Enablement is a practice and methodology used by large enterprise organizations for over the past two decades and is now being adopted by small and medium-sized companies. The process dates back to when sales and customer service teams began to use desktop and mainframe computers. Early software on these computing systems included customer relationship management (CRM) software which helped users manage their sales pipeline and existing clients.
In the past few years, with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Sales Enablement has become far more sophisticated and has provided large amounts of data that help businesses understand their existing and potential clients.
Sales Enablement (SE) techniques have empowered sales teams of large and small organizations to be far more efficient, effective, and successful in closing new sales.
Here are four reasons why sales enablement helps your company increase sales:
SE aligns your sales teams to the buyer’s journey
During the buyer’s journey, the buyer goes through the discovery/research, buying, and implementation stages. Sales enablement allows sales and customer-facing teams to match the client buying journey and makes sure that both the client and the sales team have the right content for each stage. Along each stage, the sales team can address pain points and objections. Companies that cross-sell to existing clients can use the data in the CRM.
For example, if a lead is in the researching phase of their buying journey, the sales team can provide content tailored to their particular use case. This helps the buyer find their pain points much quicker, leading to a higher probability of a closed sale.
SE increases your sales and customer service team’s efficiency
Using Sales Enablement will increase efficiency for your teams because they will have access to content that matches client journies. Additionally, they can access presentations, collateral, case studies, and other product information in their sales playbook. SE can also provide training and coaching specific to team members by following their unique sales processes. With Sales Enablement, teams can focus on relationship building and selling instead of busy work and looking for collateral.
For example, when cross-selling or upselling products or services, if both teams use the CRM (as they should), sales enablement will allow them to track clients to determine the correct time and solution to market to existing clients and ask for direct referrals.
SE increases collaboration for your teams and company
Sales Enablement results in far more cooperation between multiple departments. No department is left behind as sales enablement is planned out and implemented. Sales, customer service, and marketing can all operate as one central unit instead of separate departments. This also results in far better customer service and sales processes.
For example, when both customer service and sales teams have a central database or platform for all sales materials, they no longer have to spend time looking for the information they need to close deals or aid the customer. SE technology can also show companies what materials are the most effective, which leads to continual improvement.
SE improves customer engagement
By coordinating the efforts of marketing, sales, customer service, and other departments, Sales Enablement considerably improves the customer experience and engagement. Employees can quickly access common tools and resources to find approved and correct content.
For example, a good CRM platform with Sales Enablement built-in will improve customer engagement by giving customer service and sales teams the same access to content based on customer journeys, tools, and training needed to communicate effectively. This helps to reach customers and meet their pain points. With the support provided by the combination of a CRM with SE, sales, and customer service reps can have more meaningful conversations with clients and will understand their needs. This improves customer engagement as well as new and existing deals.
Sales Enablement returns its investment value considerably. The process provides customer service, sales, and other teams with resources that match buyer journies. Not only are closing rates marketably improved, but customer satisfaction is also much higher. Beginning a sales enablement program is mandatory in any large company and is a must for any small or medium-sized business.
Author Bio
Leonard Goffe is the resident sales enablement nerd for TigerLRM.com. You can find him writing or behind his camera when he’s not reading about Sales Enablement, AI, and technology.
