Sales Enablement - PRWeb

Sales Enablement

Sales EnablementA topic dominating recent discussions in theprofessional fields of sales and marketing is “salesenablement.” According to most dictionaries, theterm isn’t really even a recognized word, but thathasn’t stopped its growth as a widely-acknowledgednotion of how to coordinate the work of marketingand sales to aggressively increase the number ofleads that convert to closed sales.Surprisingly, after reviewing the literature on thetopic, it is clear that there is not even a widelyaccepted definition of the term. At its broadest, SalesEnablement is a concept proposing that formalprocesses should be in place to rally all the resourcesof a company to ensure that salespeople have theinformation to respond to every prospect with aEmailLead SourcesAdsDirect SalesThis whitepaper will work to define the term and ly the arrival of big data and automation,have made it possible to turn this broad concept intoa set of definable, effective processes that candramatically drive revenues.Before defining the term or trying to betterunderstand Sales Enablement, it will be helpful todiscuss the sales funnel. The sales funnel is ametaphor that helps illustrate the process whereby aMINDMATRIX’S PARTNERREVENUE GROWTH PLATFORM, HASTele-SalesSEOrelevant message, no matter where that prospect ison the sales cycle. More succinctly, SalesEnablement is about finding ways to help salespeople be more successful at their jobs.SocialNetworkingX MORE OPPORTUNITYTO GENERATE REVENUE THAN ANY OTHER MARKET PLACESOLUTIONS OFFERED BY MINDMATRIXMINDMATRIXOTHER PRODUCTSAINBOUND MARKETINGBCONVERSIONMARKETING AUTOMATIONLEAD NURTURINGLEAD NURTURINGDIRECT SALESINDIRECT SALESCLOSINGSALES ENABLEMENTCHANNELCHANNEL MARKETINGASSET MANAGEMENTAvailableFRANCHISESDEALERDISTRIBUTORNot AvailableCHANNEL2403 Sidney Street, Suite 150 Pittsburgh, PA 15203, Phone: 412.381.0230, Fax: 412.774.1992, Email: sales@mindmatrix.net, www.mindmatrix.net

prospect proceeds from the very first awareness thata particular type of product or service exists to thepoint that he decides to buy a specific offering.There are variations on the idea, but one of the earlierdefinitions argues that a prospect travels through 4stages in the funnel. First is awareness, which is theinitial recognition of overall product category orservice. The next stage is interest. The prospect hasa general interest in the offering and is learning aboutits value. Third, desire, is the recognition by theprospect that a specific version of the product orservice is needed. In this stage, prospects arenarrowing the choice down to a few specificvendors. Finally, action is the decision to buy.Other versions of the funnel exist, but they all showraw leads entering the funnel at the top, and thenmoving along a sales cycle to the “buy” decision.(One odd note about the funnel metaphor—thisfunnel is leaky—lots of leads never make it to a buydecision, so they “leak” out.)Why is the sales funnel relevant to SalesEnablement? It is because for a very long time, theattention of marketing and sales has been on the topof the funnel --getting leads. For years, there hasbeen a very strong focus on gathering as many leadsas possible. Anyone who has been in sales can tellyou that one of the most frequent questions they getfrom management is “how many cold calls did youmake today?”The concern with this concentration on leadgeneration is that it tends to create the wrong focusfor marketing and sales. It shifts the focus onto theearly stages of the funnel. In truth, what really mattersis how sales and marketing deal with those leadsonce they enter the funnel. Lead generation is not agoal. A closed sale is the goal. It is out of thisre-focusing and attention on closing sales that thenotion of Sales Enablement is derived. What salesand marketing (and perhaps the entire company)should be doing is using their resources help salesmost effectively reach out to every lead. Everythingshould be focused on enabling sales to moveprospects from a general awareness of aproduct/service category along to recognition thatthey actually need it, and finally that yours is theproduct or service that suits them best. Getting thelargest number of leads from the top of the funnel tothe bottom is the true goal of sales. SalesEnablement says that all the resources of marketingshould be rallied to do whatever it required to helpsales succeed.There is an even more precise definition of salesenablement. This definition suggests that trueenablement ties the success of marketing to thenumber and volume of closed sales. Marketing isheld accountable for closed leads. By doing this,marketing and sales become much more closely tiedtogether, as their goals are now identical. (This iswhat we mean when we talk of aligning marketingand sales) In this linking of marketing to theresponsibility of closing sales, we create the overallprinciple of sales enablement. Marketing must rally allthe necessary corporate resources to ensure thatsales is given all the available tools to do their theirjobs better. And that means helping sales optimize itsfocus on the interests and needs of each individualprospect at any particular point in time. Helping salessell better.Now that a working definition of Sales Enablementhas been created, the next step is to discuss whattechnology and Big Data are doing to create newopportunities to help salespeople do their job better.As everyone is becoming increasingly aware,technology has made it possible for vendors to learna great deal about prospects and customers. BigData provides a warehouse of potentially valuableinformation that can help sales do its job better.Ultimately, the more we know about a prospect, themore accurately and promptly we can respond totheir interests and needs.This data collection has led to the creation ofautomated tools that can dramatically helpsalespeople do their jobs better. There are 4 specifictools that sales and marketing automation softwarehas created that can enable sales.PERSONALIZED HIGH-IMPACTSALES CREATIONThis is one of the most powerful tools for enablingsales. Let’s begin with the most obvious point insales: people pay attention to what matters to them.The more accurately you identify products orservices that matter most to them, the more likely2403 Sidney Street, Suite 150 Pittsburgh, PA 15203, Phone: 412.381.0230, Fax: 412.774.1992, Email: sales@mindmatrix.net, www.mindmatrix.net

they will pay attention to you. And that’s whatpersonalization is all about. Making sure your salescollateral is personalized and targets what matters tothem. Previously, printed, static marketing collateralhad to be generic—targeting all those within aspecific target market. With technology, it is nowpossible to create individualized pieces of marketingcollateral that focus on the specific interests of oneprospect. For example, instead of large unwieldycatalogs showcasing every available product,modern automation allows salespeople to createbranded catalogs that include only the product orservice lines that are relevant. All communicationscan be personalized to strengthen yourrelationship—no matter what the media. That meansthere is much less chance the message will be lost.Personalization means creating a communicationwith one client that takes the company collateral andmakes it distinctly and uniquely relevant to thereceiver.REAL-TIME 360 PROSPECT TRACKINGThe second automation tool that assists sales in newways is real-time prospect tracking. In sales,knowledge is key. The more information that sales isgiven, the better they can do their job. If a lead is inthe early awareness stage of the sales funnel, anymessage highlighting very specific features of aparticular product is probably not going to be usefulor even understood. That lead may only be ready formore general, preliminary information that explainsthe overall value of a product or service category.Automation software can identify for salespeoplewhere a particular leads stand in the sales funnel.Prospect tracking software collects the dataconstantly being captured about a prospect’sinteraction with your website, emails, social mediapages, and other marketing collateral. It thenanalyzes it to determine the needs of each prospect.This means that salespeople do not blindly interactwith a lead, only able to guess what communicationwould be relevant and readily received.SALES PROSPECTINGOne thing any good salesperson will tell you is thatleads require attention. And one thing that can trulyenable sales is finding ways to increase theirinteraction with each lead without adding to theirduties. Sales prospecting tools are intelligentprograms that respond intelligently to a prospect’sbehavior. They allow a salesperson to createmulti-step, multi-channel lead nurturing programsusing various media, such as e-mails, e-books, print,and social media. These programs aredynamic---automatically adjusting to specificprospect behavior and attributes. For example, ane-mail thanking the prospect for their interest willautomatically follow if they download a whitepaper.By automating these sorts of processes, leads geton-going attention that is relevant to them, butwithout taking more time from an account repsalready full day. Their time can then be spentinteracting personally with leads that are furtheralong in the sales cycle and need direct contact.SOCIAL MEDIAOne of the difficulties with the information age is thatcustomers have so much control. They are out theredeveloping an awareness of a product category, aswell as individual products, long before asalesperson has any contact with them. One of themost popular learning platforms is social media.Social media can be a place where new leads learnabout a company or its products. It is important,then, that social media sites such as Facebook andTwitter are maintained and recognized as importanttouchpoints for prospect interaction. Salesautomation software can create valuable socialmedia campaigns that ensure that fresh, relevantinformation is being fed to your sites, without puttingadditional responsibilities on the sales staff. Whenwe talk of sales enablement, it means ensuring thatall platforms for prospect interaction are being usedand optimized. We aren’t enabling sales when sucha significant sales platform is underused or notmaintained.To summarize, sales enablement is all about helpingsalespeople do their jobs better. There has been a lotof discussion of what sales enablement means as aspace in the corporate structure. For instance, it is afunction or a role, and does it exist within sales ormarketing, or does it exist outside of both? Theanswer to that seems to vary significantly by2403 Sidney Street, Suite 150 Pittsburgh, PA 15203, Phone: 412.381.0230, Fax: 412.774.1992, Email: sales@mindmatrix.net, www.mindmatrix.net