Sales Enablement defined and how to do it right with Tamara Schenk, Research Director of Miller Heiman's CSO Insights group.
Jan 3, 2019
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Tamara Schenk, Research Director at CSO Insights, discusses sales enablement, a rapidly growing discipline. She highlights the importance of aligning services with customer journey, integrating technology for CRM, and continual improvement for better sales outcomes.
Sales enablement enhances sales results through consistent services for customer-facing roles.
Holistic approach for sales enablement includes content, training, coaching, and tools along the customer's path.
Success in sales enablement requires buy-in from leaders, strategic vision, and measurable goals.
Deep dives
Definition and Growth of Sales Enablement
Sales enablement is a fast-growing collaborative strategic discipline aimed at enhancing predictable sales results by providing consistent services for customer-facing roles. With a significant increase in adoption from 19% to 59% in organizations, it has become a prominent area that started with pioneers in the tech industry.
Challenges and Solutions in Implementing Enablement
One of the main challenges in sales enablement is the diverse functional biases that individuals bring into the roles, leading to inconsistencies in approach. Successful enablement requires a holistic view, incorporating content, training, coaching, and tools orchestrated consistently along the customer's path.
Characteristics of a Successful Sales Enablement Function
A successful sales enablement function is marked by obtaining buy-in from sales leaders, creating a strategic vision, and developing an enablement charter outlining goals, actions, target audience, and measurement of success. Organizations that implement a structured approach with a charter see significant improvements in code attainment.
Technology and Measurement in Sales Enablement
Incorporating technology into sales enablement involves integrating systems with CRM for efficient operations, e-learning, content management, and AI-driven solutions. Success in enablement is measured not just by lagging revenue indicators but by leading indicators like conversion rates and coaching effectiveness to enhance sales productivity and success.
Advice for Sales Leaders on Implementing Sales Enablement
Sales leaders venturing into sales enablement should focus on establishing a stable sales operations foundation, developing processes and methodologies, integrating technology solutions, and aligning with measurement metrics that track leading indicators to improve sales effectiveness and productivity throughout the customer sales journey.
Tamara Schenk is the Research Director at CSO Insights, the research division of Miller Heiman. Tamara recently wrote a book on sales enablement, which is called Sales Enablement: A Master Framework to Engage, Equip and Empower a World-class Sales Force.
Sales Enablement is a fast growing discipline with 59% of sales organisations currently reporting a sales enablement initiative or function compared to only 19% in 2013. We discuss what sales enablement is all about, the key trends emerging and what's critical to make it work.
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