Sales enablement has transformed over the past 15 years. More and more, organizations are planning with sales enablement in mind and making strategic investments in sales technologies. With sales cycles becoming more complex, companies need to elevate their sales enablement programs to build a competitive advantage.
Over the past year, we’ve worked with our partners, customers, and industry professionals to identify sales enablement best practices for digital-first selling.
If your program is new, mature, or somewhere in between, we’ve come up with tips to help you elevate your sales enablement approach.
I’ll share a few in this post!
Understand how high-performing organizations practice sales enablement
The complexity of modern sales cycles has made sales enablement a must-have. Regardless of an organization’s sales enablement maturity, there’s always room for improvement.
One of the questions we’re asked most often is “how do leading organizations leverage sales enablement?”
The short answer is that these organizations view sales enablement differently. They don’t view sales enablement as just a team or function. Instead, they view sales enablement as a strategic business enabler and its principles are embraced across their go-to-market engine. They view sales enablement as a strategic discipline where its capabilities may reside in different parts of the business.
In our Annual Sales Enablement Benchmark Report (2021), we found that in high-performing organizations, sales enablement is often championed at the executive level. In 59% of sales enablement Visionaries, sales enablement leadership reports directly to the CEO.
By embracing enablement as a culture or mindset, high-performers elevate their sales enablement programs. They also leverage a variety of technologies within their sales and marketing tech stack while using data and analytics to identify and scale best practices across their organization.
But, before your company can begin the path to sales enablement greatness, you first need to understand where you’re headed and why.
Know your goals for sales enablement
A vision without a plan is just a dream. Even if your sales enablement program is a well-oiled machine, there’s never a bad time to pause and evaluate your program goals.
What do you want to achieve with sales enablement? What tactics will you employ to reach your goals? How will you measure success?
As you identify your goals, it’s important to work cross-functionally with customer-facing stakeholders to understand how they factor into your vision. Their unique insights can help you fine-tune your strategy to best serve your most important stakeholder: the customer.
Creating an exceptional customer experience should be your priority. Practicing an enablement mindset along with sales enablement technology helps sales and marketing align on their goals and better serve customers.
Elevating your sales enablement program requires organizational change. Before you can get buy-in or implement a cultural shift, you need to be able to articulate your vision, as well as the value of your sales enablement strategy.
Establish a sales enablement charter
You might ask “what’s a sales enablement charter? And why do I need one?”
A sales enablement charter is the cornerstone of your organization’s enablement efforts. It’s a collaborative effort that brings together key stakeholders within your organization’s go-to-market team.
By bringing together stakeholders from across the organization, you ensure that your enablement program is built with input from each of the teams that leverage enablement in their day-to-day roles.
Developing and adhering to a sales enablement charter can have tangible results for your business.
Companies that have a sales enablement program, as well as a charter achieve 35% greater quota attainment and 15% less turnover.
Sales cycles are becoming more complex and demanding more of sales, marketing, and enablement teams. There are several steps your business can take to update and optimize your enablement strategy.
Creating a sales enablement charter can help position your team for long-term success with cross-functional buy-in.
If you’d like to learn how you can develop a sales enablement charter, check out our eBook, “Power Sales Enablement with a Charter.”
