This blog post was originally published on lessonly.com.
Let’s face it—the perfect sales enablement program is a challenge to build from the ground up. It’s difficult to know where to start, and it’s just as tough to figure out what your team really needs to be successful. There seems to be an endless amount of options and paths that have plenty of advantages and disadvantages. So, what’s a sales enablement leader to do?
To help put sales pros on the path to enablement success, Bryan Naas, VP of Sales Productivity joined Irina Soriano, Head of Enablement at Seismic for a recent webinar that covered valuable tips to consider during the process. With over 30 years of combined knowledge in the industry, they drew upon their experiences around roadblocks, the sales tech stack, and how to drive business impact. Here’s a look at some of the tips and best practices they shared.
1. Create a plan and a process
Bryan and Irina kicked off the webinar by sharing personal experiences of a time when their planning efforts fell short. Both stories had a common theme: It may seem easy to just jump in and get started. But, the best enablement campaigns start with thoughtful and intentional planning. During this time, it’s important to identify the most essential objectives and outcomes for your campaign. To do this, step back and bring in other team members to ensure there’s alignment. These conversations will help you gain a broader understanding of the problems that need to be solved. And while planning may seem like a long or difficult step, Byran and Irina likened it to muscle memory. The more experience you have with this process, the easier it will be to involve and align with the right people in your organization time and time again.
“Let’s make sure we have a full picture of what the process is. How is this going to impact the business, and how do we make sure that we’re not creating some ripple effect that’s going to cause a different problem or issue down the line.” — Bryan Naas
2. Choose the right technology for your team
There are a lot of technology options out there, and making any kind of software purchase can be very overwhelming. To get started building your tech stack, take the time to understand the different software categories, and consider what’s going to fit your organization’s needs best. Bryan and Irina mentioned the importance of evaluating your entire sales tech stack and looking into integration capabilities. Once you have a good grasp on options and platforms, talk to the people who will actually be using the software. Consider their experience and ensure that whatever tool you’re looking at is valuable through the eyes of your reps. If they don’t find it valuable, they won’t engage with it. And, there are few things worse than spending money on a tool that isn’t used by your team.
“There are a lot of vendors that are able to support across different categories effectively, and there’s a lot of great integrations. I recommend spending the initial time to really educate yourself and understand what’s needed.” — Irina Soriano
3. Consider the ROI of your efforts
If you’re ready to actually buy software, then that means it’s time to build a business case for that purchase. And while it may seem like an obvious choice for your team, your exec and finance teams will likely need some convincing. Sometimes the business case may seem more complex or involved, but there are a number of strategic and tactical steps to take that can make this process simpler and more efficient. For example, really define what success is going to look like, and develop both leading and lagging indicators to prove the ROI of your purchase.
“It all goes back to the problem and making sure you bring in the data, that ROI, of the expected outcome to share with executives.” — Irina Soriano
“There’s a lot of value in really understanding what your CFO cares about. Sometimes it’s more about a conversation than it is about the numbers on paper. So, understand your internal process and learn what it’s going to take to get that budget.” — Bryan Naas
Sure, building a sales enablement campaign can be daunting…if you let it. But, by following some of these tips and tricks that Bryan and Irina shared, you’ll likely find value and added opportunities in your efforts.
