What is sales enablement?
Depending on your organisation, sales enablement can have various meanings. We define sales enablement as the strategic use of people, processes and technology to improve sales productivity and increase revenue. While sales enablement isn’t just about the software and tools used, it isn’t just about the practices and processes used either.
What is sales enablement software?
Sales enablement software is technology that reduces the workload of sales and customer service professionals, streamlines their workflows and provides go-to-market (GTM) teams with valuable insights to improve performance and revenue growth.
A good sales enablement platform includes multiple capabilities and solutions. Let’s take a closer look at what these include.
Essential sales enablement tools
If you search the G2 sales enablement software listings, you’ll find hundreds of enablement tools to choose from. These solutions automate, organise and streamline several sales processes so organisations can help their sales team become more successful. Some common sales enablement solutions include:
Content management and automation
Sales content management is the process of creating, storing, organising and sharing content. Sales reps can use sales enablement content to engage with prospects more effectively. They can also address prospects’ concerns quickly and accurately by rapidly accessing the right data, statistics and information with sales content software, increasing the chances of a successful sale.
Strategy and planning
Sales enablement planning is a vital step in the enablement process. Enablement planning creates a roadmap for the tactical sales content, materials and training needed to support a specific campaign or goal. Sales enablement planning software streamlines the entire planning process so teams can audit existing content, get actionable data and manage requests all in one platform.
Buyer engagement
Interactions between sellers and prospects aren’t successful unless the buyer is as engaged as possible. After all, the more personalised and meaningful these interactions seem to the customer, the more likely the sale will go through. Buyer engagement software stores information about prospects and provides sellers with specific channels and tools to best interact with buyers.
Training
Sales enablement training software is also vital. Contrary to what many organisations provide, sales training doesn’t end after a rep’s first week on the new job. Sellers not only need excellent onboarding training, but ongoing sales training as well. New knowledge is constantly changing how we sell, so keeping learning materials like how-to’s, product knowledge and resources updated is essential.
Coaching and feedback
If you want to maximise sales performance, providing sellers with ongoing coaching can make all the difference. While training equips reps with critical skills and knowledge, sales coaching reinforces this information and targets specific areas for additional development for each individual rep.
Analytics and insights
Teams need data-based insights in order to measure how their enablement efforts are performing. Enablement intelligence also enables sellers to accelerate deals through granular buyer insights.
Who uses sales enablement tools?
Sales enablement tools can improve the processes of many different business departments, thus increasing the company’s performance as a whole. But who are sales enablement tools intended for, and who do they benefit the most?
Sales teams
It’s not uncommon for sales reps to make split-second decisions while interacting with a prospect. Without the right resources, they may struggle to make the right decision or provide the right information. By giving them access to sales enablement apps and software, they are more informed and don’t have to spend time searching for relevant content to share with buyers. This allows them to be more productive and focus on moving deals forward in an efficient way.
Marketing teams
Sales enablement apps provide a single place for marketing teams to create, store and manage sales content and collateral. Sales enablement software also tracks the usage and success of this content so marketing teams can make informed decisions on what content is most useful and where there may be pain points.
Enablement leaders and managers
Enablement leaders and managers can use sales enablement platforms to keep track of certain aspects of the business, including employee performance, revenue, ROI, and more. They can use this information to improve many areas of the sales process and provide employees with resources to increase their performance.
Benefits of sales enablement tools
The most immediate benefit of the use of sales enablement tools is the vast amount of information your sales force will have access to in order to meet your objectives. We recently surveyed 1,200 sales, enablement and customer success professionals across the US and Europe to better understand the value of sales enablement technology.
The report found that sales enablement tools are exceedingly popular, with 82% of respondents saying they use it on the job. 99% of those respondents agree that enablement tools make their jobs easier. Here’s a glimpse at some of the benefits highlighted in The Seismic 2023 Value of Enablement Report.
Higher productivity
Sales enablement software gives sellers a way to quickly find the information and content they need. In fact, we found that enablement tools save respondents an average of 13 hours per week. This time can then be used for more productive and revenue-generating activities.
Increased effectiveness
Buyers can be unpredictable, but with the right sales enablement tools sellers can formulate well-informed responses with little, to no, hesitation. 97% of participants say that quick access to information and content helps them speak to clients from a more informed standpoint.
Improved customer experience
Tracking down content, comparing versions and making revisions negatively impacts the customer experience. 63% of respondents who work for an organisation without sales enablement technology say that the content they use isn’t personalised enough for customers. Furthermore, more than 40% say that the content is also irrelevant to their clients’ use case or industry.
Enablement software and best practices
With so many technological advances, there’s no reason not to use enablement tools to improve everything from sales enablement automation to training and coaching. The best sales apps and software will comfortably fit your company’s culture while providing valuable support that helps you meet goals. But when it comes to finding and implementing the best sales enablement software for your team, remember these best practices:
- Identify seller pain points: The first step to solving your sales team’s challenges is identifying what they are. Talk to your sellers and get feedback about what they think would help alleviate some of these issues.
- Establish goals: By setting goals for what you hope to achieve through the implementation of your new sales enablement software, you can establish a more accurate timeline of how long this will take. These goals can also help establish what enablement leaders need to focus on when coaching sales teams.
- Educate sellers: While sales enablement software is an excellent tool for sales teams, they can’t use something they don’t understand. Educate your sales teams on the new software and make sure to get frequent feedback and address any questions they may have.
- Keep your customers in mind: The purchase process is a journey that rarely goes in a straight line, which is why you should use a sales enablement platform that best targets your buyer’s journey. By keeping the customer on the path to a successful sale, the software enables reps to follow the customer’s journey and create content at each stage.
- Track usage and performance: There is no way to know whether a specific enablement tool will be effective until you try it and analyse the results. Through these performance metrics, you’ll be able to tell if anything is improving or if you need to make a few tweaks to how your team utilises the tool.
Never stop growing.
How Seismic can help
The Seismic Enablement Cloud™ allows organisations like yours to empower go-to-market teams with the right skills, content and insights to engage customers like never before. The Enablement Cloud features six essential sales enablement apps across content management, learning & coaching, strategy & planning, content automation, buyer engagement and enablement intelligence for an all-in-one unified enablement platform. This helps rapidly growing organisations accelerate sales and cultivate growth. Ready to learn more? Check out all of the benefits and capabilities of the Seismic Enablement Cloud™ here.
