Heavy website traffic and high conversion rates are great, but are you happy with the quality of your leads? Are your marketing and sales efforts aligned? Does your sales team have the tools they need to sell more effectively? Sales enablement checks these boxes and will grow your business.
The Definition of Sales Enablement
Sales enablement is ALL about helping your sales team close deals. How does it work? It takes the form of content, technology and processes to help you sell more effectively. All of your customer interactions should be consistent and reliable. Maybe you need coaching, scripts or templates?
Think about your content marketing strategy (if you're not doing this, you should be). It's about helping your audience and not pitching them your products or services. The same philosophy continues here with sales enablement.
Content to Close Leads
Marketing and sales need to work together to create content that the sales team can provide to their leads. Are there questions that your sales people have to continually answer? Write a blog, a case study or make a video discussing that question. I'm sure your sales team would rather pass along a link to an eBook or a white-paper than repeatedly answer the same question. A well put together piece of content will show your company's expertise and will build trust with your audience.
Technology and Tools to Close Leads
We've talked about the benefits of marketing automation tools before, but don't worry sales people. There's automation for y'all too.
Automation software tracks leads as they navigate your website. Once website visitor converts into a lead, you can see what they're looking at and can get an idea of their needs and pain points. This can help qualify leads so your sales people aren't wasting any time with bad fits.
Email templates and email sequences can save time and increase efficiency. Take the guess work out of it. A sales automation software program will take some time to set up but will pay off when a sales person doesn't have to spend time thinking about what to say or when to send an email.
Other fun sales automation tools include:
- Automated email workflows - You can create simple or complex if-then formulas to trigger specific emails depending on your leads' actions.
- Email tracking - Ever wonder if and when your emails are being read? Use email tracking to see what actions people are taking when you send them email from opens to clicks on specific links.
- "Book a Meeting" links - Cut down on the back-and-forth trying to schedule a call or a meeting. Send your contacts a link to book a meeting based on your calendar's availability.
Processes to Close Leads
Content ☑️
Tools ☑️
Processes?
How does everything come together? Processes make sure everyone is on the same page. Processes also ensure sales efforts are being reviewed.
Where is the sales enablement content stored? Creating content isn't easy. It's a shame if the sales enablement content isn't used. I suggest using a cloud-based system to store your content (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc). Make sure your folders are clearly and consistently named and every team member is trained on what and how to use the content.
How will your sales enablement tools be evaluated? Automation tools are great for simplifying your day-to-day responsibilities but automation software is also great for reporting and evaluating what is or isn't working. You can take a look at the average sales cycle length, quota statuses and deal size to keep everything on track.
How do you review a sales process? A lead goes through a funnel, a journey, a process or whatever you want to call it. Companies need to regularly evaluate where leads are dropping off. For example, are you impressed with the amount of free consultations you're doing but disappointed with the amount of closed leads following it? If so, there's something wrong with how consultations are being done.
What are you waiting for?
At this stage you can see if your team needs training, sales scripting or a complete revamp in sales enablement methods with ongoing sales training. Sales enablement shouldn't fall on one person's shoulders. It's a constant initiative between sales and marketing teams. Speaking of teams, our team is happy to help if you need it. Reach out to us if you have any questions about sales enablement.
