The 2 pillars of a successful sales enablement strategy

Software does not create the sales enablement strategy!

If sales enablement IT projects fail, it's, in most cases, because the necessary foundations for the optimal use of these technologies have not yet been built within the company. Software is only effective when it receives adequate input. For example, a CRM only allows a sales director to calculate predictive revenue if the sales representatives using it correctly and transparently enter the content of their customer interactions. The same applies to sales enablement software. In summary, the technology used is not the cornerstone of the enablement project, but rather a tool to serve it.

Marketing and Sales Alignment

Some sales enablement software vendors claim that integrating their technology ensures convergence between marketing and sales activities. This is only partially true. Sales enablement technologies can embed, optimize, and ensure this alignment in the long term. However, it is preferable to take certain steps before deployment. Here are a few:

Pooling Sales Knowledge

Sales professionals deepen their understanding of the target market and buyers' needs or problems every day. However, generally, the validation and dissemination of this knowledge is not their responsibility. To improve sales support processes, methods, and content, it is essential to ensure that their feedback is transmitted to the marketing department.

The goal of sales enablement is to transform raw observations from the field into projects that drive commercial excellence. It is therefore essential to provide salespeople with an exchange platform so that they can share their recent insights and learnings. By platform, don't necessarily mean

digital. Implementing collective routines can perfectly fulfill this function.

Identify Your Champions

Some companies already have a well-established enablement approach. We then speak of an integrated enablement strategy. There are therefore internal candidates perfectly suited to fill this champion role (Content Manager, Sales Readiness Manager, Sales Effectiveness Director, etc.). If this is not the case within your organization, it can be more challenging to identify the right stakeholders. No worries!
These champions generally emerge on their own, as enablement initiatives usually generate a lot of enthusiasm. However, it is crucial to rely on the contribution of champions from at least the marketing and sales departments.

Identify Your Top Performers

Your top salespeople are the pillars of your sales enablement strategy. They expand their expertise and apply it at various levels of information. Thus, they judiciously guide the buyers they meet, helping them refine their decision criteria, and making themselves indispensable throughout the buyer's journey through a strategic contribution of value.

These salespeople have developed ready-to-sell messages for every question, doubt, and objection communicated by their prospects. Ignoring their expertise when developing sales support content and tools deprives the sales organization of its learning capacity. It is therefore crucial to integrate and actively involve them in the process of creating and improving sales materials.

Create a Specific Content Base

Marketing plays a crucial role in developing a customer-centric approach for salespeople. Salespeople must be able to respond precisely to their prospects' questions. However, each prospect's situation is unique. Given this, some marketing teams may be tempted to clutter their document base with countless generic content pieces.

In reality, although each prospect's situation involves specific circumstances, they are never completely unique. Indeed, individual situations result from a combination of "sub-situations" that salespeople regularly encounter at each stage of their sales cycle.

In a consultative selling context, marketing and sales alignment involves creating specific and targeted content that salespeople can use to maintain a consistent message throughout their prospects' buying journey.

There's no point in focusing on a software solution if you don't have a somewhat robust content library. Sales enablement technologies are specifically designed to help salespeople adopt an "account-based marketing" approach. This means they enable them to interact in a personalized way, even

personalized with their prospects. This approach is only feasible if your sales reps already have a wide range of content.

The development of a sales enablement system

While marketing and sales actively contribute to the overall effort, they are not the only stakeholders. Sales enablement project champions orchestrate collaboration among many other groups, including commercial operations, IT, communications, and innovation departments. It is therefore necessary to build an integrated sales enablement system, based on formal collaboration mechanisms between each stakeholder.

The importance of a sales enablement charter

For over 10 years, Zélit has been involved in developing this system with its clients. We strongly recommend that it be formalized with a charter. Without such a document, it can fall apart when the enthusiasm generated by a software project fades. If the key players in your sales enablement system have not been clearly designated, if their responsibilities have not been defined, and in the absence of collaboration mechanisms governing their respective contributions, the strategy tends to gradually lose coherence. Here we offer a standard template for structuring this document.

The problems you want to address

Here are some examples of problems frequently expressed by our clients: “Our prospects now expect more from our sales reps”

“Our buyers are busy people. It's difficult to build a customer-centric offer with the little time they give us”

“Our prospects seem interested during initial meetings. However, many stop responding after a few follow-ups”

Sales enablement software providers are also there to help you identify the root causes of these problems. Engage them! Knowing the core of the problem then allows you to identify the enablement system that deserves your attention.

• The enablement system to leverage

We invite you to read our article Sales enablement, a distinct system within the company in which we present the 3 pillars of a sales enablement strategy. Here is a brief summary.

The sales enablement system influences 3 blocks, or subsystems. A sales readiness block (sales readiness system), a training block (training system) and a mentoring or coaching block (management system).

Within the sales readiness system, we find all the knowledge, content, methods, and processes designed to help sales representatives maximize the value they deliver to clients. This component is therefore closely linked to sales training, which should promote the adoption of the aforementioned tools across the sales force. Finally, the coaching system should enable managers to identify the weaknesses and strengths of each team member, in order to personalize the support they provide and elevate everyone's performance. Depending on the sales challenge, the sales enablement system to focus on will vary.

• The desired outcomes and key metrics:

It is essential here to include both leading and lagging indicators. Lagging indicators focus on the ultimate goals of your enablement initiatives. Leading indicators encompass every activity demonstrating your progress towards your final objective. If there is a positive correlation between these two categories of indicators, you confirm that the solution to the problem is correct.

• The team members involved in the project and the functions they can rely on

Here, it's about identifying your various champions and listing the functions they can rely on to achieve their objectives.

• The people to report to

It is recommended that sales enablement projects be overseen by someone close to the executive committee. Without this, those involved in enablement maintain an autonomous system, not subject to any performance requirements. Without the support and participation of a director, enablement remains a low priority among sales initiatives.

• The ultimate champion, or the control tower

There are individuals perfectly suited to fill this champion role. Generally, they are the ones initiating enablement projects. However, if you have difficulty identifying them, there's a magic question: "Within your department, which team member is most likely to become a sales or marketing director within the next 5 to 10 years?"

The 4 phases of system evolution

Knowing the precise maturity of your enablement system allows you to streamline your roadmap and plan the right next step.

• Non-existent

Sales representatives have targets and territories but are not guided at all when it comes to execution choices. They therefore operate with near autonomy.

• Informal

A few team members lead enablement projects, either for themselves or their teams. However, since these various initiatives are not structured, they cannot be integrated into more complex projects that drive long-term excellence. As the aforementioned indicators are not rigorously tracked, the solutions provided for sales challenges are arbitrary.

• Formal

Selected enablement projects are based on data utilization and the tracking of leading and lagging indicators. The company has implemented a formal collaboration system among all key stakeholders in the process. One person fills the role of control tower and coordinates the contributions of each champion, whether they are from the marketing or sales department.

• Integrated

Roles are now entirely dedicated to the system's evolution. Each project is chosen according to a scientific method, based on data utilization and performance indicator management. Key stakeholders in the enablement strategy are incentivized based on these