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Sales enablement means building confidence
It’s an age-old scenario… Centrally a campaign is developed to wow and engage audiences and the sales enablement box gets ticked with some vague and empty PPT template slides. It’s no great surprise then, when salespeople (even the usually more self-assured types) lack the knowledge and therefore the confidence to amplify the campaign and put themselves in the risky and uncomfortable position of trying to get their customers and prospects (on whom their livelihood depends) to be interested.
There’s too much going on here behaviourally and psychologically to cover in a single blog – but suffice to say:
1. We can’t expect the customer to be convinced if the salesperson isn’t convinced
2. We can’t expect Salespeople to buy into or explain something in detail if that material isn’t created or articulated somewhere. This is not the fault of Salesperson – who could be the best skilled and most competent person in the company – just not up for the impossible. When good sales enablement is created, a huge number of decisions and ‘go-to-market’ choices about messaging are made – e.g:
- Our product can feasibly do [xyz] now and [something else] in the future
- If you’re a business that operates within [insert perimeters] this means [insert deep and meaningful implications]
- When we say [insert campaign theme], what we really mean is [insert 35 layers of information that a sales person is likely to need to do their job properly]
- etc…
A single individual (or even a team of them) can’t invent those answers. It is the responsibility of Marketing and Sales people to work through these things together as part of the development of the campaign. Arguably when Marketing develops the campaign from the beginning, it starts with us.
When we re-frame ‘sales enablement’ as building confidence in your sales teams, it can unlock a whole load of potential ways to support, which could mean the difference between a revved-up, engaged sales team vs complete tumbleweed.
Our 10 top sales enablement tips for building confidence in your sales team:
1. Provide market insights and context – this is gold-dust to inform discussions with different customers and prospects
2. Explain the theme in detail and specifically how it links to real-life issues (raised in real-life meeting rooms)
3. Engage the sales team early on to get their perspectives – no one knows their needs better
4. Scenario plan for the type of sales interactions relevant to your business /campaign – and enable your sales team in each of those variety of situations
5. Provide assets and tools (that the sales team are involved in crafting) and provide training on what’s available
6. Give the sales team total visibility of the whole campaign – they will appreciate knowing the full picture before, during and after
7. Ensure messages have layers of depth that address the needs of your audience – Imagine at least 5 x ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions per message and answer each layer
8. Allow for nuances of different customer types / sectors / job roles – the stories will differ in these scenarios
9. Go the extra mile – empathy is a powerful tool to understand your sales team… imagine standing in a meeting with a £300m customer yourself. You have 8 minutes to wow them. This is a great way to inspire creative solutions.
10. Enjoy the team effort. When Marketing and Sales truly collaborate, everyone is happier and it makes a business unstoppable.
How are you setting up your sales teams for success this quarter and next year?
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