Sales enablement gives you the edge, allowing sales teams to win business with the right targeting and engagement throughout the customer journey. To get the most out of this process, you need insight into every role player in the sales interaction and into buyers and their needs. Then you can tailor your approach so that at every point you are tuning into what buyers want and using the right tools and content to provide it.
Quality not quantity
Quality interactions with buyers make for better sales opportunities and this requires equipping your sales team to guide potential buyers in their journey. Many sales enablement strategies address the entire organisation with the result that training is too generalised. The right sales enablement will lead to quality interactions that will ultimately make the buying process shorter and simpler.
Specialised sales enablement
Ensuring that sales teams have good-quality interactions with buyers requires insight into their wants and needs. Every buyer is different, and their needs will also vary according to where they are on their journey. For the best interactions, sales teams will require relevant information to offer at every stage. Sales enablement also includes the relevant technology, content and tools that can guide buyers more effectively.
Information can be offered to customers in many forms including smart content, applications, engagement emails and several other tools and channels that are easily digestible and reusable throughout the sales team.
The big picture
Focusing on bringing in new business might be to your detriment because you can lose sight of other valuable activities such as nurturing, upselling or cross-selling. Similarly, putting too much emphasis on events or certain times of year (like product or sale launches) might result in losing the opportunity for sales in the periods between them. Sales enablement can help you to get the most out of your sales with an ongoing strategy that’s year-round and multi-focused.
Invest in digital sales tools
Previously, businesses were reluctant to invest in digital channels because it was thought that they weren’t good for B2B. But more businesses are realising that digital is as important as a more traditional salesforce in driving growth. Research shows that three-quarters of B2B buyers found it helpful to speak to a sales consultant while making their first purchase. But this figure falls to approximately 50% for a second purchase with different specifications and only 15% for subsequent purchases with the same features.
Investing in digital tools to combine with your salesforce helps to meet customers’ needs. This is achieved from the start by freeing up your salespeople to talk to customers on their first purchase and using digital tools to answer simpler initial inquiries. This leaves the sales team to take on more difficult questions and interactions that buyers need later in their journey.
Take it further
A powerful sales enablement strategy is underpinned by intuitive technology and software that help to simplify processes and optimise output. It is more than just a database and a functioning website enquiries page, it is intelligent customer journeys driven by real data on your potential client base.
Find out more about our sales enablement strategy.
