Are you looking to improve your sales performance and drive growth for your business? If so, considering the implementation of a sales enablement strategy could be a good place to start.
Sales enablement is a proactive approach that helps organisations provide the necessary tools, resources, and training to their sales teams to improve performance and drive results. It’s a vital aspect of any successful sales strategy, and it can be especially beneficial for small and medium-sized businesses looking to scale and grow their operations.
In this blog, we will:
- Explore the concept of sales enablement in more detail
- Discuss the importance of this approach in today’s competitive business landscape
- Provide some tips and best practices for implementing a successful sales enablement strategy for your organisation.
So, if you’re looking to drive growth and boost your sales performance, read on to learn more about the benefits of a sales enablement strategy.
What is sales enablement?
Sales enablement is the practice of providing sales teams with the resources and tools they need to engage effectively with prospects and close deals. It is an iterative process that requires the development of resources, often utilising methods of training, sales materials and technology solutions that help salespeople deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.
What is a sales enablement strategy?
A sales enablement strategy can be defined by your business’ approach to providing the tools and content the team needs to close deals. This strategy should be specific to your sales team’s requirements, targeted at your business’ customer profile, attuned to your industry best practices and aligned to the overall sales goals.
Reporting on the effectiveness of your strategy is also highly important. Data-driven performance and effectiveness analysis can identify optimisations and tell you more about your prospect and how they best engage.
Sales enablement resources
Sales enablement resources act as the conduit between your content, marketing and sales cycles and are typically produced to perform three roles:
- Product and/or service content that can be absorbed and fed to the buyer to educate on and promote your products and/or services.
- Internal content aids with best-practice strategies, tips, tools and research to help your team influence the selling moments.
- Data-driven processes such as CRM software and call recording tools to track and measure performance, identify opportunities and recognise scope for training.
Examples of effective sales enablement resources as advised by us:
- Written content and knowledge of the product and/or service
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to manage and track interactions and progress made with prospects
- Video coaching and confidence workshops
- Sales intelligence training and software support
- Account and opportunity planning resources
- Frameworks and playbooks detailing research and implementation techniques for target customers
Why is sales enablement important?
Sales enablement can help sales teams be more effective and efficient in their work. In our experience, sales enablement can help achieve the following:
1. Increased productivity
By providing teams with the resources and tools they need, businesses can reduce the time and effort that salespeople spend on tasks, such as searching for information or creating sales materials, and spend more time closing deals and finding new leads.
2. Improved engagement
With the relevant knowledge, sales teams can better understand the needs of their prospects and tailor their approach to each situation. Providing your prospects with targeted and pertinent content can lead to more effective engagement and, ultimately, more closed deals.
3. Enhanced relationships
Sales enablement plays a critical role in building and maintaining relationships with prospects and customers. By providing sales teams with the tools they need to effectively communicate with prospects and customers, organisations can provide a more consultative approach, fostering trust and building long-term loyalty.
4. Empowers your sales team
By providing the right resources, your sales team will feel more confident in approaching leads and customers, and have a better understanding of the product or service, the challenges businesses face, and the market, enabling them to bring greater value to each conversation.
What are the best practices for sales enablement?
- Clearly define the target audience and buyer personas. By doing so, sales representatives can tailor their messaging and approach to specific needs and pain points.
- Provide relevant and up-to-date sales tools, including product sheets, customer case studies, demonstration videos, and other materials that help salespeople communicate the value of your products and/or services.
- Offer training and development opportunities. By curating a good dissemination process for sharing product knowledge, sales techniques, and industry trends, sales teams will feel empowered to deliver on their objectives.
- Use technology to streamline the sales process. This could include CRM systems, sales automation tools, and collaboration software.
- Measure and track sales enablement effectiveness. Track metrics such as sales productivity, win rates, and customer satisfaction.
Providing this support, content and training can help your sales team sell more effectively and efficiently, progressing prospects through the sales pipeline. With tracking tools in place, you will easily be able to identify areas that require more sales enablement support, opportunities to be capitalised on and, measure and reward your team’s successes.
How Furza enables your sales team
The Furza Academy is a bespoke training programme designed to increase your sales team’s capabilities, productivity and performance, enabling individuals to support the delivery of your organisation’s strategic goals and vision. We do this by:
- Taking a consultative approach to training. We work with you to understand your business so your sales representatives have the knowledge, tools, resources, and materials to close more deals and drive business revenue;
- Developing and implementing a bespoke training programme tailored to your products and/or solutions, CRM and desired sales outcomes. We understand what it takes to be successful in your industry and design the training specifically, providing your team with a solid framework for success;
- Introducing a blend of key sales skills and practical applications;
- Utilising our proven learning framework to accelerate best practices;
- Curating a personalised, interactive playbook for your business’ sales function.
Training Alignment
The Furza team provides up to two days of consultation to contextualise and align our training with your business. We work with you to understand the key development milestones and touchpoints required to create a successful sales team, and generate bespoke training and sales enablement tools based on your desired outcomes.
Proven programme
Our ISP accredited training provides a blend of fundamental sales skills and practical application tailored to your business. Over four weeks, candidates cover a range of sales and business modules designed to create best practices and build the foundation of their knowledge. Candidates leave The Furza Academy with a core understanding of their role and the fundamental frameworks they need for immediate success.
Continued support
We provide on-going support through the creation of sales playbooks, and outbound value proposition frameworks, aligning and creating KPIs based on previous experience, with deliverable and measurable metrics for success.
Benefits of working with Furza
Time and resource efficiencies
We understand that Sales Directors and Managers with high targets have limited availability to be training sales associates. With our streamlined process, we cut the typical six months of training in half, helping you get your high-performing sales team in place quicker without disrupting your workload, productivity, or targets.
Employ high-performing salespeople
We find and recruit graduates with the potential to succeed in a sales role within your business. The Furza Academy provides comprehensive training in sales fundamentals, practical applications and behaviours, and in-depth product or service information, instilling your business ethos from the very beginning and ensuring your team is cohesive, trained for success, and productive from day one.
Reduce employee turnover
By establishing committed, cohesive, and resilient sales teams that train together, start together and have a solid learning framework, your team will build strong foundations for collective success, helping to reduce the rate of employee turnover.
Wage bill reduction
Graduates are on Furza’s headcount whilst they train on our programme, meaning there are no associated salary costs in the first three months.
Sales enablement support
Once your new sales team is in place, the Furza team will continue to provide support to ensure they have the tools needed to perform. Furza can create a playbook designed specifically for your business to give your sales team a comprehensive guide to selling. This playbook acts as a go-to guide through the sales cycle, providing information on your business, products and services, step-by-step call structures, objection handling, buyer personas, pain points and competitor analysis, so your team is focused and consistent in their delivery.
As we have seen, a relevant, bespoke, and measured sales enablement programme is integral to any successful sales strategy. Providing training, relevant content, and appropriate technology offers a toolkit for your sales team with the information they need when they need it, helping to increase productivity and performance within your sales function.
Furza’s bespoke sales academy can help develop your sales team, implement effective sales enablement strategies, and provide the necessary tools to close sales deals time after time.
Check out The Furza Academy here.
