You are standing at the start-line of the F1 Grand Prix. The tension is building, and the crowd is cheering for you. The engine is roaring...

You have completed your second lap and now it’s time to refuel. So, you halt at the pit and the crew is missing - but you find nothing there. How will you win the race with low fuel and a worn-out tire?

Similarly, you cannot close deals without sales enablement. Sales enablement is like a pit in an F1 race that refuels, makes mechanical adjustments, and fixes your tires. To win the race you need resources from your pit members so that you can only focus on your driving.

A sales enablement plan provides sales representatives with the information, tools, and resources they require to achieve consistent outcomes. Great sales enablement gives your salespeople the ability to represent your firm and its offerings.

Having sales enablement programs in place helps you increase your win rate. The team with the best crew that can fix the car quickly will keep the team ahead in the race.

And there’s more to it. Sales teams need the right resources, data, and insights at the right time to convert a lead and get you more deals. So, what is sales enablement exactly? Why is it important to have an effective sales enablement program? Let’s dive into it.

What is sales enablement? 

Sales enablement program connects the sales reps with the right information, resources, and training that they will need to close the deals effectively. Every sales enablement plan seeks to provide salespeople with the tools, resources, and confidence they require to generate more sales, quicker. These resources can be: video content, sales guides, saving calculators, one-pagers, or - anything-and-everything that help sales teams sell more effectively.

With the correct information, sales enablement solves the prospect's top-of-mind problems. It simplifies interaction among sales reps, leads, as well as active clients, promoting stronger ties. An effective sales enablement strategy can help unblock a sales rep and help push the leads through their buyer’s journey, which in turn improves their sales performance.

It can also drastically cut down on the number of times salespeople need to research and process a deal, shortening the sales cycle.

Now that you know the importance of sales enablement, it’s time we talk about the best practices of sales enablement that you can use to boost sales.

6 Sales Enablement Best Practices to enhance your sales

1. Pick the best to train the rest

Your star performers are stars for a reason. You must replicate what’s working in your organization for the clients you’re trying to close. Identify what your top performers are doing right and leverage that information to train your sales team members with the right sales enablement content. Your sales champions can be great coaches. You can use their previous sales calls, objection-handling strategies, and other areas of expertise to create sales training material. This training material can be used across the sales department and can be leveraged at relevant points in the sales cycle to improve sales performance as well as the bottom line.

2. Remove the fluff from the content

Salespeople will strategies according to the sales enablement content provided to them. Suppose you put a flat tire on your F1 race car - the repercussions will be huge.

Not only will you have to provide the right content but the content should be readily usable. If the sales rep has to spend hours understanding the content, then you are adding delays to the sales cycle.

Moreover, the sales enablement content should be categorized apart from being structured. Categories like the designation of the salesperson, sales events, and sales performance will make the lookup process faster.

It should also be up to date to minimize errors in their sales pitch. Further, the sales enablement content should be easily accessible and can be integrated with AI technologies so that during the sales activities the content is served in real-time. Automation platforms make the sales process more streamlined and can help you close deals even more quicker.

3. Data is the fuel that you need

You have made your sales enablement content readily accessible, but what exactly is your content made up of? Previous sales data helps you analyze changing marketing trends and customer preferences. You can use this data for effective decision-making, improve sales performance, enabling effective prospecting, in short, the entire sales process can be made effective when the sales enablement strategy is data-driven. 

4. Tailor the sales enablement strategy to your sales reps

You should leave some breathing space for your sales rep to do their job. Sticking to the scripts might not be helpful in real life. Sales enablement tools should empower the sales reps by improving their decision-making capacities and sales skills.

You should approach the sales process with an open mind because all your salesperson performs differently. Understanding their strengths and weakness can help you generate sales enablement content that can bring out the best in them. Sales leaders should monitor the growth and provide constant guidance with training programs and sales coaching.

5. Keep your sales tactics in sync with the buyer’s journey

No two leads and customers are the same. They’ve had different prospecting and buying journeys that led them to you. So, you need to be mindful of their pain points and goals. This way, you can capture the buyer’s journey and convince them of the value of your SaaS product.

For doing this, you can leverage the buyer personas you’ve created for your potential customers. Different buyer persona templates will help you separate the two prospects, one who has done his research before approaching your company or the who has no clue about how you can help them.

A record of their sales conversations and calls will help you keep a track of their goals and challenges and put up the right information in front of the buyer (possible solutions, research, and identifying the right price range). It will also help you identify where exactly they are stuck in their journey and which team can best handle their pain point.

Knowing your customers like how did they come across your business. (ads, social media, LinkedIn, phone calls). Gathering this information falls under the most successful sales enablement strategy that will sync your sales tactics with the buyer’s journey.

6. Use the right sales enablement tools

A study conducted by CSO Insights said that 60% of sales organizations have a longer sales cycle because they don’t use proper tools.

Sales enablement platforms and automation technologies can help you from creating a buyer persona to sales forecasting. It will help you reach your goals faster and reduce the length of your sales cycles. Effective sales enablement tools align the efforts of other departments like the marketing team. Such an approach as marketing alignment is important because marketing initiatives have been the initial touchpoints for your prospects.

Sales enablement process runs parallel to the B2B sales process. So, it is imperative that you follow the sales enablement best practices to boost your sales. At each point in the sales process, you can use AI tools to optimize your sales enablement strategy. Want to know how?

Enable salespeople to do more for you with Wingman

Sales managers and leaders worry not! Wingman is here to take all your troubles.

Wingman is a conversation intelligence platform that adds the right sales insights, metrics, and resources to your sales team’s arsenal. It enables you to dentify compelling pitches, recognize typical concerns, and include the customer's viewpoint in your sales conversations to build the right sales enablement strategy and enhance their customer experience.

It helps you identify your top performers so that you can use their expertise to train your sales team. With scannable call transcripts and easy-to-navigate call recordings, you can coach your sales reps to follow the sales strategy that works. Moreover, you can use those call recordings to track performance and guide your team. Create sales enablement content with Wingman and train at a larger scale. 

Wingman can be easily integrated with your CRM and your other business tools like salesforce, CRM, zoom, and communication and messaging apps such as Slack.  This helps you get centralized information into your sales pipeline and build a data-driven approach for sales enablement. Wingman will stay with you in real-time as a live assistant on your sales calls to help you sail through the sales process. Want to know more? Book a demo today!

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