Sales enablement

What is sales enablement?

Sales enablement refers to a set of processes, practices, technologies, and tools that empower sales teams to close more deals. It requires multi-department collaboration to ensure salespeople have the necessary resources to achieve business objectives. The marketing team creates sales collaterals such as client presentations, case studies, blog posts, and other promotional material. The sales team can use this to create awareness and inform and educate prospects throughout the sales cycle to qualify, nurture, and close deals.

Key functions of sales enablement 

The core functions of sales enablement include:

• Technology tools: Technology tools such as CRM software are essential for maximizing sales by automating sales processes and streamlining activities.

• Content development: Customized content creation such as case studies, presentations, blog posts, and white papers for all stages of the buyer purchase journey.

• Talent management: Hiring, onboarding, and training resources to ensure a qualified sales talent pipeline. 

• Performance analytics: Analyzing sales performance and buyer interaction and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) for continuous improvement. 

• Alignment with marketing: Promoting collaboration between sales and marketing to deliver consistent messaging.

Benefits of sales enablement

A sales enablement team bridges the gap between sales strategy and execution. It empowers salespeople from e-commerce or traditional businesses to differentiate their offerings, engage with prospects meaningfully, and close deals more efficiently. The sales enablement strategy is essential for the following reasons.

1. Increase conversions using personalization      

71% of customers expect their companies to deliver personalized interactions, which help to drive revenue. Personalization enables companies to achieve 40% more revenue on average than companies that don’t implement personalization. 

Sales enablement platforms allow you to offer personalized content to prospects at each stage of their purchase journey. Freshsales CRM tracks every interaction and provides insights, enabling salespeople to tailor their messages and offerings to individual customer needs. It helps to improve engagement and conversion. 

2. Boost sales productivity and revenue

The inability of salespeople to offer the correct information to prospects to buy or at least consider your product/service can impact their productivity. Companies with a sales enablement team headed by a sales enablement manager see an increase in win rates and sales of 6% to 21%. The sales enablement platform is critical to providing salespeople with the requisite information. Salespeople have approximately 5% of customer time during their buying journey.

3. Gain competitive advantage

Your ability to influence prospects in the limited time your salespeople have with them helps increase your win rate and gain a competitive advantage. Conversely, the lack of a sales enablement team can drive your prospects to your competitors, reducing your competitive advantage. 

4. Warm leads to close deals             

Sales enablement technology promotes using content management to nurture leads and consistently advance them on the sales cycle. The right content at different buyer purchase stages helps position your organization as a thought leader. It enhances your reputation as a problem-solver on whom your prospects can rely to solve their problems.

Use a sales enablement platform to streamline activities

Sales and marketing share goals but often work in silos without properly aligning with each other’s activities. The traditional sales and marketing process follows a siloed approach in which the marketing team focuses on building awareness and generating leads to be passed to the sales team. The disconnect between marketing and sales creates several issues and prevents organizations from presenting a unified face to prospects and customers. The marketing and sales teams must work collaboratively with the customer success team to improve lead conversion and customer engagement.

Sales enablement platforms bridge the gap between sales and marketing by leveraging technology that fosters collaboration and synchronization. A CRM platform enables sales and marketing to work together more efficiently by breaking down silos with a seamless exchange of information and data.

Sales enablement strategy

Unlike finance, human resources, and other departments, sales enablement as a corporate function is still not widely known. However, sales organizations need to achieve their business goals. A sales enablement program is not limited to content creation or providing tools; it encapsulates various elements to support the sales organization.

A sales enablement strategy aims to empower your sales teams to engage effectively with prospects and customers. It helps to drive more sales and contributes to the organization's growth and success.

Here are the key functions of setting up a sales enablement strategy:

1. Content: Effective sales enablement ensures salespeople can access the right marketing content, case studies, and product and service information when required. 

2. Alignment of sales and marketing functions: In many organizations, there is a disconnect between sales and marketing; they work in silos. One of the important objectives of an effective sales enablement program is to ensure that sales and marketing efforts are in sync. The teams must work collaboratively to meet their prospect and customer solution expectations. 

3. Training: Continuous sales training and development are essential to equip sales reps with the skills and knowledge to succeed in a digital-first world.

Technology has disrupted the traditional sales process and permeated all stages. Sales coaching is essential to help them learn and master innovative sales technologies.

In addition to these three critical aspects, the sales enablement process includes performance analysis and optimization. It helps sales managers monitor and analyze sales performance. It allows sales reps to collaborate and engage with different stakeholders to get the desired level of support in pursuing deals.

Sales enablement vs. sales operations 

Sales enablement and sales operations are both integral to sales functionalities. Sales enablement focuses on buyer-facing aspects and empowering the sales team with marketing resources to improve the win ratio. Sales operations are internally focused on improving processes and efficiency. 

Sales enablement

• The objective is to enhance buyer interactions and personalize the sales process. It encompasses content planning, mapping, analysis, and management.

• Content libraries, training materials, and customer insights are key tools and resources.

• Key responsibilities are training sales teams, aligning sales and marketing, and mapping buyer journeys.

• Sales enablement performance is measured with metrics such as conversion rates, customer satisfaction, etc.

• It aligns with the buyer's purchase journey and their needs.

Sales operations

• Backend sales process management and optimization.

• The objective is to reduce inefficiencies and improve productivity by streamlining sales processes.

• The key tools and resources are CRM applications, sales analytics, and workflow automation.

• Key responsibilities are sales forecasting, territory planning, quota setting, compensation plan design, data reporting, and management.

• The performance metrics are sales efficiency, cost reduction, and productivity improvement.

• It is aligned with internal sales strategies and operational processes.

Sales enablement goals

The primary objective of an effective sales enablement process is to equip sales leaders and sales teams with the information resources, tools, and insights needed to close deals faster. It helps them to offer prospects a personalized buying experience through curated content and interactions. It enables the sales team to address buyers' unique needs and pain points at each stage of their buying journey. Under the leadership of the sales enablement manager, the sales enablement team helps to build trust with prospects and creates a foundation for long-term engagement and loyalty.

1. Sales enablement is about the buyer

The central theme of the sales enablement process is the singular focus on buyers, not on sales. The sales enablement platform focuses on understanding buyers' needs, preferences, and pain points. It is about knowing buyers in great detail so that marketing can clearly articulate how the product and solutions address their needs. Sales enablement software helps salespeople drive the conversation aligned to the buyer's needs. Based on the stage at which a prospect is in their purchase journey, salespeople offer them top-of-the-funnel content or bottom-of-the-funnel content to move them toward conversion.

The availability of granular customer data across channels in Freshsales CRM enables the sales team to respond effectively to buyers’ needs. The insights into customer behavior and preferences allow sales teams to tailor their interactions to individual prospects for an enhanced buying experience.

2. Information resources for sales enablement

The sales team needs product information, market insights, and customer data to help them tailor approaches to individual prospects’ needs. A content library with case studies, white papers, and other marketing collateral helps sales reps drive the discussion with prospects. In addition to marketing content, sales reps also need access to content used by the inside sales team, which is not shared with buyers but to engage with them in the early stages of their journey. 

CRM software like Freshsales CRM enables sales reps to easily and effortlessly access the information resources required to advance the sales process. Besides the content library, it provides historical interaction data to your sales team for a comprehensive understanding of a prospect’s requirements.

3. Training sales team to use sales-enabled resources 

The availability of a humongous amount of resources can confuse sales reps if they are not trained adequately on how to use them. The inability of your sales reps to use information resources may impact their deal closure, leading to losses for your organization. Additionally, the time, money, and effort spent creating the resources go to waste. You need to train your sales reps on using a CRM effectively to find relevant customer details and other sales resources. It will help them leverage information effectively in the sales discussion. The training should also cover cold-calling, emailing prospects, and handling objections.

The customer success team of Freshsales CRM is responsible for ensuring your salespeople use the platform effectively. Freshsales CRM training and ongoing support help your sales team improve efficiency and deal closure rates.

4. Automate the sales enablement process with technology

Managing the sales enablement process can be challenging; however, internet technologies and artificial intelligence advancements have made it feasible to automate the process with sales management software.

CRM software like Freshsales CRM helps track customer interaction across multiple channels. It streamlines lead scoring, personalizes outreach, and provides real-time insights.

Freshsales CRM automation of sales enablement helps your teams save time and ensures consistency in communication. It allows sales teams to focus on engaging with prospects, improves the overall sales process, and contributes to sales success.

5. Sales enablement is for any size of business

Sales enablement marketing empowers salespeople through information, tools, and strategies. Sales enablement is not for only large enterprises—it’s helpful for businesses of all sizes. Sales enablement can be designed to meet the needs of companies of any size. You need to have a system to track and measure the results of your sales enablement strategy.

How to build a sales enablement process

If your organization needs a defined sales enablement process, follow the steps below:

• Define objectives: Define sales enablement goals aligned with your business strategy. The goals should be aligned across sales, marketing, sales ops, and enablement teams.

• Onboarding and training: Create a formal onboarding and training program for salespeople and other stakeholders associated with sales enablement. 

• Documented sales process: Create a well-documented sales process with defined roles and responsibilities.

• Develop sales assets: Create relevant content, tools, and resources to complement salespeople's efforts along the buyer's journey.

• Technology implementation: Identify and implement the relevant technologies and tools to enhance productivity and efficiency.

If your company has an existing model, assess its effectiveness and take corrective action based on the above-mentioned points.

However, you must do two things before you build a successful sales enablement process.

Creating sales enablement content

As mentioned below, aligning your content strategy to the buyer's journey is essential when creating content.

• Awareness: At this stage, buyers seek more information to help them address their problems. The top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) content includes blog posts, white papers, videos, infographics, and social media posts.

• Consideration: Prospects have decided to get the solution for their problem and are looking for providers. At this stage, your content should articulate how your product/services can help buyers solve their problems. The preferred middle-of-the-funnel content is e-books, comparison guides, and webinars.

• Decision: In the final stage, the buyer has shortlisted providers and decided to close the deals. The preferred bottom-of-the-funnel content is case studies, testimonials, and other social proofs. 

Develop a coaching and training process

Develop a formal training and coaching program for onboarding new talent and equipping them with the necessary skills. You must create a simple playbook detailing sales-enabled content for all sales cycle stages that is accessible to all. The guidelines and roadmap will help your sales team provide buyers with the necessary information across the funnel and close more deals. Your sales team can use the following steps as a roadmap in pursuing the prospects:

• Identify target customer segments and create a buyer persona.

• Qualify and segment customers based on industry vertical and geography.

• Define the value proposition.

• Refer to the sales email templates, scripts, and questions.

• Create a guideline for pricing, negotiations, and proposal drafting.

• Define sales process and sales stage alignment.

• Define sales team roles and responsibilities.

Achieve your sales goal with a sales CRM   

Freshsales CRM automates and streamlines repetitive tasks such as appointment scheduling and email follow-ups, which frees up salespeople's time. It enables them to focus on more value-added activities. The platform integration with other applications and tools provides a unified customer view, ensuring salespeople have all the information to personalize interactions with prospects. The centralized data repository empowers sales teams to make informed decisions and complements their efforts to achieve sales goals.

Measuring sales enablement’s success

A sales enablement strategy's success can be measured using the following KPIs.

1. Quota attainment

The most critical outcome to determine the success of a sales enablement strategy is quota attainment. If your salespeople attain their quotas, you can be assured your sales process is on track. If your salespeople's quota attainment is below par (i.e., 70% miss quotas), then you must do course correction. You need to figure out whether any of the following reasons is the cause for subpar performance. 

• Unrealistic sales goals

• Inappropriate sales compensation plans

• Salespeople need to improve skills with training

• Sales content lacks quality and needs to be updated

2. Sales cycle 

The sales cycle measures how long it takes your salespeople to close deals. The time is calculated from when the first contact is established with the prospect or the start of the funnel until the sale closes, either as a win or loss.

The critical metric is indicative of the efficiency of the sales enablement process. If the deal closing time is long in comparison to deals of a similar nature, then you need to identify the bottleneck or challenges. Your sales process performs well if the deal closing time is less than average. 

3. Win/loss ratio

The win/loss ratio indicates your individual salespeople's effectiveness and complements the data collected in the context of the sales cycle. The ratio tells whether your salespeople are winning more deals than they are losing. You need to assess salespeople whose performance is below par and whether they follow processes and methods as stipulated in the sales enablement strategy.

Freshsales CRM generates sales reports highlighting individual salespeople's productivity metrics, including the win/loss ratio.

4. Content usage

Content is vital for successful sales enablement. Without content, salespeople may find it difficult to close deals. You should leverage data from your CRM system to check if your salespeople use content as they have been trained to do.

You must also leverage content usage statistics to assess the relevance of the content. You can use the following metrics:

• Email open and click rates

• Video views

• Content shares and downloads

5. Sales funnel transition rates     

The sales funnel transition rates enable you to measure the time it takes for your salespeople to move from one stage of the funnel to the next. It is a critical metric that helps you evaluate the lead's progression. If the transition rate is high at any specific stage, then you need to identify the cause and take corrective action to improve overall efficiency.

6. Percentage of salespeople using the CRM    

A CRM is the foundation of your sales enablement strategy and integral to sales team performance. You have implemented the solution to help your salespeople achieve their goals. You have organized training sessions to familiarize salespeople with the tool. Now you need to assess whether salespeople are using the tool. Some metrics you can use:

• Number of accounts created within the last 30 days

• Users who have not logged in for the past 30 days

• Contacts created or modified in the past 30 days

• Activities started in the past seven days

• Activities that are due by the owner for more than seven days

These metrics will help to understand whether sales enablement's lack of success is due to people or processes.

Sales enablement best practices

Leveraging data analytics

Technology advancements have made it possible to collate and analyze vast data volumes. Sales enablement platforms leverage prospects/customers' data insights for personalized sales communication and offering. The sales team analyzes data trends and patterns to tailor plans specific to individual customer needs and respond swiftly to market changes. These data-driven decisions help your sales team increase conversion and drive growth.

Freshsales CRM's analytics capabilities provide your sales teams with detailed customer insights. It enables them to identify opportunities and challenges and make timely, informed decisions. The customizable dashboards and real-time reporting provide insights across the sales value chain, allowing your salespeople to create precise targeting strategies.

Aligning sales and marketing

Buyers are looking for solutions and expect coordinated efforts from sales and marketing to help them address their problems. It’s crucial to align sales and marketing functions to create a cohesive customer acquisition strategy. A unified approach requires the two teams to share information and data at all stages of the sales process. It helps to increase productivity and efficiency, improves lead conversion rates, and offers a unified customer experience.

Overcoming sales enablement challenges

The success of sales enablement strategies depends on various factors, and their implementation often faces challenges such as:

• Outdated content: The content is not updated, leading to salespeople spending too much time coordinating with the marketing team to get the relevant updated content.

• Inadequate training: Salespeople may not have received adequate training on processes and tools, leading to low productivity.

• Lack of alignment: Even as sales enablement platforms facilitate alignment between marketing and sales, there can still be a lack of collaboration for various reasons. The other stakeholders may also not be in sync, hindering salespeople's performance.

• Performance management: The lack of clear identification and communication of performance metrics to the sales team may pose a challenge.

The role of sales enablement for customer retention 

Customers are the center of the sales enablement process, which helps to build long-term relationships by focusing on personalized engagement. The sales enablement tool provides granular data and customer insights. It enables sales teams to customize interactions to meet buyers’ preferences and needs. The trained salespeople carefully nurture relationships with prospects through targeted content and relevant information. The coordinated sales and marketing activities provide unified customer experiences that promote engagement, trust, and loyalty. Sales enablement creates the foundation for a long-lasting relationship with prospects-turned-customers and supports retention long term.

Freshsales CRM aids in facilitating personalized interactions by tracking prospects' behavior and interaction at all stages of their purchase journey. The automated workflow ensures salespeople engage with them meaningfully at every step, enhancing their buying experience, which generates affinity toward the organization.

How Freshsales can help to improve your sales enablement process

Freshsales is your all-in-one solution for automating and optimizing your sales processes, elevating efficiency and empowering your sales enablement marketing efforts. Here's how Freshsales CRM supports your sales enablement strategy:

1. Precision in communication: 

With a centralized repository, Freshsales allows seamless management and access to marketing materials, client/prospect details, and additional information. This empowers your sales representatives to deliver precisely timed messages to prospects and customers, seamlessly guiding deals to the next stage.

2. Seamless integration: 

Freshsales easily integrates with marketing and other business applications, fostering collaboration among sales, marketing, and stakeholders on a unified platform. This integration not only enhances teamwork but also streamlines data management, reporting, and analytics, enabling personalization while ensuring compliance with regional data regulations and privacy norms.

3. A comprehensive suite: 

Freshsales offers a comprehensive suite of features that complement your organization's sales enablement efforts. Serving as the central content hub, it provides valuable insights into prospects and sales processes, boosting team effectiveness and efficiency. The centralized dashboard offers a unified view of prospects, enhancing connections with potential customers.

4. Sales enablement powerhouse: 

Freshsales encompasses a 360-degree customer view, a robust email management system, built-in phone capabilities, pre-designed workflow templates and more. These features empower your sales team to engage and nurture meaningful, long-term relationships with prospects.

5. Centralized data hub: 

Freshsales stores all customer data, including interactions and transactions, in one centralized location. This ensures that your marketing and sales teams always have access to up-to-date and consistent information.

6. Enhanced communication and collaboration: 

Freshsales CRM includes communication and collaboration tools that facilitate seamless interaction and document sharing between your sales and marketing teams. Real-time insights and notifications keep your teams updated on critical events, fostering collaborative efforts.

7. Centralized customer data management: 

Freshsales centralizes customer data management, content management, lead management, and analytics, promoting alignment between marketing and sales. Integration with marketing automation and other business applications further enhances this alignment, creating a powerful tool for driving sales enablement.

With Freshsales CRM, you can automate, collaborate, and optimize your sales processes, ensuring your teams work together effectively to deliver exceptional customer experiences and drive sales success.

How Freshsales can help to improve your sales enablement process

Freshsales is your all-in-one solution for automating and optimizing your sales processes, elevating efficiency and empowering your sales enablement marketing efforts. Here's how Freshsales CRM supports your sales enablement strategy:

1. Precision in communication: 

With a centralized repository, Freshsales allows seamless management and access to marketing materials, client/prospect details, and additional information. This empowers your sales representatives to deliver precisely timed messages to prospects and customers, seamlessly guiding deals to the next stage.

2. Seamless integration: 

Freshsales easily integrates with marketing and other business applications, fostering collaboration among sales, marketing, and stakeholders on a unified platform. This integration not only enhances teamwork but also streamlines data management, reporting, and analytics, enabling personalization while ensuring compliance with regional data regulations and privacy norms.

3. A comprehensive suite: 

Freshsales offers a comprehensive suite of features that complement your organization's sales enablement efforts. Serving as the central content hub, it provides valuable insights into prospects and sales processes, boosting team effectiveness and efficiency. The centralized dashboard offers a unified view of prospects, enhancing connections with potential customers.

4. Sales enablement powerhouse: 

Freshsales encompasses a 360-degree customer view, a robust email management system, built-in phone capabilities, pre-designed workflow templates and more. These features empower your sales team to engage and nurture meaningful, long-term relationships with prospects.

5. Centralized data hub: 

Freshsales stores all customer data, including interactions and transactions, in one centralized location. This ensures that your marketing and sales teams always have access to up-to-date and consistent information.

6. Enhanced communication and collaboration: 

Freshsales CRM includes communication and collaboration tools that facilitate seamless interaction and document sharing between your sales and marketing teams. Real-time insights and notifications keep your teams updated on critical events, fostering collaborative efforts.

7. Centralized customer data management: 

Freshsales centralizes customer data management, content management, lead management, and analytics, promoting alignment between marketing and sales. Integration with marketing automation and other business applications further enhances this alignment, creating a powerful tool for driving sales enablement.

With Freshsales CRM, you can automate, collaborate, and optimize your sales processes, ensuring your teams work together effectively to deliver exceptional customer experiences and drive sales success.