4 Must-Haves of an Effective Sales Enablement Program
Companies with sales enablement are 10 times more likely to hit revenue goals.
That’s right.
According to a recent Allego survey of 330 B2B sales and marketing leaders, companies that have a formal sales enablement program are 10 times more likely to consistently hit their revenue goals.
Our research also found:
- Sellers at companies that have a formal sales enablement platform are 26% more likely to say they are very confident in their sales ability.
- 79% of marketers say their revenue would drop more than 30% if their company didn’t have an effective sales enablement program.
Those data points help confirm the need for a sales enablement strategy. The key, however, is the program must be well-defined and deployed to be effective. It must provide your sellers with the resources—training, content, and tools—they need to sell your product effectively, no matter what situation. If it doesn’t, your sales enablement will fail—and revenue will drop.
Sales enablement has become a must-have. As Mark Magnacca, Allego’s president and co-founder, said recently, “Companies must have it to compete or they won’t be in the game.”
How do you create an effective sales enablement program? Who in your organization owns sales enablement? Allego delved into the challenge, analyzing sales and marketing leaders’ specific needs, and offered suggestions to enable sales teams to engage buyers, nurture leads, and close more deals in a hybrid world.
4 Recommendations for Effective Sales Enablement
Define Sales Enablement Goals, Tasks, and Roles
Allego’s research found many organizations split ownership of the sales enablement function between sales, marketing, and customer success. Having multiple contributors can be beneficial, but their actions and goals must be clearly stated.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Who is contributing?
- What are their goals?
- How are they contributing?
- Is everyone in alignment on initiatives?
A clearly defined, holistic strategy that’s driven by the right technology ensures the organization delivers the most effective programs, focuses on the right goals, measures effectiveness with mutually agreed upon metrics, and scales activities to transform sales.
Focus on Seller Training
Common challenges for sellers when talking with buyers include staying on message, accurately describing products and services, and handling buyer objections. Having an effective onboarding and training program can help them with those.
In addition, research shows that sales teams excel when reps help one another. That includes sharing tips from the field, best practices, and competitor insights. So, make sure your sales enablement program includes peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and collaboration tools.
Empower Sellers with Effective Sales Content Management
Only 32% of sellers say it’s easy to find sales content, according to Allego’s research. Plus, sales reps say they need more content than the average marketing team provides (four pieces per month).
Having an effective sales content management system will rectify those issues. It enables you to not only ensure you create enough content, but that it is easy to find, consume, track, and reuse across the sales organization.
Invest in the Right Sales Enablement Platform
Allego’s research found that companies that use a centralized sales enablement platform to provide consistent access to sales content and training reap many benefits, including more effective sellers. And that translates into more revenue.
Yes, you could adopt single-purpose tools, but then users must learn how to use all of them. And the last thing you want to do is make things harder or more complicated for sellers. Plus, the administrative overhead of implementing, managing, and integrating multiple tools is high.
An integrated system, on the other hand, allows a holistic approach to sales enablement. It allows you to deliver learning, content, collaboration, and insight all in one place. As a result, you save time and resources, gain the ability to scale across your organization—and equip your sellers for success in every situation.