Sales Enablement is a role new to many organizations. But the function may have been performed by multiple people in some limited capacity. In all likelihood these have just been a series of activities to ‘check the box’. A Sales Enablement program should not be just a ‘check the box’ activity. It should be a targeted approach to improve the effectiveness of your organization. If you are looking to implement that type of program. You need to know where to start. You start with the need. Ask yourself: How do I build a Sales Enablement program in my organization? And more importantly, how do I assess and prioritize my Sales Enablement efforts?
How you do identify the priorities?
To repeat what was stated earlier. Sales Enablement should be solely focused on improving the effectiveness of you organization. If that is the case, then you need to figure out where your gaps are. If you know your gaps, then you plug them. That is how you prioritize your efforts.
You want to be world class? In order to get to ‘good’, you need to know what ‘good’ looks like. Use this tool to review best in class attributes across multiple dimensions. Conduct the exercise and choose the world class attributes most relevant to your organization. Assess which ones you want to strive for. In doing so, be thorough in assessing how you compare to world class. This will be key in identifying gaps.
Now that you have identified the gaps, you need to implement a program to plug them. Again, not just a list of ‘check the box’ activities.
What content do I need?
Enablement content development is highly contextual to need. But again, it’s about prioritization. If you determine that you have a gap in top of funnel activity. Then you should create content around Social Prospecting, by way of example. You may have a need in Sales Process adoption. You would then develop buyer focused sales tools to help navigate the sales process. It’s about aligning the content to the need and priority.
What does the program look like?
A recent blog located here, discussed the merits of a Custom Sales Training Program. The moral of that blog is that your program should be your own. But to loop back to your priorities. What should your program look like? Here are a few suggested directions.
- If your company is scaling and you are hiring numerous reps. Then on-boarding is going to need to take precedent.
- New hire training events can be effective if done right. But you should have an onboarding program. Here is a blog that will help with onboarding. The priority should be about getting the reps to productivity as quickly as possible.
- If your organization is predominately staffed with tenured reps. Then you would prioritize ongoing education and skills building.
- You should drip content and testing to your team as frequently as possible. Daily would be ideal. Marketing utilizes drip campaigns to nurture prospects and leads. You can use the same concept to nurture your sales team. Small doses of information on a very frequent basis will reinforce to the field that you are focused on improving their knowledge.
Again, the point being. Tailor and prioritize your program to your needs. Don’t forget about modality. Think social and mobile. Sales teams are ingesting information differently than they were in past years. Retention and adoption are the goals. Give them the information how they want to receive it.
Ultimately, you are solving for how you should prioritize your Sales Enablement efforts. Follow these steps:
- Asses and compare where your current state is to world class.
- Build training content to bridge the gaps.
- Determine the training methods that will add the greatest value in the shortest amount of time.
- Implement the program into your organization.
In doing so, it will crystalize your thoughts and where your priorities lie.
Sales Enablement may be new to your organization. But you need to have focus and priority to maximize effectiveness. Don’t let Sales Enablement be ‘check the box’ activity any longer. Identify and prioritize your needs and implement a Sales Enablement program today.
