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Sales reps need to wear many hats and have a lot to juggle during a working day. With so many demands on reps today and having to navigate long B2B sales cycles, a tool that can help sellers along the way is welcomed.
Sales enablement and using enablement technology is becoming increasingly important for B2B organizations. According to research released by McKinsey & Company, “roughly two in three buyers prefer remote human interaction or digital self-service.
But if you are using an enablement platform now, or are considering it, have you done an ROI calculation to quantify how much time and money you could save by having one?
If you have an enablement platform already:
1. Calculating the ROI of your existing sales enablement platform
Once you have implemented a sales enablement platform, it’s important to understand how it is impacting your bottom line.
Many companies have a sales enablement solution in place but fail to measure its effectiveness. The simplest way to calculate ROI is to divide the impact of a program or initiative by the amount of money you spent on it. There are multiple factors involved, some quantifiable, some not. Indicators that predict sales enablement ROI include: platform adoption, content usage and effectiveness, revenue, and tracking performance data linked to success.
A. Adoption rates
If no one is using your sales enablement solution, there is no point in having it. By measuring adoption rates, we want to understand how many sellers use the solution and how often. A higher usage rate among reps also contributes to better data being generated from the solution, with which you can measure factors such as content effectiveness.
Measuring the adoption rate can also help identify any challenges you may be having. If fewer sellers than expected have adopted your platform, you may need to look at onboarding again or provide additional training.
B. Content performance
It goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: content that is highly personalized and relevant will naturally resonate better with your customers (or prospects) and they will be more inclined to do business with you.
Evaluating what the most successful content is for both buyers and sellers based on different topics and formats, and knowing which content influences opportunities, can help you to understand sales enablement ROI. This insight will contribute to sellers using more of that content and will accelerate sales cycles as a result.
When measuring the effectiveness of content, we can look at: how often content is accessed by buyers/sellers, open rates, click rates, engagement time, opportunities and revenue influenced by content, and ideally, content attribution.
C. Revenue metrics
Ultimately, you want to measure the impact sales enablement has on specific sales results. To get a holistic look at how your sales enablement efforts impact sales performance, there are a number of metrics you can delve into. Some are:
– Lead conversion rate: The percentage of leads that become closed deals.
– Quota attainment: The number of reps achieving their quota and the average attainment.
– Training completion: Usage and completion rate of training materials.
– Marketing content usage: How frequently sales reps view and share marketing-created content.
– Average length of sales cycle: How long it takes between establishing the initial contact with a lead and closing a deal.
– Average purchase value: The average amount of revenue generated by a closed deal.
D. Onboarding metrics
– Onboarding is often one of the key areas of sales enablement. It ensures that your sales team is fully educated and has the know-how it needs to sell your products or services. It is also a significant factor in whether your reps will stay in it for the long run.
You may want to track metrics such as:
– Number of sessions attended
– The average cost of onboarding sessions
– Percentage of training materials accessed and used after onboarding
– The time it takes for new hires to attain quota
– Changes in first-year seller retention
E. The non-quantifiable factors
There are also a few non-quantifiable factors to take into account, which, for obvious reasons, are difficult to quantify and measure. Yet, they do allow you to get a holistic view of the ROI and should be considered nonetheless.
These non-quantifiable factors include:
– Improved customer engagement and customer interactions both on and offline
– Improved customer experience and overall customer journey, which may improve customer lifetime value
– Enhanced alignment between sales and marketing teams, increasing effectiveness and productivity
– Improved storytelling through consistency and efficiency in content and messaging
– Whilst it may be difficult to prove causation of these non-quantifiable factors, you may be able to see patterns in which the implementation of a sales enablement solution correlates with overall improvements in the above metrics.
This usually aligns with a general improvement in sales effectiveness, but most of all, customer retention.
If you are considering a sales enablement solution:
2. Calculating the potential ROI of sales enablement
There are many factors to consider when calculating what your return on investment might be for implementing a sales enablement solution.
Points worth considering are: how many field reps you employ and their hourly rate, how much time they will save on completing administrative tasks each day, how many marketing FTEs support sales content creation, their salary, implementation timings, platform fees, the churn rate for your field reps, and so on.
If you are considering a sales engagement solution and need to provide a business case for it, check out our ROI calculator here.
Among the benefits of implementing a sales enablement platform:
– Less admin time: automating your processes means your team spends time where it matters the most – with your customers.
– Productivity and efficiency are improved thanks to the automation of manual admin tasks.
– Key customer info and marketing content are updated automatically in real time, allowing sales reps to respond swiftly to customers with a personalized message.
– All the insights and reporting you need are at your fingertips, aiding in better decision making.
A revised version of this blog was originally published here.
