Sales enablement has been a “thing” for decades. Lately, it’s become a really BIG one.
The issue: Sales enablement is such a prominent part of how many organizations do business, mistakes can have a significant impact on their bottom lines.
Here are the top five sales enablement mistakes along with tips on how you can avoid them.
1. You have a sales process, but don’t tell new reps about it.
The top sales enablement error happens on the first day new salespeople start work.
Businesses find it difficult to keeps sales positions filled in today’s low-unemployment economy. With all the churn, it’s hard to find and retain top sales talent. When organizations finally hire someone, they’re desperate to get them selling and producing as soon as possible.
This is a big mistake!
It’s critical that you train your sales reps on your brand, sales process and how to use your collateral. This should happen before they’re allowed to make any sales calls or attend client meetings. It’s the only way to make sure they won’t say or do something that could seriously damage your brand or company’s reputation. It also gives them the information — and solid foundation — they need to achieve success early on and over the long term.
Want to create a world-class onboarding program for your reps? Ask the people on your sales team: “What information and tools do you need to be successful?” Then build your training around their answers. Deliver it through a sales enablement system like the one offered by Mobile Locker. It makes it easy for new reps to access it any place, any time so they can complete it quickly. Plus, sales managers are able to monitor progress toward completion so they’ll know when reps are ready to start selling.
2. Sales and marketing STILL aren’t working together.
One of the primary goals of any sales enablement program is to get sales and marketing to work in tandem to achieve the same goals.
It’s also one of the biggest fails of most sales enablement programs.
Why?
Many organizations believe implementing a program will settle any issues between sales and marketing. That’s not the case. Issues should be resolved prior to launch. Sales enablement should be used to support a new, agreed-upon relationship between the teams. If you didn’t take this step, it’s not too late. Sit down with all your key players and map out a new organizational framework and plan of action. Once you’ve done this, communicate it to your team and relaunch your program.
Another issue: Sales and marketing may agree on a new plan of action, but cheat on it after its implemented.
The solution: Use a sales enablement system like the one offered by Mobile Locker to ensure the people on your sales and marketing teams are doing what they’re expected to do. If not, course correct in real-time. This will help prevent big breakdowns that could impact your bottom line.
3. Your sales and marketing content STILL isn’t working.
One of the biggest promises of sales enablement is that it will improve sales content and make it more effective. It should also help identify and eliminate poor-performing or redundant pieces, leading to reduced costs.
What if this isn’t happening for you?
It could be because you’re not using all the data available to you through your sales enablement system. Don’t worry. It’s a common problem. Most salespeople and marketers aren’t analytics experts.
This issue can be overcome by partnering with a data expert to better understand how to read and use all the metrics available to you and your coworkers. You should be able to find a numbers person on your accounting or tech teams to help. Or hire a freelance analyst for a few hours of consulting.
A small investment in understanding your data will pay off in a big way in improved content.
4. You’re not using the right technology to support your sales enablement program.
Sales enablement is complex. It’s the lynchpin that links together everything happening in sales and marketing. It guides your sales efforts and drives your business to ultimate success.
So why do so many organizations use the wrong sales enablement system, or none, or a cobbled-together one, to manage their programs?
You owe it to yourself to find the right sales enablement software for your organization. Take time to ask the right questions so you identify the perfect solution. Look for one like the sales enablement app from Mobile Locker that can be scaled so it is able to grow with your business.
5. Your reps’ jobs aren’t getting easier.
A good sales enablement program and system should make it faster and simpler for reps to find sales collateral, customize it and record data. This should make doing their jobs more efficient and give them added time to sell and generate results.
So, what could be going wrong if that’s not happening?
In most cases, it’s because sales systems are organized and maintained by marketers. Marketers don’t think like sales reps. That’s why it’s important for them to partner together to come up with naming, filing, organizing and other systems that work primarily for reps while still making sense for marketers. It’s a great way to improve rep efficiency so they can contribute more dollars to the bottom line.
Sales enablement programs can have a big positive impact on the bottom lines of businesses. Don’t let common errors limit the success of yours.
