Sales enablement is an important discipline that involves empowering sales reps with the right resources, knowledge and tools to help them maximize their effectiveness. The value of sales enablement tools cannot be overemphasized given the reps are known to allocate too much time to non-selling engagements. The discoveries you make using sales enablement platforms help to improve your reps’ sales performance and productivity.

A good sales enablement program will include a sales playbook, skills training, programs that define the buying process and a standardized sales methodology. According to research, 84% of sales reps will easily hit their quota when equipped with the best sales enablement strategy. Remember, increasing the volume of your sales alone is not sufficient, the ultimate goal is consistent revenue generation, which is what sales enablement seeks to achieve.

Maximizing Sales Enablement Tools

The majority of sales reps that perform exceptionally well will agree that their performance is often backed by access to a good sales enablement platform. This gives them access to all the resources necessary to win more business. For your sales team to make the most from sales enablement tools, managers need to prioritize their needs that are divided into various categories as follows:

People development

 Your sales reps are the driving force behind the results you are seeking to achieve. The solutions in this category include sales training, coaching and onboarding new hires. The goal of onboarding is to ensure your new sales reps attain their quota fast. Sales enablement platforms that are optimized for onboarding allow sales reps to access limitless sales training sessions on both products and the target market. This is in addition to providing a platform to practice their sales processes and methodologies.

You also need to ensure that your sales reps stay competitive and are up to date with the state of competition, new products and any other relevant information. This is essential in helping them thrive. Similarly, the ability to access coaching tools will help to mainstream the coaching process by including varied features like video among others.

The sales process

This sales enablement tool is critical as it covers all the stages of the sales cycle whether enterprise or ecommerce. Sales reps can easily access important information that will guide them at every stage of the sales cycle. When equipped with the right information, sales reps will carry out efficient prospecting campaigns by being able to request the prospect’s contact information. At this point, they are also able to prioritize leads so that they determine who they will call and when to call them. This often works well with account planning, pipeline management and account-based selling.

When reps can access a vault of important tools that support email automation, online meeting tools and social selling, closing deals will never be an uphill task. Additionally, the sales enablement tools at this stage will give reps access to resources they need to convert new leads to revenue. Most importantly, they also access tools that allow them to quickly and efficiently close deals.

Administrative support

There’s a need to streamline all the activities that promote your rep’s productivity. Administrative solutions are as important as tools that target revenue growth as their core strengths include sales forecasting so that sales managers can allocate resources efficiently.

For sales managers, these sales enablement tools come with the ability to manage and monitor revenue quota. This is a huge asset if you are managing a large team. These tools also help when managers are working out bonuses, commissions and sales contests. Having access to territory management tools will also help sales managers to establish territories so that they bring the right sales reps on board to hasten revenue growth. This can work in concert with onboarding platforms to reduce the time it will take for sales reps to attain their quota. Sales content management tools allow managers to organize existing assets making it easy for sales reps to locate what they need and when the need arises.

Business analytics and intelligence tools allow users to get insights from varied data sources. These tools allow managers to re-distribute resources where there are opportunities. The two most important factors sales managers must consider when looking at business intelligence tools are the amount of data and reporting needs.

The success of your sales enablement tools begins by ensuring you select the right software that will sufficiently cater to your unique needs. The best sales enablement software is intuitive and will blend with the existing habits of your team members.

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