Increase Your Software Sales with Sales Enablement: Tips and Strategies for Success

Selling software can be a challenging task. Training salespeople who may not fully understand the technology behind the software requires significant effort. However, the bigger challenge is for those same teams to explain the software's technical aspects to decision-makers discussing meaningful solutions rather than features. Using sales enablement can help your team overcome these challenges in your sales process.

TLDR:

• Software sales will always be challenging because most sales teams and decision-makers are casual computer users, not engineers.
• Sales enablement can help software sales by guiding buyers, educating team members, and providing relevant content delivered at the right time.

How sales enablement can help your software company overcome sales cycle challenges

In this article, we’ll discuss challenges faced by software sales teams and how sales enablement can help your company overcome these challenges:

1. Product knowledge and understanding: Sales reps must communicate how the software will provide solutions to underlying problems experienced by decision-makers. It is hard enough for sales teams to keep up with the latest updates and features, but even more challenging to be able to describe solutions to potential clients. Sales enablement can help because of the amount of training, onboarding, and continuing education that is a deep part of the sales enablement.

2. Similar competitors: Software sales face a lot of competition from products that may seem similar, and sales teams must be able to demonstrate how their product is different and superior. Sales enablement can help by showing competitors' strengths and weaknesses, pricing, and market segmentation, giving sales agents a way to pitch their product with a unique value proposition.

3. Qualified lead generation: A critical part of the sales process is generating qualified leads. Sales enablement can help that process by using prospecting tools that help identify clients based on size, revenue, or multiple other factors.

4. Difficulty closing deals: The sales process for software is complex, and closing the deal can be challenging. Sales enablement can help by helping sales reps manage their leads more effectively, understand which leads are most promising, and use tools in their CRM.

5. Client Retention: Long-term success means that clients are retained. But with a high churn rate, this can become difficult. Sales enablement covers every stage in the sales process, including implementation and post-sale communications, ensuring a converted lead is a kept customer.

6. Disorganized sales content: Without quick access to approved and up-to-date content, sales cadence can be lost quickly. Sales enablement systems typically have a centralized media center where all content, including both customer and sales team content, is kept for easy access.

7. Sales teams sell features before solutions: Do your sales reps offer valid solutions for clients or do they focus on features? This happens when sales teams aren’t clear of the clients' true pain points. Sales enablement helps sales teams with coaching, training, and content to enable them to communicate solutions that clients need.

8. Sales and marketing don’t connect: When sales teams don’t follow content or when content from marketing doesn’t reflect the reality on the sales floor, you’ll get disjointed messaging that causes client confusion. Sales enablement works with sales and client services as well as your marketing teams to create one universal message that aligns all of your teams.

9. Sales team churn and turnover: There’s a large amount of sales team turnover in every organization, and software sales is no exception. Sales enablement provides continued coaching and training for sales teams and provides them with content to match client journeys so that your sales professionals feel inspired and empowered and not overwhelmed.

Why Sales Enablement is Needed for Your Software Business:

Sales Enablement is an all-encompassing strategy that helps your sales and client service teams match customer journeys by providing them with the tools, resources, content, and training to be able to perform at their best level.

In the software sales industry, where the sales process can be long and complex, sales enablement can help your team communicate highly technical ideas to decision-makers who need solutions before features.

Sales enablement involves all departments of your company, including frontline sales team members, client services, marketing, and management. Using sales enablement means that sales messaging from marketing matches the reality on the sales floor and that goals from management can be monitored and achieved.

Sales enablement helps increase sales and revenue growth by empowering sales, client services, and marketing teams by providing the tools, technology, content, and training to provide a customer service and sales experience where solutions are clearly stated to clients.ⁱ

What are the key elements of a successful sales enablement strategy?

Your sales enablement strategy aligns your sales, marketing, and management teams with one common message and mission. Key elements of a successful sales enablement strategy include:

Sales and marketing alignment: Sales and marketing strategies must be aligned as one singular message, including the sales process, buyer journey, and ideal customer profile.

Content: Content must be made available for sales and client service reps that match marketing goals and be tailored for each stage of the client journey. Content includes sales presentations, white papers, advertising, and so on.

Tools and technology: Teams need to be your CRM daily and use the right tools to maximize their performance.

Measurement and KPIs: Sales enablement helps your company track and measure KPIs and lets marketing and management make data-driven decisions for future growth plans.

In closing

Software sales can be almost as complicated as the software itself. Sales enablement helps guide teams with the right content at the right time to help close sales and increase revenue.