Why Businesses Need Sales Enablement Programs In 2022

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When it comes to sales performance, business owners often assume that since sales reps are paid a commission, they will be motivated enough to figure out how to perform at the highest level. However, a commission is not a magical motivational pill that will drive your team members to interpret and adjust to the specific sales processes or the “Do’s and Don’ts” of your sales operations, which is crucial to achieving the highest level of success. In the long run, assuming that a commission is enough to propel your sales reps to reach their full potential is a risky proposition that can hurt you and your sales team. To help sales teams reach their goals, many small businesses are implementing sales enablement methodologies that help salespeople match their sales strategy to clients’ buyer journeys.

Avoid Using the “Churn and Burn”
Sales Process

Relying on commission as the sole motivator for your team members to grow and succeed is risky approach in the modern business environment. Operating your business with a “churn and burn” approach will result in lost time and money in trial and error, and massive losses in opportunity costs. When you factor in the additional expenses surrounding your sales team, such as marketing, lead acquisition, and market reputation costs, you’re looking at a costly operation that may yield little reward. In addition, for a salesperson, the commission-driven approach is full of frustrations as it doesn’t appear to support their professional career goals and desire to grow. Sales reps who join your team should feel that they are being supported, not only to make a sale, but to grow as a salesperson.

What if, in addition to using a commission as a motivator, you provided your sales team with additional resources in terms of onboarding, training, coaching, tools, sales cycle structure, and error management?

That’s where Sales Enablement comes in! Sales Enablement can make a direct impact in many ways. One way is by providing you with an actual team of people called an Enablement Team, or it can also be achieved through a robust set of easy-to-use technical tools designed to optimize your current sales team. Whatever shape your Sales Enablement program takes on, the implementation of one should be at the top of your list if increasing closes per salesperson is your goal.

What Makes Implementing Sales Enablement Programs Successful?

Implementing a successful Sales Enablement program requires placing various tools and resources in a central location that is easy for your team to access. By combining a world-class CRM with built-in Sales Enablement tools you’ll be setting your team up to close more deals and drive more revenue.

Here are 5 critical components of a successful Sales Enablement program:

Training - A great Sales Enablement program contains an intuitive Learning Management System (LMS) with a course-builder that allows you to use pre-recorded training videos and other materials to create comprehensive programs for sales and management training. These training programs can also contain built-in quizzes and evaluations to ensure efficacy. A robust LMS is an invaluable tool to have as part of your CRM and throughout the many stages of a salesperson’s lifecycle.
- Onboarding - Reduce the time and effort required to train new hires so they can hit the ground running!
- Tenure - Provide sales reps with a guide to refer to during their tenure when they need to refresh their memory or get up to speed on updated policies and procedures.
- Change of Role - Save valuable time when it comes to training for promotions and role changes.
- Introduction of New Products/Services - Update your LMS with new product/service training courses when they launch to keep the whole team aligned.
Sales Processes - Your Sales Enablement program needs to encapsulate your sales process. Your sales process is essentially a compilation of your top performer's practices that help them close more deals. Since the sales process is continuously evolving, the goal of Sales Enablement is to compile these practices into a living document we like to call a Sales Playbook. Your Sales Playbook should be easy-to-update and readily available to the entire team. Sales processes can be generic or detailed depending on the sales organization, but nonetheless, they serve the vital purpose of efficiently communicating directions to the sales team. It allows you to scale your team quickly and propels every sales rep into being as effective as your top performer.
CRM - One of the most valuable tools a Sales Enablement platform provides is a robust Customer Relationship Management system (CRM). A CRM contains powerful reporting tools and analytics on logged data and built-in artificial intelligence (AI) for communication through email, SMS, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Viber, etc. When you implement a CRM into your Sales Enablement program, you eliminate distractions and provide your sales team with valuable tools for ensuring no lead gets left behind.
Coaching - The most successful business owners understand that coaching a sales team is a continuous, and very challenging, process. An effective Sales Enablement program combines AI-powered tools with a dedicated Enablement Team to provide sales reps with coaching and guidance regarding sales processes throughout their entire tenure.
Content Management System - Collateral at your sales team’s fingertips! Content assets like flyers, rate sheets, product catalogs, websites, videos, logos, RFP templates, etc., can serve as powerful selling tools. Still, if those resources are not easily accessible, the efforts in creating them are futile. A successful Sales Enablement system contains a built-in, fully integrated Content Management System (CMS) that enables the team to easily access an updated version of all collateral content within a well-organized, centralized repository. Hence, clients and prospects always receive the correct content from their sales reps.

Does my Team Need Sales Enablement?

Proper Sales Enablement can be the difference between mediocrity and greatness for any business. As a valuable tool for enterprise-sized companies and a real game changer for small businesses, sales enablement has proven to be critical for growth in 2022. Effective Sales Enablement takes on the majority of the tedious day-to-day operations related to running and growing a sales team, and becomes a separate manager and coach that works alongside you to nurture the team and foster results. A sales teams with a formal, well-defined Sales Enablement program is not just more confident at what they do, they statistically are ten times more likely to hit their revenue targets. It’s no wonder that 86% percent of companies report utilizing one.

Is Implementing Sales Enablement Easy?

Setting up a traditional Sales Enablement practice used to take years to set up correctly, however, thankfully there are sales enablement platforms and services that companies can leverage to get set up in no time. What is important to consider however, is what is offered by each platform and how they can meet your business’s needs. Take TigerLRM, for example, which was built by veteran sales leaders to accommodate the needs of the modern sales team. Developed to be quick and simple to use, as well as implement, the platform combines such features as learning management systems, a communication center, lead and opportunity management tools, and everything else a Sales Enablement system needs to empower reps with knowledge and skills to close more deals. Better yet, TigerLRM actually helps your onboard your data and get your whole team set up, allowing for your team to benefit from Sales Enablement immediately.

Regardless of the tools you choose to use, when it comes to Sales Enablement and growth among sales teams, a holistic approach that focuses sales goals, measures effectiveness with mutually agreed-upon metrics, and scales activities to transform sales is critical to your company’s future success. By implementing a Sales Enablement system that delivers exactly what your sales team needs, your sales reps are now perfectly positioned to hunt leads and close deals more efficiently than ever before.