Creating A Sales Enablement Strategy That Will Empower Your Sales Team
In today’s competitive sales market, training is more valuable than ever. Reps need new tools to ensure they’re prepared for every customer interaction, as nearly 80% have reported that their internal processes are becoming more complex, according to our recent State of Sales Enablement 2018 report.
Many reps, however, still approach onboarding with little to no urgency, citing legacy training systems as awkward and inefficient. When reps are offered access to the content they need, sales training is directly affected — for the better. Available training content leads to more sales and increased revenue.
Sales enablement software bridges the gap between reps and training content, enabling accessible, actionable content that’s as easy to consume as it is to manage. From the top down—sales leaders to managers to individual reps—sales enablement positions sales teams with the necessary tools to land successful sales.
Consider the following primary training categories, and the ways in which sales enablement solutions enable content management:
Corporate Training
A large component of Learning Management System (LMS) software is corporate training — often split into two categories: onboarding and ongoing. Companies utilizing an LMS can access and circulate vital information, performance expectations, and a multitude of other daily necessities. Often times, HR handles this means of training.
Ongoing corporate training specializes in business-wide conduct standards and career-enabling skills. LMS solutions are useful for both onboarding and ongoing training. That said, a more accessible and agile content management solution is vital for enabling the full optimization of your sales team.
Training In Sales Excellence
As a separate entity from LMS solutions, training in sales excellence works best when integrated into the same Content Management System utilized by reps. Accessibility, flexibility, and the ability to collect and analyze data is essential within a CMS for a fully effective sales team.
Content vital to reps spans everything from Selling 101 to complex, strategic best practices. From the get-go, reps are trained around various topics such as targeting customers, constructing conversations, anticipating obstacles, and negotiating contracts. Likewise, the how-tos outlining these various tasks can span multiple formats as well, from whitepapers to slide decks.
Since reps are always expected to stay up-to-date on the latest techniques and tips within the sales industry, having organized content stored where reps already spend their time is a win-win. Storing relevant content where reps can find it easily streamlines processes, saves time (and money), and better empowers new reps to onboard faster.
Product And Services Training
Product and services training focuses on the benefits and features unique to what reps are selling and generally takes place pre-launch, or before product announcements. Training content contains everything from messaging and goals to positioning and metrics. Organization and accessibility are vital for ensuring reps are equipped with the tools they need to land sales.
For ongoing product training to be successful, materials need to be continually updated and improved based on the business and industry changes. Content containing data-backed insights, measured results, and customer feedback should remain available for reps at all times.
Assessing Sales Training Strategy
When it comes to taking action and implementing the above training strategies, consider the following:
1. In-Content Training
Content needs to be easy-to-access and as close as possible to reps. A surefire way to ensure reps have the materials they need at a moment’s notice: store all content where reps spend their time.
2. One Platform For Content
Find a solution that stores content and training materials in the same spot. Ensure that product and services training lives close to sales content to ensure that sales reps don’t waste time searching for one or the other. Doing so enables convenience and the ability to access references for reps looking to revisit training materials.
3. A Solution With Benefits
While publishers want a seamless, straightforward means of storing and managing sales content, sales enablement leaders want a solution that manages, measures, and organizes metrics. Reps want content that performs—training materials included—and leaders want transparency within the process.
Finding a solution that manages training content via category and purpose ensures that reps can sort and access it according to target audiences, track engagement, and more.
Tips For Empowering Reps
Reps need to be able to find what they’re looking for quickly, but they also need to know how to tailor messaging to address the specific concerns of the buyer before them. Here are some tips for ensuring your reps have both the knowledge and skills necessary for landing the sale:
- Require sales training before anything else.
Involve reps with training materials before granting access to more tailored materials to ensure they’re up-to-speed before engaging with prospective customers. - Empower managers.
Empower your sales managers to coach reps — and encourage reps to practice via roleplays when necessary. Doing so builds confidence among your sales team and sharpens the skills necessary before, during, and after a sale. - Measure sales readiness.
Enable managers to measure sales readiness to determine what and how training materials are helping reps. Utilize analytics to pinpoint any problem areas, and devise strategies for overcoming any issues before they affect the sales team as a whole.
Creating and employing a cohesive means of sales training is a company-wide strategy that shouldn’t be overlooked or underrated. Integrating a training system, and a sales enablement platform capable of delivering it, ensures reps spend even less time searching for necessary tools and more time utilizing them while making sales.
