Starting Out With Sales Enablement

1. Starting Out With Sales Enablement STARTING OUT WITH SALES ENABLEMENT HOW-TO GUIDE

2. 2 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide Supporting your sales representatives with the right information, knowledge, tools, and advice to win more business seems like a ‘no-brainer’ idea. Unfortunately for many mid-sized enterprises, this ideal is not fully realized. If you are not happy with the sales results in your organization, it might be time for a Sales Enablement initiative. This guide will provide you with a definition for Sales Enablement; explain what ‘enabled’ reps can do more effectively; discuss the problems with traditional sales enablement strategies; provide a maturity model; give you a framework for effective sales enablement; define ‘Sales Playbooks;’ help you understand why sales playbooks are needed; and outline an action plan for implementing a ‘best practice’ sales enablement strategy in your organization. Sales Enablement is a new and emerging function within most organizations today. Like all emer- ging arenas, the definition of Sales Enablement often shifts depending on the perspective of the company, user, and implementation. Still, based on our research, a foundation definition of Sales Enablement is clear. Download the Demand Metric Sales Enablement Plan Playbook HOW-TO GUIDE What Is Sales Enablement? Starting Out with Sales Enablement Demand Metric defines Sales Enablement as the processes, practices, technologies, and tools that improve the performance and productivity of the sales organization. Sales Enablement enhances the ability of the sales team to increase company revenue through sales. Bottom-Line – Sales Enable- ment drives revenue by directly impacting the sales teams’ ability to close more deals. Demand Metric 2 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide Supporting your sales representatives with the right information, knowledge, tools, and advice to win more business seems like a ‘no-brainer’ idea. Unfortunately for many mid-sized enterprises, this ideal is not fully realized. If you are not happy with the sales results in your organization, it might be time for a Sales Enablement initiative. This guide will provide you with a definition for Sales Enablement; explain what ‘enabled’ reps can do more effectively; discuss the problems with traditional sales enablement strategies; provide a maturity model; give you a framework for effective sales enablement; define ‘Sales Playbooks;’ help you understand why sales playbooks are needed; and outline an action plan for implementing a ‘best practice’ sales enablement strategy in your organization. Sales Enablement is a new and emerging function within most organizations today. Like all emer- ging arenas, the definition of Sales Enablement often shifts depending on the perspective of the company, user, and implementation. Still, based on our research, a foundation definition of Sales Enablement is clear. Download the Demand Metric Sales Enablement Plan Playbook HOW-TO GUIDE What Is Sales Enablement? Starting Out with Sales Enablement Demand Metric defines Sales Enablement as the processes, practices, technologies, and tools that improve the performance and productivity of the sales organization. Sales Enablement enhances the ability of the sales team to increase company revenue through sales. Bottom-Line – Sales Enable- ment drives revenue by directly impacting the sales teams’ ability to close more deals. Demand Metric

3. 3 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide HOW-TO GUIDE Problems With Traditonal Sales Enablement In many organizations, “Sales Enablement” has been a one-way inclusion of marketing materials into a sales portal or intranet, without any real insight into what’s being used or is valued by the buyer. Symptoms of a failing Sales Enablement strategy include content repositories that contain: Too much content – good quality material is buried amongst the volume of documents Minimal insight – Marketing has no idea what content is used by Sales Organized by product – rather than by buyer profile, industry, or specific sales situation Out of date content – reps store files locally and use out-dated sales documents Adoption issues – when not integrated with CRM mobile devices, reps don’t use it Starting Out with Sales Enablement “Enabled” sales reps can be more effective in the following areas: 1. Understand Buyer Needs – including industry trends, common business problems, and the competitive options available to buyers to solve their issues. 2. Sell New Products – get up to speed quickly on recently launched products. 3. Deal with Objections – learn how to respond to common objections with answers that have been proven to put the buyer at ease and change their thinking about a key issue. 4. Pitch with Confidence – having the knowledge, information, and tools they need inspires more sales rep confidence. 5. Equip Champions – provide internal ‘champions’ with content that can be used to sell your solution to other key stakeholders. Effectiveness Of Sales “Enabled” Reps Sales Enablement Maturity Model V I E W R E S O U R C E 3 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide HOW-TO GUIDE Problems With Traditonal Sales Enablement In many organizations, “Sales Enablement” has been a one-way inclusion of marketing materials into a sales portal or intranet, without any real insight into what’s being used or is valued by the buyer. Symptoms of a failing Sales Enablement strategy include content repositories that contain: Too much content – good quality material is buried amongst the volume of documents Minimal insight – Marketing has no idea what content is used by Sales Organized by product – rather than by buyer profile, industry, or specific sales situation Out of date content – reps store files locally and use out-dated sales documents Adoption issues – when not integrated with CRM mobile devices, reps don’t use it Starting Out with Sales Enablement “Enabled” sales reps can be more effective in the following areas: 1. Understand Buyer Needs – including industry trends, common business problems, and the competitive options available to buyers to solve their issues. 2. Sell New Products – get up to speed quickly on recently launched products. 3. Deal with Objections – learn how to respond to common objections with answers that have been proven to put the buyer at ease and change their thinking about a key issue. 4. Pitch with Confidence – having the knowledge, information, and tools they need inspires more sales rep confidence. 5. Equip Champions – provide internal ‘champions’ with content that can be used to sell your solution to other key stakeholders. Effectiveness Of Sales “Enabled” Reps Sales Enablement Maturity Model V I E W R E S O U R C E

4. 4 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide HOW-TO GUIDE Demand Metric’s Patches Framework For Sales Enablement P – Playbooks: build a Playbook to equip reps with the knowledge, tools, and activities they need A – Assets: put content and assets in a system that allows sales reps to rate them T – Training: use a methodology like SPIN Selling to standardize your sales process C – Commitment: get commitment from Sales to rate materials created by Marketing H – Hiring: sales reps with the same skills and attitudes as your current star performers E – Enabling Technology: CRM, Marketing Automation, and Sales Enablement S – Sales Process: align sales and buying processes and build content for personas A Sales Playbook is a collection of information, knowledge, sales tools, and activities that have been proven to assist with closing business in a variety of common sales situations. You can structure your playbook like this: What Is A Sales Playbook? Company Overview Marketing Insights Sales Opportunities Stage 1 – Need/Prospecting Stage 2 – Discovery/Qualify Stage 3 – Consideration/Demo Stage 4 – Decision/Proposal Stage 5 – Review/Contract V I E W R E S O U R C E Starting Out with Sales Enablement 4 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide HOW-TO GUIDE Demand Metric’s Patches Framework For Sales Enablement P – Playbooks: build a Playbook to equip reps with the knowledge, tools, and activities they need A – Assets: put content and assets in a system that allows sales reps to rate them T – Training: use a methodology like SPIN Selling to standardize your sales process C – Commitment: get commitment from Sales to rate materials created by Marketing H – Hiring: sales reps with the same skills and attitudes as your current star performers E – Enabling Technology: CRM, Marketing Automation, and Sales Enablement S – Sales Process: align sales and buying processes and build content for personas A Sales Playbook is a collection of information, knowledge, sales tools, and activities that have been proven to assist with closing business in a variety of common sales situations. You can structure your playbook like this: What Is A Sales Playbook? Company Overview Marketing Insights Sales Opportunities Stage 1 – Need/Prospecting Stage 2 – Discovery/Qualify Stage 3 – Consideration/Demo Stage 4 – Decision/Proposal Stage 5 – Review/Contract V I E W R E S O U R C E Starting Out with Sales Enablement

5. 5 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide HOW-TO GUIDE 38% of buyers felt solution providers didn’t provide enough content to help them navigate through each stage of the buying process. (Demand Gen Report) Improving Performance for Average Reps – by showing a repeatable process for how your star performers achieve their results, you can increase the performance of ‘middle-of-the-pack’ reps who are generally the ones who affect the bottom-line most. 51% of reps attain quota at firms using a Sales Playbook, compared to 40% at firms who don’t have a Sales Playbook. (Aberdeen Group) On-Boarding New Hires Faster – when new high-caliber sales reps join your firm, they will get up to speed quicker by following the ‘best practices’ or ‘plays’ used by top performing reps rather than learning from their own experiences and failures. Only 8% of B2B companies say they have tight alignment between sales and marketing. (Forrester) Radiating and Penetrating Key Accounts – in tough competitive environments or mature indus- tries, having key knowledge about competitors, buyer needs, and industry-based solutions can make the difference between growing an account or losing it. 65% of companies said sales teams use less than 50% of marketing content as it is not access- ible, low impact, or inappropriate. (Corporate Visions) Why Is The Sales Playbook A Must-Have? Starting Out with Sales Enablement The Sales Playbook is a “must-have” resource for a sales team. These statistics prove the effect- iveness of sales playbooks on the sales team’s performance: Sales Playbooks are most useful in the following situations: Where Do Sales Playbooks Help The Most? If you are not happy with your sales results, take a look at your Sales Enablement processes, systems and tools to see if you could do a better job to prepare your sales reps to have meaningful conver- sations with their prospects and customers. Bottom Line 5 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide HOW-TO GUIDE 38% of buyers felt solution providers didn’t provide enough content to help them navigate through each stage of the buying process. (Demand Gen Report) Improving Performance for Average Reps – by showing a repeatable process for how your star performers achieve their results, you can increase the performance of ‘middle-of-the-pack’ reps who are generally the ones who affect the bottom-line most. 51% of reps attain quota at firms using a Sales Playbook, compared to 40% at firms who don’t have a Sales Playbook. (Aberdeen Group) On-Boarding New Hires Faster – when new high-caliber sales reps join your firm, they will get up to speed quicker by following the ‘best practices’ or ‘plays’ used by top performing reps rather than learning from their own experiences and failures. Only 8% of B2B companies say they have tight alignment between sales and marketing. (Forrester) Radiating and Penetrating Key Accounts – in tough competitive environments or mature indus- tries, having key knowledge about competitors, buyer needs, and industry-based solutions can make the difference between growing an account or losing it. 65% of companies said sales teams use less than 50% of marketing content as it is not access- ible, low impact, or inappropriate. (Corporate Visions) Why Is The Sales Playbook A Must-Have? Starting Out with Sales Enablement The Sales Playbook is a “must-have” resource for a sales team. These statistics prove the effect- iveness of sales playbooks on the sales team’s performance: Sales Playbooks are most useful in the following situations: Where Do Sales Playbooks Help The Most? If you are not happy with your sales results, take a look at your Sales Enablement processes, systems and tools to see if you could do a better job to prepare your sales reps to have meaningful conver- sations with their prospects and customers. Bottom Line

6. 6 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide 1 2 3 4 Download Conduct Audit Your Existing Assets Create Action Plan STEP 1 - Download Start Strong with the Sales Enablement Plan Playbook Download our Sales Enablement Plan Playbook for a step-by-step framework and many tools & templates to get you kick-started on this initiative. V I E W R E S O U R C E Sales Enablement Plan Playbook 6 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide 1 2 3 4 Download Conduct Audit Your Existing Assets Create Action Plan STEP 1 - Download Start Strong with the Sales Enablement Plan Playbook Download our Sales Enablement Plan Playbook for a step-by-step framework and many tools & templates to get you kick-started on this initiative. V I E W R E S O U R C E Sales Enablement Plan Playbook

7. 7 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide 1 2 3 4 Download Conduct Action Plan STEP 2 - Conduct Audit Your Existing Assets Create Fill Out the Sales Enablement Readiness Assessment Conduct a Sales Enablement Readiness Assessment to determine if now is the right time for your organization to be looking at this. V I E W R E S O U R C E Sales Enablement Readiness Assessment 7 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide 1 2 3 4 Download Conduct Action Plan STEP 2 - Conduct Audit Your Existing Assets Create Fill Out the Sales Enablement Readiness Assessment Conduct a Sales Enablement Readiness Assessment to determine if now is the right time for your organization to be looking at this. V I E W R E S O U R C E Sales Enablement Readiness Assessment

8. 8 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide 1 2 3 4 Audit Your Existing Assets Action Plan STEP 3 - Audit Your Existing Assets Download Conduct Create Activate the Marketing Collateral Management Tool Audit your existing assets with our Marketing Collateral Management Tool to identify the condition of your existing sales tools and content. V I E W R E S O U R C E Marketing Collateral Management Tool 8 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide 1 2 3 4 Audit Your Existing Assets Action Plan STEP 3 - Audit Your Existing Assets Download Conduct Create Activate the Marketing Collateral Management Tool Audit your existing assets with our Marketing Collateral Management Tool to identify the condition of your existing sales tools and content. V I E W R E S O U R C E Marketing Collateral Management Tool

9. 9 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide 1 2 3 4 Create Action Plan STEP 4 - Create Download Conduct Audit Your Existing Assets Build Your Sales Playbook with this Expert Resource Create a Sales Playbook that contains all of the relevant information, tools, and advice that sales reps will need to close more business, share best practices, and understand the productivity requirements for their position. V I E W R E S O U R C E Sales Playbook 9 Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-to Guide 1 2 3 4 Create Action Plan STEP 4 - Create Download Conduct Audit Your Existing Assets Build Your Sales Playbook with this Expert Resource Create a Sales Playbook that contains all of the relevant information, tools, and advice that sales reps will need to close more business, share best practices, and understand the productivity requirements for their position. V I E W R E S O U R C E Sales Playbook

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