PART 2: How to Develop a Sales Enablement Program

In the first part of this series, we answered some common questions about sales enablement.

In this article, we answer one final question:

How do I implement a sales enablement program?

Here are the seven things you need to do to get started:

1. Set and communicate goals. You can’t implement a sales enablement program if you’re not clear about what you want it to do. Document measurable goals, including things like:
   1. The number of salespeople who are expected to use – and provide feedback on — collateral
   2. Improvement in the time required to close sales
   3. Increase in sales over time.
2. Define the end-to-end customer experience. Sales enablement is all about helping salespeople engage buyers in the most effective way possible. You can’t do that if you haven’t documented an optimal customer experience. Doing this isn’t once and done. Your buying journey will evolve over time based on knowledge gained through sales enablement.
3. Select a system. It’s almost impossible to employ sales enablement without a system to support it. Do your research and find one that meets the needs of your business. Mobile Locker offers one that’s ideal for most small- to mid-sized companies. It’s flexible enough to be scaled as your company grows over time.
4. Plan for deliverables. Marketing and sales should work together to identify the types of materials and training that need to be developed to support the end-to-end sales experience.
5. Develop content. Don’t make the mistake of implementing a sales enablement program with random, legacy sales materials. Doing so will frustrate salespeople and make it almost impossible to measure effectiveness against the defined sales process. If necessary, delay introducing sales enablement at your business until you have current sales content.
6. Make training a top priority. It must be an ongoing part of the sales enablement process. Launch your program with training about your optimal customer experience and on new sales support materials. Training should be consistently updated over time based on best practices. New modules should be added when processes, procedures, and materials are introduced.
7. Monitor usage of materials and training. Sales enablement programs fail if no one watches how salespeople use what’s provided to them. It’s easy for salespeople to fall back into old, bad habits. Sales enablement is a numbers game and you won’t know if your business is winning it if no one keeps score.

In the end, the biggest benefit delivered by sales enablement is that it helps more salespeople achieve their goals in a scalable, dependable and repeatable way. Businesses are no longer dependent on a few super salespeople to achieve company goals. This helps deliver more consistent results and prevents a business from being left vulnerable if too many top people leave the company.

What are you waiting for? Isn’t it time to introduce sales enablement to your business?