I wish I had a dollar for every person I talk to who thinks that sales enablement is nothing more than pumping out more collateral and deploying a better sales portal, with no regard for the buyer’s information needs.
We need a new definition of sales enablement, but before defining what sales enablement is, let’s consider the desired outcome of effective sales enablement. A well-enabled salesperson can:
- Get access to the key stakeholders in the buying process
- Understand the customer’s marketplace and business issues
- Help the buyer envision solving their problems using his or her products and services
- Get stalled deals moving again
- Sell newly launched or acquired products, and cross-sell unfamiliar products
- Frame the buyer’s evaluation criteria so that the competitors are at a disadvantage
- Help the “buyer champion” justify the purchase and sell within his or her organization
- Overcome objections raised by the buyer
- Respond to the tough questions immediately and with credibility
- Do all this within three months of being hired rather than seven months
What do all these abilities have in common? A real give-and-take, back-and-forth, you-and-me kind of groove. Something all humans recognize in that wonderful thing called a “conversation.”
So recognizing that sales enablement is about relevant, valuable conversations, the best definition I've found for sales enablement comes from Lee Levitt at IDC's Sales Advisory Practice (See IDC Defines Sales Enablement):
Sales enablement is:
The delivery of the right information to the right person at the right time and in the right place necessary to move a specific sales opportunity forward
What I like most about this is the context of moving a specific sales opportunity forward. Sales reps are already overwhelmed with general information, but as you can see from the desired outcomes above, the conversations they need to have need to address the specific issues their buyer is having, and how the rep can make those issues go away.
