3 Challenges with Sales Enablement and How to Solve Them

3 Challenges with Sales Enablement and How to Solve Them

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What are the most common challenges that come with sales enablement?

  1. Misaligned marketing and sales
  2. Not using innovative technologies
  3. Misconceptions about enablement in general

Sales enablement tools can help improve the strategies and processes used by your sales team, allowing them to be more efficient when pitching and closing more deals. Over $66 billion was spent on sales enablement tools and training in 2015 alone and this number has only increased since then and is expected to grow even further in the future.

More and more leaders in the industry are now turning to sales enablement and the tools that come along with it. But before you launch your very own enablement campaign for your company, it would be best to explore the common challenges about sales enablement other organizations face and learn how you can overcome them.

 

 

Misalignment Between Marketing and Sales

Misalignment Between Marketing and Sales

In order to properly implement your sales enablement efforts, you are going to need the support of the heads of several important departments within your company. Among these areas, marketing is perhaps the most important.

Through the use of sales enablement tools, your team can have access to resources and content that can help improve their ability to make sales. But before these content and resources can be created, input from your marketing department is required which means that they are going to have to be involved.

Sales and marketing are the two teams in an organization that often suffer from misalignment. The lack of understanding for responsibilities and roles, the bad blood that stems from different compensation, reward packages, and benefits, and disconnect in communication all contribute to poor collaboration between the two areas.

  • How you can solve it

Before you launch your new sales enablement efforts, make sure that you take into consideration the current state of the relationship between your marketing and sales teams. Confusion often begins at the top so to set the tone of the whole thing, get the different heads of the departments as well as the leader of your sales enablement initiative to work through any miscommunication.

Define the responsibilities and roles of each member of your team clearly. Should an issue arise, improve a negative situation by encouraging collaboration and explaining how and why everyone involved contributes towards the same end goals.

Not Using Innovative Technology

Many businesses continue to struggle even with sales enablement in place because they still insist on doing things the hard way. It is almost impossible to improve the performance of any team without fully adopting current technologies.

Sales enablement is no exception to this. Those that find themselves in leadership roles should leverage new solutions and sales enablement tools in order to keep their company competitive.

  • How you can solve it

Preparing the necessary documentation and doing your research beforehand can help your sales enablement efforts to get off the ground easily and successfully. Be upfront in how you plan on using technology to do this.

The one in charge of your sales enablement campaign should try the following:

  1. Use video recording software to allow your sales managers to provide quick and direct feedback to the sales representatives when they do actual pitch practice runs.
  2. Make use of data and online reporting features to create and personalize reports to help sales managers get more in-depth insights into the performance and efficiency of their sales team.
  3. Implement a sales enablement tool so that the sales team can deliver new content and messaging campaigns faster and easier.

Misconceptions About Enablement in General

Misconceptions About Enablement in General

As if the challenges between marketing and sales listed above weren’t difficult enough, there is also a chance that the rest of your organization might be confused about sales enablement in general. Often, sales enablement is mistaken for sales coaching – a person who works with individual members of your sales team to develop their skills. Most commonly, though, the role of sales enablement is often confused with that of a sales manager.

Sales enablement, while also focused on improving the state of your sales department as well as the state of your organization as a whole, should not be confused with sales managers. Sales managers work with their team every day in order to drive individual performance and develop the talent of every member.

On the other hand, sales enablement works at a system-wide level to improve your sales and your organization. Sales enablement is not, nor will it ever be, a replacement for your sales managers. On the contrary, sales enablement actually relies on sales managers! But because both roles work towards improving sales, other, less-informed members of your organization tend to confuse the two which results in frustration, inefficiencies, and overlap in work.

  • How you can solve it

Set role definitions and clear expectations before you launch your sales enablement campaign. This will help prevent any problems and similar ones from ever happening. Inform your sales enablement leaders to collaborate with your sales managers and encourage them to support each other in their initiatives.

Key Takeaway

Believe it or not, launching your own sales enablement initiative through the use of sales enablement tools can make or break your business. If you implement sales enablement well, you and your team can proceed to make and close more deals, meet and exceed your quota requirements, and operate your business more efficiently.

In order to avoid these common challenges that come with sales enablement, plan ahead! This way, you and your empowered sales team can avoid pitfalls and soar straight to success!

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