What is Sales Enablement?

Everybody keeps throwing around this term: sales enablement. What exactly does it mean?

Here’s an easy explanation…

Defining sales enablement

Sales enablement is about creating a system where the sales and marketing teams can assist each other. Think about it like a basketball game, and the customer is the ball. Marketing is dribbling the ball down the court, directing them, moving them around obstacles. Then marketing passes the ball to the sales team. Sales shoots and the ball swishes through the net (i.e., the sales funnel). You score a sale.

In that scenario, sales made the point, and marketing made the assist. One couldn’t have happened without the other.

Sales enablement is the link that makes those assists possible. How? With a game plan that sets the team up to win.

You need a sales pipeline that includes what happens before and after the sale.

Why you need sales enablement

Without sales enablement, your sales and marketing departments are trying to play solo games. Everyone wants to randomly attempt to shoot the ball instead of working together and picking up rebounds. If you’ve ever watched a basketball game made up of a team of ball hogs, you know that it’s not an effective method. Ego gets in the way of actual results.

The benefits of putting together your game plan (aka sales engagement strategy) are as follows:

● Less admin work for the sales team, and more time actively selling.

● Better ROI for sales and marketing departments.

● Improved customer relationships.

● Faster and more efficient sales cycles.

● Easier access for the sales team to the content buyers need.

● Onboarding procedures that ensure every team member is ready to hit the court and coordinate with team members.

Who uses sales enablement

Why do we keep talking about the marketing department if “sales” is right there in the name of this method? Because the way business works today, your sales team cannot be efficient without the backing and assistance of the marketing department.

Marketing needs to be generating both external and internal sales documents that “enable” the sales team. And management needs to ensure that the tools are in place for sales reps to search for, find, understand, and utilise that content.

Sales enablement for your inbound marketing strategy

Because every piece of marketing content is also a sales enablement asset, it’s important to start sales enablement strategy at the marketing department. A great way to organise marketing’s contacts and content, and prepare their tools to be shared with sales, is to start with HubSpot.

HubSpot is an inbound sales and marketing tool used around the globe. Through integrating with a wide variety of other marketing and sales tools, HubSpot is sales enablement’s trusted friend.

Remember, sales enablement is all about aligning your marketing and sales departments, getting them to work together and share information and content, in a way that is as easy as possible, to get the best results possible.

To book a demo with HubSpot Sales click here. Or click here to find out more about sales enablement and how BBD Boom could help you.

To learn more about sales enablement click here.