FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is sales enablement?
Sales enablement is the process of providing the sales organization with tools, skills and content to guide marketing and sales people to sell more effectively. Any one individual that is part of the selling process can be provided with these additional resources to better enable them to engage more effectively with the customer.
How do I create an effective sales growth map?
Do we just have to accept that sales and marketing teams won't work well together?
No. Although this is a common challenge for many organizations, it doesn't have to be your organization's permanent headache. In fact, once you build an environment and process that empowers team members to want to work together more seamlessly, you'll be rewarded many times over with additional revenue generation and by improving your team's retention rate/job satisfaction. There's nothing more frustrating for marketing and sales professional than a broken process that has undefined roles, a weak lead capitalization rate and/or colleagues in the mix that take no accountability for their work. These challenges will only build unless acted upon and change is accepted. Whether you need improved processes, leadership reinforcement, or new people in the right seats, making these changes can be tough, but are necessary. If not acted upon, your ability to grow revenue and retain top talent will be crippled.
When creating a sales plan and building your growth opportunity map for your team, there are several items that are essential to understand and empower before you set the plan in motion.
1. Are your processes built for continued growth or are there bottlenecks in place that may suppress your growth? You want to ensure that your teams and your individual sales people feel enabled and the work flow for the leads is as seamless as possible. Build processes that propel growth.
2. Keep reviewing your target audience and understand opportunities for up-sells, cross-sells and new customer offerings. By continuing to review your target market opportunities and buyer personas, it helps you stay focused on what's most important, your customers and future customers! If you're not focused on your customer and your positioning, one of your competitors will be.
3. Assess your team and how your team can be enriched. Is there a player or two holding back the culture and motivation?? Is there room to bring in more sales talent? Are your sales professionals performing to their highest potential? What are their full capabilities? Is there more revenue within your current team that can be capitalized on with a more effective approach with better questions and solutions as the driver?
4. How much cash do you have in place for this for optimal growth? What is the budget assigned for your plan? How can you maximize this budget for your desired growth metrics?
5. Lastly, what is the quality of your service/product offering? Can sales be enhanced by putting a greater focus on client retention and overall satisfaction? With happy clientele, you can elevate your revenue by leveraging their feedback and building a marketing strategy empowered by quality service.
Are your marketing messages resonating with your customers?
If you are not hitting your sales targets, there is usually more than one reason. It is imperative to review your marketing messages and ensure they are getting through to and connecting with your customers and prospects. What methodology did you use to craft your messages? Did you test them with your target market before sending them out online or in print? It is easy to think you know what your customers want, but until you ask them you can't be 100% certain.