Sales Enablement Software

For many businesses, sales are the lifeblood of daily operations. Thousands of dollars and hours are continually poured into research methods and data aggregation in order to develop better sales strategies and generally optimize aspects of the sales cycle and other workflows. Because sales cycles can be highly complex and multifaceted, many organizations choose to implement sales enablement software to support their sales teams and improve sales-related workflows. 

But what is sales enablement in Salesforce? And what is a sales enablement manager? Sales enablement in Salesforce – or in any CRM, for that matter – is the effort to equip a sales team with content and other strategic resources they need to help improve sales capacity and efficiency levels. And a manager in a sales enablement role can generally provide guidance on how to make the most of various sales enablement tools, for instance. There are also sales enablement certifications available, too, for individuals who want to showcase their prowess in sales enablement techniques and strategies. 

Sales enablement can be a crucial component of a business’s overall success – especially as more sales are happening online and in digital spaces than ever before. Sales enablement initiatives can refer to broader, comprehensive initiatives like software packages or enablement platforms, but there are also smaller components as well. On any given day, a sales representative might utilize a social media post, a video guide, or a blog post to provide potential customers with information about a product or service, and so each piece of media or content utilized falls under the ‘sales enablement’ category. 

For organizations that might be interested in implementing a sales enablement platform or sales enablement software to support their sales and marketing teams, there are a handful of industry leaders with good reputations and proven track records. To find a sales enablement software or platform that aligns with your organization’s mission and objectives, you might consider researching some of the industry leaders to get a sense of what kind of capabilities they offer and how useful they might be to your sales and marketing teams. 

And as more and more companies continue to utilize and bolster their e-commerce offerings, many of those businesses are utilizing sales enablement software or platforms to help streamline the process and keep things organized. For sellers trying to manage in-person sales and digital sales simultaneously, a sales enablement platform can provide additional resources to ensure that your sales teams are as prepared and informed as they can be to maximize their selling potential. 

Sales enablement tools examples may include simple, necessary features most people are readily familiar with – phone, email, and social media platforms – but we will go into greater detail about effective sales enablement materials in the next section. It’s also important to keep in mind that the best sales enablement tools for one organization may not be the best tools to help with your company’s specific situation. Every company is different and faces different challenges, so the solutions that have fueled another organization’s success may not work as effectively for your business and vice versa. 

Sales Enablement Tools

A brief search on the Internet can pull up hundreds of results for ‘free sales enablement tools’ and there are also a number of options available for B2B sales enablement tools as well. There are so many tools available and more are being developed all the time because of how important sales are for many businesses. Healthy sales figures and practices can improve the bottom line and also allow for a reallocation of resources and budgets to help support growth and expansion if those are your company’s objectives.

But businesses and especially sales departments and upper management must spend time considering the sales process from the perspective of customers. Are there things your business could do better to make the customer experience more convenient or streamlined? Are there current practices that alienate some buyers that you could revamp or replace with something else? If the sales process is quick and easy for the customer, it’s more likely that their customer experience will be positive. Deft use of sales enablement tools can help your business improve the customer experience which can improve brand perception, customer loyalty, and much more. 

Sales enablement tools exist to help sales representatives access the necessary content or information needed to help improve sales initiatives. Sales enablement content on the other hand is, as the name implies, content specially designed to persuade buyers to make a purchase. At the end of the day, however, sales enablement tools and content both exist to help achieve a common goal.

Some sales enablement content like blog posts, for example, present a powerful sales-enabling opportunity because of how accessible blog posts can be. But putting together an engaging blog post can be difficult, even for highly skilled and competent content creators. Blog posts generally need to be informative, engaging, and relatively uncomplicated to scale. Blog posts can also be used at the very beginning of the sales funnel to help direct more potential customers to your company’s other websites or products, and blog posts can also be utilized later on in the sales funnel to provide additional information about various products, services, and their features and functionalities. 

Content analysis can also be an invaluable sales enablement tool – if a bit abstract. Content analysis can cover everything from analyzing competitors’ websites and sales practices to taking steps to better understand your company’s own target audiences. This kind of analytical work can prepare sales representatives by educating them about competitors and improving their persuasive skills to be able to bring in better sales figures. 

For businesses selling complex products and services (like enterprise software, or cloud-based services), sales content management tools can help your sales team maintain and organize all of the relevant sales content – whitepapers, blogs, case studies, videos, PDFs, or any other piece of media that might be helpful to a sales representative. 

Sales represent such an important part of business and it’s much more nuanced and complex than customers need goods and services and businesses provide those goods and services for appropriate fees. A robust sales cycle can help establish loyalty between customers and businesses. At the same time, a business can have the most loyal customers in the world but if they aren’t regularly buying your organization’s products or services, profit margins are going to suffer. 

Sales Enablement Platforms

Essentially, sales enablement platforms can provide businesses with a diverse array of tools and functionalities that help improve and optimize the sales lifecycle. A sales enablement company likely offers sales enablement software or sales enablement training services to help other organizations’ sales teams improve. A good sales enablement platform can provide solutions for your sales team to overcome or otherwise mitigate challenges preventing them from optimizing the sales lifecycle for your organization. 

One of the greatest benefits of a robust sales enablement platform is that it can also support your organization’s simplicity of product education. Any representative from the sales department or any other relevant department can upload content or necessary information to a centralized location which improves transparency and shareability between departments. And when teams are uninhibited and free to communicate more liberally, this can reduce the chance of mistakes caused by human error or lack of clear communication between departments. 

Many modern sales enablement platforms utilize what’s called a “closed-loop” model. This means that they can generally provide assistance with integrated sales enablement virtual labs to support certain customer trials, performance analytics, content scoring, and much more. Closed loop systems and marketing architecture refer to an ongoing three-step process to help your organization better understand the customer experience, the success of campaigns, and how you can improve upon both the customer experience and future launches in the future. 

Sales enablement examples might include the content and materials sales teams utilize in order to close on sales and persuade buyers who are on the fence, or sales enablement might refer to much broader initiatives like investing in a robust customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Ultimately, though, every instance of sales enablement – from a singular white page one-sheet to a comprehensive software – builds toward a more robust and efficient sales lifecycle, and the implementation of sales enablement software can provide your sales representatives and marketing teams with a diverse lineup of tools and resources to continually support their selling capabilities as your business strives to achieve growth and sales goals. 

There are also virtual labs sales enablement platforms that can provide sales teams with all the tools and resources they need to succeed and achieve their sales objectives. A virtual lab setting allows for sales teams to showcase demos or a proof of concept, for example. Numerous companies are increasingly relying on virtual sales initiatives that involve virtual labs to develop more effective customer-facing tools and content. 

As more companies realize the value of data and the capabilities of cutting-edge software, more organizations will rely on sales enablement strategies to try to edge out the competition. To help your organization maintain optimum communication between your sales and marketing teams, and to help support sales figures and practices in general, consider utilizing a sales enablement software or platform that aligns with your business’s primary objectives.

Read about how Skytap Virtual IT Labs can support sales enablement and successful product demos for your organization.