Many organizations seem to be celebrating "wins" that are actually signs their sales performance is in danger. What are the symptoms of this problem, and what’s wrong with the way we’re making our numbers? What are the true objectives of sales enablement, and how do we pivot our effort towards them?
On this episode, I’m joined by Sales Enablement Leader and CSO Insights Research Director, Tamara Schenk, who shares on solving the challenges in sales enablement and why we need to take a buyer-first approach.
"It is highly critical to orchestrate sales in a way that meets the buyer’s expectations along the customer path." -Tamara Schenk
3 Things We Learned
The problems in sales productivity that we just can’t ignore
In terms of sales productivity and performance, most organizations just aren’t doing as well as they’d like to think. Quote attainment is down, win rates are not increasing, and numbers are being met by brute force instead of efficiency.
The need for approaching sales from the customer’s POV
We have to develop strategies from a customer-centered approach, not a product-centered one. The former is governed by solving problems for the customer, developing solutions with them in mind. It’s all about putting product after customer, not before.
What is most important in sales enablement
The most important practices of sales enablement that make an impact are clarity on the business problem, understanding where you are in terms of sales force implementation and having a formalized documented system. Once everything and everyone is on the same page, we have to connect these efforts to the strategic initiative of the company.
The current practices in sales are just not sustainable. While we can celebrate so-called "wins" in numbers, the true measure of our success is what happens when the economy shifts. We need to get back to what sales enablement is at its core. The role of sales enablement can vary from organization to organization, but the bottom line is that it’s a strategic process. We must identify the biggest challenges and uncover the most important solutions. It comes down to creating consensus on the most challenging objectives.
Guest Bio-
Tamara is a Sales Enablement Leader, Analyst, Author, Speaker and expert in Sales Effectiveness, Leadership and Transformation. She is the Research Director at CSO Insights. Connect with her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamaraschenk.
