Are you experiencing ups and downs in your sales process? 

Is your sales force missing that vital key to unlocking breakthrough deals? It may be a need for more tools and resources. And the only way for them (and your business) to maximize those potential wins is with the right strategic sales enablement solution. 

Do you have a sales enablement platform? If not, are you coming across this phrase for the first time? 

Sales enablement is a powerful solution that helps you move your needle to the right path and, thus, drives your inside sales teams to peak performance. In other words, it eliminates the obstacles your sales team encounters, allowing them to finally proceed through each stage of their sales cycle to seal the deal. 

However, this buzzy tactic has a slight controversy regarding what rules to include and what not. So, to help you out, we will walk you through the five rules that you must add to your sales enablement dictionary for further advancement:

1. Create a sales enablement charter

To have an efficient sales enablement process, you need to outline the sales enablement charter for your organization. This charter must entail the purpose, scope, and goals so that your sales enablement strategy can be organized and your inside sales teams can successfully hit their targets. 

These are the following elements that you need to include in your sales enablement charter:

• Mission statement – Here, you must specify the objective of your sales enablement. For example, should it emphasize improving the onboarding process or offering better training? The purpose of your sales enablement strategy must be crystal clear to you.

• Measurable outcomes – Here, you must include all of the KPIs you’ll be using to gauge the effectiveness of your sales enablement program.

• Scope of enablement-  Here, you need to list the activities that fall under the purview of the sales enablement program. For instance, providing training to sales reps falls under the sales enablement section, while the segment of human resources handles career development.

With the sales enablement charter, you will know the roadmap for achieving the success you’ve been waiting for so long. So, therefore, create your sales enablement charter and get ready to work on it.

2. Emphasis on delivering “ongoing training”

“Proper training” is the most important element to the success of an organization’s sales team. Most businesses train their sales employees, but they eventually make the mistake of following that practice only for a specific timeframe. 

These days, training programs take place only in these three areas: 

• Sales kick-offs
• Training during the onboarding process
• Weekly feedback from direct management.

Initial training can make salespeople quickly forget what they learned in their earlier days. Conversely, weekly feedback sessions focus more on addressing issues than improving your salespeople’s abilities. As a result, these types of training may fail to improve the performance of your sales team. 

Therefore, you need to offer training where your salespeople can improve their skills and continuously refine their learning. That’s where “ongoing training” can be helpful. You can employ this training by introducing sales enablement programs that constantly offer your inside sales teams learning opportunities. 

Additionally, these programs must include online exams and certifications so that you can determine the progress of your sales staff and enable them to recall what they have learned so far.

In a nutshell, provide training on an ongoing basis so that your salespeople can revise their learnings, hone their skills, and continue to progress to seal your deals.

3. Allow sales reps to monitor their calls

You might have observed in many sales organizations that the front-line managers take care of the call review process. However, there is a bit of a downside to this approach due to the following reasons: 

• In the sales landscape, salespeople are already closely watched, and monitoring their calls may seem intrusive. 
• Since your sales reps receive only one-dimensional feedback, they may need help understanding how to progress in their calls.
• All calls are reviewed by the same front-line manager, which may constrain the scope and variety of feedback given.

As a result, besides managerial feedback, you must also allow your reps to monitor their calls. By doing so, they can quickly identify their strong and weak points to ace further calls.

4. Embrace change 

The world of sales is constantly changing – new technologies are being developed all the time, customer needs are continually evolving, and competition is fierce. So it’s important that your inside sales team embrace change, learn new skills, and adapt quickly to stay ahead of the competition. 

If your team isn’t open to change, they won’t be able to grow with the times or keep up with customer needs, which could mean lost opportunities for your business. 

 

5. Make sales enablement a collaboration

Typically, your sales enablement process works best if there’s a dedicated inside sales team. However, your sales enablement strategy can only be successful when your inside sales teams are willing to collaborate and communicate proactively. 

In other words, the practices and solutions included in your sales enablement process must be open and transparent to your overall organization. For instance, your sales reps and sales teams employ a variety of sales enablement tactics every day. 

Therefore, it becomes crucial to gather all their knowledge and suggestions in one place so everyone can be on the same page. If your inside sales team doesn’t encourage collaboration and isn’t aligned with each other, your sales enablement strategy may fail and can result in wasted time.

Related: Your Ultimate Guide To Sales Enablement

By adhering to the above five outlined rules, you can have an ace up your sleeve in setting up a winning sales enablement solution. Furthermore, with these rules, you will be more successful in your strategic initiatives, upgrading your team, and ultimately making your sales process as effective as possible!