Sales automation tools keep growing, and the quest for productivity continues. Consequently, the market for sales enablement tools also evolves at fast pace. Nowadays, companies look closer at automating their processes to empower sales efficiency.
For this reason, we compiled 5 key benefits that come from a successful Sales Enablement tool implementation.
What are sales automation tools ?
Sales automation tools enable the mechanization of time-consuming, manual sales tasks by using software, artificial intelligence, and other technologies and digital tools. The main goal of Sales Automation tools is to manage responsibilities and tasks that would otherwise have to be performed by the sales team on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.Related articles
1. Organize ressources
Unquestionably, customers today crave content and business are equipped accordingly. To illustrate, sales collateral includes among others :
- Case studies
- Blog and articles
- Social media posts
- White papers
- Product demos
- Customer testimonials
With this in mind, sales collateral is crucial as it delivers a message to the customer and conveys the brand’s image. A strong array of relevant content for each stage in the sales cycle is a major asset to better meet the customer’s needs and expectations. Contrarily, if content is not relevant, up to date, or easy to access it can harm the sales pipeline.
From a sales standpoint, Sales Enablement tools that centralize content are extremely helpful. Indeed, they guarantee easy access to content that is adapted to each stage of the customer’s journey. This way, sales representatives can address their prospects faster and more efficiently.
From a marketing standpoint, Sales Enablement tools help adjust content creation efforts according to actionable data and insights.
2.Contribute to Marketing & Sales alignment
While it may be true that Sales and Marketing are different departments serving different purposes, their alignement is key in terms of Sales Enablement. Discrepancies between both teams can severly damage conversion or customer experience. Certainly, achieving valuable collaboration between both teams can be tricky. However, if not adresse it can render each department's efforts vain.
Sales Enablement tools can contribute to the collaboration between Marketing and Sales. Both teams can easily communicate using the same platform and, in time, achieve alignment.
3. Improve Sales training & Coaching
Firstly, sales training provides high-level knowledge to boost sales representatives in the understanding of their environment. New sales representatives must understand their customers, product and territory to be effective. Sales training focuses on actionable strategies that can be applied to any sales environment. It is mostly suited for onboarding new hires.
Secondly, sales coaching helps sales representatives fix specific issues and improve as individuals over time. Contrary to sales training, which focuses on developing groups, sales coaching focuses on individuals. Sales representatives are assessed to identify their weaknesses and work on improving overtime.
Given these points, Sales Enablement tools can be used to centralize Sales Training and coaching content. Moreover, Sales Enablement platforms sometimes include training and coaching modules to ensure a continuous learning curve for sales representatives.
4. Create and follow KPIs
It is key to measure the success of any Sales Enablement strategy to adjust it accordingly. However, this must be done through key metrics that focus on quantity as well as quality. For example, key metrics should evaluate success rates but also help understand failures.
An effective sales strategy sets goals involving Marketing, Sales, and IT departments. Likewise, it aligns on short-term as well as long-term goals and relevant metrics. This not only measures success but also pinpoints areas for improvement.
Sales Enablement tools can help you track different key metrics related to content or sales productivity for example. Some Sales Enablement platforms can even associate customer insight based on data.
5. Synchronize Sales systems
In the long run, technoly in Sales Enablement aims for better sales productivity. In other words, it should help sales representatives work smarter and invest their time wisely. However, employees have a hard time adapting to new systems and achieving optimal adoption is tricky. Thus, it is important to keep in mind that an overload in tools can cause the opposite effect.
If there are several improvements that can be addressed with new technology, successive implementations are not the best idea. Instead, a performing Sales Enablement platform can help centralize all their needs. Nowadays, they can also be connected to other bigger systems within the company such as the CRM for example.
To sum up, sales enablement tools are, without doubt, a great addition to any business. They have several benefits that meet each business' goals. However, it is key to assess the company's specific needs before implementing.