Why Sales Enablement is Required for Modern Marketing

Modern Marketing Engine podcast hosted by Bernie Borges

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One of the hot, hot topics these days in the sales and marketing arena is sales enablement. To clarify the issues and highlight the importance of enablement for every sales organization, Bernie invited Jake Braly, Vice President of Global Marketing at Highspot to be his guest on this episode.

The Highspot team provides a technology solution for sales enablement that prepares sellers to speak to buyer needs, engage buyers with answers to the questions they have about a potential solution to their problems, and does it all in a way that optimizes performance and increases deal velocity. Jake’s everyday experience in the sales enablement world makes him an expert to speak to the issue. Join Bernie and Jake for this enlightening and challenging conversation.

This episode is brought to you by Gong.io, the number one conversation intelligence platform for sales. Gong helps you achieve revenue success, which means you win more deals, skyrocket rep performance and gain critical market intelligence. Get powerful visibility into your customer conversations with Gong. Head to http://bit.ly/gongio to get started.

What IS Sales Enablement And Why Is It Important?

Before we can get too deep into how sales enablement works and why it’s so important, we must have a working definition of the concept. Simply put, sales enablement is the task of…

Equipping all of the customer-facing people in your organization to have the content, tools, and insights they need to engage effectively with customers.

That means a sales enablement strategy should not only provide the content that sales teams can use to start and engage in buyer conversations, it should also train them how to effectively use the content.

This two-fold focus is vital because of the changes that have happened over the last decade.

1 - Every industry uses technology, which makes innovation cycles faster.

2 - Buyer behavior has changed: they have more information on-hand before they agree to speak with someone at your company. That means your reps need to provide more insight than customers can attain on their own.

3 - Technology has evolved to allow us to automate elements of engagement with buyers and increase deal flow.

Listen to better understand the compelling case for sales enablement in your organization.

Enablement Makes A Positive Bottom-Line Difference

Enabling sales is important from a tactical perspective, but it’s more than just tactics - it’s a strategic part of how the organization functions. Why is it important to think of sales enablement in those terms?

Because modern analytics reveal that in the fast-moving and highly competitive sales environment the enablement function has a positive business impact on the things that matter like...

• quota attainment
• conversions
• deal velocity
• win rates

Listen to this conversation to get a better idea of how a serious focus on sales enablement could increase your bottom line.

Enablement Is An Equal Partner With Marketing And Sales

The old way of doing business positioned enablement as a sort of bridge that aligned sales and marketing. But Jake says that is a very limited way of viewing the role sales enablement plays. The reality is that sales and marketing should not be focused on aligning with each other, they should be focused on aligning with their customers, together. Enablement makes that happen.

Sales enablement works in close concert with sales and marketing to provide a great customer experience through relevant content, delivered effectively and in a timely way for each stage of the customer’s buying journey. Enablement gives both marketing and sales teams the superpowers that connect with buyers, engage them in fruitful conversations, and win more deals.

How Enablement Serves The 3 Primary Stakeholders

Implementing an effective sales enablement function in your business not only makes sense from a strategy and implementation perspective it also serves the interests of everyone it touches.

Those focused on driving revenue (EXECUTIVE TEAMS) would do well to take a keen interest in sales enablement since the data shows that an effective enablement process positively increases revenue.

Those who interact with customers or prospects (MARKETING and SALES teams) become more effective when they make use of the resources and training an enablement function can provide.

The buyer (CUSTOMERS or PROSPECTS or BOTH) is better served when enablement is a strategic focus. Why? Their biggest need is to evaluate your solution efficiently, understand how it differs from other solutions, and understand how they will achieve value should they decide to use your service/product.

Don’t miss this foundational discussion of the sales enablement function. It's becoming a strategic essential to every company in every industry.

Featured on This Episode

• Jake on LinkedIn
• Jake on Twitter: @JakeBraly
• Email: jake.braly (@) highspot.com
• www.Highspot.com - where Jake serves as Vice President of Global Marketing

Outline of This Episode

• [1:51] The role Jake plays at Highspot, and what Highspot does for sales enablement
• [6:05] The reasons sales enablement has become such a hot topic these days
• [7:45] Why sales teams need technology for sales enablement
• [11:36] How sales and marketing leaders are trying to align to their customer’s needs
• [15:56] Who are the stakeholders who benefit most from sales enablement?
• [18:30] Where to start to get sales enablement going in your organization
• [25:56] Sales enablement increases the competitive win rate

Resources & People Mentioned

This episode is brought to you by Gong.io, the number one conversation intelligence platform for sales. Gong helps you achieve revenue success, which means you win more deals, skyrocket rep performance and gain critical market intelligence. Get powerful visibility into your customer conversations with Gong. Head to http://bit.ly/gongio to get started.

• The Highspot Definitive Guide To Sales Enablement
• The State Of Sales Enablement 2019
• Highspot CEO Robert Wahbe
• Salesforce
• www.SalesEnablement.pro
• Sales Enablement Society
• The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr

Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine

• https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/
• https://twitter.com/bernieborges
• https://instagram.com/bernieborges
• https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast

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