What is Sales Enablement, Why we need sales enablement

What is Sales Enablement and how we need it to grow our business. A recent Oracle report discussed on the topic of ‘sales enablement’ by none other but the marketing team. It stated that merely transferring a bunch of leads to the sales department should not be the end of the job for the marketing agents. With little more effort, marketers can play a big role in helping the sales team close more deals!

This blog offers paraphrased insights from the Oracle report and HubSpot white paper, showcasing how marketing can accelerate the process of sales:

The usage of CRM

The modern sales and marketing solutions (hint: online CRM) have aligned sales and marketing activities. This has given both the teams the flexibility and convenience to work in perfect synchronization. For instance, regular updating of the marketing activities in the CRM can prove to be a real help to the sales agents.

Sales agents can get all the marketing updates in an organized format in the CRM. By studying through them, they can develop deep insights into buyer motivations and behaviors. Questions like what leads care about can come easy to them. In short – sales agents can get more equipped to initiate discussions that are of most interest to the buyer.

A thorough analysis of the marketing activities can help sales agents work on the hottest leads first. Let’s say: when sales agents study the marketing-lead interactions, they can precisely categorize organizations that are:

• actively engaged in the buying process
• not engaged at all

This can empower sales agents to prioritize those organizations that show positive sign of buying.

Lead Nurturing

Marketers really need to focus on lead nurturing. Because if done correctly it can build strong relationships with potential buyers, thereby leading into successful sales.

As Marketo states – Today’s potential buyers don’t become customers overnight—they require marketing over time as they self-educate and build trust with a company.

New-age CRM platforms play a crucial role in lead nurturing process. For instance, they help marketers communicate consistently with buyers’ throughout the sales cycle. This ensures that the brand name stays on top-of-the-mind of the prospects and they move towards the end of the funnel, displaying strong positive signals of purchase.

Involvement of Sales in Lead Nurturing

It is suggested that Marketers include Sales in the Lead Nurturing process. Wonder why? Here are the reasons:

• Sales agents can get a first-hand view to prospect interactions and understand the leads psyche. Accordingly they can drop cold prospects from the pipeline and return them to marketing.Marketers can further work upon these leads and watch for signs of progress in the buying cycle. Once the leads reach a favorable score and are ready to make the final plunge, they can be passed over the fence to the sales.

• Active involvement of sales in the lead nurturing program can put the sales agents in front of the potential buyers from the start itself. By the end of the lead nurturing program and at the offset of the buying process, sales agents can be familiar to the buyer. A relationship of trust can be developed between the two and the sales agents can indefinitely be in a much better position to sell.

Final Thoughts

With experts (like Oracle and HubSpot) advocating the role of marketing in sales enablement, it’s time that marketers take on this added onus. Unlike what many think that this will be strictly sales benefiting, in real sense, it will be mutually benefiting. Marketers who go beyond lead generation and focus on sales enablement will help drive more revenue and strengthen their own position in the organization.

So it’s all prudent that marketers help sales better understand the audience: by providing complete insight into buyers and their related areas. Then only will sales effectiveness improve and marketing efforts leveraged. Isn’t it? Or do you feel otherwise? Share your comments on what you think should be the role of marketing in sales enablement…