Back
This year we had the opportunity to attend the Sales Enablement Summit (SES) in Austin, TX. It was a jam-packed 2-day event where Sales Enablement leaders from around the globe gathered to discuss their experiences and challenges.
As the number of companies adopting and leveraging Sales Enablement teams as an integral part of their sales team’s success continues to grow, so does the number of challenges these teams face.
Throughout the conference, 3 main themes emerged as common challenges for Sales Enablement leaders in the industry today:
-
Getting sales reps to adopt the new processes, tools, and technology provided
-
Scaling a team effectively in order to execute on major initiatives
-
Measuring the impact of Sales Enablement contributions to the business
Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Luckily, Sales Enablement leaders are notorious for providing resources and strategies to help others achieve their goals. With this, there is really not a better environment for problem-solving than a gathering like the Sales Enablement Summit where peers are able to collaborate and exchange tools and solutions.
Here are our top takeaways from the SES on how to combat common Sales Enablement challenges.
1) Take the pain out of change.
You’ve found the perfect tool to improve your sales team’s effectiveness and spent hours curating the perfect standard operating procedure to make the implementation of this new tool as seamless as possible. Only one problem: the compliance on your team is terrible.
Change is hard, and perspective on how implementing new tools and processes might affect your team is important. You’ve most likely spent hours researching and getting acquainted with the new tools and systems you’re trying to implement. You’ve also carefully curated an SOP after having the time to process and consider all of your variables. Your sales team has not. They’ve got other things to worry about: Their bottom line. Their numbers. Their performance. Their commission.
This is why oftentimes a change in process is met with resistance. It’s much harder to focus on the long term gains when you’re stuck in your day-to-day routine. Two simple ways to take the pain out of change:
-
Implement with empathy
One of the best things you can do to combat resistance to change and support your implementation goals is to work with what you have. Be cognizant of what your team will have to go through in order to adopt this new tool or process, and try and make it as simple as possible by merging the implementation of your new process and tool with an existing reward system. Make compliance with the new process and tools a part of and a prerequisite to celebrating sales goals. Align your goals with their goals.
-
Motivate your team
Another easy way to incentivize process compliance and tool usage is to create a scorecard that outlines the number of activities needed to meet a metric. Give your team an actionable plan that outlines your expectations of compliance and monitor their progress.
Lastly, make it fun. There are so many easy ways to gamify and incentivize procedural compliance - especially when you have outlined goals!
Need help creating a scorecard?
>>>ACCESS OUR FREE SCORECARD TEMPLATES HERE<<<
2) Scale Smart and Coach Actively.
You have your tools, you have your plan, and now it’s time to execute, execute, execute. Only one problem - How do you know your plan is working before it’s too late?
The key to your plan’s execution is your team. Your plan lives and dies on the performance of each member which is why having data on your team’s performance is imperative to measuring success. Not only for you but also to keep your team informed and motivated.
Take the data you’re collecting and monitoring on your team member’s performance and use it to coach them. It’s no secret that employees that are happy and more motivated are higher performers. Good coaching can turn your weakest performer into your top seller. Be transparent, keep them accountable, and celebrate every win.
There is no way you’ll be able to accurately scale your team unless you have a great pulse on their current performance. Set up a solid foundation with your current resources. Allow your new process and tools time to fully integrate and work their magic, and then scale from there.
Coaching is a huge initiative in the Sales Enablement and Sales Performance Management world, but companies typically give Sales Enablement leaders very few resources to execute. Luckily for you, we love to share and create tools to help empower great leaders like you. You can find our free sales coaching templates here - created and used by industry experts worldwide.
>>>ACCESS OUR FREE COACHING TEMPLATES HERE<<<
3) Track your progress.
Sales Enablement leaders are in a unique position where they have a passion for sales but no clear personal quota to meet. So how do you measure your success as a SE leader and prove your value?
According to a study conducted by SiriusDecisions, 69% of organizations measure the success of their Sales Enablement team by activity-based metrics like:
-
number of reps onboarded
-
classes completed
-
content downloaded.
The second most popular metric of success was feedback measurement from other team members, and the third was an impact-based measurement: how revenue, pipeline, and quota were impacted.
Do you have an accurate pulse on how your activity-based metrics are performing today? This past month? This quarter?
Standardized reporting that includes your success metrics on each activity you facilitate will help tell the full story of what you’ve accomplished over a given period of time. Track your progress, and don’t let any activity-based metrics you are responsible for coordinating and executing fly under the radar.
Centralized sales performance data is a key component of tracking your team’s progress and optimizing performance. But it’s a lot to keep track of on your own. This is why tools like Ambition are game-changers for growing organizations that want ongoing visibility into sales performance data.
A recent study by HighSpot reports that companies that invest in Sales Enablement tools and have kept the investment for over two years reported a 25% reduction in sales rep turnover, 13% higher win rates, and 11% higher quota attainment. Learn more about Ambition and how we help empower SE leaders like you here.
