The most important digital play no one’s talking about:

It’s SALES ENABLEMENT (yes, really)

Here’s a simplified version of a business plan we see a lot of these days:

Step 1: Create a relevant, quality product/service/cupcake store that directly solves a target customer’s need.

Step 2: Watch the profits roll in. (“This software/fitness class/chocolate-sea salt cupcake is amazing! It will sell itself!”)

It’s one of the most common misconceptions in business today. In fact, nothing sells itself. We all get that organizations need to make sales to drive revenue. But what are you doing to equip your people with the skills and knowledge they need to sell? If you’re honest with yourself, it’s probably not enough.

When it comes to sales enablement, most organizations practice what Forrester Research calls “random acts of sales support”: disjointed efforts that lead to unused tools buried somewhere on a web portal.

Just take a look at the data :

41% of salespeople say that they don’t know which sales tools to use, how to use them, or when

On average, salespeople spend an estimated 30 hours per month searching for and creating their own selling materials

That’s a lot of inefficient salespeople spending time away from their primary job – generating revenue.

/1INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Random acts of sales support: disjointed efforts that lead to unused tools buried somewhere on a web portal.

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1 Source: IDC (International Data Corporation)

A framework for aligning sales

As with any employee engagement, rallying sales teams to greatness means creating experiences that follow five guiding principles.

Principle #3: UsefulHelpful, generous, turning people into willing users and participants

Principle #4: Intuitively designedAnticipating how users will want to interact

Principle #5: Expertly deliveredBrought to life creatively, effectively and impactfully

Principle #1: Purpose-ledAnchored in the business and brand purpose and intent

Principle #2: Creative and cut-throughTelling, enabling and building stories that cut through the clutter

/2A FRAMEWORK FOR ALIGNING SALES

Sales Experience Required

So how can you turn your company into a selling machine? Sales enablement is, at its heart, about brand experiences: both the experience your salespeople have with your brand (through tools, training, and messaging), and the brand experience they ultimately deliver to customers.

It’s up to you to craft these experiences in ways that inspire both audiences.

Let’s take a look at how you can make three common sales enablement touchpoints work harder for you – and your bottom line.

Four key ingredients:inspiration, instruction, exploration and evaluation.

1. Sales toolsThis may sound familiar: a new sales tool is announced to your salesforce with great fanfare. It has attracted all sorts of attention (and dollars), but then fizzles out shortly after its launch (or sometimes even before). Why? Most likely because it simply wasn’t useful.

Sales tools need to be useful to be used. And the only people that can confidently tell you what is useful are salespeople themselves. Involve them in every step of sales tool development – from identifying the need to prototyping and testing – to ensure tools are relevant, intuitive and helpful.

2. Sales training Be honest. When’s the last time you got excited about completing a corporate-mandated training course? Most of us see training as something to endure, not something of value – because frequently it just doesn’t add value to the things that are most important to getting our jobs done.. More often than not, corporate training doesn’t capture the imagination of sales people who’ve heard it all before.

Successful training has four key ingredients: inspiration, instruction, exploration and evaluation. Most companies skip right over the inspiration part – and those programs are doomed from the get-go. You’ve got to inspire as well as educate, and that means ensuring that salespeople truly understand the value they are offering customers – not just a list of product features.

3. Messaging. Salespeople need to deliver the right message to the right customer in the right way. So, yes, the message is critically important. But repeating your message is not the same as staying on message.

Message maps are useful tools, provided that the messages are targeted, differentiated, and answer real customer needs. (And, of course, that your people are trained correctly on their use). Successful messaging is as much about understanding your customers and your competitors as it is about knowing your company’s products and services.

/3SALES EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

The 21st-century salesforce is more social, mobile, and agile than ever before.

Let’s face it. We communicate differently than we used to, and the rise of smartphones, tablets, social networking and our always-connected culture means new opportunities for sales enablement.

Consider this:

82% of millenials expect to have an app that helps them gain knowledge and skills

60% to 70% of work-related learning occurs in informal contexts

10% of content delivered to sales reps is currently done so in “a useful format”

Training is no longer about one-and-done events or courses. Learning needs to be continuous, easy-to-access, and immediate to be most effective.

The days of (only) getting everyone together once a year to review the new sales aid are behind us.

Not only are budgets tighter than ever, but time-to-market has accelerated in nearly every industry. Your window of opportunity is small: Wait for the next regularly scheduled training module and you may be too late to capture the opportunity.

Salespeople need to be connected to the absolute latest information – and their peers – at all times. In a world where more and more people work outside traditional offices, it’s imperative to give them “anywhere access” to the knowledge they need to do their jobs successfully.

Instant messaging, social networks, Skype and other tools can put the latest information and advice at their fingertips. Use them.

2 Source: ASTD (American Society of Training Professionals)3 Source: ASTD (American Society of Training Professionals)4 Source: Tinderbox

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/4ABC: ALWAYS (AND EVERYWHERE) BE CLOSING

ABC: Always (and Anywhere) Be Closing

Of course, your salespeople aren’t the only ones living a more digital life. Your customers are too.

Of course, your salespeople aren’t the only ones living a more digital life. Your customers are too. That means that sales calls themselves are changing. There is still unparalleled value in face-to-face interactions, of course, but are your salespeople following their customers and prospects on Twitter? Do they schedule Skype touch-bases and “share screens” to go over quick updates? Send additional information that can be easily viewed/interacted with on a mobile device?

And how are those in-person sales calls going, anyway? We’ve seen sales forces have great successes with digital selling tools, interactive content, and tablet-based programs.

One caveat: we’re not advocating using technology for technology’s sake. We are advocating for using technology to interact more frequently, more efficiently, and more organically with your most important audiences.

Salespeople need to be trained on how (and when) to use technology and digital tools to become more effective.

/5TECH SUPPORT

Tech Support

Cupcakes Anyone?

Here’s the bottom line: successful sales enablement is critical to growth. (Don’t take our word for it: Fortune 500 companies with strong sales enablement programs report an average 15.3% growth).

It takes a company-wide commitment to create the tools, training, and messaging that will best help your sales force succeed. It takes a willingness to embrace our newly connected and digital world. And it takes a belief in the power of your people to deliver a top-notch brand experience.

Or you could cross your fingers and hope to discover that mythical product/service/cupcake that does indeed sell itself. (And if you find it, please let us know.)

Joe Panepinto, Phd is Vice President, Senior Strategist at Jack Morton. You can reach him at joe_panepinto@jackmorton.com.

/6CUPCAKES ANYONE?

Fortune 500 companies with strong sales enablement programs report strong growth.

TALK TO JACKFor information about Jack Morton, contact liz_bigham@jackmorton.com.Follow us on twitter @jackmortonVisit us online at jackmorton.comRead our blog at blog.jackmorton.com

LEARN MORELook for Jack Morton’s forthcoming research on experience brands in March 2013. Additional research and white papers can be found on Jack Morton’s Slideshare channel.

FURTHER READINGForrester Research, Sales Enablement Defined, Scott Santucci (2010)

Jack Morton, Your People, Your Brand: Creating a brand means looking at the experience from the inside out (2013)

ABOUT JACK MORTONJack Morton Worldwide is a global brand experience agency with offices on five continents. Our agency culture promotes breakthrough ideas about how experiences connect brands and people—in person, online, at retail and through the power of digital and word of mouth influence. We work with both BtoC and BtoB clients to create powerful and effective experiences that engage customers and consumers, launch products, align employees and build strong experience brands. Ranked at the top of our field, we earned over 50 awards for creativity, execution and effectiveness last year. Jack Morton is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE: IPG).

© Jack Morton Worldwide 2013

/7ABOUT JACK MORTON