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The Five Keys to Sales Enablement

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The time it takes to go from prospecting to closing the final sale can be a long and drawn out one. But there are both tools and practices that companies can put in place to help enable the sales process. Both sales and marketing teams are always looking for better ways to increase efficiency in the sales process.

Interestingly enough, 89 percent of companies think their sales enablement strategies are on track but less than 30 percent are implementing sales enablement solutions. (Adobe) And to top it off, 90 percent of sales leaders believe reps have missed opportunities because of the overwhelming amount of information available. (CSO Insights)

So what are the key components involved in sales enablement? Here are the top 5.

1. Buyer personas

One of the most important things before diving into prospecting is really understanding your target audience. Who are they? Where do they receive information? What are their main problems and how does your product/service present a solution? The end goal is to engage your target consumers through everything you put out there so that they receive that information and share your content through their networks. This will snowball into exponential reach and grow both traffic and in turn, revenue.

2. Content Marketing

What is content marketing you may be asking? Content marketing is taking well researched and thought filled content and sending it out through the appropriate channels so that your target audience sees it, finds value, and thus becomes a loyal customer. These skills are in high demand right now because marketing has shifted away from being solely about impressions, to being more about engagement. There is no better way to engage your target audience then to become a thought leader and genuinely share content that they find both interesting and important/relevant.

3. Marketing & Sales Alignment 

Once marketing has brought in an engaged audience it’s then up to sales to close the deal. There are definitely challenges in making sure both the marketing and sales teams are on the same page. It’s important that each department is leveraging their individual skill sets while also working together as a team  for maximum impact.

Here at CustomShow we created a software platform to help bridge the gap  between these two departments.  CustomShow’s real-time collaboration lets marketers work directly with sales in order to build, edit and revise presentations across the office or across the world. Teams can now work together in the same presentation to efficiently and seamlessly make changes and update data without the confusion of multiple copies. This also helps avoid the dreaded last-minute collating of changes.

4. Sales Enablement Technology

The technology you utilize for sales enablement can either make or break your strategy. Earlier this year, Sales Graphics did a post specifically around enterprise sales enablement tools. CustomShow made that list as one of the many valuable tools for improving the process.

CustomShow is a cloud based presentation software tool for marketing, sales, and design team of big businesses.  It allows for easy shareability, the option of importing powerpoint into the software (future functionality), ability to present from multiple devices, embedding video background and video in general, and truly customized branded assets that will allow marketers and salespeople to present their best. Check out the full post on sales enablement tools here.

5. Digital & Social Selling Practices

According to Cisco SVP and Chief Marketing Officer Blair Christie, around 67 percent of the buyers journey is completed digitally. (Slideshare) That means BEFORE the sales rep even talks to a decision maker, the prospect has already done their research and is already going to be leaning one way. What they find when they do their research is completely up to you thus it is imperative that your digital and social selling practices are on point. Relationship building and providing value above all else will enable your sales teams to then approach your target audience with much more success.

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