For those of us of a certain vintage, the technology, data, insight and tools that somebody embarking on a sales career today has at their fingertips, can seem staggering.
A modern seller will often have access to a variety of tools at every stage of a sales cycle that has the power to help them understand their audience better, access or create high quality content faster than ever, deliver it in more engaging ways than before, and of course analyse and learn from engagement data to drive continuous improvement.
Halcyon days right?
But are these tools really achieving the lofty heights their vendors say they will?
The answer is a somewhat qualified, ‘maybe’ and ‘sometimes’.
It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it
In our experience, in almost every case where the return on this investment isn’t as expected, it is not down to the capability of the tool, it is almost always down to how it has been implemented.
A case in point. Our customer had invested a substantial six figure sum into a sales enablement platform. It’s a tool we know well and is one we would have no hesitation in recommending based on its capabilities.
The platform had gone live, the sellers had started to explore it and had spent a few months having a good look around. After the initial flurry of interest, however, the sales director called us.
There had been a significant drop in use and the team had reverted to their trusty old material on their C drives, avoiding the shiny new platform. They complained that the presentations they were served up weren’t right for what they needed, or that they were too generic and couldn’t be tailored enough to be useful and resonate with their customer’s needs. They also said they often couldn’t find the right asset they needed for specific opportunities.
Not enough quick and easy access to good materials they want to use in order to sell.
Definitely not ‘enabling’.
So what was the main problem?
The underlying issue was that the sales team hadn’t been consulted enough during the initial set up. This meant the material that marketing had created to populate the enablement content library did not reflect the internal sales process. On top of that, a number of assets created to go into the platform had been based on a well-known sales formula, but this didn’t actually chime with how the sales team really worked.
As a result, there was a significant disconnect between the marketing and sales enablement teams who chose, purchased and implemented the platform, and the sales user community.
And this is by no means an isolated case.
The challenge is that the sales enablement platforms, now armed with incredibly powerful AI capabilities, the ability to generate amazing looking content in the blink of an eye, and the capacity to serve up training material to the right seller at the right time, are complex beasts.
All too often the onboarding is focused on the integration of the tool to the wider tech stack within an organisation, CRM and data lakes in particular, and not enough attention is being paid to the nuances of the sales process, and the way a seller will interact on a day-to-day basis.
This is not the fault of the vendors, or even the marketing and sales enablement teams. Put simply, the extensive capability of these sales tools means that to get the most out of them you need to be an expert in sales processes, sales training, sales coaching, proposal writing, presentation creation, sales operations and more besides.
In reality, there are very few sales enablement teams, or marketing teams who have that breadth of skills and experience, or the time to dedicate to developing that knowledge and understanding. The same for sellers, who are focused on securing deals for the business and delivering outcomes for customers.
So, how do you actually enable sales with sales enablement tools?!
A good vendor will recognise that they can never be the experts your sales processes, sales training and content creation. So, if all your onboarding conversations with them are only about integration and not the sales process itself then be very careful. You may not get quite the adoption you hope for.
If you really want a platform or tool to deliver against its goals then you must value the sellers voice. early in the process. Internal due diligence can positively influence clarity around objectives and desired deliverables, contribute to the creation of a details, specific vendor brief and choice, and will hugely impact the success of onboarding and implementation.
You have to map the tool to the way the sellers actually work and the way the sales process and sales stages are built – ensuring the sales content and material within the platform aligns perfectly with the approach and methodology being used.
You need to ensure you assemble a broad team across multiple departments to ensure its adoption is a success and has continued support.
And that’s what get results
When you get it right, the outcomes can be game changing, but mistakes in implementation will result in wasted opportunities and a visible lack of ROI. These platforms can run into huge investments, over a long period of commitment – to see results from them, you need a challenging voice in the room to get the sales team on board.
Investing in a powerful software platform and then failing to implement it properly is like buying a top-of-the-line sports car, only to leave it parked in the garage because no one knows how to drive it. The potential is there, but without the right training and proper use, it’s just an expensive piece of machinery gathering dust.
A smart leader will understand what’s needed to do this properly and if that expertise isn’t inhouse, it’s time to consider a specialist – someone who can take a holistic approach to embed a new way of working for long-term results.
We are lucky enough to work with such individuals and organisations, but we are always happy to support those who want to elevate their game. We love a new challenge!
If that sounds like you, please drop me a line or connect with me, Steve Robinson, CEO on LinkedIn