Using the Four Buckets of Sales Enablement to Get Results with Maryanne McWhirter

In this episode, we’re talking about how to get real results by utilizing all four buckets of sales enablement: strategy, content, technology, and training.

You’ll hear us ask questions like, what are the key components of sales enablement? What problems or needs are people trying to solve when implementing a sales enablement initiative? And what are the benefits of having a solid sales enablement strategy in place?

Joining Dani to break it all down is our own Maryanne McWhirter.

Maryanne brings so many amazing points to the table, like:

• How great sales enablement helps make each stage of the sales process more efficient and effective

• Why great sales teams need sales playbooks

• And finally, how starting a solid sales enablement strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. You just need to start.

The Key Components of Sales Enablement

Kicking the conversation off, Dani asks, “How would you define sales enablement?”

“It’s a fancy word,” Maryanne says. “It really means just the process of providing sales teams with the tools, the content, and the plan they need to sell their products or, in the case of a lot of my clients, to sell their services.”

Maryanne then breaks down sales enablement into four essential buckets:

1. Strategy: “Always start with strategy,” Maryanne says. “The goal is to create consistency among your sellers. So, make sure that you have best practices and a plan in place for what your specific business needs”

2. Content: “This is getting creative with the avenue through which your strategy is delivered.” What type of content can be used to best serve your strategy?

3. Technology: “This is kind of the fun one that’s always ever-changing,” Maryanne says. “This is where all of your sales enablement tools fall in.”

4. Training: “This is one that people like to overlook or just ‘check the box’ and move on from. But training really needs to be addressed throughout your entire sales enablement strategy.”

Each component plays a vital role in empowering sales teams and driving success. By customizing strategies, creating compelling content, leveraging technology, and providing ongoing training, organizations can create a robust sales enablement framework.

Benefits of Sales Enablement

“What are the benefits that an organization could get out of improving or growing their sales enablement strategy?” Dani asks.

Maryanne says, “Obviously, everyone’s trying to close more deals.

“More than that, though, sales enablement really helps:

• Make each stage of the sales process more efficient and more effective: “It brings consistency to what each person on your sales team is doing and what they’re saying. And then they’re moving faster through each stage of the process. That’s mostly by building trust earlier in the process.

• Build trust faster: “So the goal is to build trust earlier in the process to move them through their sales process and their buyer's journey, whatever that looks like for each company, a little bit faster.”

• Increase your company’s ability for growth: “Hiring, training, growing your sales team. Sales enablement makes that a lot easier, too.”

  

What Sales Playbooks Are and Why You Should Utilize Them

“Great sales teams need sales playbooks,” Maryanne says. “They are a giant guide to bring consistency to the individual seller, your team of sellers, and to management.”

“In essence, sales playbooks ensure that sellers can approach the same scenarios and the same objections with the same answers, right? That way, you don’t have different salespeople out there doing lots of different things.”

“It’s fun to see the different benefits that both sellers and management really get out of a playbook. Sellers like the confidence to move quickly through objections. Playbooks provide a really unique understanding of their target persona and who they’re going after.

“I mean, our sales playbooks are entire guidebooks for quick access to everything sellers need to know to hit the ground running.

“And managers who I work with love that their salespeople have that consistency. They feel like they can grow. [Managers tell me,] ‘I feel like I can hire three people and not spend two weeks straight with them [breaking down] target personas. “

Measuring Success

“So, let’s talk about ROI,” Dani says. “Obviously, that matters to everyone, and we know that sales enablement can be a little trickier to track direct ROI. So, tell us the kinds of metrics or KPIs that you might look at when evaluating sales enablement.”

“Okay, I love this conversation,” Maryanne says. “And I hate to start with, ‘it depends.’ But it is going to depend on your company and what metrics are going to be important to them.

“But the place you’re going to see an uptick is in sales productivity. So, reporting activity to your CRM, make sure you have the best way of tracking that, and then look at different metrics in each stage of your sales process or deals pipeline.

“Again, it will depend on what is most important because every sales process and pipeline is different, but each stage should be moving a little bit faster.

“With a thoughtful sales enablement initiative in place, you’re going to see improvements in time in each of those deal stages.”