Same Old Song and Dance
One area that early stage Revenue leaders know is important but typically falls down the list is enablement. When faced with sky-high priorities, like closing deals and managing pipeline, it feels like enablement can wait one night. And defining it adds another complication: what is enablement? The word gets tossed around but not everyone’s sure what it includes or where to start.
So, what is enablement? It flies well beyond training alone, although training and resources are the most common focus areas. Lesser known are the processes that facilitate sales—like lead conversion handoffs—and systems—such as your CRM. The devil’s in the details, but here are the basics:
- Training: onboarding plus ongoing training, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual training is needed. Add in one-offs, like when your company introduces a new product.
- Resources: like sales decks, reference materials (ex. product info), one-pagers and other leave-behinds for prospects.
- Systems: your CRM and other tools in your tech stack, most frequently used areas or functions, system updates, and internal changes to systems (like custom fields or automation).
- Processes: the most common steps that tie everything together across the Revenue team.
Your entire Revenue team benefits from getting a solid system in place. They’re out there fighting to grow the company, but they can’t quite make it alone. Skills atrophy over time – for example, studies show that trained sales reps behave like untrained reps after 90 days if not retrained. In other words, your team will burn out bright if you don’t have a comprehensive enablement program.
A Change Would Do You Good
No need to look to the sky to save you. Here are some ways to get your enablement program to take off:
- Training: Determine the most important competencies for each role within your Revenue team. Be specific and set a timeline for achieving it. An example for new sales reps is to be able to do a 30-second pitch on your company within the first 30 days of hire. Remember to add in a skills progression that leads the learner to the goal in a smooth way.
- Resources: Put them in one place, like a shared folder. Make sure everyone can access them and knows where they are. Bonus points for working with your Marketing content manager, if your company has one, to ensure that your resources feature the company’s latest branded assets.
- Systems: Review your most common motions, like moving deals through the pipeline stages. Check that everything works the way you’ve asked your team to do it, and that it’s getting done correctly across the team. There might be easy disconnects to fix.
- Processes: Getting started with process documentation
- Tip: Don’t forget to set up a cadence for reviewing your training, materials, and processes at least once a year – many will get outdated before you know it.