Most marketing and sales leaders are familiar with the term sales enablement, b꧋ut they’re not exactly sure how to get it right𒈔.

The idea is simple: to provide your sales team with content, tools, and information to answer buyer questions and speed up the ꦑsales process. 

168极速赛车官网:But the devil is in the details.

(Note: 🍎If you want a deep dive on what types of content you should focus on, check out this resource.)

Beyond the what questions (types of content, format, style, tone, etc.), are the how questions: 

• How do I organize the content?
• How do I track engagement?
• How can I be sure the tools I use integrate with my tech stack?

168极速赛车官网:We’ve helped hundreds of companies implement sales enablement programs ꦦand adopt tools t💫hat improve closing rates, reduce the time sales reps had to spend with prospects, and increase the overall number of new deals closed — so we certainly have a lot to say on this topic.

Below, we’ll cover the basics — and we'll look at some platforms and tools you might want to use. &💃𓄧nbsp;

What is sales enablement?

168极速赛车官网:Sales enablement is the process of using resources during the s෴ales process to close deals faster. 

In most cases, marketing tea🌸ms work closely with their sales counterparts to produce these resources.

Think about it like this: A salesperson meets with a dozen potential customers over the course of a week. Som෴e are good-fit prospects. Some are not. 

That salesperson gets asked many of the same questions in meeting aft🌌er meeting:

• Why is your product betterꩲ than your competitors’?
• Tell me about your cancellation policy.
• How does option A compare to option B?
• How mu👍ch will I spend over the first six months? 
• What are the next steps in the buying process?

And so on. 

Many of these questions are not specific to the unique needs of one particular prospect. They’re general questions about the buying process, your products or services, or how differenܫt options compare. 

Sales enablement materials reduce f🌞riction in the sales process. They help answer these customer questions so that each prospect feels better informed and educated.

Sales teams can either share them after a call to provide a more thorough answer than what was provided during the conversation, or they c💦an share ahead of a call to get major questions out of the way beforehand.

Content is the best sales enablement tool you can use

Tools, platforms, and other software are great for tracking and measuring sales enablement, but none of that matters without the right content. Sales teams need actual assets that can be handed to prospects at different stages of the sales cycle before any tools can be added꧒ in✤to the mix. 

But for this to work, your sales and marketing teams need to be in lo🍰ckstep. Both teams will be discouraged i🐻f marketing works hard to produce something that misses the mark or if sales reps don't use the resources put in front of them correctly. 

Sales reps want ꦏa library of thorough, vetted content that they can tr♓ust. They want to be able to hand o👍ut the right piece of content for every stage of their sales pipeline. 

What types of content are they looking for?

Types of sales enablement content

Sales enablement content can take any form that suits your team and your customers. For m🐷ost of our clients, the𒊎 most common types of sales enablement materials include:

• 168极速赛车官网:Blog articles 
• Videos
• Buyer’s guides
• 168极速赛车官网:Product/service overviews
• FAQ web pages
• 168极速赛车官网:Case studies

What topics are covered in these?

Sales enablement content topics

What do your buyers want to know? What co🐠ncerns do they have that you could address to put them at eas♌e? 

Your marketing team should ask these questions directly to your sales reps and sales managers. Regular brainstorms with sales and marketing teams (we call this a 168极速赛车官网:Revenue Team meeting) will help you develop a backlog of topics🐷. 

In addition, every marketing team member should watch sales call recordings every week to hear questioꦯns and concerns directly from the mouthღs of your buyers. This could help you discover new topics to write about and prepare your sales team for in the future. 

When we work with clients, we find that most of the sales enablement content they create 168极速赛车官网:falls into the same few categories:

1. Price: Buyers want to know what they can expect to pay, and what factors make the number go up or down.
2. Comparisons: They want to see different options side by side so they can easily make distinctions.
3. The sales process and customer experience: They want to understand all of the logistics involved in buying from you.
4. Problems, drawbacks, and limitations of what you sell: Buyers want all the details so they can anticipate challenges.
5. Customer testimonials: They want relatable social proof so they can see their future after buying from you.

These same topics c🅠ould be covered in any of the formats listed above. For example, a video that explains price — or an article outlining the ♐drawbacks of a particular product you sell. 

Remember, unless you’re creating content for your sales team to use in their process and properly set up the strategy we’ve outlined for you above, software tools can’t do much to hel🎃p your sales team.

Only after you’ve taken🐻 these first steps and laid the proper groundwork will the sal🌱es enablement tools be most effective.

Sales enablement tools we love 

When we show our clients at IMPACT differ🥃ent sales enablement tools they can use, there are a few clear winners — intuitive and easy to train your team on quickly and use. 

Most also have free versions you can implement until you’re ready to upgrade for a broaꦚder experience.

Here are our ch♍oices for the ꦆtop sales enablement tools. 

HubSpot Sales Hub: Keep tabs on your sales activity 

ꩲis one of the most powerful marketing, sales, and service auto🌳mation platforms on the market today.

Ask any HubSpot user and they can tell you it’s a game-changer. Plus, it’s free to start, and you can work y💙our way up the different packages as 💃you go:

Even with the free version, ✱t🧸here is a lot you can accomplish.

For example, whenever prospects fill out a form on your website (contact form, ebook download form, etc.), you have the ability to track that person an𝓀d see major data points about their behavior.

This includes what pages🔯 they’ve visited, how much time they spend on your site, and what emails they’ve received, opened, and read. This lets you track eജngagement with your sales enablement content.

ꦰThis kind of customer data is essential for long-termജ revenue growth.

Your sales team will also benefit from HubSpot’s automated tasks, such as�🐎�:

• Tracking ROI with automated reports
• Automating emails
• Allowing prospects to book calendar appointments with your staff
• Engaging with prospects on live chat

The platform allows sales representatives to target specific prospects so they can spend more time with qualified leads, and the dashboard helps your sales rꦅeps access real-time data (such as sales leads by sales representatives, h𒁏ow many calls their team has made each day, and revenue made).

Your sales r⛎eps and marketers can collaborate on projects together directly in the platform by sharing access to files, docu🌃ments, and reports. 

HubSpot also offers marketing automation and customer service software so you can deliver a seamless expඣerience to your customers.

To learn more about how HubSpot can help you♎r sales team, you can check out , which range from beginner to advanced.

Vidyard: Record and share videos

is a video creation tool y✱ou can access from yo🐼ur Chrome browser so you can record, post, and share videos effortlessly.

This makes it easy for your sales team to personalize email correspondence with p🍸rospects. Research shows that just including a video in your email (and 🍒mentioning the video in your subject line) can . 

The easier to make and share vid🅷eo content, the bettꦐer.

Vi🐓dyard also offers a range of analytics — such as how your vi🔯ewers are interacting with your content and who they are — and it integrates with other popular platforms, such as HubSpot, LinkedIn, Slack, and Salesforce. 

With different version💖s of the platform, you can spꦡlit-test thumbnail images, customize calls-to-action, and use heat maps to see where users are clicking.

Like HubSpot🥀, Vidyard's free version is a pretty good starting point, so you don’t have to go all-in and spend too much at first. But the added features at higher tiers are pretty great. 

Paperflite: Share sales enablement content

is a content maꦕnagement platform that can help your sales team cons🦂olidate its content in one place.

This makes it easier for your team to acc🐬ess the content they’re looking for by organizing it into different collections and categories. No one h𒁃as to go rummaging through desktop folders or request that a team member send them files.

Paperflite helps your sales team share content in 🐈a way that is visually appealing, rather than sending prospects a bunch of bulky attachments.

You’ll also ꦅget an🅺alytics about open rates, dwell time, shares, and other info so you can see how well your content is working. 

Paperflite is most helpful for your sales team if they work wit🐼h a lot of content and need help organizing and sharing that content in a more vi꧒sually appealing way.

.

Intercom: Connect with customers, regardless of stage

is a conveജrsational tool that🌊 makes it easy to use live chat and provide AI-powered chatbots on your site so you can keep communicating with customers before, during, and after they buy from you.

You can set up the Intercom software to help your customers choose their own path through your sales process oꩵr easily access someone on your team. 

The base plan starts at $74 per month, with Pr⛄o and Premium levels offering customized features. 

Drift: Engage in real-time

is a platform that he🦄lps businesses interact with prospects in real-time via live chat, video, voicemail, and email. The software allows you to track when prospects are on your site and how engaged they are. This helps your sales team focus on prospects further down the pipeline.

Drift then aggregates engagement activity so your sales team can focus on the best-fit opps in♐ their pipeline. 

You can also set it up so prospects get a personalized ಞnotification while they’re searching for information on your website. That notification might look something like this:

Drift is a g💖reat tool for making sure your sales team is🌸n’t wasting time chasing bad-fit leads.

Drift plans start at $2,500 per month, which represents a sizeable investment, but with ever-advancing AI technology, the abil✨ities of chatbots are constantly improving. 

Start building a winning sales enablement strategy today

Remember, there is no sales enablement software that can succeed without a good strategy and a library o🌱f sales content. 

At IMPACT, we teach our clients the 168极速赛车官网:They Ask, You Answer framework,𒆙 which teaches that your primary ൩focus should always be on answering customer questions.

When a prospect enters 💯your sales cycle, they want information. Whatever you sell, your buyers probably have the same core questions that we listed above.

Again, these answers could come in many forms, depending on𒁏 what you🌺r buyers most want: web pages, blog articles, videos, or case studies.

Sales enablement software will help you orga꧑nize, track, share, and analyze this content. 💞But remember: they are tools, not a strategy. 

To take the first step to implement a full-fledged sales enablement strategy at your business, set up a time to 168极速赛车官网:talk to one of our coaches, and we✨’ll show you how to alleviate your sales challenges so you can cele🀅brate incredible results.