5 Key B2B Sales Enablement Best Practices

Gone are the days when sales and marketing departments worked independently to achieve the same business goals. This happened for a number of reasons which ranged from separate technology to different incentive structure and even channel conflicts. Today, with the importance of nurturing customers from all perspectives, sales and marketing need to be on the same platform to maintain customer engagement and loyalty -- a strategy known as B2B sales enablement for businesses.

Sales enablement highlights the gaps in the customer journey, the pitfalls of a separate approach and actionable solutions to make the customer-business ecosystem run smoothly. Here are five critical best practices for B2B sales enablement to drive sales and revenue.

1. Arrange for Training

The concept of B2B sales enablement being relatively new, your team can benefit from effective training. Sales representatives need extensive training in not only sales but also in the adoption of marketing and industry skills. Research suggests 87% of new skills fail to be effective within a month of training. So, reinforcing that training goes a long way.

2. Leverage Content Marketing

Utilize the marketing communication created by your marketing team that maps the customer journey. Effective content marketing strategy in the form of videos, webinars, blogs, E-books, whitepapers and everything else to support each stage of the sales cycle, figure out what’s working and what needs improvement. Re-using the created materials will facilitate your sales efforts at the end of the day.

3. Formulate Sales Enablement Strategy

Clearly define and take steps to implement your sales and marketing strategy from the word go. When every employee understands their role in the customer journey, the overall sales initiatives become consolidated and aligned to the goal. This ensures other departments like customer service and accounting can actively contribute to customer engagement and loyalty.

In order to improve your sales practices, the measurement of success must be clearly defined along with advisory boards which are critical for communicating your success.

4. Get the Right Team

For your team to appreciate the scope of sales enablement, hire people with a sales background and have skills in marketing, customer service or other disciplines. Have the right team in place which can take advantage of available tools and tactics for the customer journey and make use of the sales enablement benefits for your business’ revenue growth.

5. Adopt Sales Enablement Software

Utilize the many digital sales tools and apps available that will facilitate your sales enablement program. Adopting the right technology can boost your sales efforts by forecasting, setting goals, training and more. Using popular software will also help you adopt market-tested solutions that will support your enablement objectives. Above all, implement sales tools your sales team will use on a regular basis.

Today’s sales and marketing scenario require you to map consumer journey, be relevant and deliver the right message at the right time and in the right format. By reinforcing B2B sales enablement plan, businesses can generate revenue and create customer loyalty for a long time to come.