Putting Salespeople and Marketers on the Spot

If I put you on the spot right now, what would you say is the most pressing challenge facing sales and marketing organizations today? In our eyes, it’s providing salespeople with easy-to-use tools that help them connect the dots between customers’ problems and the great things their company does to solve them

It’s a tough challenge, and one that we, as a sales enablement content company, help clients grapple with on a daily basis. If you’ve visited our site, you’ve probably read about our methodology and some of the services we offer, including Messaging Architecture Design, Aligned Asset Framework and Content Services. These all address that challenge.

 A lot of our clients ask us, “How do I make sure I’m creating the right content for my sales teams? They aren’t using what we put out there, and they aren’t giving us guidance on what they want.” We’ve found that any organization can answer this by following a few simple steps – a position we explore in our new e-book, 6 Steps to Giving Your Sales Teams the Content They Need (and Want). In it, you’ll find tips to help you: 

• Build content that is aligned with buyer needs and business outcomes
• Identify the tools that sellers really need and will actually use
• Create maps that match tools to selling interactions
• Prioritize what to create based on impact and level of effort

I urge you to check it out – and once you do, I’d love to hear how you think these steps can be applied in your own sales and marketing organizations.

Sales Enablement 101: Treat Salespeople Like Customers

Author’s Note: This blog originally appeared last week on the Savvy B2B Marketing blog.

For more than two decades, I’ve made my livelihood supporting salespeople. Twenty-five years ago, I was known as the product manager who could be counted on to launch products and provide salespeople the tools they needed to find, cultivate and close deals in the shortest possible time-frame. They sold my stuff because they knew I’d make sure they knew theirs. Salespeople don’t like to look stupid, and they don’t have time to waste.

I’ve always fundamentally believed that your salesperson is your first and most important customer. As such, when I think about enabling sales, I think about employing many of the same strategies used to engage customers. In fact, sales enablement professionals can learn a lot from their demand gen colleagues.

 Nurturing Sales

The true test of sales enablement success is measured in sales performance, not only in dollars, but also by how salespeople perform across each stage of a selling cycle. That means crossing pre-defined checkpoints efficiently and effectively, leveraging resources and removing obstacles along the way.

Much has been documented recently about mapping sales tools to selling stages to ensure content coverage. (That’s something we’ve done for years.) But one thing many organizations have yet to recognize is the similarity in this process with the one used to acquire customers. In fact, the strategies we use to nurture prospects along a defined path are directly applicable to how we enable salespeople in complex selling environments.  And by applying some of the same methods, marketers can monitor and move specific solution areas into top-of-mind positions across specific types of sellers, and based on organizational goals.

The graphic below shows a typical buyer’s journey from awareness through repurchase stages. The top section represents marketer stages and the bottom section represents seller stages.

 Consider a customer acquisition strategy that might include:

• Prospect segmentation
• The development of target personas
• Sliced and diced databases
• Testing and measurement plans
• The development of multi-tiered messages and multi-touch strategies, such as those involving social media, direct mail, telemarketing, and events
• And more

Then compare it to a typical sales enablement effort where sellers are blasted by the sales tool fire hose at time of product/solution launch. The tools are created using a “one-size-fits-all” approach to playbooks, battlecards and scripted presentations (for example) without regard for the type of seller they are, their role in the sales process, the other things they also sell or the level of product/solution knowledge expected. That’s like sending every campaign element to a prospect in a “one and done” blast and expecting them to buy.

While many organizations are just beginning their sales enablement journey, more mature ones realize that the days of one-size-fits-all enablement are gone. And, such strategies as seller segmentation and seller nurturing are as important to the enablement process as buyer segmentation and lead nurturing are to the customer acquisition process.

 Some questions to ask yourself:

• Have you established a sales enablement program?
• Do you have documented processes and best practices in place?
• Have you mapped your sales enablement assets across your organization’s documented sales process?
• Have you worked directly with sales to understand what your sellers need and want?
• Does your organization have different types of sellers performing different roles in the process? If so, do you tailor enablement tools specific to their role?
• Do you provide sellers with a suite of enablement tools at solution launch, or disseminate tools over time?
• What mindshare tactics do you use to keep solution information fresh for sellers?
• How many different forms of media or different types of venues have you used to provide information to sellers?
• Are your demand gen campaigns synchronized with the conversations sellers are having with prospects?
• Do you track tool usage and retire unwanted or underutilized assets?

Because sales enablement is a new discipline within most companies, building best practices can be a challenge. (In fact, there are more than 1,600 sales enablement positions open right now.) Remember that some of the best sales enablement talent could be right down the hall in the demand gen department.

 What’s your formula for enabling sales?

Considering the scalability of content marketing

I’m preparing a presentation for channel resellers next week at the Arrow ECS May Days IBM Partner Conference. The title (which was provided for me) is “Using Marketing Plans and Social Media to Create Selling Situations.” 

My first thought: “Wow…that could be a pretty broad topic.” In my 15 years of channel marketing, I’ve come to appreciate the differences of marketing at the vendor level versus marketing at the reseller level.  With channel resellers, we don’t typically talk about sales enablement, content marketing or strategic asset alignment.

However, my presentation has pretty much followed the same 4 critical components of  marketing execution that we talk about at the higher-level vendor level:

1. Messaging and positioning
2. Asset alignment
3. High-value content
4. Effective distribution

I’ve developed some slides and content around each of these components,and I think it could really change the way some of these IBM partners manage their marketing endeavors this year. The content is mostly directed toward channel resellers, but there are lessons and ideas for all vendors and companies. 

The ideals of content marketing–focusing on customer challenges–remain top of mind for regional resellers, as well as for large vendors.

 I’ll update these topics soon, and will let you know how the seminar went!

Do you have a content czar?

I just spent three days in Scottsdale at the Sirius Decisions Summit with hundreds of b-to-b sellers and marketers. I’m more convinced than ever that it’s time to re-think content strategies. According to Jay Gaines, Sirius’ specialist in demand creation strategies, centralized responsibility for content strategy is becoming a requirement for highly effective b-to-b marketing.

We couldn’t agree more!

When looking at content marketing, sales enablement and account based marketing, the common thread that unites these topics is the need for good content. But responsibility for creating content lives in silos. Here’s an example: how many of your company’s great demand gen pieces get distributed to your salespeople in easy-to-use formats? Clearly there are a lot of good ideas there; shouldn’t your salespeople be equipped to talk about them?

Do any of these statements apply to you?

SiriusDecisions 2011 Summit Review: Marketers are “Siriusly” Hungry

Okay, I admit it − I was poolside one hour after I arrived at the beautiful Fairmont Scottsdale Resort. I smeared on the SPF 45, ordered the resort’s signature margarita and began reading my Summit registration packet.

Let’s face it − we’ve all been to dozens of conferences where the host suggests that if we leave with two new ideas and meet a couple of like-minded peers, we’ve had a successful trip. At first glance, this conference was going to be no different. The longer I sat in the glorious Arizona sunshine, the more I decided that I’d be perfectly willing to sacrifice a couple of keynotes, sessions and tracks for some much needed R&R. So I promised myself that as soon as the conference lost my attention, I would return to the south pool.

I never made it back. Not only did the conference keep my attention, it turned out to be one of the best events I’ve attended in years for quality of content, attendee interest/interaction and for building post-conference momentum.

SiriusDecisions couldn’t be more right when they describe their world as “the place where sales and marketing meet.” Every keynote paired marketing and sales execs who presented how they overcame the challenges associated with aligning their two organizations toward supporting sales and driving increased revenues. Every track reinforced this aligned strategy with analyst perspectives on best practices in demand gen, product marketing, sales process and sales and channel enablement − each followed by practical, proven examples of success.

Most relevant to my world was Marisa Kopec and Joe Galvin’s session on sales enablement, since that’s what we do. In the most attended breakout session of the conference, the duo together shared the nuts and bolts of an effective sales enablement practice. The statistic that hit home for many (and confirmed via live polling) was the fact that the greatest inhibitor to an organization’s sales force achieving quota was their inability to communicate value messages. The need for customer-focused/value-based messaging and content has never been greater, but alongside that need comes the requirement to map those messages to suitable points and conversations in the buyer’s journey − carried forth not only by sellers, but also via various other customer touch-points. This is one area where many organizations continue to struggle. (PS – We do that, too.)

And by the way, this is one of the slides the Kopec/Galvin team presented:

It seems to me Sales Enablement is another place where marketing and sales meet. I’m just sayin’…

I left the Summit with more than a renewed sense of purpose and a full bottle of SPF 45. The next few years are going to be tons of fun as marketing and sales continue to align and sales enablement practices flourish.

3 “Must-Dos” after the Forrester Technology Sales Enablement Forum

The Forrester Technology Sales Enablement Forum was everything Forrester said it would be: a true “meeting of the minds” for sales, marketing, and product managers who know it’s time to take their seller enablement to the next level.

Once we all got done talking about process and strategy and technology platforms for sales enablement, the conversations always led to content: we have lots of content, but we don’t know what to do with it? When should it be delivered…and when…and in what form?

In my content-centric head I developed three “must-do” sales enablement activities for IT vendors to jump on this quarter, in order to make immediate impact on the organization:

1. Be honest about what you have. There was lots of talk about guides, papers, and portals: what they were supposed to do, and why they’re not working. In the end, it was clear that much of what we provide salespeople was created because “someone said they needed it at some point in time” Now’s the time to assess and reset based on a more strategic approach to creating content.
2. Align your assets around the conversation. Without getting too hung up with sales process or methodology, most sale cycles follow a predictable path: they look; they touch; they think; they buy. That’s where Forrester’s outcome selling model comes in handy; we need to be focusing on helping customers achieve their desired outcome. Your salesperson should be there to say all the right things to get them to the next step.
3. Create a real sales playbook. I heard it multiple times over the two-day session: “My sellers don’t know how to position my product.” And while that could be a messaging and positioning challenge, it could also be a sales process problem: sellers simply don’t know how to progress an opportunity from discovery to purchase.A sales playbook helps sellers understand what to DO and what to SAY at every stage of the sale. Like many of our clients, you may have battle cards and sales guides that address specific selling hurdles, like qualifying questions and handling objections. But have you truly shown your salesperson a best-practice approach to progressing your opportunity to purchase? That seemed to be the big question for Forrester attendees who came through our booth looking for content strategy and alignment help.

When the dust settled and we all jetted away from San Francisco, I definitely saw new life breathed into the hearts and souls of my sales enablement peers.

Are you doing the “must-dos”? Can you start with just one? Let me know if we can help!

Sales Enablement – What does your CEO think?

Forrester’s CEO, George Colony, kicked off the Technology Sales Enablement Forum last week with a report from a technology CEO conference at Davos.

He asked a simple question: “Are you satisfied that your sales team is getting your company to its strategic goals?”

The majority said no.

What was the first problem?

Speed.

In the eyes of the folks at the top, companies are moving too fast for their sales teams to keep up. New product launches, acquisitions, new competitors…..it’s all too fast. Today’s technology sellers can’t connect the dots between customer problems and favorable outcomes because they have a great stuff to sell, but they lack to tools to sell it properly.

When CEOs think Sales Enablement, they think acceleration.

Accelerated solution development. Accelerated sales cycles. Accelerated revenue growth.

Our clients know they can’t keep up with the pace and that they need help. That’s why they come to us.

Is your sales organization moving fast enough?

Eyes Wide Open After Forrester Conference

Forrester’s Technology Sales Enablement Forum last week in San Francisco was a real eye-opener for me. As someone who has dedicated more than two decades of my professional life to sales enablement (long before the term existed,) I was encouraged to see a quality turnout for Forrester’s inaugural event.

Sales enablement is not for wimps. And while it may be reported as the top initiative facing CMOs this year, it’s not a passing whim. Sales enablement is real, it’s complex and it’s going to force organizations to rethink how they staff and what they produce.

Forrester Principal Analyst Scott Santucci presented an outcome selling — a go-to-market approach where you design your value communications system to optimize the value your customers realize — strategy as a way to deliver on buyers’ need for results.  It seems to me companies have been trying to get their sellers to focus on results for years. For example, I remember meeting with one of our very first clients, nearly 19 years ago now, who was complaining that their salespeople were pushing product. They didn’t understand how to solve business problems, sell solutions or present results. Ina recent meeting with (completely new people at) that very same client, they still had the exact same complaint.

So, is sales enablement just today’s fix to satisfy an age-old problem?  That’s the eye-opener part for me.  By jove, we may have figured this out! A successful sales enablement initiative requires a business process change authorized and executed from the executive layer.  Anything less will remain random acts of sales enablement (another Santucci term).

Oh, and yes, Santucci’s right about the outcome selling strategy. He and his colleagues talked a lot about “muscle memory” and the need to help organizations overcome entrenched behavior. If I can speak with the same marketing organization over the course of twenty years and listen to the same complaint about seller behavior, I would suggest that the problem isn’t only a sales problem–it’s a messaging problem. Organizations need to rethink how they build and deliver messages and content across buyer- and seller-facing outlets.  (PS – that’s what we do.)

Bottom line? It’s a great time to be living in my sales enablement bubble. The next few years are going to be tons of fun. And if you plan to play, you better bring your A game.

Behind the curtain: Targeting the target in Sales Enablement

We here at Launch International have been spending the Fall months working on our own messaging and value propositions (you may have seen some of our press releases about new strategic services and the hiring of a recognized thought leader).

What has stuck me most over this process is the critical importance of targeting messages and content for specific responsibilities and titles across the organization.  If you consider the customer’s buying process–and all the people and responsibilities that come with it–then you recognize that a high-level message comes first, then to be followed by targeted messages across the LOB, IT and Finance functions for your customers.

This has all lead me to realize that the best examples I can give you for sales enablement is the materials we provide our own sales and account managers.  It’s not a huge audience, to be sure…but we really try to provide our team the most up-to-date information about WHO buys our services and HOW they buy them.

When it comes to targeted messages, we have a set of “personas” we use to talk about our value propositions to each person. I use “persona” in quotes, because persona marketing is an entire segment unto its own in B2B marketing. Companies spend many hours and dollars drilling down to create true personal profiles of the kinds of people who buy their services. We’ve gone part of the way there, and idenfied the pains and challenges our buyers face, as well as show the value we can deliver in their space.
We have created sales enablement ”battlecards” to help our sales and account managers identify pains and value propositions for several titles:

• VP Marketing
• VP Sales
• VP Sales Ops
• VP Training
• VP Channels/Alliances
• VP Professional Services

I’d be happy to share these battlecards with you if you want to see how we work through these issues.  Lemme know: enitschke@launchintl.com.

Sales Enablement: Content is your friend

A few weeks ago, I asked the community members of the LinkedIn group I run (Sales Enablement Content) “where sales enablement lives.” I was purposely vague, as sales enablement means many things to many people. Each organization’s culture, history, and hierarchy really determines their own approach to sales enablement.

However, “content” rang true across all answers to the question. It’s content that really drives meaning and value to sales enablement. While enabling technologies like portals, playbooks, and other software solutions are indeed important, the old “garbage in, garbage out” motto remains in the sales enablement space.

The challenge, of course, is know WHAT content is right, and HOW to we get it to the salespeople to enable the conversation. It’s there that process and technology take over. They’ll both be subjects of future posts.