Getting Started with a Sales Enablement Strategy

Recently, someone asked me: “How should a company get started with a sales enablement strategy if they’ve never done it before?”

It’s a great question. If you’ve read our sales enablement guide, you know that sales enablement combines a lot of different strategies. But I wouldn’t start with any of them.

Start by asking a simple question.

What do I want my sales team to do?

We hear a lot of different answers to this question.

• “I want my sales team to be more consultative.”
• “I want my sales team to spend more time on prospecting.”
• “I want my sales team to be able to talk to the C-suite.”
• “I want my sales team to actually use the CRM we bought.”

Once you know the behavior you’re trying to drive, you are ready for the next simple question.

Why aren’t they already doing it?

Sales teams are generally motivated to land the deal and deliver results. So, if there’s a gap, it’s important to know why they haven’t already solved for it.

And there can be a lot of reasons:

• “They’re rewarded for different behaviors and this takes time away from them.”
• “We’ve changed direction so much that they’ve started waiting us out.”
• “We’ve never asked them to.”
• “They don’t know how.”

After an honest assessment of the barriers, you’re able to ask the final question.

How do I motivate change?

This is when you’re able to bring tools into your sales enablement strategy: insights, messaging, collateral, technology and training.

And the best part about this plan is it sets you up for a much more measurable strategy. Did the behavior change, or not?

Sales enablement strategy is not about creating stuff. It’s about supporting the behaviors that drive results.