Many GTM teams already rely on sales enablement software. The recent increase in its use isn’t just because more organisations are adopting new technology; it’s also about how enablement leaders are using modern tools to lead change, scale proven methods, and revolutionize training. That’s why for enablement leaders, investing in enablement technology isn’t just a matter of convenience — it’s a strategic necessity.  

To better understand the critical role enablement technology plays in empowering GTM teams across the globe, Seismic recently surveyed nearly 2,000 managers and senior leadership figures across GTM roles. The aim was to delve into their enablement strategies, the effectiveness of those strategies, the obstacles they face, and their GTM approaches. 

The study revealed that 92% of enablement tech users believe the desire for strategic, effective enablement will increase over the next 5 years, with 49% predicting a significant increase.  

Read on to understand the importance of sales enablement solutions and why this strategic investment is critical for driving growth, enhancing competitiveness, and ensuring long-term sustainability. 

Why enablement technology matters 

Enablement technology empowers organisations to drive impactful customer engagement and prospect interactions. According to our study, increasing revenue, boosting customer satisfaction, optimising operations, improving marketing and sales alignment, and increasing client retention are just some of the ways respondents say enablement technology helps their organisations. In fact, 82% of respondents estimate that enablement tools will help their company exceed its revenue targets in 2024. 

Part of the reason that it’s possible to achieve the business outcomes noted above is because enablement technology is great at enhancing the efficiency of GTM teams. On average, it saves respondents 12 hours per week, enabling teams to trade administrative work for higher value activities. Beyond streamlining processes, the adoption of enablement technology holds profound implications for employee retention and organisational competitiveness. Respondents feel so strongly about the necessity of enablement technology that 52% of enablement tech users say they simply wouldn’t work for a company without these tools. 

Who uses sales enablement tools? 

Once primarily utilised by sales teams, sales enablement technology now encompasses other GTM functions like customer success and marketing, reflecting its growing importance across customer-facing and revenue-generating teams. According to our study, 6 in 10 enablement users say that their company’s sales team uses enablement tech, while 58% report that marketing uses enablement tech and 53% say that enablement tech is used by customer success teams. 

When asked if the desire for strategic, effective enablement has increased over the last 3 to 5 years, 9 in 10 sales enablement tool users say yes — with 38% reporting a significant increase.  

The case for investment 

The study revealed that enablement spend is on the upswing: 58% of respondents say that their company plans to increase their investment in enablement technology in 2024. Notably, those who already use enablement technology and know its benefits were 75% more likely to say this. Sales leaders were 34% more likely than average to report an increase in spending. 

Investing in enablement technology isn’t just about staying ahead; it’s about securing your organisation’s future resilience and competitiveness. A staggering 83% of those planning to increase or retain investment agree that enablement technology is integral to weathering difficult economic times. This speaks volumes about the perceived value of sales enablement tools.  

And the repercussions of neglecting this investment are real — with 36% of respondents considering leaving their organisation due to inadequate tools, putting organisations at risk for attrition and diminished GTM performance.  

The promise of AI and outlook 

Recent advances around generative AI have the potential to transform digital sales enablement. In fact, 92% of respondents who plan to increase investment in enablement tech plan to do so because of the promise of AI. Today, AI is already transforming and simplifying enablement workflows, saving humans hours of administrative time by assuming repetitive, manual tasks.  

As generative AI continues to evolve, organisations can expect to improve data-driven decision-making, better understand customers, and deliver the personalised interactions that buyers crave. Investing in AI-powered enablement technology positions organisations to thrive in the future by driving innovation, streamlining operations, and delivering a superior customer experience. 

It’s time for Generation Enablement 

Today’s GTM teams are not just adopting sales enablement software — they’re  harnessing it to drive transformational change across the business. They’re not defined by their age, but by their outsized impact on GTM strategy, behaviours, and results. At Seismic, we’re calling this Generation Enablement, or Gen E for short.  

The Seismic Enablement Cloud^TM is designed to help GTM teams break down silos across departments and generations to help them perform their best and drive revenue growth.  

To learn more about Gen E and the results of our study, download the report here.  

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Sales coaching programmes typically take a customised approach, tailoring guidance around the seller’s unique strengths to help them develop and refine the skills needed to have meaningful customer interactions and achieve their quotas. Behind every sales coaching programme is a sales manager, and it should come as no surprise that effective coaching requires effective managers. According to Gartner, managers who understand how to be a good coach can help individuals increase performance by as much as 8%.

Optimising sales coaching with software

Coaching sellers poses challenges for sales managers due to the added complexity of managing remote teams. Additionally, the lack of experience and knowledge in modelling the right behaviours makes it more complicated. These obstacles are just a few reasons why most managers spend less than 5% of their time coaching sellers.

To create a scalable sales coaching programme that delivers the personalised feedback that sellers require, sales managers need sales coaching software. Just as frontline teams depend on various technologies to do their jobs successfully, sales coaching software is an essential tool that makes it possible to create an online sales coaching programme that enables sellers to practise, receive feedback, and track progress over time.

8 qualities every sales coaching programme needs

To create the best sales coaching programme for your organisation, you should start by identifying your objectives and then determine the technology you need to achieve them. Below are the top eight qualities that you should look for and implement as you develop your sales coaching programmes:

Customisation

Customisation is one of the most critical qualities of any sales coaching programme. Tailor coaching sessions to address individual and team needs, considering factors like experience level, strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles. This helps sellers and teams capitalise on their strengths and address problem areas faster.

Clear objectives

If you don’t measure it, you can’t track it. Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for coaching sessions provides clear direction and focus. This ensures that coaching efforts align with organisational goals and sales targets. SMART goals also hold individuals and teams accountable, making it more likely that they’ll follow through and take the steps needed to improve performance.

Continuous feedback

Sales coaching programmes should offer feedback to sales reps in the moment — whether it’s positive reinforcement or constructive criticism — to help them adjust their behaviour quickly. It’s important to deliver continuous feedback to promote learning and facilitate improvement.

Role-playing exercises

Practice makes progress. Prepare sellers for new challenges by incorporating role-playing scenarios to simulate real-world sales situations in a risk-free environment. Sales coaching software makes it easy to deliver scenario-based training at scale, helping sales reps enhance skills, confidence, and adaptability. This tool also enables sales leaders to identify problem areas and know where to correct them.

Data-driven insights

All sales leaders need data to determine what’s working and what isn’t. Utilise sales data and analytics to identify performance trends, areas for improvement, and coaching priorities. Sales coaching software should provide easy access to dashboards and custom reporting to help leaders make data-driven decisions and track the ROI of their coaching efforts.

Skill development

The business landscape is constantly changing, making it critical for sales leaders to prioritise learning and development for their teams. Supplement coaching conversations with training to help sellers master a wide range of sales skills, including prospecting, objection handling, negotiation, closing techniques, and relationship-building.

Offering training and coaching doesn’t just contribute to better performance, it can also improve retention. Seismic’s Value of Enablement Report found that companies that provide on-the-job coaching increase seller retention by an average of 20% each year.

Peer-to-peer learning

Facilitating opportunities for sales team members to learn from each other’s successes and failures through peer-to-peer coaching or knowledge-sharing sessions is a great way to communicate best practices. Sales coaching software enables teams to scale winning strategies by easily distributing playbooks, choreography, and content across the sales organisation.

Tech integrations

There are several essential technologies that sales teams rely on to perform their roles. Consider sales coaching software that integrates with your sales enablement tools, CRM systems, and other technology platforms to streamline coaching processes, track progress, and provide access to resources. Connecting with your systems of record helps maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales coaching programmes.

Scale your sales coaching programme with Seismic

Empowering your sales reps to meet their quotas and beyond is not a one-and-done activity. It requires a commitment to sales coaching that’s ongoing and tailored to every sales rep’s specific needs. Seismic’s learning and coaching solution equips sales leaders to assess skills, deliver personalised coaching, and track development — all within the flow of work. Our coaching software enables sales teams to train their teams 62% faster and reach their goals more often. 

Are you ready to experience a modern coaching platform? Jump into this free lesson to see Seismic Learning firsthand.

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It’s not all doom and gloom, though. There are scrappy, “we’ll-figure-it-out” sellers and leaders around the globe navigating today’s challenges excellently. Most of them are leaning on sales enablement tools to adapt their messaging, strategy and workflows to the needs of their target market.

In fact, 92% of global revenue leaders who plan to increase or retain their sales enablement tech agree that it’s integral to weathering difficult economic times.

Whether you’re part of a more mature sales organisation with sales enablement software in place, or your company hasn’t gotten there yet, we invite you to read on. We’ll review data from the 2023 Value of Enablement Report that proves why it’s the prime time to invest in better sales enablement to boost buyer engagement. 

But first, a quick note: It’s easy for companies to say things like “Now more than ever is the time for [OUR PRODUCT]”. These statements always feel biased and sales-y. Our goal here is just to publicise what our data says about the impact of using top sales enablement software.

The people have spoken: Sales enablement is worth it

Here at Seismic, we, of course, believe that sales enablement software is a competitive differentiator. But this is also supported by the enablers and sellers who use the technology day in and day out.

As mentioned above, we published a report earlier this year where we surveyed and then studied more than 1,200 full-time sales, enablement and customer success professionals. These people work in managerial and leadership roles throughout the United States and Europe. 

75% of them – whether they have a sales enablement solution in place or not – say that implementing new enablement tools is a priority for their company in 2023. Here are the four main reasons why.

1. Sellers are facing a tough crowd, day in and day out

Closing deals is not what it once was. By the time a prospective client is on a first call with an AE at a tech company or a private banker in the financial services space, they’ve already done their homework. They’re largely informed about what you do, and they expect you to know what they need. 

Prospects expect a personalised sales experience because that’s what your best competitors offer. But this takes so much time.

On top of this, new companies and products are entering the market regularly and clients’ priorities and behaviour are constantly evolving. Sales enablement software empowers leaders to better equip their salespeople with the skills, content, insights and tools they need to engage with clients and close deals.

In fact, 97% of survey respondents who use sales enablement software say it gives them quick access to content, information and/or coaching, so they can consistently speak to clients from a more informed standpoint.

2. Sellers expect top-of-the-line tech

If you want to attract or retain top sales talent, an intuitive, modern tech stack is non-negotiable. Period. 

Sellers who have experience working at companies with robust customer relationship management (CRM) platform integrations, data analytics tools and sales automation tech expect sales enablement tech. They want to:

• Be in the know about new processes and market trends
• Streamline tedious tasks so they can focus on client relationships
• Go to a single place to go for all of their learning and content.

Case in point: Based on our data, a seller who’s working without enablement tech spends an average of 10 hours per week tracking down, comparing or revisiting content to send to clients. And 74% are currently considering leaving their company due to a lack of tools to support their success.

3. Sellers will stay (or go) where they can grow

This goes hand in hand with the top-of-the-line tech reason above. 59% of our respondents went so far to say that they won’t work for a company without enablement tools. Good enablement software and programs make sellers better in their current roles. But great ones make them better sellers, leaders, teammates and client advocates for their entire careers.

Continuous learning is a major priority for today’s sellers. With a sales enablement solution, you can easily disseminate relevant industry trends and product knowledge, yes – but also selling techniques, certifications, mock practice scenarios and more to make your sales team more skilled for even future roles they’ll take.

Here’s the best part: When organisations prioritise ongoing training and development for sales representatives with enablement, sellers want to stay. Nearly 80% of the respondents we surveyed believe that their company’s enablement tools will help them retain and attract more employees in 2023. And 100% of those with plans to decrease enablement efforts are concerned that it will lead to lower employee retention.

4. Sellers want to work for agile, adaptable employers

Last, but not least, the best sales enablement tools equip sellers with everything they need to operate with agility, even in times of economic uncertainty. 

Compare these results from the report:

Organisations, especially hybrid or remote ones, without an enablement tool can’t pivot quite as quickly if they notice a new sales tactic that’s closing deals 20% better. They can’t prevent sellers from finding, let alone sending dated content. They can’t create a highly personalised slide deck in less than five minutes.

Sellers want to work for organisations that are built with resilience in mind and who have the tech and infrastructure in place to handle the ever-evolving landscape they’re working in.

The bottom line about top-notch enablement

It pays big dividends to prioritise sales enablement. The report reveals that an investment in sales enablement grows revenue, retains and attracts great sellers and gives clients an experience that’s on par (or better than) their expectations. 

For a quick look at several sales enablement vendors, head to G2 for reviews. But, for a taste of the best sales enablement solution on the market, schedule your demo of Seismic today.

The post Why sales enablement is worth prioritising in 2024 and beyond appeared first on Seismic.

Sellers, you know the feeling, too: Your marketing team creates new versions of your go-to-market collateral and you don’t know where to find it. And if you do, you don’t have time to personalise it or demonstrate that it helps move the needle with your clients.

Enablement practitioners, you are the solution to this content chaos. With an excellent sales enablement content strategy, your sellers shouldn’t waste time searching for content.

A 2023 study we commissioned revealed this: 97% of people who said that sales enablement software gives them quick access to content also said that such quick access lets them communicate with their clients from a more informed standpoint. As an enablement professional, it’s your job to make it easier for your client-facing teammates to grow revenue. Reducing content chaos plays a big part in that.

Picture your content chaos, solved

At this point, we’ve established that sales enablement is an efficient, scalable way to control content chaos. Now let’s dig deeper. 

Here are just four (of many) reasons why including a sales content management system keeps your content organised, accessible, and up-to-date. 

1. Sellers find what they need faster

Right now, sellers without sales enablement tech spend an average of 10 hours per week tracking down, comparing, or revisiting content to send to their clients. There’s a better way with content management software. See what we mean by checking out this video.

The best sales enablement practitioners leverage sales content management tech that gives sellers:

• AI-powered search capabilities
• In-context content recommendations (right in their inboxes and CRM instances)
• Custom fields to personalise and send always-compliant content 

One quick note here: Watch for sales enablement content management software that lets admins create content libraries for various profiles and personas, complete with tagging functionality and easy version control. This helps sellers find, customise, and send content at lightning speed. After all, your sellers didn’t join your organisation to chase their tails for content; they want to sell. 

The ability to find content quickly and efficiently is actually a recruiting point. The 2023 Value of Enablement Report revealed that 91% of respondents who don’t use sales enablement tools to organise their content have noticed a dip in morale because sellers have to focus on non-revenue generating activities at work, which negatively affects their income. In short, give your sellers fast access to the content they need and you’ll attract and keep top talent.

2. Sellers rest easy because their content tells a cohesive story

With a sales enablement platform, content isn’t being created in ad-hoc, one-off ways. Everything internal (think playbooks and process documentation) and external (think client presentations, case studies, product one-pagers) can be well-planned out and cohesive.

Sales enablement software empowers admins to control who can create or modify content. This allows practitioners to partner with their product marketing teammates to equip sellers only with the most up-to-date messaging. This aligns sales and marketing departments — which historically has been no small feat — and, more importantly, it makes it so your content resonates with clients. They should find the same information on your website as they do in sales conversations and the follow-up content from your sales reps.

3. Sellers personalise content without going off-script

An all-too-common content chaos struggle is rogue content; sometimes sellers create their own materials. Occasionally, these ad-hoc slide decks and PDFs are good, but more often than not, they’re off-brand, noncompliant, and untracked, so no one knows how they perform.

Sellers have no bad intentions in customising content for their clients. In fact, a desire to personalise content is a sure sign of a great salesperson. But savvy enablement practitioners will give sellers a way to easily personalise their content to make it industry-specific, use-case-specific, and even client-specific.

Earlier this year, we surveyed more than 1,200 full-time sales, enablement, and customer success professionals. 63% of them said that the content they use at work right now is not personalisable enough for their customers. You can solve this with technology that prioritises sales enablement and marketing content personalisation, making it easy for sellers to update fields and send all of their content from one platform. 

This is critical in solving content chaos. Case in point: Companies that prioritise personalisation experience a 57% increase in buyer engagement.

4. Most importantly, sellers deliver a “wow” buyer experience

Fact: It’s nearly impossible to deliver exceptional buyer experiences at scale without well-enabled sellers who have powerful content management tools at their fingertips. 

Clients don’t really care if you have an organised content repository; they care that you’re sending them relevant content when they really need it. So, find a sales enablement platform that offers AI-guided sales content recommendations. The best tech should be able to suggest high-performing content across different deal stages based on what’s converted clients in the past. This doesn’t take the humanity out of selling — just the gut feelings and guesswork.

It’s possible and worth it to solve content chaos

From the largest enterprises to the smallest businesses, it’s possible to solve content chaos with a sales enablement platform that’ll scale as you grow. As you consider whether or not better sales content management is something you need, consider these stats:

• 95% of buying decisions are made with the help of sales content
• 82% of buyers view at least five pieces of content before purchasing
• 95% of sales reps say they don’t have access to high-value, shareable content
• 65% of content that’s created by marketing goes unused without enablement 

The numbers speak for themselves. Sellers need a better way to distribute great content. The solution is sales enablement. 

Think it’s time to level up your content organisation, distribution, and analysis? Check out some G2 reviews, watch a few led-by-you demo videos, or reach out to the Seismic team today for a glimpse of how we help 2,200+ companies put their best foot forward with better content.

The post How sales enablement solves content chaos appeared first on Seismic.

Furthermore, case studies show that companies embracing change are seeing: 

• Reduced risk 
• Greater speed to market 
• Increased margins 
• Enhanced market position 

Now all that is great – but how do you implement change in a business that has standardised ways of working and roots in disciplined environments? If something does not seem obviously broken, then how do we go about fixing it? And how can we ensure that we are reaping the full benefits of digital transformation? 

Michelin discusses precisely how they went about this in their business, in a recent conversation with Seismic (subtitles available). By tying back to key mutual benefits across multiple functions, and ensuring all project partners were aligned internally, they managed to bring about change, in a scalable manner. In addition to this, buy-in across senior leaders and the wider business allowed them to address key challenges they were facing within the industry, such as: 

• Improving the sales process to be more efficient 
• Clarity and alignment in their go-to-market strategy with an expanding portfolio 
• Retaining existing customers effectively – particularly demanding task 

By implementing Seismic, they are able to achieve essential time savings – integrating content into their CRM tool which allowed their sellers to be more productive and proactive. Their sellers can now personalise content in ways never seen before, so that relevant content is shared, and conversations are happening at exactly the right moment in the sales cycle – without jeopardising impact on their tightly regulated brand guidelines. Marketing now also have insight into how sellers and customers use and consume content, which allows them to refine their content strategies and investment over time to become even more impactful and efficient. 

Another benefit, often overlooked when making this digital shift, is around sustainability which is a huge challenge manufacturing and CPG industries face as regulations tighten. For GEFA Fabritz, the shift to digital meant that they were able to achieve cost savings by up to 50%, all through focusing on a reduction of printing materials.  

A final important aspect of driving change within manufacturing and CPG businesses is learning. Implementing a well-structured and interactive training and learning software that allows employees to learn and develop according to their own needs and schedules does not only save organisations time, but also helps to create consistency and alignment, ensuring that they are keeping pace with change at scale. Tails.com, a Seismic customer and supplier of dog food with a focus on customer experience, was able to decrease their ramp time for new hires by 34% through a streamlined onboarding process. In a small team of only 75 people, this is extremely valuable time that is being saved and can now be re-invested into conversations with customers. 

Change is inevitable, especially within the manufacturing and CPG markets, but it is up to organisations how they choose to react to this change. Implementing a thought-through change management and sales enablement strategy is a good place to start. In fact, Valtech research confirms that 59% of organisation’s are now defining their digital transformation goals as ambitious, whereas a year ago this stood at only 47%.  It re-enforces the strategy that by ensuring leadership alignment, effectively engaging stakeholders, providing relevant content, and measuring success at the right levels, manufacturing and CPG organisations will be able to navigate the complexities of change and set themselves up for sustained success in their ever-evolving markets. 

Seismic partners with a range of manufacturing and CPG customers across sizes and geographies, helping to deliver a well-oiled go-to-market machine that is sure to deliver successful business outcomes. Find out more about Seismic for manufacturing and CPG here, or reach out to request a demo. 

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What is sales synergy?

Synergy is defined as the interaction or cooperation of two or more organisations, substances, or agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. Sales synergy refers to the collaboration and combined efforts of individual sellers within a sales team to achieve greater effectiveness and efficiency in reaching sales goals.

Sales synergy goes beyond working side by side to complete a task or project. Instead, it implies a level of cooperation, communication, and shared goals that lead to a cohesive and streamlined approach to selling and closing deals. Key elements of sales synergy include:

• Effective communication
• Alignment on goals and objectives
• Mutual support
• Leveraging every team member’s strengths

The ultimate goal of fostering sales synergy is creating a high-performing team that consistently exceeds sales targets and adapts to challenges more effectively. In this post, we’ll explore three strategies that teams can implement to enhance their sales synergy.

Let’s dive in!

3 tips for stronger alignment

1. Deliver ongoing education. A foundational step for synergy is to ensure that every seller understands your organisation’s sales operations and processes. This includes familiarity on products, your team’s sales tech stack, and the expectations regarding pipeline management. In order to provide adequate education on these items, it’s crucial to establish an onboarding programme that provides new sellers with easy access to this information. It’s also important to recognise that training is an ongoing process, so sellers also need access to on-demand training and knowledge so they can stay up-to-date with business processes and best practices. This ensures that your sellers remain agile and adaptable, stay aligned on new information and evolving strategies, and meet business goals.
   
2. Open lines of communication. Regardless of your sellers’ experience levels, the ever-evolving nature of the sales landscape ensures that new questions and challenges will continually arise. To ensure that sales teams  thrive amid these changes, it’s crucial to create a culture of open communication. Vertical and horizontal communication pathways—both upward and downward within the organisational structure—are a great way to share insights, address questions, and refine strategies. Look for ways to plan recurring meetings where team members can openly discuss challenges, share wins, and collaboratively problem solve.
3. Create shared goals. While effective education and communication lay the groundwork for success, their full impact can’t be reached until they’re aligned with shared goals across the entire team. It’s not just about meeting individual milestones — it’s about forging a collective path towards hitting goals as an entire team. In addition to individual monthly or quarterly quotas, consider introducing team-wide goals that transcend individual achievements. These shared objectives should serve as rallying points, motivating team members to pool their efforts for a greater cause. By fostering a sense of collective investment, team members find a shared purpose beyond individual tasks. This not only bolsters motivation but also instills a collaborative spirit. Whether navigating challenges or celebrating successes, by emphasising the journey as a shared one, you’ll reinforce the idea that the strength of the team lies in the shared pursuit of goals that extend beyond individual endeavours.

Improving your team’s synergy will lead to higher morale, better teamwork, and ultimately more closed deals. These three strategies aren’t the only ways to improve sales synergy, but taking the steps to educate, communicate, and create collective goals for your team is a great place to start.

How we can help…

The Seismic Enablement Cloud, ensures that go-to-market organisations drive collaboration, consistency, and adaptability in order to hit business goals. Interested in learning how sales teams across the globe use Seismic to drive synergy across their sellers? Click here to get a demo!

The post 3 Ways to Improve Sales Synergy appeared first on Seismic.

Getting senior leadership to sign off on investing in sales enablement, however, is another story. You’re not only competing for mindshare and budget dollars, but you’re also convincing them to invest in a solution they may never have considered previously. Before approaching senior leadership about investing in sales enablement, you’ll need a strategy with supporting tactics. 

To address your need to sell senior leadership on why sales enablement is important and how to select the right solution, ensure that you ask – and can answer – the following questions.

What does your organisation need?

You wouldn’t head out on a road trip without knowing how to get there. The same goes for selecting the best sales enablement platform. First, create a sales enablement roadmap and better understand what your organisation needs. 

Everyone wants to increase sales, but to do so requires taking a step back and addressing one of the many business problems that sales enablement supports and optimises. What’s required to get new hires to sell earlier and more often? Do sellers struggle to find the right content and messaging that help them engage with customers? Do sellers need training and coaching resources to hone their skills? You need to do some investigative work. Talk to sellers and get their take on what they need to build their sales funnel and close deals faster. There’s a good chance the answers you get from sellers will differ from those in leadership.

Who are the key stakeholders?

While it may seem like any title that includes the word sales would be most relevant to sales leadership, remember that the teams that support the revenue cycle are affected by how well the sales organisation is doing. That’s why it’s important to understand the needs of key stakeholders from marketing, customer success and operations because a sales enablement tool impacts the entire go-to-market (GTM) function. 

Find out who in leadership should be the sales enablement champion. Everyday champions include the CMO, CRO or the head of enablement. 

What should be included in the business case?

Building a business case will assist you on two fronts – securing budget dollars and helping you select the right sales enablement solution. Make sure you highlight the benefits of implementing top sales enablement software, including the potential improvements in sales productivity, efficiency, customer experience and revenue growth backed by case studies and data. If you’re looking for some compelling stats, you can find many gems in the Seismic Value of Enablement Report. Here are just a few examples:

• 97% of those surveyed say that enablement technology gives them quick access to content, information and/or coaching and that having quick access to information and/or content helps them speak to clients from a more informed standpoint.
• 84% of enablement technology users say it makes them more productive.
• 79% of those who plan to increase or retain believe that their company’s enablement tools will help them retain more employees in 2023.

What is the sales enablement value proposition?

Be prepared to state the sales enablement value proposition and how it addresses their pain points around sales effectiveness, streamlining internal workflows, enhancing the customer experience and driving revenue growth. If you solicit their buy-in, they’ll evangelise sales enablement and why it’s needed, whether they realise it or not. 

The value proposition should clearly communicate exactly how sales enablement will address all the needs you’ve uncovered through internal meetings, discussions and interviews. Just remember to develop a list of objections you may encounter and then be prepared to effectively and affirmatively answer them all. Sales enablement vendors often have helpful resources readily available on their websites to address common concerns around cost, integrations, security and ease of use. 

What to look for in a sales enablement vendor?

For your sales enablement programme to be effective, look for sales enablement vendors that address your core needs with the ability to scale as your business needs evolve over time. The best sales enablement tools have sales content management capabilities that enable sellers to easily access and personalise content for customers, train and coach sellers and prepare sellers for buyer engagement. 

To ensure a single source of truth, sales enablement software should also integrate with systems of record such as a CRM or business intelligence tools. Including that vital information provides proof of ROI, and it also gives leaders the analytics needed to understand what behaviour is closing deals and what reps need to improve.

Your best first step

Remember, championing a sales enablement solution requires persistence, effective communication and a clear understanding of the value it can bring to your organisation. However, coming to a decision doesn’t have to be difficult; Seismic partners with organisations on day one to help them get started. The Seismic Enablement Cloud offers a suite of tools around sales content management, personalisation, training and coaching and buyer engagement, with enablement intelligence to help GTM teams demonstrate ROI and close deals faster.

If you’d like to learn more, connect with us and get a demo today. 

The post How to champion sales enablement software in your organisation appeared first on Seismic.

When we hear the word ‘knowledge,’ in the business world, we often think of structured information that’s featured in company manuals, sales playbooks, and guides. But, just as my own personal experience has shown, there’s much more to it.

What is tacit knowledge?

Tacit knowledge refers to any information and skills that are gained through personal and professional experiences. Tacit knowledge is different from explicit knowledge which is often shared through instructional manuals, guides, and how-to docs. As a result, it’s more difficult to explain to someone who hasn’t learnt it themselves through similar experiences. However, both types of organisational knowledge are important for business growth and success. 

An example of tacit knowledge is when a sales leader asks sellers to share their top three sales strategies. Each seller can easily share the tactics that they consider to be second nature. However, these strategies were shaped and influenced by their own first-hand experiences over the course of their careers. These strategies may also be useful to share with other sellers across the team in order to improve productivity and performance. In fact, studies show that the average new hire spends nearly 200 hours working inefficiently because they have to learn information for themselves. But, by learning directly from colleagues’ experiences, they’ll get up to speed faster.  

So, if organisations want to drive continued growth and innovation, they need to harness and share tacit knowledge across their teams. Thankfully, we have three ways that every organisation can capture tacit knowledge before it’s too late. Let’s learn more. 

1. Encourage a knowledge-sharing culture

The best way to capture tacit knowledge is to encourage employees to share what they know rather than keep it to themselves. This should be a foundational aspect of your organization’s culture. But for this type of culture to be successful, employees need to be willing to share useful information that would be beneficial to the entire team.

A culture of knowledge-sharing prioritises teamwork, so look for ways to encourage collaboration and communication. Working closely with each other will give your employees the opportunity to see how valuable their knowledge can be. This, in turn, may encourage other employees to share their knowledge with others. 

2. Deliver hands-on learning

Tacit knowledge is often difficult to experience through words alone. Since tacit knowledge includes both information and skills, organisations can enhance tacit knowledge transfer through hands-on training and coaching. This can be done in a variety of ways based on your organization’s goals and training efforts. 

The easiest way to capture and share tacit knowledge is by encouraging employees to shadow or observe other teammates during a specific task. For example, pair a new seller with a veteran rep and have them sit in on a number of prospect demos. This will give them first-hand experience with helpful skills or tactics they can use. Organisations can also create training lessons that include recordings or videos of similar experiences. Once a seller completes training, they can practise applying the knowledge in mock sales calls. 

3.  Make it easy to share

While tacit knowledge is essential for organisations, it’s useless if it’s difficult for employees to share and access over time. Many teams rely on weekly one-on-ones, roundtable discussions, or town hall meetings that encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing. These are great opportunities for in-the-moment knowledge sharing, but they don’t provide employees with easy ongoing access to the knowledge that they learnt.

In order to effectively capture the tacit knowledge that lives with your employees, organisations need to leverage tools and systems that store and organise information. A knowledge management system enables employees to create, share, and find relevant information quickly and efficiently when it’s best for them instead of waiting for scheduled meetings. They also give employees the ability to submit tacit information which can be reviewed for relevance and accuracy by team leaders. Once it’s reviewed, they can make that information accessible to the rest of the team, making the entire process easy and effective. 

Capturing tacit knowledge has never been easier

If you’re ready to capture and share important tacit knowledge, Seismic Knowledge could be for you. With Seismic Knowledge, employees can quickly share and access helpful tacit knowledge right when they need it. To learn more about the benefits of tacit knowledge sharing and read more about our newest product, click here. Or, get a demo, and we’ll show you Seismic in action. 

The post 3 ways to capture the tacit knowledge inside your employee’s head appeared first on Seismic.

The attraction and retention of talent also present significant challenges for the industry. In the survey, Deloitte found that one in three executives listed retaining high-performing employees as a strategic priority for 2023. 

In times like these, it’s more important than ever for manufacturers to focus on their people, technologies and processes to ensure that their organisations can execute their sales strategy and go to market quickly and efficiently. 

Sales enablement is just one of the technologies manufacturers can invest in. This can help them train new hires, upskill existing talent and ensure their sellers are prepared to deliver personalised experiences in a highly competitive landscape. 

How manufacturers go to market 

Today, sellers are being asked to manage more unique products, service teams are strained and marketing has little visibility or data about activities in the field. This slows down the sales process and decreases overall efficiency.

But there are ways to make the go-to-market process smoother. Sales enablement software like Seismic frees up time for manufacturing sellers so they can spend more time with their customers. Content management and automation capabilities allow sellers to personalise engagements for each individual buyer while simplifying access to content where and when they need it. 

Sales enablement fuels manufacturing sales engines

When content is stored in different locations, it’s difficult for sellers to create meaningful buyer engagements. Searching for content across different repositories means less time spent selling. It also means that the content that sellers share may be inaccurate, outdated, or lacking personalisation. Sales enablement helps manufacturing sales organisations overcome these challenges by helping sellers:

• Find the right content at the right time
• Personalise content at scale
• Ensure version control 
• Deliver continuous training and coaching to sellers

These are just a few of the ways sales enablement helps manufacturing companies mitigate business challenges. 

1. Retain and upskill talent with continuous learning

Training and coaching don’t stop once a new hire is onboarded. Continuous learning opportunities are the cornerstone of a thriving workforce. Sales enablement software that includes employee training provides teams and individuals access to the learning materials they need when they need them. It also helps organisations continuously invest in their existing talent and provide opportunities for them to grow within their current or new roles.

2. Increase customer engagement with personalised content

Buyers and channel partners have become accustomed to receiving unique content in their personal lives, such as through Google, Amazon and Netflix. Now, they are also demanding the same personalised experiences from suppliers and partners through value-added solutions and customised information. The right tools let you delight the customer with personalised sales collateral that can be built with the click of a button and distribute only relevant content across geographies, business units and sales teams.

3. Maximise sales and marketing efficiency enterprise-wide with automated content generation

In matrixed organisations like manufacturers, it’s easy to lose track of the core value proposition and a single source of content truth. Your go-to-market sales engagement platform should automatically surface approved content when and where the seller needs it. This gives sellers more time to sell effectively, unifies the message and reduces risk across the organisation.

4. Quantify the ROI of sales materials with data and analytics

Without a clear view of how content is performing in the field, manufacturing companies risk reinforcing messages that don’t resonate with target customers. Sales enablement technology lets you gain visibility to your content’s impact on business results, easily audit the content library and justify marketing budgets based on real-time content-performance feedback.

Build a brighter future with sales enablement

When sellers have access to the right tools and technology to do their jobs effectively, they stay longer and deliver more revenue. In a time of uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to have confidence in the way your sellers go to market. Sales enablement helps by helping sellers develop the skills they need to effectively engage buyers while ensuring they have access to the right personalised content when they need it. If your organisation would like to learn more about how it can build together with Seismic, get a demo. 

The post How manufacturers go to market faster with sales enablement appeared first on Seismic.

Missing the mark on sales and marketing alignment can prove costly. According to Hubspot, misalignment costs an astonishing $1 trillion a year (yes, trillion with a “t”). However, they also found that organisations with strong sales and marketing alignment close 38% more deals and achieve 27% faster three-year profit growth. I think we can all agree that the latter is more appealing. 

In this post, we’ll share how you can get your sales and marketing teams on the same page. But first, let’s look at the current sales landscape and see why stronger sales and marketing relationships are more important than ever. 

Not your average buyer

Think about your most recent conversation with a prospect. Even though it was your first time speaking, chances are, your prospect already knew a good deal about your business, its products and your competitors. 

If you’re asking yourself why, the answer is simple: buyers are more informed than ever. On average, buyers have had 27 information-gathering sessions before they interact with a salesperson. And, if that’s not enough, there are increasingly more buyers in a sales cycle – an average of 11 stakeholders with varying influence in a deal.  

The fundamental nature of sales cycles is changing. In order to meet the moment, the relationship between sales and marketing teams also needs to evolve. Today, buyers want personalised experiences that are driven by highly informed sellers. In order to deliver these experiences, sellers need the right content and context – and they need it at scale. 

Now, let’s pause. This all sounds great, but we can both see where this is going. If sellers need personalised content for every buyer engagement, the burden falls on marketers to produce it. But producing hundreds of one-off documents is untenable. 

In order to make this work, marketers and sellers need to work smarter, not harder – together. Sales enablement software empowers GTM teams to streamline and scale repeatable workflows so that marketers don’t have to field one-off content requests, and sellers can easily create personalised, compliant content. 

The value of sales and marketing alignment 

As noted by Hubspot, misalignment between sales and marketing teams can prove costly. However, successfully aligning sales and marketing can improve business outcomes when both teams come together to achieve common goals. When sales and marketing are aligned, they can create better experiences for customers in the form of consistent, personalised content. In order to drive effective sales and marketing alignment, GTM teams should:

• Develop a shared strategy and determine what goals sales and marketing departments are responsible for.
• Establish open lines of communication to ensure progress toward shared goals and responsibilities.
• Use technology that supports alignment, including a sales enablement solution like Seismic. 

Bridging the gap with sales enablement

Sales enablement is the strategic use of people, processes and technology to improve sales productivity and increase revenue. We mentioned earlier that sales enablement empowers marketers and sellers to become more productive by streamlining and scaling the production of personalised content. 

Sales enablement software also has other advantages. One of the biggest pain points in sales and marketing alignment is content usage. A sales enablement platform helps mediate this challenge by providing sellers with a single location to access the content. Content analytics embedded in the platform also benefits marketers by giving them visibility into what content is accessed by sellers, what isn’t and what performs best with customers. As a result, marketers can create more content that helps drive revenue.

How to improve sales and marketing alignment

Building sales and marketing alignment isn’t as simple as purchasing a sales enablement solution. It also requires organisations to create a culture of communication and shared responsibilities. Here are three tips your organisation can use to get the ball rolling:

1. Set shared goals: Collaboration on pipeline generation is a good starting point. Have marketing and sales teams work together to identify the best strategies to attract the right buyers and land meetings.
   
2. Highlight the mutual benefits: Both parties gain when sales and marketing work together. When sales and marketing teams have a strong feedback loop they create better content that helps champion the customer.

3. Review wins and losses: Bring together the entire GTM organisation to understand what works and what doesn’t. Shared visibility of wins and losses helps sales and marketing teams do more of what works and work to improve what doesn’t. 

Drive deeper alignment with Seismic

The Seismic Enablement Cloud is purpose-built to help GTM teams drive deeper sales and marketing alignment. If you’re ready to grow, get a demo today or learn more by clicking any of the links down below! 

The post The Power of a Strong Sales and Marketing Relationship appeared first on Seismic.