Why is this happening, especially after thorough training and onboarding?

The answer could lie in the tools you’re using for sales training. 

A superior sales training tool can: 

• Streamline the learning process 
• Scale to meet your team’s needs while providing measurable results 
• Align perfectly with your strategic objectives 

Are you ready to see how the right enterprise sales training tool could improve your training programme and level up your team’s performance?  

Let’s explore the significant benefits enterprise-grade sales training brings to the table. 

What is enterprise sales?  

Before we discuss enterprise sales training, it’s important to understand what enterprise sales is.  

By definition, enterprise sales is selling products and or services to large, established companies (enterprises). For reps, this means:  

• Longer sales cycles 
• Larger deal sizes 
• More stakeholders 
• Potentially customised solutions 

Selling to large organisations has numerous benefits, but it’s arguably more challenging. It comes with great risk and great opportunity. Plus, it requires a nuanced skillset. The best enterprise sales teams excel in account planning, stakeholder management, solution design, and negotiation.   

This is why you can’t enrol your team in just any generic sales course. What’s most important here is enterprise-specific sales training.  

The benefits of enterprise sales training 

Enterprise sales environments are complex and demanding—especially today. Preparing individual reps and larger deal teams for success requires thoughtful enterprise sales training and onboarding. Sales leaders who prioritise training enjoy advantages like: 

• Increased revenue: Well-trained sales teams are more adept at closing deals and generating revenue. Enterprise sales training programmes teach reps to communicate value, handle objections, and negotiate effectively. This translates to higher-value deals more often.  
   
• Operational efficiency: Effective sales learning platforms streamline processes and shorten ramp time for new hires. This means your sellers spend more time selling and less time learning on the job. Ongoing training and enablement also keep everyone on track and efficient. 
   
• Stronger client relationships: Understanding and addressing client needs understandably makes them happy and builds trust. Strong relational skills retain clients and attract new ones thanks to word-of-mouth marketing and a bolstered company reputation. Enterprise sales training teaches reps to take a consultative approach to selling that maximises every client interaction. This means more opportunities for upselling.  

In short, investing in enterprise sales training is essential, and these are just three of dozens of perks. But with so many options on the market, how do you decide on the best sales training tool or platform?  

Key features to look for in an enterprise sales training tool 

When evaluating sales training tools consider these three essential features: 

1. Personalised learning and coaching 

Tailoring training content to align with each rep’s strengths and weaknesses provides a distinct competitive advantage. Making the training relevant fosters skill development and boosts engagement.  

For example, one rep may need deeper product knowledge while another could use advanced negotiation skills. Integrating data analytics allows for continuous refinement of the training content. This ensures your training is effective and responsive to every seller’s evolving needs. 

2. Just-in-time knowledge solutions 

A critical feature to look for in online sales training software is the ability for reps to surface accurate, relevant information, right in their moment of need. Just-in-time knowledge is vital when, for example, a buyer asks a seller a detailed question during a call or demo. If the seller doesn’t know the answer, they can easily search for relevant information in a content repository to provide a quick, accurate response.  

Top-notch enterprise platforms can immediately supply tips and this just-in-time support for reps, even when they’re actively on a call. This real-time access to knowledge enables reps to speak with confidence and better address buyer concerns, increasing their chances of closing deals successfully.  

3. AI-powered technology 

AI-driven sales training tools are changing how sales teams learn and improve. By using AI, you can pinpoint specific areas each rep needs to work on and predict the ever-changing needs of the team. AI enhances learning by providing interactive simulations and personalised content suggestions. This leads to a more engaging training experience because every rep gets exactly what they need to excel.  

The impact of cross-departmental enablement 

The benefits of tailored sales training programmes extend far beyond just the sales function. GTM organisations and entire companies also enjoy the same benefits we’ve shared in tangible, quantitative ways: 

• Increased revenue: Integrating various learning styles and preferences into training programmes is important, particularly when adopting new technology. A 2024 survey on the impact of revenue enablement across generations found that 86% of employees emphasise the importance of comprehensive training that caters to diverse learning needs. An inclusive approach to training ensures teams are equally equipped and skilled.  
• Operational efficiency: Organisations that invest in cross-departmental training experience significant gains in operational efficiency, especially in global enterprises with distributed workforces. Recent research revealed that 35% of employees report considering leaving their jobs due to insufficient training and coaching opportunities. By addressing these gaps, companies can improve job satisfaction and streamline workflows. This means better alignment and faster execution across teams.  
• Stronger client relationships: Providing a variety of learning and training experiences is beneficial for all generations within the workforce, as 89% of employees agreed upon. This variety ensures that every team member, regardless of generational cohort, is equipped to handle client interactions. Plus, well-informed and versatile teams can offer more personalised service, which leads to higher client satisfaction and long-term loyalty. 

Partner with Seismic for your enterprise sales training  

Investing in enterprise sales training and onboarding is non-negotiable in today’s competitive market. The benefits of sales training programmes extend beyond revenue growth; they impact organisational productivity and client satisfaction. Enterprise sales teams equipped with the right tools experience faster ramp times and close more deals. 

To sum it all up: Effectively training and enabling sales teams with cutting-edge technology will differentiate the leaders from the followers in enterprise sales. 

Discover how Seismic’s sales training solution can empower your sales force to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Set up a demo with our sales team to learn more.  

The post How an enterprise sales training tool improves revenue and efficiency  appeared first on Seismic.

Buyers demand more and make slower decisions, while reps face ever-increasing pressure to do more with fewer resources.  

In this high-stakes environment, any advantage can make a significant difference.  

Could artificial intelligence (AI) be the edge you need?  

Over the past year, generative AI (GenAI) has become an indispensable tool for sales and revenue enablement teams. Automating tasks like data entry makes teams more efficient and productive, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg for what AI can do to improve deal cycles. 

In a 2023 survey of 1,400 sales, enablement, and customer success professionals in managerial and leadership roles, 82% said they were impressed with the results they’ve seen using AI-powered solutions. This feedback aligns with Forrester’s prediction that AI software demand will skyrocket to $37 billion by 2025. 

This is all because the right AI sales software does more than simplify tasks. It allows teams to focus on what they do best. With so many options, choosing an AI sales assistant might seem daunting. Let’s explore what you should look for as you evaluate tools.  

The 7 features you’ll want in an AI sales assistant  

79% of sales pros who leverage AI and automation say it allows them to spend more time selling. 

As you explore the possibilities of AI tools for sales, start with your end goal in mind:  

• What are you trying to achieve?  
• What does success look like? 

Answering these questions will guide you in finding the best sales AI assistant for your team. 

Here’s what we recommend considering as you begin the process. 

1. Automated content management  

It’s a familiar and frustrating scenario. You’ve likely encountered questions like, “Does anyone know where the latest one-pager for XYZ product is?” floating around in a Slack channel or during a team meeting.  

Establishing a central hub for sales collateral is fundamental. But, ensuring that this hub is always up-to-date and easily accessible is an entirely different challenge. Picture having the right content available and recommended based on the sales situation.  

The best AI sales tools ensure easy access to the most up-to-date information. Tools like Seismic Aura combine the power of AI with your company’s data. The result? AI-driven content tagging and categorisation and a more efficient sales team. As a bonus, it also decreases manual work for your enablement team.  

2. Real-time sales playbook curation 

Any sort of one-size-fits-all sales playbook is no longer effective. 

Today, AI sales software can offer sales playbooks that adapt in real-time. Imagine a scenario where a playbook updates based on the latest market trends and individual lead behaviour.  

Playbooks can also be personalised for each rep based on their success, past performance, and learning style. With AI doing the heavy lifting to process past deal data and current market trends, tactical deal advice and even content recommendations are backed by data around what’s led people to sign on the dotted line in the past. 

3. Tailored sales training, certifications, and onboarding 

Incorporating AI into sales training brings a fresh approach to education. Each rep gets a personalised learning path that adapts to their strengths and weaknesses. For example, if AI detects that a rep consistently struggles in the final stages of closing a deal, it can integrate more closing techniques into their training plan.  

AI can also manage the certification process to ensure your sales force consistently advances their skills and stays up to date on their credentials. This learning and certification cycle keeps your team sharp and effective.  

4. Personalisation across all sales content and collateral 

In today’s competitive landscape, personalisation is a must. 

AI sales bots like Seismic for Meetings offer AI-driven content recommendations to make it easier for reps to prepare, present, and follow up with their prospects and customers. 

By delivering customer-specific content, this tool streamlines interactions and captures vital insights during meetings. These insights empower sales enablement and marketing teams to make smarter content decisions, leading to more effective enablement and targeted training initiatives. 

5. Automation of repetitive sales tasks 

Ben Franklin was right when he said, “Time is money.” This principle resonates deeply in the fast-paced world of sales. Sales reps often find themselves bogged down by repetitive tasks that eat up their time and, subsequently, their productivity.  

With the right technology, this doesn’t have to be the case. The best AI tool for sales focuses on automating mundane, repetitive motions. The end goal: Reps can focus on more important aspects of their roles like building and nurturing relationships. For instance, AI might handle data entry, schedule appointments, or update customer records automatically.  

According to our report, The State of AI in Enablement, 88% of respondents stated that they’ve experienced growth in customer satisfaction since implementing AI in their enablement processes. This stat highlights how time saved can be directly reinvested into customer interactions, a key driver of sales success. 

6. Conversational intelligence 

Many tools can record and transcribe sales calls. Today, that’s not enough to extract valuable insights. Look for an AI sales assistant that takes it a step further through conversational intelligence capabilities. You’ll want a tool that can identify and easily resurface strategic moments from every conversation like: 

• Competitor mentions 
• Recurring pain points 
• Pricing discussions 

This particular functionality will help your team pinpoint at-risk deals and spot patterns in buyer behaviour. It also helps everyone prepare for follow-up calls, address objections, and go to market with a more refined, cohesive strategy.  

7. Savvier sales enablement analytics  

Going through weeks, months, and quarters without a crystal clear view of your key performance indicators (KPIs) is risky business.  

Luckily, certain AI sales bots provide advanced enablement intelligence thanks to powerful integrations. These metrics align teams around strategic objectives so everyone works on their piece of the puzzle to contribute to the overarching goal: accelerate revenue growth. 

By automating analytics, these tools offer real-time insights and actionable recommendations for leaders and active reps. They free your team to focus on execution and empower you to course correct based on what the numbers are saying. 

An AI sales assistant: Your competitive edge and partner in efficiency 

We’re confident that this is only the beginning of what’s possible with AI sales assistants. To understand what else AI could do for your team, browse our recent report, The State of AI in Enablement. 

If you’re ready to experience the benefits of AI in your sales processes firsthand, contact our sales team to learn how Seismic can be your ultimate AI sales assistant and competitive edge.  

The post 7 features to look for in an AI sales assistant  appeared first on Seismic.

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.

The post 8 qualities of effective sales coaching programs appeared first on Seismic.

And as we quickly near year-end, many leaders are closely reviewing their team’s sales performance as they think through new strategies, targets and objectives. If this year was any indication, sales targets and quotas will probably grow in 2024. But achieving these aggressive growth and revenue goals won’t be easy. Luckily, we have five strategies that leaders can use to help ensure that their team reaches peak – and consistent – sales performance. Let’s dive right in!

1. Optimise your strategy with data

By analysing relevant metrics and data points, teams can gain a deeper understanding of what works and what doesn’t within the sales process. These insights help identify patterns, trends and areas for improvement, enabling more informed decision-making.

Data-driven optimisation also allows for a more precise and targeted approach in your sales enablement efforts. It helps to better understand buyer behaviour, preferences and pain points, which, in turn, guides the creation of more tailored content, training and initiatives. With data as the foundation, teams can continuously refine and adapt their enablement efforts, ensuring that they remain aligned with evolving markets and customer needs, ultimately leading to improved sales performance.

2. Streamline and automate processes

Studies show that sellers only spend a quarter of their time selling. The rest of their time is spent performing a variety of other manual tasks. By leveraging technology, including AI, teams can streamline and automate non-selling activities, such as data entry, report generation and meeting follow-ups so sellers can focus on engaging with prospects and customers. This shift from mundane tasks to value-added activities significantly increases their productivity and effectiveness throughout the sales process.

Automation also enables sellers to spend more time building relationships, understanding customer needs and delivering tailored content and solutions – and automated processes often provide valuable insights through analytics, aiding sellers in making more informed decisions. Ultimately, technology-driven automation empowers sellers to allocate their energy and resources towards what truly matters – driving sales and fostering stronger customer relationships.

3. Control content chaos

Seismic’s 2023 Value of Enablement Report found that organisations that don’t use enablement technology report wasted time and reduced performance, particularly when it comes to accessing the content they need when they need it. Here’s what respondents had to say:

• Those without enablement technology spend an average of 10 hours per week tracking down, comparing or revising content.
• 83% said that they are often unable to locate the content they need when interacting with prospects or clients.
• 77% also said that the time they spend searching for content could be better used advancing the goals of their team.

When sales content is organised and accessible, sellers spend less time searching for materials and more time on those value-added activities we mentioned earlier. A sales content-management system ensures easy access to the right content that sellers can also tailor and customise to meet specific buyer needs. This allows sellers to quickly share relevant and engaging content that moves deals forward.

4. Review your sales training programme

A comprehensive sales training programme improves sales performance by equipping sellers with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in their roles. And while many training programmes focus on onboarding new sellers, the most successful organisations deliver training to new and experienced reps. In fact, Seismic’s Value of Enablement Report found that more than 80% of respondents believe that access to ongoing training would help them meet their goals and close more deals.

Additionally, consistent sales training leads to a more consistent sales approach across the organisation. Sellers are educated on key messaging, products and value propositions which translates into better sales interactions with buyers. It keeps sellers up to date with industry trends, product knowledge and best practices, which also affects their ability to close deals.

5. Double-down on sales coaching

When it comes to delivering feedback to sellers, many organisations rely on quarterly and annual sales performance evaluations. While these sales performance reviews are important, sellers also need a consistent feedback loop to really improve their performance. Sales coaching enhances sales performance by honing the specific skills and techniques tailored to each reps’ needs. Sales coaches work closely with sellers to identify areas for improvement and offer targeted guidance and support in skill development. This personalised approach allows for a deep understanding of each seller’s strengths and weaknesses. By pinpointing these areas for development, sales coaching fosters an environment focused on refining skill sets, empowering sales representatives to perform at their best.

Increase sales performance with Seismic

Effective enablement is a key driver behind improving sales performance. That’s why the Seismic Enablement Cloud is purpose built to help GTM organisations equip sellers with the content, tools, training and coaching that they need to meet and exceed performance goals. Interested in learning more? Read how HubSpot saves nearly US $18 million each year from increased rep productivity. Or, if you’d like to get an in-depth look at how your organisation can drive greater sales performance and growth with Seismic, get a demo today.

The post 5 proven strategies to improve sales performance appeared first on Seismic.

But why is personalisation important in a sales context? According to Salesforce, while 66% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs, only 34% of companies actually do, which means there is a disconnect between customer expectations and sales representatives’ offers, resulting in outcomes remaining unmet. In this article, we will discuss the role of personalisation within sales enablement and how, if done correctly, it can deliver positive business outcomes, including go-to-market (GTM) efficiency, an improved customer experience, as well as operational optimisation. 

Customer Experience

During a recent talk I attended, I heard someone say: “It doesn’t matter if everyone knows about you, if you’re not reaching the right people” and it stuck with me. It is not a complex statement, but holds a lot of truth – especially when thinking about it from a sales enablement perspective. With the rapid growth of hybrid-selling (meaning a mixed approach of digital and in-person sales), it has become increasingly more important to know your customers, and to know them well. Recent research by McKinsey shows that 71% of buyers expect companies to deliver personalised interactions. And 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. 

This suggests that content personalisation isn’t happening, or if it is, it isn’t reaching the right people at the right time. But by using the correct technology, analysing the data that is collected, as well as applying the appropriate  training and coaching programmes, personalisation can and will deliver the desired outcome. With the right technology, Digital Sales Rooms (DSR) for example, sales reps are able to share targeted content, tailored to their customers needs and interests for every buyer interaction. Furthermore, once the DSR has been created, the sales rep is able to analyse whether the content was actually viewed, which documents resonated well and even who the content was viewed by or shared with. 

Sharing content through technologies, such as DSRs is not only useful for the sales reps sending the content out, but also for the buyers receiving it on the other side. It is a single source of truth, holding all of the information necessary, enabling timely collaboration between team members – and if there is something missing, it can simply be added at a later stage. This results in a memorable experience for the buyer and ensures they are staying engaged throughout the hybrid selling process – while consuming content that is only relevant to them. 

Training & Coaching

None of the above, however, would be possible without the effective training and coaching of the sales representatives. Having and building on the relevant skills is essential in delivering personalised content successfully – it’s where it all starts. Training & coaching can also be tailored to the individual needs and levels of expertise of the sales rep. By using tools that are enabled by insights and data, companies can ensure that employees receive appropriate training and interactive coaching, continuously improving their skills, enhacing their knowledge, and making them adaptable to change, which is key for the current competitive business environment. 

Companies today are learning about and adopting technologies at a much faster pace – what previously took months or weeks to learn, now takes mere weeks. For example, according to OpenAI, ChatGPT acquired 1 million users within just 5 days after launching in November 2022, whereas it took Instagram over 2 months and Netflix even over 3 years. This proves how important it is for companies (and their employees) to be able to stay on top of these developments and trends. Being able to navigate through these ever changing environments, and upskilling employees to be able to do the same, will also result in a better buyer experience.

How Seismic can Help

In our recent report “The Personalisation Payoff”, we found that personalisation usage skyrocketed – and in tandem, buyer engagement increased as well. Not only did our customers leverage personalisation to an astonishing degree, but the correlated buyer engagement they saw was similarly dramatic.

With Seismic, a piece of content can be shared through what’s called a LiveSend link that captures engagement data, including how long the recipient spent consuming the content, even down to the individual page level. This data is important for our customers to understand what truly resonates with their buyers. From 2021 through 2022, LiveSend link generation increased by 58%, indicating our customers not only saw a greater need to communicate with buyers  digitally but also saw a greater need to gain insights about them. During that same time, overall buyer engagement (measured in views) increased by 46%.

Another feature that Seismic offers, and that has been mentioned above, are the Digital Sales Rooms. By collating all relevant information in one central location, DSRs allow sales reps to enable B2B buyers. This has the ability to quickly add value to the buying journey by simplifying the content experience for prospects. It also creates a unique experience for the buyer and builds trust, which is essential to closing deals at the end of the buying journey. 
If you’d like to learn more about Seismic Knowledge or other intelligent features of the Seismic Enablement Cloud^TM, get a demo today.

The post Getting Personal: Why Personalisation Matters to B2B Sales appeared first on Seismic.

As sales cycles become more complex and buyer expectations evolve, it’s more challenging for reps to hit aggressive goals. Sellers are competing harder than ever for buyers’ attention, and when they do engage prospects, their outreach must be personalised and informative. In this landscape, collaboration is just as important as competition. 

We believe that competition and collaboration strengthen sales teams. In this post, we’ll explain that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, when they’re cultural pillars, sales organisations achieve more.

Why should sales teams compete?

Competitive sales environments motivate sellers to hit their numbers. Let’s explore a few reasons why this type of competition is beneficial to sales teams.

Competition motivates sales teams

“You play to win the game.” This famous quote from former New York Jets head coach Herm Edwards resonates with sales teams. As sellers face competitors in deal cycles, winning is their top priority. When sellers have individual sales quotas, their competitive nature motivates them to hit and exceed their numbers. Most sales reps thrive in high-performing sales environments where hard work and victories are celebrated and rewarded. 

Competition fosters innovation and creativity

Healthy competition encourages sales reps to look for new ways to become more productive and efficient. By leveraging sales enablement software, sellers can save time and personalise content at scale. And features like content analytics capabilities empower individual sellers and sales organisations to understand what content most resonates with buyers and identify new best practices and workflows to drive consistent revenue growth. 

It discourages complacency

Every now and then, we can get a little too comfortable. Comfort can work in the short term, but it’s not a long-term strategy. Competition foils complacency because it encourages sellers to outwork and outperform their peers. Routinely setting new goals and embracing new challenges helps ensure that sellers are engaged and fulfilled.

Why should sales teams collaborate?

The difference between competition and collaboration is that collaboration encourages sales reps to work with each other instead of against each other. In a collaborative environment, sellers share their best practices and help the organisation succeed by supporting their colleagues. Every rep has a unique experience, and when they share what works and what doesn’t, the whole team learns and grows. Let’s check out a few noteworthy benefits of collaboration:

A culture of learning

Collaboration provides an opportunity to learn from each other’s successes and failures so the organisation can grow. A culture of collaboration and continuous learning ensures that go-to-market organisations consistently reinforce best practices and improve at scale.

Improved employee engagement

Highly engaged teams can make the difference between failure and success. Organisations that effectively communicate and allow their employees to have an active voice are more likely to be successful because every team member feels valued and invested in outcomes. 

Establishing shared goals

When sales teams have shared goals, reps become more united and invested in how their role contributes to achieving success. The Ohio State University’s research on goal sharing found that people are more committed to their goals when they share them with someone whose opinions they respect. In theory, this means that by sharing goals with leadership, reps become more accountable and, potentially, more motivated to make their mark. 

How to embrace collaboration and competition

The best sales teams encourage collaboration and competition. Reps should collaborate with their peers to compete against other businesses in their industry. Organisations need strong individual performers, but sales reps who embrace teamwork are better positioned to thrive. 

It’s important to make it easy for team members to help one another and encourage them to do so. Competition doesn’t have to be an individual sport. Instead, it can be a team sport with multiple winners. It doesn’t always have to be revenue-based. It can also be measured by other metrics such as the number of emails sent or meetings set. A win is a win, no matter how big or small. 

Every team member has a role to play, and the key is to find the right people for the right roles. Sales coaching helps reps grow, healthy competition keeps them on their toes and collaboration encourages teams to work toward shared goals.

Remember: a win for an individual is a win for the company, and that’s something everybody should celebrate.

Let Seismic be your guide

High-performing sales teams embrace competition and collaboration, which ultimately results in increased sales productivity and sales efficiency. Tools like the Seismic Enablement Cloud empower customer-facing teams with the skills, content, tools and insights they need to effectively engage customers and beat your competition. 

If you’d like to learn more, get a demo! 

The post Competition vs collaboration: What drives high-performing sales? appeared first on Seismic.

Inside sales plays a critical role in sales cycles because buyers are engaging online in higher numbers than ever before. Over the past couple of years, buyer interactions have grown from 17 per deal cycle to 27. As buyers deepen their research into vendors, their solutions and their competitors, inside sales reps need to be informed and prepared for every buyer engagement. 

What makes a good sales rep is continuously evolving, but some core principles remain the same. In this post, we’ll share several inside sales tips for your reps that will ensure they become all-star sellers who help your organisation drive business growth.

Characteristics of the top inside sales reps 

Inside sales reps are the initial point of contact with your business. When warm leads interact with your organisation, they expect an experience that is personalised, thoughtful and informative. In order to build trust with prospects and deliver a superior sales experience, inside sales reps should practice each of the following tips. 

1. Continuously seek training and coaching

When buyers are evaluating business solutions, they’re looking for a partner. Inside sales reps who are well-informed can serve as trusted advisers to prospects. But before reps speak with buyers, they first need to develop knowledge and fluency in their organisation, its products and services and the personas and industries they serve. 

Sales training and coaching help sellers develop the skills they need to effectively engage their buyers. New hire training is important for sales reps, but the best training and coaching programmes are continuous and ongoing. Training is a great opportunity to identify your reps’ strengths and weaknesses, while coaching provides an opportunity for reps to focus on and develop new skills. 

Access to ongoing training and coaching ensures that reps are always prepared. Whether your organisation is launching a new product, messaging or sales play, training and coaching software ensure that reps are fluent in the required skills – everything from discovery calls to objection handling. 

2. Leverage technology for efficiency and effectiveness

Mastering sales efficiency and effectiveness is essential for reps to hit their numbers. Everything from a customer relationship management (CRM) system to sales training software is designed to help sellers become more productive and effective.

For the sake of this article, let’s focus on sales enablement software. One of the key drivers of effectiveness and efficiency in sales is access to the most up-to-date, compliant content – in the right context. When content lives in a variety of locations, sellers spend too much time looking for it and, when that fails, share outdated content or attempt to create it themselves. Either outcome can be damaging to customer experience because they can create inconsistent brand experiences. 

Sales enablement solutions improve upon this by giving buyers the content they need, right at their fingertips. And, perhaps most importantly, sales enablement software allows sellers to personalise content at scale for each and every prospect. These capabilities can result in time savings that allow inside sales reps to spend more time with their buyers.

3. Embrace the art of social selling

As we mentioned before, today’s buyers engage on a variety of channels. During the pandemic, the use of social media for buyer engagement increased, and that trend has persisted ever since. Now, more buyers use social media to research and learn more about products and solutions. They may interact with members of their network in their newsfeed or in different communities – and the thought leaders and experts who engage these buyers have an advantage: they can build authentic and trusting relationships. 

Inside sales reps who get social selling right, go beyond resharing content from a corporate account. Instead, they share content that humanises them and allows them to create a personal brand. This can be sharing an anecdote about their family life, an experience in the office or content that builds their authority as a thought leader. Sellers who embrace social media and who build authentic relationships with their network will drive new revenue opportunities over time. 

4. Research their buyers and ask questions

Building trust starts with listening. Before you ever begin selling to a lead, inside sales representatives should first listen and learn what pain points their prospect is trying to resolve. Asking questions early and often gives reps an opportunity to understand their buyer and personalise future outreach. 

5.  Have empathy for the customer

We think this is one of the most important points for sales success. Prospects are trying to get their problems solved. So when you take the time to listen and learn more about their business challenges and needs, you instil a feeling of being understood. Prospects are more likely to buy from sellers who take the time to interact with them, treat them as real people and provide honest and personalised assistance. 

Inside sales reps level up with Seismic

All-star inside sales reps don’t just come along – they’re trained, coached and developed over time. Cultivating a roster of all-star inside sales reps starts with the right technology. The Seismic Enablement Cloud is purpose-built to help sellers make the most of every buyer engagement. If you’d like to learn more about how you can field a team of all-star inside reps, get a demo today. 

The post 5 Qualities of All-Star Inside Sales Reps appeared first on Seismic.

In order to engage these buyers and create repeatable success, organisations need processes that enable sales efficiency and sales effectiveness. We believe that sales enablement is a key differentiator that can help organisations unlock both. 

In this post, we’ll share how better enablement leads to improved sales efficiency and sales effectiveness. 

What is sales effectiveness?

Sales effectiveness ultimately comes down to closed-won deals and revenue generation. Throughout the deal cycle, there are several opportunities for sellers to “win” with buyers. On average, there are 27 interactions with 11 business stakeholders involved in a purchase decision. Sales effectiveness measures an organisation’s ability to win each of these touchpoints and repeat success over time. 

What is sales efficiency?

Sales efficiency measures how much your organisation spends to complete a deal. Sales efficiency can be calculated by dividing the amount of revenue generated by how much your organisation spends on sales-related activities. 

You can measure sales productivity when you combine sales effectiveness and efficiency. Sales productivity is the ratio of outcomes (effectiveness) to investments (efficiency). In sales terms, your outcomes can be the number of calls you make or demos completed in a day, whereas investments could be the time you spend on those activities. Based on this definition, if you can achieve more with less effort and associated costs, then productivity increases.

What does it mean to be inefficient or ineffective?

An inefficient, ineffective sales process can prove costly. One of the most common sources of inefficiency and ineffectiveness is sales content that is difficult to find, outdated or too generic. In order to be more effective, organisations need to enable their reps to easily create content experiences that are highly personalised and meaningful to the buyer.   

To get a better picture of how sales enablement can help improve sales effectiveness and sales efficiency, check out a few ways your organisation can leverage sales enablement to great effect. 

Plan your go-to-market activities

Sales productivity begins before your organisation runs a sales play or your reps access content. In short, planning is everything. Before your sales reps can become effective and efficient, your sales enablement team needs to plan. 

As your organisation prepares to launch a new product or campaign, it’s important for your enablement team to get a pulse on content freshness and content effectiveness. This way, you can ensure that your sellers always have access to the latest, most relevant and brand-compliant content. By planning campaigns and sales plays, it becomes easier for your organisation to monitor what works so you can replicate success over time. 

Enable your teams with skills, content and context

Before your sales reps interact with buyers, they first need training and coaching to ensure that every buyer engagement is meaningful. Sales training ensures that every seller has the skills they need to contribute to the team and grow their career. Sales coaching is continuous and ensures that sales reps can strengthen areas of weakness and meet their personal and team goals. 

Content helps sellers tell the story of your product and how it can help buyers solve their most pressing challenges. Ensuring that sellers have access to the most recent, brand-compliant content enables them to create meaningful experiences for their customers. Sales enablement software like Seismic help deliver content in context, but empowering enablement teams to align content with the buyer journey. 

Engage clients at the right time and place

The modern buyer is active on a variety of channels, including social media, email, text, Zoom calls, websites and more. In order to effectively engage buyers, sellers need to be prepared to interact in this omnichannel landscape. It’s important for reps to understand the channels their buyers prefer to use and personalise their engagements accordingly. 

Social selling is an impactful tool for sellers to engage new buyers – and it requires less time than in-person engagement. In less than an hour per day, sellers can participate in online discussions and build credibility with buyers on channels like LinkedIn. Social selling is so effective because it’s where your buyers already are. Social networks also allow sellers to build credibility through their connections and, ultimately, build new and meaningful relationships. 

Because deal cycles take place in a variety of channels, sellers need a single location to engage prospects with deal-related information. A digital sales room is a centralised location or microsite where sales reps and buyers can collaborate and access content that is relevant to the deal cycle. 

Improve revenue growth and do more of what works

The key to continued revenue growth is understanding what works and creating repeatable workflows. Organisations that have established sales metrics can routinely measure the impact of their sales activities and increase sales productivity. 

Over time, the data from your organisation’s sales activities tell a story about buyer engagement. As your sellers close new deals, metrics from the content they shared can help your GTM organisation understand what most resonates with buyers and produce more of it. If a case study worked with a particular person from a specific industry, sharing that asset can become best practice in future deal cycles. 

AI-guided selling also helps with seller productivity and continuous improvement. Artificial intelligence (AI) combines human intelligence and machine learning so sellers can identify patterns that enable more effective buyer engagement. 

How Seismic can help

Sales enablement is a key driver behind sales efficiency and effectiveness. A dedicated sales enablement solution ensures that sellers have access to the right content and context to have meaningful engagements with every buyer. The Seismic Enablement Cloud is purpose-built to help organisations plan, enable, engage and improve their sales activities. If you’d like to learn how you can improve sales effectiveness and efficiency, get a demo today.

The post How to leverage sales efficiency and sales effectiveness to improve sales productivity appeared first on Seismic.

Sales has become increasingly digitally-focused over the past few years with buyers and sellers adapting to digital-first sales models. Sellers who were accustomed to in-person meetings, business travel and client dinners suddenly found themselves selling through a screen. The entire anatomy of the sales cycle has shifted and continues to evolve.

How has the sales cycle evolved?

The transition to digital-first selling has changed the dynamics of the modern sales cycle. In the past, sales reps relied on cold calls and emails to get in touch with prospects during the early stages of the sales cycle… Then, they built relationships with their buyers in-person. It wasn’t uncommon to meet a prospect for coffee or at the office to continue the conversation and buying process. That’s how trust was built.

Now, the digital sales cycle is more targeted and insights-driven. Sales reps have fewer opportunities to engage and build relationships with their prospects because they have access to so much information online. This means that sellers need to rely more heavily on LinkedIn for outreach and to build relationships with buyers. Sales intelligence tools allow reps to learn more about prospects, what they’re interested in and whether they’re ready to buy. This “homework”, or information gathering, allows reps to make the most of their first impressions with prospects.

A hybrid approach can also help and, when necessary, in-person engagement can be a difference maker. For everything in between, digital sales rooms help reps stay in touch with their prospects and share valuable content and resources throughout the sales cycle.

Different phases of the modern sales cycle

Prospecting

The goal here is to start a conversation with the buyer, understand their organisation’s pain points and assess whether your product or service is a right fit. A “lead” is an individual who has shown interest in your products or services by taking an action such as visiting your website, subscribing to your blog, downloading an eBook or requesting a demo. The prospect is a qualified potential customer who matches your buyer persona. Qualified leads become prospects.

Two of the top ways to prospect include:

1. LinkedIn: Sales reps increasingly use LinkedIn for prospecting. Native tools such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator allow sellers to find the right prospects and build relationships at scale. Sellers who actively post and participate in LinkedIn communities can also build their personal brands and establish themselves as thought leaders. As a result, they can begin to establish trust and credibility among leads.

“I try to spend an hour a day on LinkedIn. It keeps me in the know to see what’s going on with my buyers and their network. It lets me know what’s going on in technology—see what my buyers are posting and who’s active.”

Sales Manager, Seismic

2. Additional research: Sales reps can use data and tools to see who is in the market to buy and then prioritise them. By understanding a buyer’s needs based on LinkedIn interactions or discovery calls, sales reps can begin to personalise content to the buyer’s specific use case. Before a call with a prospect, sales reps should:

• Take a few minutes to take a look at the company’s website
• Research their organization and industry to better understand priorities and potential pain points
• Identify what sales and marketing content they’ve interacted with and use it to shape the conversation.

Outreach and buyer engagement

With this evolution in the sales cycle, buyers now have the option to engage digitally and in- person. You’re likely already familiar with the options, but here are some of our favorite methods:

1. Online meetings: Online meetings allow reps to get valuable face-to-face time with customers and prospects without the added travel or time. Calls through Zoom or Microsoft Teams have become foundational to the digital sales cycle for a few reasons. For starters, they’re convenient but, more importantly, when a prospect sees your face, they are more likely to empathize with you and listen to you. Additionally, when you see their face, you can gauge their reactions and interests. This is particularly helpful to foster meaningful and authentic relationships rather than just being a voice or an email.
   
2. In-person relationship building: Few things compare to the experience of meeting face-to-face and in person. Just as grabbing a coffee with a colleague is more personal than chatting briefly at the start of a Zoom call, the same goes for in-person client engagement. To build relationships with customers, sometimes you need more of a human touch to complement digital interactions.

When buyers consider your solution

After the early stages of buyer engagement, buying teams will begin to evaluate and consider different vendors and solutions. This step is crucial as a modern-day sale includes more stakeholders in the decision making process. It can be streamlined with:

1. Buyer engagement tools: Once the connection has been made between a sales team and the appropriate stakeholders, the goal is to take a final look at truly qualifying their needs, and to make sure there’s a mutual fit for the prospect to become a happy customer. Buyer engagement tools help sellers speed up this process and deliver perfectly-timed content for each and every stakeholder.

2. Digital sales rooms: With fewer in-person meetings, sales reps increasingly depend on digital sales rooms for day-to-day buyer engagement. Buyer engagement used to mean attaching a pitch deck or PDF to an email, but it’s difficult to effectively engage buyers when they’re searching their inbox or other channels to find content. Digital sales rooms allow buyers to have a user-friendly experience that they can return to throughout the sales cycle.

Decision-making

The decision process is not a one-and-done event. It’s an ongoing process that moves the interest from several different decision makers into action. It’s the intersection between your customer’s buying process and your internal sales process. As you qualify and work through your deals, there are two key parts of the decision-making process that are necessary to understand:

1. The validation process: the buyer’s way of verifying that your solution will solve their highest priority requirements. That it will work as promised.
2. The approval process: the sequence of events required to get contract signatures once the validation has taken place.
    

Buyers will take specific steps to evaluate and select a partner. It’s helpful to get familiar with these steps and how each decision maker in an opportunity plays a role in them. 

Deliver captivating, engaging digital experiences with Seismic

Sellers should build relationships with customers with relevant and personalized content experiences throughout the modern sales cycle. With Seismic, you can capitalize on these trends and use sales acceleration to boost your sales team’s digital readiness with targeted sales content, training, and coaching. Seismic is the industry-leading sales enablement provider, and our software aligns and empowers go-to-market teams to deliver engaging buyer experiences that drive growth. Get a demo and see how we can help your organization succeed in the digital-first era.

The post The anatomy of the modern sales cycle appeared first on Seismic.

The marketing department, sales development reps (SDRs), sales engineers, legal team and many others play a part in the sales process. But sales operations and sales enablement play pivotal roles within the greater sales organisation. Both of these roles raise sales productivity and support sales reps before, during and after the sale. But their roles are very different. Let’s break it down!

First, what is sales enablement?

To put it simply, sales enablement is the process of aligning your sales and marketing teams and giving them the resources they need to close more deals. These resources may include onboarding and continuous training, content for selling and brand-building and deep product or service knowledge to adequately sell your product or service to customers. 

Sales enablement helps organise and streamline processes. It’s about people and technology and strategically aligning them both behind a common goal: sales success. It’s multi-layered and, as mentioned above, requires ongoing collaboration across the go-to-market engine to ensure a seamless partnership between marketing and sales. They’re such a power couple, those two. In effect, sales enablement achieves greater results by improving both marketing and sales activities.

What are sales operations?

There are so many things that go into a well-oiled sales operations machine. Sales ops has a hand in shaping everything from sales training and sales techniques to CRM tracking and staff incentives – and the list goes on! So, rather than managing sales reps and their interactions with prospects, a sales operations manager ensures that everyday operational tasks run smoothly and efficiently. It’s the behind-the-scenes job that makes sure the team is ready for optimal efficiency and effectiveness. No pressure, right?

What is the difference between sales enablement and sales operations?

Now that we’ve outlined what sales enablement and operations are, let’s highlight some of the pillars that make each of these functions unique.

Sales operations:

• Responsible for hiring and onboarding new sales reps
• A tactical position that helps the sales organisation run smoothly and efficiently 
• Helps manage the sales tech stack and report performance and key business outcomes

Sales enablement:

• Plans content for the employee onboarding programme as well as training and coaching sessions
• Creates sales collateral based on insights
• Is an overarching strategy that aims to align and improve marketing and sales
• Helps with content creation, discovery, analytics, sales readiness and more

How can sales enablement and sales operations work together?

It’s important to note that, despite their differences, sales operations and sales enablement teams function best when they work together. They both exist to improve sales productivity and performance – inevitably creating overlap – making it super important that they maintain a strong relationship. If a company implements a new sales platform, the sales ops team is the crew that sets up the sales force with the new tool by creating accounts and building dashboards. On the other side of the room, sales enablement would then train reps on how to use the new tool effectively. Enablement might also collaborate with sales operations to create a new dashboard within the platform and communicate how those changes affect the sales process.

Without a tag-team effort between sales enablement and sales operations, you can imagine how quickly that situation can become complicated – especially for a large sales organisation. An effective partnership between the two allows sellers to execute the sales process more efficiently and show up to every buyer interaction more prepared and ready to sell. And that, my friends, is the end result of a power couple working their magic!

Boost your sales success with Seismic

In our experience, after taking a closer look at sales operations vs sales enablement, companies are eager to jump in and use tools and resources to help their organisation create a winning sales enablement strategy. Hungry for more knowledge about sales enablement and how it can help your organisation get enablement right? Request a demo and we’ll show you how!

The post What is the difference between sales enablement and sales operations? appeared first on Seismic.