Sales Enablement 3.0 (Book Summary)

Sales Enablement 3.0: The Blueprint to Sales Enablement Excellence by Roderick Jefferson

PART 1: The Rise of Sales Enablement 3.0

Chapter 1 What Does Sales Enablement Really DO?

• Sales enablement is centered around getting sales teams into the right conversations with the right decision makers at the right time, and all in the right way.
• [A major role of sales enablement is] removing non-revenue generating activities from [salespeople’s] daily lives.
• The key to success is to focus on why, not just how, this would create long-term success through collaboration. This is how sales enablement can migrate from being viewed as a training or problem-fixing organization to being a valued sales partner.
• There are so many tools and techniques in the sales enablement toolbox, but here are six of the most important components for any sales enablement practitioner,
  • Decrease new hire ramp-up time
  • Increase operational productivity and efficiency
  • Orchestrate change and growth, whether with local, national, international, new leadership, acquisition, etc.
  • Provide scalable, consistent tools and processes across the lifecycle of a sale
  • Be a change management agent who drives increased incremental revenue
  • Use metrics, tracking, and reporting to substantiate return on investment (ROI)
• Training without a sustainable continuing education process is oftentimes worse than not addressing the problem at all because it becomes another selling obstacle that takes away from revenue-generating activities.
• The two most important skills needed as a sales enablement practitioner are listening and asking the right questions.
• The number one question that every sales enablement professional should ask when approaching a new company initiative or program is: What business problem are we trying to solve?

Chapter 2: A Brief History of Sales Enablement

• [It] is time to stop giving presentations and start having conversations!

Chapter 3 Welcome to Sales Enablement 3.0!

• There was a time when the definition of success for sales enablement practitioners was based upon three key metrics:
  • Decreasing time to revenue (accelerating movement through the sales funnel)
  • Increasing sales productivity (continuing education, coaching, and reinforcement)
  • Deploying strategy, architecture, and execution (processes, programs, and platforms) These metrics are still important, but they’re no longer the sole measurements of success for a sales enablement organization.
• In addition to the above criteria, these days sales enablement practitioners must enhance their focus on the following:
  • Business Outcome Selling: Shifting from volume velocity (features, benefits, products) selling to a focus on key differentiation, competitive advantage, and the business value of buying from your company.
  • Increasing Profits: Articulating how buying from your company will directly impact the financial health of their company.
  • Mitigating Risk: This is critical. It is important that sales professionals include both companywide and personal reasons to buy from your company.

Chapter 4 Crafting the Sales Enablement 3.0 Blueprint

• Assembling the Sales Enablement Team
  • Sales Enablement Leader
  • Program Managers: These individuals should be viewed as an extension of the sales segment or regional leader that they support. They’re responsible for sales leadership engagement, identifying skill gaps, sharing best practices, and driving two-way communication with the sales leader.
  • Trainers
  • Instructional Designers
  • Coordinator: They are the hub that spokes (sic) out to every role on the sales enablement team. While they are responsible for logistics, surveys, and metrics tabulation. They are responsible for scheduling internal and external offsite events as well as driving all communications, not to mention taking on things like impromptu therapy sessions and ensuring that the team stays sane during the best and worst of times.
• Five key programmatical components
  • Talent Assessment and Acquisition
  • Onboarding
  • Role Specific Business Acumen
  • Sales Leadership Coaching
  • Continuing Education and Reinforcement

PART 2: Deploying a World-Class Sales Enablement Program

Chapter 5 Building the Sales Enablement Business Case and Charter

• There are a lot of ways to impact revenue, but the following three desired outcomes have always served me well when presenting sales enablement’s value to the senior leadership team:
  • Accelerating speed-to-revenue
  • Increasing individual seller productivity
  • Creating customers for life
• Key metrics:
  • Average Deal Size
  • Deal Velocity
  • New Pipeline Created
  • Number of Closed Deals
  • Time to First Close for New Hires
  • Win Rates

Chapter 6 Aligning Sales Enablement to Your Buyer’s Journey

• The Buyer’s Journey
  • Stage 1: Identify the Problem
  • Stage 2: Assess Possible Solutions
  • Stage 3: Prioritize the Solution
  • Stage 4: Solidify the Solution
  • Stage 5: Maintain Satisfaction
• Let’s examine some of the most important sales enablement components that form the baseline of how things should be done in the 3.0 era. These strategies and tactics include:
  • Reset your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
  • Create an airtight end-to-end process
  • Stay top of mind with prospects and customers without being annoying
  • Implement an in-depth discovery and qualification process
  • Help prospects with the decision to move forward
  • Build accreditations or certifications designed to validate learning experiences
• When engaging potential customers, we normally focus on three things: key differentiation, competitive advantage, and business value. Companies are usually great at the first two, but customers really only care about the last one, business value. And the best way to figure out how to provide value is by really connecting with the prospect and listening to their needs.
• It is important to help prospects make a decision, even if the decision is to not buy. This shows empathy and compassion, and it also helps to strengthen the level of rapport with the prospect. Even if they’re not moving forward with a sale, they might come back to you in the future when their needs and situation are different.

Chapter 7: Sales Enablement as Communications Center

• Your role as a sales enablement practitioner is to balance out feedback, input, ideas, and sometimes political agendas. But you are not a referee. You need to remain objective while also ensuring that everyone feels that their voices are heard and acknowledged during the process.
• I have found that the best way to drive cross-functional collaboration is through the creation of a sales enablement council.
  • The participants in the council should include marketing, product marketing, product management, sales, human resources, and sales enablement.
  • The council meeting should be facilitated on a monthly basis.
  • The agenda should be focused on discussing hiring cycles, upcoming events, product releases, competitive updates, and any changes since the last meeting.

Chapter 8 The Art and Science of Onboarding

• Once your company has defined or updated its Ideal Employee Profile (IEP), it’s time to begin designing, deploying, measuring, and iterating its sales onboarding program.
• Important components of an onboarding program include:
  • An overview of business value
  • An overview of KPIs
  • Building an internal network
  • Tools, messaging, and positioning
  • Role-specific breakouts that expose sales professionals to each component of the sales process
• Share your proposed program with your sales leaders early and often.
• I highly recommend building a pilot or beta program into your design strategy.

PART 3: Creating Long-Term Success

Chapter 9 The Value of Sales Leadership Coaching

• Coaching should be the opposite of telling someone what they should do. A true coach is a great listener. Their focus should be on why something was said as opposed to what was said and how it should be messaged or positioned differently.
• One of the most common mistakes I have seen in my career is when sales enablement neglects the importance of teaching sales leaders to prepare and coach their teams.
• Most sales professionals will do what they see their sales leaders do more often than what they’re being told is the right way to do things.

Chapter 10 Building a Culture of Learning

• You have to work with your leaders to hire the type of people who you would trust if you were a prospect or a customer.
• [Design your sales enablement program by seeking feedback from your] most successful first-line managers (FLMs) and sales professionals.
• Sales enablement reinforcement comes in three forms
  • Adoption & Execution: The ability to measure adoption and usage of all implemented enablement processes, programs, productivity tools, and templates
  • Seller Readiness: The ability to determine whether sellers are effectively enabled and ready to maximize their engagements with prospects and customers
  • Metrics & KPIs: The ability to support validation of tracking and reporting of sales activities and tools related to revenue-generating metrics
• Reinforcement strategy: Ensure that all of your internal customers are aware of the goals, deliverables, and metrics related to the program.

Chapter 11 Sales Enablement Tools

• Eight categories.
  • Content Management Systems
  • Learning Management Systems
  • Prospecting Tools
  • Sales Reporting Tools
  • Marketing Automation Tools
  • Communication Tools
  • Sales Coaching Tools
  • Revenue Intelligence Platforms
• If you don’t have a single repository, salespeople will not look in multiple places for content or information. Instead they will create their own, and this leads to inconsistent messaging and confusion with your customers.
• Old content can be retired by implementing a quarterly content review cycle.

Chapter 12 Metrics Are More Than a Bunch of Numbers

• I believe that there are two types of metrics.
  • One set focuses on the things that sales enablement practitioners can influence.
  • The other is a set of metrics that sales enablement practitioners own.
• Enablement-influenced metrics:
  • Average Deal size
  • Collateral Use and Frequency
  • Deal Velocity
  • New Pipeline Created
  • Number of Closed Deals
  • Product Mix by Segment
  • Quarter over Quarter
  • Annual Quota Attainment Percentage
  • Speed to Revenue
  • Win and Loss Rates
• Enablement-Owned Metrics:
  • Accreditation and Certification Scores
  • Bi-Annual Needs Analysis
  • Program-Based Surveys
  • Communications Deployed
  • eLearning Statistics
  • Percentage of Completed Enablement Requests
  • Content Usage Statistics

Conclusion Connecting All the Dots

• The top 10 sales enablement best practices that have been my guiding light.
  • We are all on the same team. When one wins, we all win.
  • Sales enablement provides scalable, consistent tools and processes across the lifecycle of a sale.
  • We bring value as change management agents, whether this is at the local, national, international, or leadership levels.
  • Our number one focus is driving incremental revenue.
  • We work collaboratively with sales leaders to help craft the definition of sales success.
  • As part of this collaboration, we are included in the sales interview process.
  • We are laser-focused on accelerating speed-to-revenue.
  • We utilize input and feedback from sellers, leaders, and internal customers, early and often.
  • We consistently use metrics, tracking, and reporting to substantiate Return on Invest (ROI).
  • We work with sales leaders to own the adoption, execution, and modeling of our tools, processes, and programs.