10 Things You Should Know Before Investing in a Sales Enablement Solution

So adopting a sales enablement solution is on your mind. You’ve decided that you want to help your sales reps close more deals and you think that sales enablement technology is the answer. We agree!

But before rushing into making a decision about which vendor to go with, below is a list of 10 things you should know about sales enablement tools before making a decision to buy:

1. Sales tools are only as good as the people using them. You should invest in the best salespeople – then enable them with the right technology.
2. Sales enablement closes the loop between marketing and sales. Ask yourself if both departments in your organization are aligned.
3. Sales isn’t a fixed science. Sales enablement won’t fix all of your problems without a strategy in place, first.
4. When used correctly, sales enablement has the power to transform a sales rep into a concierge. The right tool enables customers to discover a product or offer, and not merely hear a pitch.
5. The right sales tool gives sales reps on-the-fly access to content when they need it, where they need it, and from anywhere – either online or off. Seventy percent of content created by marketing is never used. But content is your best friend. You need to choose a platform that understands this and is intuitive enough to enable you to be successful during the face-to-face interaction.
6. Invest in a tool that provides a branded experience to your customer because branding is critical to success. Top performers deploy presentations that match their company image.
7. Make sure that the right tool is built with advanced integration between leading applications like Salesforce, Oracle, and Dropbox.
8. You need complete control of managing, distributing, and revoking files so that sales has the right files all the time. The right solution would give you control of this.
9. The right training is necessary to improve the face-to-face interaction. Before buying a sales enablement platform, make sure that your training processes aren’t outdated.
10. Analytics and data are key to sales effectiveness. Before investing in sales enablement software, ensure that your marketing and sales strategy will work to incorporate reporting and analytics.

As the intelligent device market erupted, so have the tools around them. These include data capture, data organization and management, security, data analysis, and sales presentation solutions. You should know that investing in sales enablement technology won’t fix all of your problems, but if your sales team is properly trained, you’re half way there. When your sales reps assume their roles as individuals who guide customers through what makes their solution better than any other, and do so as professionals with the desire to truly help, that’s when sales enablement comes into the picture.

Shopping around for a sales tool? Think of your sales process as a whole and ask yourself what areas do I need to improve on in marketing and sales and where would a sales enablement solution come into play to achieve this.