Sales enablement is one of the eight categories of the Sales Performance WheelSM that we study when analyzing what drives sales performance. This category focuses on the different ways in which supporting sellers to be most effective allows them to reach their full potential, thus improving the organization's sales performance.
Here are the 4 key components of enablement we analyze when studying sales performance:
1. Sales Management and Coaching
The fundamental leverage point in many sales organizations to improve sales performance is the sales manager. Sales managers help sellers take advantage of all of their resources, coach them on winning sales, help them manage their time and day to best effect, motivate sellers, and more.
2. Sales Processes
Sales processes include prospecting, the core sales process, and the process of growing strategic accounts. When these processes are designed and implemented well, they can help sellers do the right things at the right time to drive results as high as they can possibly be driven. Elite and Top Performers are much more likely to have mature selling processes than The Rest.
3. Sales Method
Sales method differs from sales process in that it's not a series of stages, but a philosophy around selling. Having a common sales methodology creates a common language around selling, expectations for how to interact with buyers, skills needed for sales performance, and direction for how to achieve top performance.
4. Technologies, Tools, and Resources
The list of sales performance support tools, resources, and technologies is too long to cover. However, having the best ones at the appropriate places and times in the process consistently drives sales performance higher.
Sales Enablement and Organizational Maturity
As presented in the white paper, 8 Drivers of Sales Performance, the RAIN Group Sales Organization Maturity ModelSM defines how each of the eight categories of the Sales Performance Wheel should look across the different stages of maturity of an organization. There has never been a fully developed organization, but there are organizations that excel in each category.
To join the ranks of the Top-Performing Sales Organizations, you need to be able to implement and administer sales processes, sales methods, and sales performance support to promote the success of your sellers. If there is a lack of enablement in a sales organization, it makes the organization much less effective than it could be.
