Save Time and Build Business With Sales Enablement—Part 1 of 2
You’re in business for a reason. Even if you love every minute on the job, your primary goal is to make sales (Or with a non-profit or advocacy group, change opinions or perceptions). You will benefit from tools that help make those things happen, no matter how well you think your product “sells itself.” That where marketing enablement and sales enablement tools step in.
Today is the first of two posts in which I hope to show you what sales and marketing enablement tools and technologies can do. They’ll help you, first, find your best prospects, then help move them through the sales process. Finally, they will help you convert prospects into profitable customers and even advocates for your brand or cause.
Sales Enablement vs. Marketing Enablement. What’s the Difference?
It is a subtle distinction, and frankly, there is plenty of overlap. But think of sales enablement as a broader look at how you generate revenue. Applying the right marketing intelligence, identifying your most likely target audiences, and moving them properly into a progression that leads to a conversation and a sale.
Marketing enablement is a bit more tactical. It comprises several proven tactics and mechanisms that help you address perfectly the issues facing your potential customer. That helps you move him or her into the final “yes” mode.
Think of it in agricultural terms. “Sales” is like the farmer choosing what crops to grow and how to position them around the property to tend them most efficiently. “Marketing” is more like the specific techniques and products he uses to enhance growth, ward off pests and deliver the highest possible yield.
I’m no farmer, but I know sales and marketing, so I hope that makes sense.
Today: Sales Enablement Services
Sales enablement sets the stage, so let’s start there today. Here are three important sales enablement tools that work (often together) to make your marketing efforts more meaningful.
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Market (and Marketing) Analytics
I’d like to start here because it sets a pattern of working smart. You simply understand your business, your industry, and your customer better when you base things on hard information rather than “gut feeling.” Here I will assume you didn’t open your doors yesterday and have a backlog of data to go on.
You can access helpful industry data, but much of the best learning will come from your own records if tracked properly. Look at sales and marketing metrics by campaign. Measure them based on response mechanisms like click-throughs, registrations, info requests, and many more. To summarize, when that data is properly reported and analyzed, you will benefit from:
- A better picture of prospects (and current customers) with the best potential
- True evidence of the end efficiency of a variety of sales and marketing tactics
- Measurably better ROI, because you will spend time and money more wisely
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Lead Generation and Nurturing Services
What problem does your business face? Not enough leads? Too few qualified leads? Inconsistent follow-through on leads to nurture them into something better? Lead generation and nurturing is a huge component of sales enablement because it helps address all three of those unfortunate situations.
Proper lead management is both a strategic and a tactical advantage. (That’s why you’ll find it represented on Tuesday’s list as well as today’s.) Here’s why. By gathering the right intelligence up front, and analyzing it at appropriate intervals, you make several things happen that boost your bottom line:
- MORE leads, since you learn what actions (like trade shows, conferences, marketing campaigns, or others) bring in the biggest number of leads. And do more of those actions.
- QUALIFIED leads. You certainly know that all leads are not alike. But you may not realize you have the tracking capabilities to know which ones are more likely to pay off than others. So again, you can make marketing and other decisions with more confidence and get better results.
- More CONVERSIONS from leads. This is where nurturing comes in. Every relationship is different. But lead generation technologies allow you to not only predict which leads will become customers (and when), but to take the right steps, from marketing materials to timely conversations, to help make that happen.
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Sales Document Generation
Nurturing those leads properly requires great agility. The intelligence that tells you which leads need what kind of care or management does no good if you can’t respond appropriately. To do that, you need to be able to furnish the correct information, whatever it is, in a timely manner and in a very professional form.
Variable print-on-demand (or GoTo Print as we call it at Superior) is invaluable in helping you do both. Short lead times, last-minute changes and the insertion of truly custom information is no problem. High-end digital printing from two fully redundant facilities allows us to deliver customized business and sales documents overnight to wherever they are needed. With this capability in your corner, you can:
- Deliver polished, well-detailed materials that are specifically designed to answer the questions or address the concerns of a prospect very quickly.
- Update presentations or proposals to reflect new information or to demonstrate a quick understanding of and response to a challenge posed by a prospect.
- Have these materials printed, edited, transported and delivered to any destination in hours, making your sales reps (and your company) look like the committed and well-resourced partner your prospects are looking for.
Think of Us as Sales Enablers
I hope these sales enablement applications make sense to you and captured your interest in learning more. Stop back Tuesday when I will share six marketing enablement services, this time under the umbrella of marketing enablement.
But to start taking advantage of sales and marketing enablement even sooner, there’s an even better way. A Superior way, in fact. We’ve been helping businesses grow and add efficiency for 95 years. And our ISO certification enables us (in fact, it requires us) to deliver the same solid, customer-focused processes and procedures to every client on every project.
So I’ll talk to you again on Tuesday. But I’m actually hoping you’ll contact Superior even sooner for help with sales and marketing enablement.
