The software industry is projected to reach close to $700 billion in 2024 and $858 billion by 2028. The market has a lot of room for growth and won’t be slowing down anytime soon.
Of course, this means software companies have to up their game to stay competitive.
One of the most effective ways to improve your sales tactics and land more deals is with sales enablement. Geared toward more effective and efficient sales, sales enablement offers an array of amazing benefits for those willing to give it a try.
Want to learn more about sales enablement benefits? Then read on!
What Is Sales Enablement?
Sales enablement is a process whereby a company provides its sales teams with all the tools and resources they’ll need to do their job.
Common sales enablement resources include:
- Guidebooks
- Sales tech and software
- Sales training and individual coaching
- Content creation
The list goes on. The exact resources a company provides depend on its goals and the sales teams’ needs.
All in all, the goal of sales enablement is to empower sales reps. It aims to provide everything they need to reach their full potential and bring in more profit for the company. It’s an especially powerful method in the SaaS industry, which has a lot of jargon and niche marketing needs.
What Sales Enablement Is Not
Many confuse sales enablement with general information sharing. But sales enablement isn’t just about giving employees whatever you think they need and hoping for the best. It doesn’t tolerate guesswork and it’s not just sales training.
Sales enablement is about strategically providing sales reps with the resources they need.
It requires planning, critical thinking, and collaboration between various internal teams. Sales enablement has a clear goal, which is to improve the SaaS sales cycle and provide sales teams with direct, dedicated sales enablement tools and resources.
The Benefits of Sales Enablement
Defining sales enablement can be a little tricky. It’s a confusing concept.
But with the definitions out of the way, we can focus on the benefits of sales enablement. These sales enablement benefits should provide clarity on the process and why it’s a good option for your SaaS teams.
Unification of Marketing, Product, and Sales Teams
In traditional company settings, there are clear boundaries between different teams. The sales, marketing, and product creation teams work separately and independently of one another. If there is a need for communication, it’s quick and to the point.
Sales enablement, however, changes this dynamic. The process aims to enlighten the sales team by providing all the information and tools from different teams in the company. This will ensure they have everything they need to sell their SaaS product.
For example, the sales team might work with the dev team to understand the software’s intricacies better. Intricacies that the salesperson can use to provide a more impactful sales demo.
Sales enablement fosters communication and collaboration between these teams. When working together, one team’s strengths fortify the other’s weaknesses.
Content Creation
Because sales enablement is all about making sales and empowering salespeople, content creation has become a large part of the process. Content needs to be engaging. Sales are difficult if you don’t have the right script or the prep to convince a prospect that your software is their best option.
In sales enablement, the sales team works with marketing to learn more about the SaaS sales pipeline. They can see where they’re losing prospects and work at improving the content of their calls, pitches, sales demos, presentations, etc.
Increased Efficiency
Sales enablement provides sales teams and salespeople with all the tools they need to close deals. For example, sales software that allows sales reps to automate repetitive tasks like lead scoring, routine follow-ups, and workflows.
Sales reps can focus on selling instead of miscellaneous and time-consuming tasks.
An Empowered Sales Team
Salespeople have to have thick skin. They’re constantly talking to people, getting rejected, and trying again. In between all this, they need to manage their workload and meet their quota. It’s a lot of work and it can be stressful.
Sales enablement takes this into consideration. With automation, collaboration, and training, sales reps grow confident in their abilities and the sales process. They close more deals. They’re less stressed about the sales cycle. And, as their confidence and experience grow, they’ll have more conviction – a major benefit in SaaS sales.
It’s a silent, yet powerful advantage, and one that benefits your company and your employees.
Scale the Sales Organization
A big part of sales enablement empowerment involves training and coaching.
Training, or onboarding, in a sales enablement environment, provides new hires with in-depth, consistent, and engaging training material. It also offers long-term hires continued learning experiences.
After onboarding, there’s another round of coaching. New hires receive dedicated help to improve on areas they are struggling with so that they can master the sales process.
The process benefits the company and employees. Employees are more confident in the work they do and less stressed. The company gets to build a talented workforce and retain these employees because of their positive approach to training and employee support.
Cross-Selling and Upselling
Sales enablement improves sales flows. The increased internal communication and collaboration, and more effective sales techniques, allow sales reps to close more deals along the sales journey.
This improvement also extends to cross-selling and upselling. Selling customers related or complimentary products, or higher-end items can be challenging. Both are a must for long-term business growth in the SaaS industry but need the right tools and sales tactics to be successful.
When you add sales enablement into your workforce, cross-selling and upselling become easier. Your employees have the training, confidence, and data-driven insights to land deals with existing customers.
Intelligent Buyer Interactions
Part of the collaboration process, mostly with marketing, involves learning more about customers. Specifically, customer personas and pain points. Sales enablement examines the customer persona, and current customers, to create actionable and data-driven insights.
Instead of winging the sales process, sales and marketing can work together to conceptualize the sales journey and the customer experience. Where is the sales funnel doing the best? Where is it doing the worst? Which customer persona appreciates a different sales approach?
With sales enablement, you can answer all these questions and let it guide you toward intelligent buyer interactions – ones much more likely to turn prospects into paying customers.
Conclusion
Sales enablement is when a company provides its sales team with the tools and resources it needs to master the sales cycle. It encourages collaboration, data-driven sales procedures, intelligent customer interactions, and increased efficiency to name a few.
Through empowering your employees and making smarter sales choices, you increase your talent pool and revenue. A win-win for any SaaS company.
A cornerstone of sales enablement is data-driven sales demo environments, which you can get with Saleo! Saleo is the first-ever live, data-complete demo environment. Create your own interactive and engaging demo and close more deals for your software company. Request a demo today!
