Ready to create a sales enablement roadmap but unsure where to start? We’re here to help.
As a sales enablement leader, you probably already know that a sales enablement roadmap is the backbone of effective sales enablement implementation in any organization.
The best roadmap provides a structured, customized pathway you can follow to ensure your sales enablement efforts yield the desired results. On top of that, it will also be flexible enough to evolve with your ever-changing business needs.
Considering market agility, shifting customer needs, plus technological advancements, a comprehensive roadmap brings together relevant teams and aligns the business’ efforts for sustainable growth.
You can create an adaptable sales enablement roadmap tailored to your organization in a few simple steps. We discuss these in detail below.
The Importance of a Sales Enablement Roadmap
Having a flexible sales enablement roadmap is crucial because it helps you to:
- Align your sales enablement goals with your broader business strategy. This provides a clear direction for you to channel your sales enablement efforts. Aligning these efforts will support your long-term business goals.
Without a roadmap, you risk implementing your sales enablement activities randomly. This might increase your sales and revenue in the short term but may be unsustainable in the long run.
- Increase employee engagement and morale. Make sure your team members know the bigger picture and how their roles contribute to the organization’s success. That way, they can become more engaged and motivated to perform their duties.
- Promote consistency and standardization. A roadmap ensures your sales enablement practices are consistent across your organization. Your sales reps get access to the same resources and tools they need to execute their roles, regardless of location.
Standardization makes scalability easier. You can, and should, modify your sales enablement practices as your business grows.
- Promote accountability. When you have a well-structured roadmap, it’s easy to track the progress of your sales enablement initiatives and hold teams accountable if their contributions are subpar. If you don’t have a clear roadmap, setting measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) and monitoring the success of your sales enablement practices become difficult.
- Mitigate risks. Having a well-thought-out framework enables you to identify potential threats or obstacles in advance. You can mitigate identified risks early, ensuring your sales enablement efforts don’t get unexpectedly derailed.
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Sales Enablement Roadmap
Here’s a nifty step-by-step guide to creating a flexible sales enablement roadmap that’ll help you hit your sales and revenue goals year after year:
1. Determine Goals
The first step to creating a sales enablement roadmap that works is to determine your sales enablement goals. Doing this helps you know what outcomes your enablement activities should bring and can give your team clear, direct targets. Ensure your goals tie into your organization’s primary business objectives and are easy to track to measure the return on investment (ROI) of your sales enablement practices.
Ideally, your goals should be specific enough to allow you to focus your efforts accordingly, and measurable for progress tracking. Make them achievable but with a little stretch to keep your team motivated.
2. Identify Your Team’s Needs
Once you’ve determined and defined your goals, conduct a needs assessment to identify what your sales team requires to succeed. Approach your sales leaders to get their take on where the current sales processes stand and how effective they are.
You’ll also want to get their feedback on their challenges or pain points and any solutions they might have. Further, ask what they require to become even more productive and successful. With this information, you can identify the sales enablement practices likely to be the most helpful for your team.
Try to create the resources they specifically require to improve. These may be training programs to fill the gaps in selling you’ve identified, a sales playbook, etc.
It’s worthwhile remembering that sales leaders are familiar with what good selling is and are the direct link to your frontline sales reps. So, their contribution throughout your sales enablement is invaluable.
Ensure you hold regular check-ins with them to evaluate changing sales trends. Brainstorm how your sales enablement can adapt to the changes and meet fluctuating demand in different areas like content creation or coaching.
3. Define Key Performance Metrics
Next, define the key sales enablement metrics and outcomes that will help you monitor the success of your sales enablement efforts in the short and long haul. Most of these metrics focus on how well your enablement activities have taken root. They can also indicate whether your sales representatives are actively engaging with the sales enablement resources you’ve provided.
Some key sales enablement performance metrics to monitor include:
- Sales rep quota attainment
- Training course completion rates
- Training turnover rates
- Win rates
- Sales cycle length
- Number of closed deals
- Customer satisfaction scores
- Sales revenue influence
Regularly review the metrics above to gauge the effectiveness of your sales enablement efforts and avoid missteps. On average, about 84% of sales representatives achieve their quotas when a best-in-class sales enablement strategy is in place. If your numbers are below this average, you may need to improve your sales enablement practices.
4. Partner With the Key Influencers
Sales enablement introduction, like most business initiatives, should be a collaborative effort involving key stakeholders from other departments. You’ll want to lean on the skills and expertise of teams in various departments. The marketing and customer success divisions are prime examples of who can help you maximize the impact of your sales enablement efforts.
5. Establish Roles and Responsibilities
Implementing sales enablement requires you to carry out several tasks. Delegate these tasks to your sales enablement team and other skilled stakeholders. Ensure every team member understands their specific roles and responsibilities.
You may also want to clarify expectations for each role at this stage. Include the goals and milestones each party is responsible for, plus the standards they should meet. Clearly defined expectations set performance benchmarks and drive individuals to do their best.
6. Set Realistic Timelines
Define timelines for finishing various tasks and reaching your goals. Ensure the timelines are realistic, considering how long it takes to deliver training and implement changes.
7. Track and Communicate Progress
As you implement your sales enablement plan, regularly measure the results you get against your KPIs. Conduct regular progress reviews with your sales enablement team and make data-driven adjustments where necessary.
KPIs also make sharing your progress and outcomes with all your partnered stakeholders easy. This ensures that all parties are on the same page and moving in the same direction.
Next Steps
Once you’ve created your sales enablement roadmap, the next crucial step is execution. The following steps are essential for your sales enablement initiatives to get off the ground on the right note:
- Roll out your plan in phases. You may want to start by rolling out new training first, then introducing new tools or content. Consider conducting a soft launch with a small section of your sales team before going company-wide. Through this approach, you can gather quick feedback and make necessary initial adjustments before the full launch for the entire team.
- Continuous communication is crucial. Open and maintain various communication channels with your team to keep them informed of any updates, especially during the early stages of the launch. Newsletters and regular in-person meetings work well for this purpose. Also, create efficient communication channels to foster cross-functional collaboration between relevant teams from different departments. Shared project management tools, such as Trello, can be helpful here.
- Provide support and resources. Be keen and proactive about offering all the support and tools your team needs to adapt to the new processes during roll-out. These might include FAQ guides, step-by-step tutorials, or a help desk.
- Collect feedback. Have a feedback collection system so your sales reps can share valuable insight on what’s working well and what isn’t. Simple Google forms will do.
- Monitor and adjust as necessary. Monitor the KPIs you established and modify your operations as needed to optimize your sales enablement process.
Conclusion
Building an efficient sales enablement roadmap requires working closely with your sales team and other stakeholders to identify gaps in existing sales processes. Then, you can create the most suitable training programs or resources to fill the gaps and boost your sales activities.
You can also leverage the right tools or technology to roll out your sales enablement initiatives effectively and support your sales team in closing deals effortlessly.
One essential tool you should consider providing for your sales team to make selling easier is sales demo automation platforms like Saleo. Demonstrating how your product is the solution potential customers require is often the tipping point that converts them into well-paying customers. Saleo lets you personalize these demos to your prospect’s needs and offer them in real-time. Book a free demo today to see how the platform works.
