A lot of SaaS sales terms are used interchangeably. This leads to these concepts losing their original meanings and goals and decreases the benefits your business should see with proper implementation.
One of the most commonly misunderstood are sales enablement and sales operations. Fortunately, we’re here to settle the sales enablement vs sales operations debate by closely examining the features and goals of these two SaaS processes.
Sales Enablement And Sales Operations Defined
Sales enablement and sales operations are two integral parts of the SaaS sales pipeline. However, they’re often used interchangeably, even though they refer to different parts of the SaaS sales cycle.
So, first, let’s clearly define sales enablement and sales operations.
Sales Enablement
Sales enablement is the process of empowering employees during the sales process. This involves providing sales and marketing teams with the necessary tools and resources to not only manage the sales process but master it.
Common sales enablement tools include sales technology, training and coaching, content creation, and software guides. Through sales enablement, employees are far better equipped at converting sales and doing so consistently.
Sales Operations
On the other hand, sales operations encompass managing all sales processes in your company. It refers to daily sales tasks, sales pipeline management, sales goals, forecasting, and data collection.
The exact sales operations differ from company to company. Bigger teams tend to have more operations. Different software also requires different sales techniques and operations.
All in all, sales operations is the theory put into practice and the operations management of these practices.
Sales Enablement Vs. Sales Operations: Key Differences
While sales enablement and sales operations are different, they do overlap in certain sectors. That doesn’t mean they can be used interchangeably or swapped one for the other.
To fully grasp the complex nature of these two processes and successfully incorporate them into your business processes, let’s examine key differences in the sales enablement vs sales operations debate.
Sales Enablement Goals And Processes
Sales enablement is more involved during the first part of the sales cycle, namely lead engagement, qualification, acquisitions, etc. Its goal is to provide sales and marketing personnel, and sometimes other teams involved in the sales process, with the information, content, and tools they’ll need to get the ball rolling.
Key processes in the sales enablement process include:
- Content Creation: Sales enablement includes the sales content creation for everything from email content to promotions. The content is created using the tools provided to improve sales enablement. Teams utilize data to create relevant content that engages the ideal buyer persona.
- Employee Training: Sales enablement also includes creating up-to-date, data-driven training and onboarding content for new sales representatives. The content focuses on improving sales strategies and providing comprehensive sales demos.
- Employee Coaching: Again, sales enablement focuses on providing employees with coaching. This includes individual observations and guidance from a sales mentor.
- Sales Improvement Tactics: Lastly, sales enablement examines the sales cycle, sales team efficiency, sales readiness, and a host of other analytics to constantly improve the sales process and bring in more prospects.
As you can see, sales enablement is focused on the sales prep work, by providing sales teams with the data and resources they need to lock down more leads and turn them into paying customers.
Sales Operations Goals And Processes
Sales operations is the active phase of the sales process when the sales enablement phase data is put into practice. It’s more active toward the end of the sales cycle and focuses on managing sales and leads that have been acquired and are thinking of hitting the buy button on your software.
Key processes in sales operations include:
- Sales Organisation: Sales operations require the effective organization of all sales processes, including workflows, scoring, and sourcing. The goal here is to organize and optimize sales operations to provide the most efficient sales process possible.
- Data Implementation: Data is gathered, analyzed, and then used to improve sales operations across the board. Again, optimization is the goal.
- Forecasting: Sales operations data collections also include in-depth research and analysis of historical sales data. This, combined with real-time data, is used to forecast leads and sales.
- Administration: Lastly, sales operations aim to improve administrative tasks for optimal efficiency. This includes gathering performance reports and sales productivity analysis and improving team communications, to name a few.
Conclusion
The sales enablement vs sales operations debate has been raging for years and the terms are often used interchangeably. While there is overlap, they do focus on different end goals.
Sales enablement is about empowering sales and marketing teams with information and resources and focuses mainly on the sales process prep work. Sales operations, on the other hand, involve the implementation of this prep work as well as other data to boost SaaS sales.
An integral part of both sales enablement and sales operations is the SaaS sales demo – which is why you should partner with Saleo.
Saleo lets you create interactive, data-driven, and engaging sales demo environments that consistently convert prospects into paying customers. Boost your sales by requesting a demo today!
