We can all agree that in today’s competitive economy, a key differentiator for any organization is having effective & engaging sales training & sales enablement content to ensure sales effectiveness and readiness. This is driving sales enablement leaders and marketers to empower reps to perform better through tailored content. The idea is not only to deliver content but ensure higher engagement & use of the content to improve how sales reps position the brand, their products and ensure consistent messaging to customers.
Viewing sales content creation through the lens of sales enablement is imperative to assist sales reps in boosting productivity & revenue generation.
Five reasons why organizations need a sales enablement content strategy
According to TAS Group, 95% of buyers chose a solution provider who provided ample content to help navigate through each step of the sales process. This reinforces why having a sales enablement content strategy builds trust among buyers, ensures a consistent way of selling and generates shorter sales cycles as well as acquiring customers with a higher lifetime value.
If you are still in two minds about investing in a robust content strategy for sales enablement, here are a few reasons to consider:
1. Upskilling & ensuring constant readiness across the salesforce on product knowledge and selling, skills & other critical competencies
2. Marketing and sales teams stay continuously aligned
3. Having a clearer picture of the customer’s interests and pain points
4. Deriving sales effectiveness data which can be mapped to sales KPIs
5. Having a customer-centric sales approach
Hitting the nail in the hammer: Developing a unique sales enablement content strategy with microlearning
There is no standardized approach to sales content management when it comes to sales enablement assets. However, looking at it from a general perspective, there are a few steps that organizations can keep in mind while formulating the best–suited strategy for their salesforce.
1. Aligning each sales enablement content & asset with sales metrics
This step is often overlooked while making sales enablement content, resulting in no alignment between sales goals and results. Therefore, it is important to review and define what a successful sales enablement program looks like for your company before determining how to measure whether your sales teams are achieving their quotas. For instance, even though increasing sales is a great objective in itself, it is important to dive deeper and look at specific goals that can help sales teams achieve the same. This could be based on quantitative and qualitative measures and a mix of lead and lag indicators that constitute overall sales health.
Quantitative lead indicators could include lead velocity, lead conversion, sales cycle, pipeline value, field visits, average potential value et al.
Qualitative indicators could include competencies such as building a unified customer experience, or enhancing virtual selling skills, and so on.
2. Auditing existing sales content
This step involves cataloguing and organizing relevant sales content already available in the organization. For instance, companies often have testimonials, case study or blog posts with relevant data points that could be used by sales reps to build trust with new prospects, generate qualified leads etc.
3. Re-packaging existing content into a bite-sized learning format
Though auditing and organizing content relevant for customer-facing executives is important, a successful sales content strategy doesn’t stop at that. Many times, sales reps may not retain or apply the required information from case studies or might not find the time to read through blogs. In this case, converting the available content into bite-sized microlearning content enabling sales reps to learn on the go. Along with bite-sized modules, you can also leverage Master-Oto repackage traditional assessments into interactive game-based assessments that ensure better retention, habitual practice and a heightened enablement experience.
Microlearning and game-based learning are designed to make sales training & enablement content easily accessible and faster to retain. Think of your sales reps going through a series of bite sized microlearning content on digital flashcards during a five-minute downtime and learning about a new product launch. Such interactive and engaging learning will surely help them retain relevant knowledge better.
4. Aligning sales enablement content with the customer's journey & sales management
Top of the funnel
This refers to the beginning of the customer’s journey. At this stage, sales reps should focus on the customer intent. This helps in striking a better conversation with the potential customer and engaging in the right conversations. For instance, training sales reps to tactfully handle customer objections and answer customer queries can ensure lead conversion further down the pipeline.
Middle of the funnel
This stage involves potential customers considering you, comparing you to competitors, and looking up your reviews. Here the sales rep needs to be equipped with more customer-specific details and evidence to convert the lead into a customer. For instance, Insurance companies are now trying to step up their TAT and make the most out of omnichannel engagement in the face of a growing customer base in the past couple of years. As a sales rep pitching to insurance companies, leveraging sales enablement content from marketing that showcases prior work done in reducing TAT would in turn, enable them to convert leads into customers faster.
Bottom of the funnel
This is the stage where conversion matters. Highlighting business outcomes based on the customer pain points & answering any major or minor objections play a key role in ensuring higher conversion. Sales enablement content mapped to this part of the funnel should include sales talks, playbooks for various industries on answering objections, business ROI analysis from case studies, ready references. More importantly, each of these sales & marketing assets should be available and retrievable by reps on the spot to impress prospects and build that additional layer of trust to take the plunge and invest in your company.
5. Measuring the success of your sales enablement & sales content strategy
Finally, make sure to measure the effectiveness of your strategy. Understand what sales & marketing content is being used, what is the level of engagement with each asset and are sales reps referring, referencing and sharing assets across the customer journey & sales cycle. With better insights into what specific content and knowledge are resonating with your prospects, you can better inform your sales teams and hone in on creating relevant & more engaging enablement material.
Leveraging Master-O for sales enablement & sales content management
Master-O is an all-in-one sales enablement platform that ensures sellers have the skills, knowledge, and content they need to optimize team success in a virtual world. Master-O empowers reps with relevant microlearning content they need to close deals faster, and the personalized coaching and learning they require for continuous improvement. Nearly 250,000 sales executives leverage Master-O to revolutionize the way they onboard, train, collaborate, and sell.
To learn more about Master-O and learning and enablement in the flow of work, please visit masteroapp.com or schedule a demo to discover how Master-O can redefine sales enablement for your organization.