The first quarter of the year is a time when a lot of teams take stock. They look back at the previous year and consider what they can do better in the coming year. For sales ops folks, that typically involves asking the sales team what they need.
But that conversation can be extremely frustrating.
“We need more tools,” they say. “We need better content. We need better dashboards, better training.”
To which sales ops responds, “What about all the new tools, content, dashboards, and training we gave you last year? Why didn’t that help you increase productivity?”
A More Strategic Approach to Sales Enablement
You might be tempted to conclude that you just haven’t provided the right kind of tools and content. Maybe this year you can do better.
However, our research has shown that the most successful sales ops teams take a different approach to sales enablement.
More content often actually slows teams down. They have to go looking for the information they need. They have to sort through a lot of different tools to figure out which one they should be using at a particular stage in the process.
Instead of providing more, the best sales ops teams become more strategic. Instead of increasing the quantity of tools and content available, they provided more targeted and timely tools and content.
More specifically, these teams anticipate the decisions the sales reps need to make and deliver the right answers at the right moment. They map the selling journey from the reps’ perspective. They identify moments when reps pause or guess about what to do next. And then they provide clear, contextual guidance around those moments.
Critical Sales Enablement Questions
Every selling process is unique, but there are some similarities. No matter what business you are in, your sales team probably needs answers to the following questions:
- Strategic Buying Questions
- What should this customer really be buying?
- What are the likely expansion paths for this type of account?
- Which customers like this have historically been most profitable—and why?
- Pricing Questions
- What price should I quote for this deal?
- What’s the typical discount range for similar deals—and where’s the line I shouldn’t cross?
- What terms create the best long-term outcomes?
- Competitive Intelligence Questions
- What are the alternatives this customer is likely considering?
- What strengths and weaknesses matter most in this competitive situation?
- How have we won or lost deals like this in the past?
- Customer Readiness & Qualification Questions
- Is this prospect worth pursuing right now?
- What early signals suggest this deal will (or won’t) close?
- What are the biggest risk factors I should watch for?
- Sales Process Navigation Questions
- What’s the next best action for a deal in this stage?
- What content or messaging works best at this point in the buyer’s journey?
- Who internally needs to be involved to move this deal forward?
It might be tempting to answer these questions with more tools or more content repositories.
That would be exactly the wrong approach.
Instead, consider how you can deliver this information within the existing workflow. How can you use the deal characteristics, stage, opportunity type, or customer profile to trigger the delivery of critical intelligence.
We deal with this concept in more depth in a trio of resources: Effective Sales Enablement, Delivering No-Brainer Sales Guidance, and Maximizing and Measuring Sales Tools. All three can help you create better sales enablement tools that can speed your sales team up instead of slowing them down.
Let this be the year that you don’t do more but instead become more strategic.
Effective Sales Enablement
The concept of "sales enablement" can be somewhat confusing. While there are different definitions, our research has identified a number of core themes and best practices that spell success.
Delivering No-Brainer Sales Guidance
Equipping the sales team with relevant, data-driven guidance is a priority for many Sales Ops groups. In this on-demand webinar, learn the key ingredients for delivering guidance your reps will actually use.
Maximizing & Measuring Sales Tools
How do you get everything you can out of your investments in sales tools? In this session, learn about a proven five phase best practice framework for becoming more proactive and effective.
