Sales and marketing teams don’t always play nice, and there rarely is an opportunity for effective sales enablement.
Though both teams pursue the same top-line goals, their approaches can differ dramatically.
Here are a few thoughts on how to bridge the gaps in content strategy and execution.
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way
You don’t have to be a data scientist to appreciate the advantages of aligning your business’ revenue-driving teams.
At the same time, data can speak volumes:
Cross-functional alignment among sales, marketing, and product organizations can help companies achieve up to 19 percent faster revenue growth—and 15 percent higher profitability. — SiriusDecisions
Cross-functional sales enablement that excels here can be as simple as increased communications.
Or it can be as complicated as tearing apart an organization and starting a content approval process from scratch.
The important thing to remember is that sales, marketing, and product teams all want the same results: Faster conversions in less time.
And with modern sales technology, you can achieve these goals more easily and effectively than you ever imagined.
Set a Realistic Starting Point for Tangible Results
Don’t let yourself feel overwhelmed; the path to sales enablement is as simple as…
Step One:
- Create a cross-functional alignment team.
- Choose leaders who are closest to your customers and your market. You need individuals who understand how well alignment works. And the cost of misalignment.
Step Two:
- Agree on common strategy and goals.
- Ensure team understands incentives. Be clear that the direction of your strategy is driven by the best tools and platforms for your team.
Step Three:
- Establish regular communication and feedback.
- This is often one of the most overlooked and underdeveloped sales enablement components. Be sure to document key performance indicators. Keep an open channel for customer feedback so you can learn from what’s working and improve on what’s not.
Step Four:
- Fix content gaps.
- Create a content audit. Analyze the usability and effectiveness of your team’s content. This is your opportunity to create a content wish-list. Fill in the gaps with content your team demands most.
Step Five:
- Institute a closed-loop improvement process.
- The final step here is the difference between success and the status quo, or the alignment on paper vs. real life. Read on to learn more.
Make Sales Enablement Work
A closed-loop improvement process can increase communication and build stronger results.
When it comes to a knowledge transfer pipeline, we see end-to-end strategies used (and failing) all the time.
But that end-to-end strategy doesn’t give visibility into sales content use.
And it certainly doesn’t illuminate how the customer perceives and uses that content.
Here’s what closed-loop sales enablement looks, and how it benefits all parties involved:
This is our final step for a reason: Smarter sales content analytics provide data to drive your most important business decisions.
This includes receiving feedback on content and harnessing customer insights.
Modern sales enablement tools make cross-enterprise alignment more achievable today than ever before.
One of the most important driving factors for this alignment is the data which comes from good content, strategy, tactics, and teamwork.
