What are the key features of a sales enablement platform that you can't live without?

What makes a good sales enablement program? A key component of a comprehensive sales enablement plan is a fully mapped-out customer path. That way, you can provide your reps with the knowledge that they need to curate their messaging specifically for where prospects are within their customer journey. It boosts your bottom line by, 1. Providing your reps with the resources they need to sell more effectively 2. Keeping them up to date with the latest sales, market, company, products, and customer-related information 3. Engaging them with their work and helping them be productive 4. Allowing them to successfully target valuable buyers and engage them with interesting content 5. And more consistently meet or even exceed their sales goals

After using multiple CMS' like Showpad, HighSpot, and Seismic, here are my top 4 key features: 1. Version control to track changes and maintain document integrity 2. Analytics to measure content performance and user engagement 3. Integration capabilities with other tools like CRM systems for seamless workflows 4. Robust search functionality for quick access to content and customizable user permissions to control access levels

In my experience: 1. Align sales and marketing teams with clear goals, tasks, and knowledge sharing 2. Learn winning attitudes and skills from top-performing sellers, and transform those behaviors into skills for other sellers to learn and replicate. 3. Optimize material for better win rates with content insights. 4. Accelerate the onboarding ramp process for new hires 5. Keep sellers up to date on new strategies, product launches, and market approaches. 6. Keep track of KPIs and goals.

I couldn't agree more. However, it is worth noting that there are many well-established sales enablement platforms that heavily depend on tags and folder structures for content organization, resulting in sales enablement teams dedicating excessive time to administrative tasks. Moreover, reps often find themselves navigating through a labyrinth of folders to locate the content they need. In my opinion, to truly empower reps in engaging with buyers, we need a solution that seamlessly delivers the most contextually relevant content within their flow of work. This approach will enable reps to provide prompt, satisfying responses to prospect inquiries and significantly enhance their ability to build strong rapport.

When GTM teams roll out content management tools, they almost always face adoption problems. Despite what marketing materials may tell you, this is true of all the tools in this space and the reason is simple. Humans are social creatures, when looking for something the first thing they'll do is ask the person sitting next to them, then message on Slack, then send an email asking for it. It doesn't matter how many tags and how powerful search is, if somebody has to leave their workflow, they'll always default to asking. So the question you to ask is how in-workflow is the tool you're considering, how does it remove that 'asking' step, how does it serve content without looking, instantly. Then go buy Flockjay (I have no affiliation)

I started creating content libraries years ago, LONG before there were many tools to help our sales teams. This is one of the most asked for items, and also one of the most forgotten about in orgs. Training, and good enablement also means easy access AND right information at the right time in the right formats. How? - Self-serve. Give messaging. Templates. Formats and let the teams personalize. - Monitor and track. What's working. What's not? When did they use it in sales process and did it have an impact - Survey your teams. What do you they need? When? How often do they need it to be updated. Make it available inside a CRM, make it usable, friendly, customizable and most of all relevant..

Curious, content management can be done by a digital asset management system (DAM). Some of those DAM have native integration to SFDC. With this being said, all SE vendors tout Marketing Content as a pillar of Sales Enablement, it isn't. Sales Content is a marketing function.

My must-haves in a sales enablement platform? 1/ Content Management – A deal breaker! Having all your content in one easy-to-search spot is a must. 2/ Analytics & Reporting – Tracking what content’s actually working helps keep everything on track and results-focused. 3/ Integrations with CRM & Tools – Smooth integration with HubSpot or other tools is a huge time-saver for the team. 4/ Sales Training & Coaching – Built-in resources for training and coaching ensure the team stays sharp and aligned. 5/ Collaboration Features – Real-time feedback and easy collaboration make teamwork efficient and hassle-free. These features are key to keeping things running smoothly and effectively.

- Scalability is huge. - Relatability even bigger. One size fits all is NOT the way. - Make sure managers/leaders AND reps are trained. They all need training. - Offer quarterly training that's optional to help enhance - Ensure there is cross-functional training. Products, on the market, how to position, competitor training, and new products/features. Holistic view of the company and the prospects is key in training - Make it interactive, fun, enjoyable, and ensure things like simulations, role-play and as much face to face (or Zoom time is possible) All recorded trainings with no human interaction NEVER work as well but you know what does? Tying some of this to comp/KPI's and goals

An LMS must have user-friendly course creation tools, facilitating easy content authoring and organization. Robust tracking and reporting capabilities are essential for monitoring learner progress and assessing the effectiveness of training initiatives. Most importantly, an intuitive user interface promotes seamless navigation and enhances the overall learning experience. Interactivity features such as quizzes, assessments, and discussion forums foster engagement and knowledge retention among learners.

Sales community didn't exist when I started. But with community, communication and collaboration tools that exist now it's a no-brainer. - Share wins and losses, but not do a deep-dive win/loss analysis. - Ask sales teams to share best practices at each sales stage - Bring together teams for monthly debriefs, even in an online community - Sales people are competitive.. gamify it. Really! Quizzes.. feedback.. most collaboration that helps teams win.. gets a prize. - Create a culture where collaboration helps every win. You're not competing against each other, you're competing against other companies. Have an area where people can ask for real time feedback and assistance, not just from managers but peers

Sales isn't a solo gig; it's a team sport. Your platform should be the ultimate locker room where your sales team can huddle up, share insights, and game-plan. Think chat, discussion boards, and real-time collaboration. Keep those lines of communication wide open. Tip: Integration is key. Your platform should play nicely with other tools like email, CRM, and project management apps.

Key features of a sales enablement platform include robust analytics and insights, critical for optimizing sales strategies. These tools provide detailed data on content usage, engagement rates, and sales performance, enabling teams to identify what resonates with prospects and tailor their approach accordingly. Analytics also highlight training gaps and areas for improvement, ensuring that sales reps are effectively equipped. Insight into customer interactions and preferences helps in personalizing sales pitches, improving close rates, and enhancing overall sales efficiency. In essence, analytics and insights are indispensable for data-driven decision-making and strategic sales planning.

1. Performance Evaluation: Tracking which content assets are frequently accessed or shared, helps identify top-performing materials 2. Content Optimization: If a particular video tutorial receives high engagement, similar content can be created to capitalize on its success 4. Sales Coaching: Tracking completion rates of training modules can highlight topics that require reinforcement 4. Alignment with Marketing: Tracking which marketing-generated leads convert to sales and attributing them to specific marketing campaigns helps refine targeting and messaging strategies 5. Forecasting and Strategy: Identifying trends in sales cycles or conversion rates can help leaders allocate resources effectively and set realistic targets

Of all the features of an enablement platform, the most important (imho) are analytics and insights. Many tools have solid LMS or CMS functionality. What's rare is an enablement tool that has reporting that allows you to tie it back to key business metrics like pipeline, conversion rates, and win rates. Measuring the adoption of your materials is all well and good but unless you can easily tie your learner's journey to business outcomes your money is better spent on a sales engagement platform. #spicyopinion

The difference between good and great enablement platforms is reporting and analytics. The best are purpose built as enablement platforms that support this capability as a primary function, rather than an add on to a platform that is primarily a CMS. And of all these analytics, the most critical to understand are content usage that tracks back to seller performance, and the ability to track completion of learning paths or modules via an easy to use dashboard that each people manager can access.

Analytics has numerous questions to answer but here's 3. Remember lots of data for the sake of data only leads to analysis paralysis. When you can weave data to tell a story and answer the WHY and help with planning.. then you have a good structure in place. here's 3 questions to ask about data 1) What question does the data answer. What pain point/problem are we trying to solve with it (just like you approach your prospects) 2) Is it actionable.. can we do something with it.. or is it just another piece of data or number we have 3) Is there some analysis/trends we can follow.. what's next? Are we going to follow it to help our company decide on further investments in product for example

By automating the grunt work—think data entry, lead gen, and follow-ups—we free up our sales reps to focus on what they do best: sell. 💼 Plus, with AI dishing out smart recommendations on content, timing, and next steps, we're not just shooting in the dark; we're hitting our targets with precision. 🎯 A reliable, adaptable, and scalable AI system isn't just a nice-to-have; it's going to become a must-have for supercharging sales efficiency and intelligence.

Automation is key, and has been a newer one for me to learn. There's process. There's automation. Then there's human. You need a mix of all. Define the process. See how automation and AI can help simplify this so the tasks aren't all on you and humans focus on the follow-up, building relationships, engagement, trust, AND tweaking things when they don't work. AI is smart. You are smarter in that you know your environment best of all

If it's not: - Easy -Useful -Helps a salesperson do their job and close deals - Helps identify trends/helps make life easier in some way then they don't want it. Tasks to say you checked off the box will a) rarely be done b) rarely be done well c) cause lots of friction with enablement/ops and sales To gain user adoption have an easy UI, an easier reason for why things exist as they do and MOST important: Get feedback from sales. I can't say it enough. Sales teams are your partners,

A sellers job is to sell. Period. Anything else is wasted time. CRM user-friendliness and automation are great ways to reduce non-revenue driving tasks and other points of friction in the sales process. On top of this, sales enablement platforms that making it easy for sellers to use the CRM fluidly and have all the information they need in one place, is vital these days. Your sales enablement platform(s) should educate and support sellers on internal processes, but also integrate with your CRM well, so that sellers never have to hop around between siloed systems. User adoption is about giving sellers access to everything they need to sell, under one roof.

Sales enablement systems are never perfect, so it is essential to build feedback systems that require the least amount of input to flag a problem. Sellers are busy and have multiple things to do every day, so flagging errors in content, raising a support ticket or suggesting a feature enhancement tends to be way down the list of priorities. This means the sales enablement team is often unaware of many issues that could be easily rectified if they only knew they existed. Having a robust, low-friction process that helps sellers quickly flag something for you to follow up and then get back to selling will pay for itself in no time.