The Enlightenment of Sales Enablement

I had the good fortune to be invited to join four new LinkedIn Groups all around the area of Sales Enablement.  In Brian Lamberts’ “Sales Enablement Leader Exchange” Group, Brian makes this statement:

“What exactly is Sales Enablement?

Sales enablement is the process of arming an organization’s sales force with access to the insight, experts, and information that will ultimately increase revenue. It is a term that has gained momentum in the last decade. It is often used to describe a variety of tools, processes and methodologies that are applied to enable a sales force, both direct and indirect. The terms “sales effectiveness” and “sales readiness” are sometime used interchangeably to denote Sales Enablement as well.”

Brian then offers a couple of publications that have written about this subject like the Gartner Group and Business Exchange that says: “The key to accelerating revenues and enabling sales, is presenting sales people with qualified accounts that are ready to buy. Sales enablement discusses strategies, tactics, and programs that motivate prospects to move through the buying process — without sales intervention. Examples of sales enablement include pinpointing the most promising clients, developing personalized solutions, raising awareness of a company and its solutions, and staying top of mind until prospects are ready to buy.”

It is my humble belief that we are now in the age of Enlightenment around the need for sales enablement or sales effectiveness. I think that it is clear that in todays challenging marketplace that we need to equip our sales people with the best tools available. But more than that, we need to provide them with the knowledge and experience that has been a success within their own organization, so they can capitalize on what is already known that works.

I am very pleased to have joined these groups and am excited about entering into discussions with some of the industries best minds in this area; people like: Tom Pisello of Alinean, Brian Lambert of Forrester Research, Wendy Reed at TAS, Nancy Nardin of Smart Selling Tools, Paul Krajewski, Bis-Sphere, Jill Konrath and many more. I hope to bring some great insights to all of you from these discussions.