Overcome the obstacles. Turn sales enablement to buyer ...

All businesses try to help their teams sell. Selling is, after all, the primary focus of most businesses. Some see selling as the endgame, others as one of the means to other corporate goals ? shareholder value for example. Selling is a dominant force in determining culture and operation.

Which has helped ?sales enablement? become a critical focus for marketing organisations.

But supporting sales isn?t push-button. At MTD spend quite a bit of time working out not just what to produce to support sales, but how to support them, the kind of sales teams we?re working with ? and what they need to be supported in. Businesses have a wide variety of channels they need supporting from us in:

• Small in-house sales teams supporting remote sellers
• Extended teams conducting sophisticated engagement ? needing lead gen, pipeline management etc
• Increasing exploration of online sales models
• Social and digital, CRM programming, digital body language analysis (seldom properly explored internally)

The businesses we work with all need support in some, or all, of these areas to have better conversations with any audiences, whether directly with consumers, with resellers, or other businesses.

So far so straightforward. But while we?re driving sales enablement and equipping sales teams, it?s easy to forget the other half of the equation. Buyer behaviour. The way people buy has changed fundamentally, driven by digital channels, smart technology and a culture of self-determination. All buyers, business and consumer, dislike being sold to. They want to choose freely, with absolute clarity, 24/7.

What does that mean in practice? First, it means (according to Harvard Business School) that traditional sales ? on which a lot of businesses focus 100% of sales enablement ? now amount to only 15% of the entire buying process. Second, it?s resulted in buyers wanting something different: challenge. Challenger sales, as we cited in a previous blog, are now far more effective than traditional ?relationship? selling ? 34% effective, according to Gartner, as against 9%. ?

It?s amazing that despite clear evidence that the nature of buyers and thus sales has changed, many businesses aren?t addressing their sales enablement processes.

We meet this need by making Sales Enablement part of a bigger story: Buyer Enablement. That means we do much more than give sales teams tools and help them with engagements (though we do that a great deal as well); we define the entire buyer journey, map the perfect channels and create the best content to engage them with, and work with everyone in their services ? in sales, customer service, marketing ? to help them do more. At the same time we create ways, through every tool, technology and channel, for buyers to discover, trust and buy from our clients, wherever and whoever they are.

This is sales enablement, for today?s bigger, faster world. A new way to overcome obstacles and succeed in a crowded, hard to penetrate market. By doing something most of the competition isn?t ? and looking beyond the normal.

So what?s the relevance for you? Well, as businesses look to streamline their sales and marketing organisations (whilst addressing the challenges presented by changing buyer behaviours) we believe that Buyer Enablement creates a more effective and efficient operation ? delivering greater relevance to your buyers and moving more potential buyers to your brand.

To discuss how MTD can support your business, get in touch here ? or reach out to us on Twitter @MTD_agency and #buyertobrand.?

Source: http://www.marketingteamdirect.com/mtd-blog/uncategorized/overcome-the-obstacles-turn-sales-enablement-to-buyer-enablement

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