Starting Out with Sales Enablement

1. Starting Out with Sales Enablement How-To Guide Starting Out with Sales Enablement EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Supporting your sales representatives with the right information, knowledge, tools and advice to win more business seems like a ‘nobrainer’ idea. Unfortunately for many mid-sized enterprises, this ideal is not fully realized. If you are not happy with the sales results in your organization it might be time for a Sales Enablement initiative. This guide will provide you with: a definition for Sales Enablement; explain what ‘enabled’ reps can do more effectively; discuss the problems with traditional sales enablement strategies; provide a maturity model; give you a framework for effective sales enablement; define ‘Sales Playbooks’; help you understand why sales playbooks are needed; and outline an action plan for implementing a ‘best practice’ sales enablement strategy in your organization. WHAT IS SALES ENABLEMENT? Sales Enablement is a new and emerging function within most organizations today. As such, like all emerging arenas, the definition of Sales Enablement often shifts depending on the perspective of the company, user and implementation. Still, based on our research a foundation definition of Sales Enablement is clear. Demand Metric defines Sales Enablement as the processes, practices, technologies and tools that improve the performance and productivity of the sales organization. Sales Enablement enhances the ability of the sales team to increase company revenue through sales. Bottom-Line – Sales Enablement drives revenue by directly impacting the sales teams’ ability to close more deals. © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

2. How-To Guide EFFECTIVENESS OF SALES “ENABLED” REPS “Enabled” sales reps can be more effective in the following areas: 1. Understand Buyer Needs – including industry trends, common business problems, and the competitive options available to buyers to solve their issues. 2. Sell New Products – get up to speed quickly on recently launched products. 3. Deal with Objections – learn how to respond to common objections with answers that have been proven to put the buyer at ease and change their thinking about a key issue. 4. Pitch with Confidence – having the knowledge, information and tools they need, inspires more sales rep confidence. 5. Equip Champions – provide internal ‘champions’ with content that can be used to sell your solution to other key stakeholders. PROBLEMS WITH TRADITONAL SALES ENABLEMENT In many organizations, “Sales Enablement” has been a one-way inclusion of marketing materials into a sales portal or intranet without any real insight into what’s being used or is valued by the buyer. Symptoms of a failing Sales Enablement strategy include content repositories that contain:  Too much content – good quality material is buried amongst the volume of documents  Minimal insight – Marketing has no idea what content is used by Sales  Organized by product – rather than by buyer profile, industry or specific sales situation  Out of date content – reps store files locally and use out-dated sales documents  Adoption issues – when not integrated with CRM, mobile devices, reps don’t use it © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. How-To Guide EFFECTIVENESS OF SALES “ENABLED” REPS “Enabled” sales reps can be more effective in the following areas: 1. Understand Buyer Needs – including industry trends, common business problems, and the competitive options available to buyers to solve their issues. 2. Sell New Products – get up to speed quickly on recently launched products. 3. Deal with Objections – learn how to respond to common objections with answers that have been proven to put the buyer at ease and change their thinking about a key issue. 4. Pitch with Confidence – having the knowledge, information and tools they need, inspires more sales rep confidence. 5. Equip Champions – provide internal ‘champions’ with content that can be used to sell your solution to other key stakeholders. PROBLEMS WITH TRADITONAL SALES ENABLEMENT In many organizations, “Sales Enablement” has been a one-way inclusion of marketing materials into a sales portal or intranet without any real insight into what’s being used or is valued by the buyer. Symptoms of a failing Sales Enablement strategy include content repositories that contain:  Too much content – good quality material is buried amongst the volume of documents  Minimal insight – Marketing has no idea what content is used by Sales  Organized by product – rather than by buyer profile, industry or specific sales situation  Out of date content – reps store files locally and use out-dated sales documents  Adoption issues – when not integrated with CRM, mobile devices, reps don’t use it © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

3. How-To Guide DEMAND METRIC’S SALES ENABLEMENT MATURITY MODEL Undefined Stage 1       Progressive Stage 2 No CRM or Marketing Automation System in place Sales Collateral distributed via email New reps hit quota in 9 months. Sales Process & Buying Process are not defined Success metrics are unknown and not tracked Win Rate is less than 10%       CRM System in place with reasonable rep adoption Sales Collateral distributed via portal or intranet New reps hit quota in 6 months. Sales Process defined but not mapped to buying process Success metrics for top performing reps are known Win Rate is between 1020% Mature World-Class Stage 3       CRM, Marketing Automation and Sales Enablement systems are in place Sales Collateral distributed via Sales Enablement platform New reps hit quota in 4 months. Sales Process is mapped to Buying Process Success metrics tracked Win Rate is 20% or greater Stage 4       All systems are accessible on mobile devices Sales Collateral has rating and included in Playbook New reps hit quota in 3 months. Content is mapped to buying and sales process by persona Success metrics are managed closely to get reps performing Win Rate is 25% or greater DEMAND METRIC’S PATCHES FRAMEWORK FOR SALES ENABLEMENT P – Playbooks: build a Playbook to equip reps with the knowledge, tools, & activities A – Assets: put content & assets in a system that allows sales reps to rate them T – Training: use a methodology like SPIN Selling to standardize your sales process C – Commitment: get commitment from Sales to rate materials created by Marketing H – Hiring: sales reps with the same skills and attitudes as your current star performers © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. How-To Guide DEMAND METRIC’S SALES ENABLEMENT MATURITY MODEL Undefined Stage 1       Progressive Stage 2 No CRM or Marketing Automation System in place Sales Collateral distributed via email New reps hit quota in 9 months. Sales Process & Buying Process are not defined Success metrics are unknown and not tracked Win Rate is less than 10%       CRM System in place with reasonable rep adoption Sales Collateral distributed via portal or intranet New reps hit quota in 6 months. Sales Process defined but not mapped to buying process Success metrics for top performing reps are known Win Rate is between 1020% Mature World-Class Stage 3       CRM, Marketing Automation and Sales Enablement systems are in place Sales Collateral distributed via Sales Enablement platform New reps hit quota in 4 months. Sales Process is mapped to Buying Process Success metrics tracked Win Rate is 20% or greater Stage 4       All systems are accessible on mobile devices Sales Collateral has rating and included in Playbook New reps hit quota in 3 months. Content is mapped to buying and sales process by persona Success metrics are managed closely to get reps performing Win Rate is 25% or greater DEMAND METRIC’S PATCHES FRAMEWORK FOR SALES ENABLEMENT P – Playbooks: build a Playbook to equip reps with the knowledge, tools, & activities A – Assets: put content & assets in a system that allows sales reps to rate them T – Training: use a methodology like SPIN Selling to standardize your sales process C – Commitment: get commitment from Sales to rate materials created by Marketing H – Hiring: sales reps with the same skills and attitudes as your current star performers © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

4. How-To Guide E – Enabling Technology: CRM, Marketing Automation & Sales Enablement S – Sales Process: align sales & buying processes and build content for personas WHAT IS A SALES PLAYBOOK? A Sales Playbook is a collection of information, knowledge, sales tools, and activities that have been proven to assist with closing business in a variety of common sales situations. You can structure your playbook like this:  Company Overview  Stage 2 – Discovery/Qualify  Marketing Insights  Stage 3 – Consideration/Demo  Sales Opportunities  Stage 4 – Decision/Proposal  Stage 1 – Need/Prospecting  Stage 5 – Review/Contract © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. How-To Guide E – Enabling Technology: CRM, Marketing Automation & Sales Enablement S – Sales Process: align sales & buying processes and build content for personas WHAT IS A SALES PLAYBOOK? A Sales Playbook is a collection of information, knowledge, sales tools, and activities that have been proven to assist with closing business in a variety of common sales situations. You can structure your playbook like this:  Company Overview  Stage 2 – Discovery/Qualify  Marketing Insights  Stage 3 – Consideration/Demo  Sales Opportunities  Stage 4 – Decision/Proposal  Stage 1 – Need/Prospecting  Stage 5 – Review/Contract © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

5. How-To Guide WHY IS THE SALES PLAYBOOK A MUST-HAVE? The Sales Playbook is a “must-have” resource for a sales team. These statistics prove the effectiveness of sales playbooks on the sales team’s performance:  51% of reps attain quota at firms using a Sales Playbook, compared to 40% at firms who don’t have a Sales Playbook. (Aberdeen Group)  38% of buyers felt solution providers didn’t provide enough content to help them navigate through each stage of the buying process. (Demand Gen Report)  Only 8% of B2B companies say they have tight alignment between sales and marketing. (Forrester)  65% of companies said sales teams use less than 50% of marketing content as it is not accessible, low impact or inappropriate. (Corporate Visions) WHERE DO SALES PLAYBOOKS HELP THE MOST? Sales Playbooks are most useful in the following situations:  On-Boarding New Hires Faster – when new high-caliber sales reps join your firm, they will get up to speed quicker by following the ‘best practices’ or ‘plays’ used by top performing reps rather than learning from their own experiences and failures.  Improving Performance for Average Reps – by showing a repeatable process for how your star performers achieve their results, you can increase the performance of ‘middle-of-the-pack’ reps who are generally the ones who affect the bottom-line most.  Radiating & Penetrating Key Accounts – in tough competitive environments or mature industries, having key knowledge about competitors, buyer needs, and industry-based solutions can make the difference between growing an account or losing it. © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. How-To Guide WHY IS THE SALES PLAYBOOK A MUST-HAVE? The Sales Playbook is a “must-have” resource for a sales team. These statistics prove the effectiveness of sales playbooks on the sales team’s performance:  51% of reps attain quota at firms using a Sales Playbook, compared to 40% at firms who don’t have a Sales Playbook. (Aberdeen Group)  38% of buyers felt solution providers didn’t provide enough content to help them navigate through each stage of the buying process. (Demand Gen Report)  Only 8% of B2B companies say they have tight alignment between sales and marketing. (Forrester)  65% of companies said sales teams use less than 50% of marketing content as it is not accessible, low impact or inappropriate. (Corporate Visions) WHERE DO SALES PLAYBOOKS HELP THE MOST? Sales Playbooks are most useful in the following situations:  On-Boarding New Hires Faster – when new high-caliber sales reps join your firm, they will get up to speed quicker by following the ‘best practices’ or ‘plays’ used by top performing reps rather than learning from their own experiences and failures.  Improving Performance for Average Reps – by showing a repeatable process for how your star performers achieve their results, you can increase the performance of ‘middle-of-the-pack’ reps who are generally the ones who affect the bottom-line most.  Radiating & Penetrating Key Accounts – in tough competitive environments or mature industries, having key knowledge about competitors, buyer needs, and industry-based solutions can make the difference between growing an account or losing it. © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

6. How-To Guide ACTION PLAN 1. Download our Sales Enablement Plan Methodology - for a stepby-step framework and many tools & templates to get you kickstarted on this initiative. 2. Conduct a Sales Enablement Readiness Assessment - to determine if now is the right time for your organization to be looking at this. 3. Audit your existing assets - with our Marketing Collateral Management Tool to identify the condition of your existing sales tools and content. 4. Create a Sales Playbook - that contains all of the relevant information, tools and advice that sales reps will need to close more business, share best practices, and understand the productivity requirements for their position BOTTOM LINE If you are not happy with your sales results, take a look at your Sales Enablement processes, systems and tools to see if you could do a better job to prepare your sales reps to have meaningful conversations with their prospects and customers. © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. How-To Guide ACTION PLAN 1. Download our Sales Enablement Plan Methodology - for a stepby-step framework and many tools & templates to get you kickstarted on this initiative. 2. Conduct a Sales Enablement Readiness Assessment - to determine if now is the right time for your organization to be looking at this. 3. Audit your existing assets - with our Marketing Collateral Management Tool to identify the condition of your existing sales tools and content. 4. Create a Sales Playbook - that contains all of the relevant information, tools and advice that sales reps will need to close more business, share best practices, and understand the productivity requirements for their position BOTTOM LINE If you are not happy with your sales results, take a look at your Sales Enablement processes, systems and tools to see if you could do a better job to prepare your sales reps to have meaningful conversations with their prospects and customers. © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.