Let’s be honest: has your company actually sat down and created a formal strategic vision for your sales enablement program? Chances are you haven’t.
A strategic vision determines which goals to prioritize, how to accomplish them, and how the elements of your sales enablement program work together. It can also be a lot of work.
While it may seem easier to just wing it, flying by the seat of your pants isn’t the best approach when it comes to sales enablement. While it may solve your short-term problems, it’s only setting you up for bigger problems later on. These are Band-Aid solutions that aren’t integrated with each other, and as a result disconnected programs may actually hinder what you try to do in the future.
CSO Insights Research shows that only 48.5% of companies who run sales enablement programs approach them with a formal vision, while the rest treat it as either a one-off project (12.1%) or only have an informal vision (39.4%).
A formal strategic vision is absolutely critical for true sales enablement success. And the first step is defining what you want the program to achieve.
The top five goals of most sales enablement programs are:
- Increase in sales efficiency
- Increase in revenue
- Increase in new account acquisition
- Increase in win rates of forecast deals
- Reduction in sales cycle length
You don’t have to tackle each of these goals separately. You can go after more than one goal at the same time. In fact, success in one goal may also bring success in the other. This is more easily accomplished if you have a strategic vision that properly connects the goals with the tactics you’ll employ.
Don’t do things half-heartedly! Sit down with your team and develop a formal strategic vision for your sales enablement program. It will make a big difference in the program’s scope and effectiveness.
What strategies make you a sensational salesperson? Share your thoughts below, or check out how top-performing companies step up their game in the 2015 Sales Enablement Key Trends Analysis.