11 Sales Initiatives to Help You Close More Deals

Helen Waite on January 16, 2025

The start of the new year is the perfect time to reflect on the year that’s passed and set sales goals for the year ahead. As a CRO, you might have goals like:

  • Improving sales performance
  • Closing more deals
  • Growing revenue
  • Boosting customer retention

But jotting down these sales goals doesn’t mean you’ll achieve them. Instead, you must plan and decide what sales initiatives you’ll implement to support your sales objectives.

A sales initiative is a strategic program or effort that helps the sales team overcome challenges and achieve their goals for a specific time period. Depending on your sales strategy and goals, there are many different types of sales initiatives.

Which sales initiatives are the right ones to boost sales performance? To help you get started, we’ve curated a list of 11 top sales initiatives you should consider in 2025.

#1 Identify your sellers’ strengths and weaknesses

Today, most organizations invest in sales enablement and training programs to help prepare their sellers for success. In fact, per a recent Salesforce report, improving sales enablement and training is the top growth tactic for sales leaders.

Sales training and enablement programs must be personalized to each seller’s unique needs if they are to be effective. Yet, only 40% of C-level executives say they can identify a rep’s strengths and weaknesses for customized training.

of execs can identify rep strengths and weaknesses
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One foundational sales initiative is to develop Ideal Rep Profiles (IRPs), which define the skills and competencies your sellers need for success. Remember: different sales roles should have different IRPs, each requiring unique skills and competencies.

Then, you can measure each seller against the appropriate IRP to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Doing so is foundational to providing them with the support they need to be successful.

#2 Deliver personalized training paths to each seller

Often, organizations blanket the entire sales team with the same sales training. Of course, every seller must take certain training. But this one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work.

When you take this approach, some sellers waste their time on irrelevant (but mandatory) training. This is time they could be used to engage buyers and close deals. On the other hand, you have sellers who aren’t getting the training they need to close skill gaps.

Make 2025 the year you adopt a different sales initiative: delivering training personalized to each seller’s needs. Once you’ve established your IRPS and used them to measure your sales reps, you can then deliver unique learning paths that help each seller improve their skills and performance.

#3 Use conversation intelligence to get insight on what’s happening in the field

Imagine this scenario. You have a seller who consistently completes all assigned training and sales enablement tasks and performs well on assessments. Yet, they’re still missing their numbers – by a lot.

You probe to understand where things are going south. But the seller struggles to articulate what’s happening on calls, and you don’t have the time to sit in on every call to see for yourself.

This year, consider incorporating a conversation intelligence tool into your sales strategy, which is a tool that records and analyzes every sales call. With this sales initiative, your sellers won’t have to worry about taking notes; they can focus on the call. And you can get insights into what’s happening in the field. Then, you can provide targeted sales coaching to help reps improve their skills and steer deals back on course.

#4 Tap into AI to improve seller productivity

Most sellers could close more deals if they had more time to sell. But often, they get bogged down with tasks that aren’t driving revenue. Recent research found that sellers spend 70% of their time on non-selling tasks.

A powerful sales initiative for 2025 is identifying ways to leverage artificial intelligence to simplify and streamline the tasks that are taking up much of your sellers’ time. For example, a seller can use AI to draft customer communications rather than starting from scratch every time. Or they can leverage a tool like Mindtickle Copilot to surface proven content for a specific sales situation quickly rather than sinking time into hunting down what they need.

By strategically (and responsibly) leveraging AI, your sellers will have more time to deliver tailored guidance and experiences that meet (and exceed) buyers’ expectations. That means they’ll start closing more deals and boosting sales acceleration.

#5 Measure the true impact of sales enablement

Research shows that 84% of organizations invest in sales enablement programs. Yet, many struggle to measure their impact.

This is a problem, as proving sales enablement ROI is key to keeping the resources you have and potentially scoring more. Furthermore, ongoing measurement is key to understanding what’s working and where there are opportunities to improve your programs to better support your sales strategy.

This year, it’s time to go beyond vanity metrics to truly understand how (and if) your sales enablement efforts impact seller productivity and performance. Your revenue enablement platform should make it easy to keep a pulse on all the key metrics you need to determine impact – all in one place. Then, you can identify opportunities to optimize programs – and maximize impact.

#6 Give sellers new opportunities to practice their skills with AI role-plays

Traditional role-plays are a great way for sellers to perfect their skills. However, typically, sellers have no choice but to wait for their sales manager to provide feedback on recorded role-plays, which can cause delays in skill improvement and deal progress.

This year, innovative revenue organizations will launch a new sales enablement initiative: AI role-plays. These AI-powered role-plays allow sellers to practice their skills with adaptive, realistic AI bots. Sellers can practice as much as they want in a risk-free environment. They can access real-time feedback, which they can use to hone their skills right away and increase their success in the field.

#7 Streamline your sales tech stack

Sales teams depend on the right tools and technology to engage buyers and close deals. But adding more tools isn’t always the right answer.

Recent data tells us about 64% of revenue organizations have 10 or more tools in their tech stacks. Yet, about seven in 10 sales reps are overwhelmed by the number of tools they’re expected to use. They’re spending too much time flipping between tools. Or, they’re simply not using them.

of reps are overwhelmed by the # of tools in their tech stacks
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Now’s the time to examine your tech stack honestly. Examine each tool to determine whether sellers use it and whether it supports your sales strategy and goals.

In addition, look for opportunities to trade one-off tools for integrated solutions. For example, choose an integrated, all-in-one solution instead of having five separate sales enablement tools, each focused on a different pillar of enablement. That way, sellers can find everything they need in one central location. They’ll spend less time searching for what they need and more time engaging with buyers and closing deals.

#8 Implement a sales leadership training and coaching program

Many organizations invest time and resources into developing sales training and coaching programs for reps. But far fewer invest in similar programs for sales managers. And that’s a big problem.

Sales managers are responsible for motivating and leading their teams, but many lack the skills and resources to be successful.

One important sales initiative for 2025 is to implement a sales leadership training and coaching program. These programs should be focused on ensuring your sales managers have the skills and competencies needed to be effective leaders and coaches.

#9 Invest in just-in-time sales enablement

Scheduled training and sales enablement is important. But let’s face it: sellers have questions and needs that can pop up anytime, anywhere.

For example, a prospect might ask a product question that a seller doesn’t know the answer to. If the seller has to wait for an answer from a subject matter expert or dig around for answers, it can hold up the deal.

Consider investing in just-in-time sales enablement. This initiative allows sellers to easily access the information and answers they need whenever and wherever a need arises. Sellers don’t have to wait for a subject matter expert to get back to them, and they don’t have to dig through mountains of content. That means sellers can return to their buyers faster and increase sales acceleration.

#10 Conduct a sales content audit

Sales enablement content plays an important role in the B2B purchase journey. But it’s important to ensure your sales content continues to meet the needs of your buyers and sellers.

Conduct an audit of your sales content to determine whether each asset is being used and whether it’s positively impacting outcomes. Based on this sales enablement initiative, you may refresh certain content and eliminate other assets.

In addition, be sure to map your content to the buyer journey. You may uncover gaps and shed light on opportunities to create additional sales content to support your sellers and buyers.

#11 Centralize sales engagement

Let’s face it: B2B selling is complex. Buying committees are often large, and each stakeholder comes to the table with their preferences and expectations.

It can feel impossible for sellers to address the needs of the entire buying committee and keep everyone on the same page and timeline. This is especially true when most information and content sharing happens via email.

This year, equip your sellers with the right tools to centralize sales engagement. One example is a digital sales room, which serves as a single hub where all members of the buying and selling teams can communicate, share content, and work together on mutual action plans. This sales initiative can keep everyone aligned, making deals more likely to go through – faster.

Why adopt new sales initiatives this year?

Every revenue leader wants to close more deals and grow revenue in the year ahead. But it’s not as simple as telling your sellers to work harder.

B2B selling isn’t easy. Modern B2B buyers have high expectations. They expect personalized, relevant solutions, guidance, and experiences throughout the purchase journey. Multiply that across an entire buying committee, and things can get complicated fast.

Furthermore, we’re seeing a big shift in the way B2B buyers want to engage with businesses. According to Gartner, 75% prefer a rep-free sales experience.

of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience
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And in today’s economic environment, many businesses face reduced budgets. B2B buyers must work harder than ever to articulate value.

This year, sales leaders must adopt initiatives that ensure their sellers are properly equipped to engage with buyers and deliver tailored advice, experiences, and solutions. Only then will those sellers be able to close more deals and contribute to revenue growth,

Of course, it is important to choose the right sales initiatives that align with your goals and priorities. For example, if you’ve developed a go-to-market strategy for a new product offering, you must choose sales initiatives that align with this strategy.

Set yourself up for success with the right sales initiatives

B2B selling has never been easy. But it’s getting even more complicated. Now, more than ever, sales leaders must roll out sales initiatives that help ensure their sellers are equipped to overcome challenges and emerge successful.

Mindtickle is an award-winning revenue enablement platform that empowers winning organizations to create, deliver, and measure sales initiatives like tailored training, coaching, sales content, AI role-plays, digital sales rooms, and more. With Mindtickle, you can create an entire team of top performers who are always ready to crush quota.

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5 Must-Have Sales Performance Dashboards Every CRO Needs

Helen Waite on January 9, 2025

Modern revenue organizations depend on the right tools and technology to fuel their success. In fact, large tech stacks have become the rule rather than the exception. According to research, about 63% of sales leaders have 10 or more tools in their current tech stacks.

of sales leaders say they have 10+ tools in their tech stacks
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But these busy leaders don’t have the time to hunt down the right data across disparate tools, analyze it, and decide how to act.

Instead, they need the right sales performance dashboards to easily unlock holistic insights about what matters, all in one spot. With a complete sales performance dashboard, CROs can understand:

  • Why deals are won or lost
  • When pipeline is at risk
  • Where managers are spending time in sales coaching efforts
  • Which enablement efforts are (or aren’t) working and scalable
  • How to get more sellers hitting quota

But what is a sales performance dashboard? And which dashboards does every CRO need? We’ll answer those questions and more in this post.

What is a sales performance dashboard?

A sales performance dashboard is a single hub for all your most important sales metrics, including sales KPIs, hiring and onboarding metrics, training and coaching metrics, outreach metrics, and sales pipeline metrics. Broken down, here’s what RevOps and sales enablement leaders focus on:

Conversation intelligence, sales forecasting, and Digital Sales Rooms that also include integrations with CRMs and sales engagement tools

Revenue productivity, sales content management, and sales coaching data that also pulls data from tools like HRMS and sales performance solutions

A good sales performance dashboard should go beyond the stuff you find in the CRM and really help you understand which deals are at risk and answer questions like where you have issues with buyer engagement, potential issues with seller efficiency, who needs help on what topics, and how to win more.

For example, you should have visibility into which content and programs truly drive an ROI for customers, voice of market insights from calls on competitors, pricing, and so on.

On top of those considerations, best-in-class sales performance dashboards should also include the following:

This is the total amount of revenue generated by the sales team over a given period of time.

This is the percentage increase or decrease in sales revenue compared to a previous period.

This refers to the number and value of deals that are currently in progress and have not yet closed.

This is the percentage of leads that are converted into customers.

This is the average dollar amount of each closed deal.

This is the amount of time it takes to close a deal, from initial contact to signed contract.

This is the cost of acquiring a new customer, including sales and marketing expenses.

This is the total amount of revenue a customer is expected to generate over their lifetime.

This is a measure of how efficiently the sales team is working, such as the number of calls made or emails sent per day.

This is the percentage of deals that are won versus the percentage that are lost.

Why adoption is not a reliable metric for sales performance

To be blunt: CROs don’t care about adoption. They rely on their CRM to give them data about where deals and forecasts stand, but even those tools aren’t good indicators of whether or not the team will hit quota. Looking at adoption metrics gives a single view that doesn’t surface any valuable information about deal health.

For example, our research found that on average, companies have sellers do 13 role-plays each year. However, the top 20 companies have sellers do 80 role-plays annually.

Average sales rep

Winning reps

Role-plays per year
0
Role-plays per year
0

It’s clear that adoption is important here — but that’s only part of the story. Without a way to track sales performance and connect them to the number of role-plays performed, you’ll never know exactly if those role-plays had any impact on the rep’s performance in the field and, ultimately, any impact on closing deals.

Another example is a training module with assessments. Your entire team may have completed them, but if they don’t remember what they learned or apply it when interacting with prospects, that adoption metric doesn’t really impact revenue productivity.

The takeaway is simple: No single sales metric tells a full story.

Adoption and engagement are important, yes — but to get real insight into sales performance, you need to track, analyze, and learn from a much wider variety of data. That’s why a complete sales performance dashboard that tracks metrics across all enablement activities – onboarding, ongoing training, conversation intelligence, sales content, and key competencies development – is the most effective way to see a full picture of sales productivity and performance.

What do CROs care about?

With the above in mind, it’s important to build reporting and dashboards that answer questions CROs probably ask their teams weekly. Some examples include:

  • How healthy is my pipeline?
  • Which deals are at risk or progressing nicely?
  • Are reps doing the right volume of activities?
  • Are they prepared to hit quota?
  • What do my top reps do differently?
  • What do my top managers do differently?
  • What do my buyers and customers need from us regarding positioning, pricing, our products, services, and integrations?
  • What content and enablement programs are truly driving an ROI and being used by my team?

5 key sales performance dashboards for CROs

CROs, CSOs, and sales leaders want to fully understand how their teams (and even individual sellers) are moving toward true revenue productivity. For example:

  • Is a new team or rep ready to sell?
  • What are the top skill gaps in the organization?
  • What do most reps do right (or wrong) in sales conversations?

In order to derive such insights, they need the right data at the ready—visually presented in a way that’s easy to consume and take action on.

Though the sales performance metrics tracked vary from organization to organization, these are five key data reports all CROs need to improve sales performance.

Pipeline + deal risk

A pipeline deal risk dashboard is a visual representation of the various risks associated with pipeline deals. It allows CROs to assess the risks involved in each deal, prioritize deals based on their risk level, and take appropriate measures to mitigate them. Typically, these dashboards include the following:

This provides an overview of the current pipeline deals, including the deal value, stage, and potential risks associated with the deal.

This section provides a detailed analysis of the risks associated with each deal. It includes factors such as the deal’s complexity, potential hurdles, and revenue impact. The risk assessment helps CROs identify the most significant risks so they can prioritize efforts accordingly.

This section provides updates on the progress of each deal, including milestones achieved, timelines, and any deviations from the original plan. It allows CROs to identify any potential issues early and take corrective action.

Sales Readiness Index

This dashboard helps organizations assess their sales team’s readiness to sell their products or services and provides an overall view of the sales team’s capabilities, identifying strengths and weaknesses that can be addressed to improve their sales performance. A Sales Readiness Index Dashboard typically includes the following components:

An overview of the entire sales team’s performance, including metrics such as revenue generated, deals closed, and sales cycle length.

Analytics related to the training programs that are available to the sales team. It includes metrics such as completion rates, satisfaction ratings, and the effectiveness of the training programs.

Metrics such as the number of touches required to close a deal, the average time it takes to close a deal, and the conversion rate at each stage of the sales process.

This outlines metrics such as the usage of sales content, feedback from the sales team, and the effectiveness of the content in helping to close deals.

Metrics such as adoption rates, usage, and the effectiveness of the technology in improving sales performance.

Mindtickle Sales Readiness Index

Ideal rep profiles

An ideal rep profile (IRP) is a profile of a sales rep who is likely to succeed at a given organization. Much like an ICP includes characteristics that make the customer “ideal,” an IRP defines the competencies and skills a rep must have to regularly close deals and meet (and surpass) quota.

The initial step in implementing a more effective sales enablement approach is to establish your ideal rep profile (IRP). This involves identifying the skills and competencies associated with successful sales outcomes based on observations of your top performers.

Since each organization is unique, the IRP will differ from company to company. It is essential to create an IRP that reflects your organization’s sales goals and aligns with the specific needs of your customers.

After setting up your IRP, it is crucial to evaluate your reps’ performance compared to these standards. This evaluation allows you to identify areas of strength and knowledge gaps that may hinder success. Understanding how each rep measures up to the benchmarks is essential in determining their skill level.

Ideal rep profile competencies

Sales coaching effectiveness

Overall, a sales coaching dashboard should provide sales coaches with the tools and information they need to improve the performance of their team and drive revenue growth. By tracking key metrics, providing targeted coaching, and enabling collaboration and communication, sales coaches can help their reps achieve their full potential and drive success for the organization.

A sales coaching dashboard should include the following metrics and features:

These should include key performance indicators (KPIs) such as win rate, deal size, and pipeline coverage.

These metrics can include things like product knowledge, selling skills, message consistency, and competitive knowledge.

Sales coaches should be able to schedule and track coaching activities such as role-play sessions, one-on-one meetings, and group training sessions. The dashboard should provide an easy way to monitor the progress of these activities and ensure that they are happening on schedule.

Conversation analysis tools can help sales coaches understand how reps are engaging with prospects and customers, identify areas of improvement, and provide targeted coaching. The dashboard should provide access to these tools and make it easy to review call recordings and other conversation data.

The dashboard should provide a way for sales coaches to collaborate with other members of the sales team and share best practices. It should also enable communication with reps to provide feedback, answer questions, and provide coaching tips.

The dashboard should provide access to sales enablement content such as training materials, playbooks, and battle cards. This content can help reps improve their skills and knowledge and enable them to engage with prospects and customers more effectively.

ROI of sales enablement efforts

This dashboard should calculate the ROI of sales enablement activities, based on the increased revenue generated and the cost of sales enablement activities. This information can help sales leaders determine the value of sales enablement activities and make data-driven decisions about where to invest resources. It should include the following:

Includes KPIs like revenue generated, win rate, sales cycle length, and average deal size.

The dashboard should also track sales enablement activities such as training sessions, coaching sessions, and the creation and delivery of sales content.

Includes metrics that show how reps are engaging with sales enablement content, such as how often they are accessing content, which content is used most often, and the content’s impact on deal acceleration.

The dashboard should also track how sales enablement activities are impacting individual rep performance. This could include metrics such as the number of deals closed, the amount of revenue generated, and improvements in win rates and sales cycle lengths.

The dashboard should provide visibility into the cost of sales enablement activities, including the cost of creating and delivering content, and the cost of training and coaching sessions.

Unlock the insights you need to boost sales success across the entire team

No single sales metric tells a CRO everything they need to know. Instead, CROs need a complete sales performance dashboard that allows them to quickly surface insights on how the sales team is performing – and how training and enablement initiatives are (or aren’t) impacting their performance.

Cobbling together data from disparate platforms isn’t an effective approach to getting the actionable insights you need. Fortunately, there’s another way.

With an integrated revenue enablement platform like Mindtickle, CROs can access all of the performance dashboards they need – all in one location. With Mindtickle, CROs can understand the impact of training and enablement on sales productivity and performance – and then use those insights to make data-based improvements.

But Mindtickle sales performance dashboards aren’t just for CROs. Instead, Mindtickle provides the right role-based reporting to every team member responsible for optimizing sales performance – from sales leaders to enablement professionals to front line managers.

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This post originally appeared in October 2021, was updated in May 2023, January 2024, and again in January 2025.

Virtual Sales Training Programs: 10 Skills Every Seller Needs to Master

Helen Waite on January 7, 2025

Often, sales leaders believe that great sellers are born, not made. But this is a myth.

If they can access the right sales training and support, any seller can master the skills needed to be a top performer.

But in-person sales training isn’t always the most practical (or effective) approach. Instead, revenue organizations invest in virtual sales training programs to ensure their sellers can grow their skills for success – regardless of their geographical location.

In this post, we’ll explore virtual sales training and how it differs from in-person training. We’ll also share 10 key sales skills any revenue organization should incorporate into its virtual sales training programs to ensure every seller is set up for success.

What is virtual sales training?

The phrase “sales training” may conjure up images of a sales trainer or enablement professional delivering training on a specific topic to a room full of sales reps. But what is virtual sales training?

As you may have guessed, virtual sales training uses digital tools to deliver sales training remotely. With virtual sales training, sales reps can access instruction, reinforcement, practice opportunities, and feedback – without being physically present in a classroom or training session.

Virtual sales training can be instructor-led. In other words, attendees may attend a sales training session live but remotely. This is made possible by tools including video conferencing software and revenue enablement platforms.

Or, virtual sales training can be on-demand. That means sellers can access sales training whenever and wherever they need it. Some examples of on-demand virtual sales training include:

  • Recorded webinars
  • eLearning modules
  • Video tutorials
  • Bite-sized reinforcement
  • Virtual role-plays

Again, the right technology is critical to creating and delivering on-demand virtual sales training programs and then measuring their effectiveness.

How are virtual sales training programs different from in-person sales training programs?

Virtual sales training programs differ from in-person training programs in several key ways.

One of the biggest differences is how the training is delivered and consumed. With in-person sales training, a group physically meets in the same location. A sales trainer or sales enablement professional often leads it.

Virtual sales training is delivered remotely. Sellers can access it from anywhere thanks to technology like video conferencing software and revenue enablement platforms.

Due to the nature of virtual sales training, it’s often more convenient (and less costly) than in-person training. If you have a geographically dispersed sales team, your sales reps must take time away from the field to travel to and attend in-person training. You’ll incur travel expenses for attendees and lost revenue from when your sellers were out of the field.

On the other hand, sellers can engage in virtual sales training from anywhere. That means they can attend a training – and then return to selling.

Another key difference is that virtual sales training is easier to customize to the needs of each seller. If you convene a large group of sellers for in-person training, they will receive the same instruction. That’s OK – as long as it’s relevant to everyone. But if not, some attendees will be wasting their time on irrelevant sales training.

On the flip side, virtual sales training programs make it easier for sellers to access relevant training that aligns with their strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles. For example, sellers who struggle with objection handling can consume training modules that help them strengthen this skill. However, experts in objection handling don’t have to waste their time.

Top skills for virtual selling success

Virtual sales training can effectively ensure your sellers have the instruction and support they need to succeed. Let’s look at 10 top skills you’ll want to incorporate into your virtual sales training programs.

 #1 Discovery

To have any hope of making a sale, a seller must be able to find accounts and buyers that fit your target customer base and ask insightful questions to provide relevant and meaningful outreach and content.

Uncovering a prospect’s pain points, priorities, objectives, and buying team dynamics during discovery sales calls is crucial for continued engagement as the prospect moves further down the funnel. Have top-performing reps share best practices for discovery with others on the team to help everyone hone this skill.

 #2 Time management

In a perfect world, salespeople could devote 100% of their time to sales activities: sending emails, making sales calls, and closing deals.

But today’s selling experience is complex, requiring many seemingly minor tasks that largely contribute to a deal’s success. For this reason, reps must be able to juggle it all, prioritizing the highest-value items on their to-do lists and responding to buyer requests on time.

One-on-one coaching sessions between manager and seller are useful for finding ways the rep can manage their time and maximize productivity.

 #3 Technology use

Numerous sales tools have been introduced to automate, streamline, and/or measure sellers’ daily activities. Whether it’s a content management system, conversation intelligence, or a revenue enablement platform, reps must be able to use technology effectively. It’s up to IT, sales, and sales enablement leadership to ensure salespeople are adequately trained on these systems.

#4 Relationship building

Developing authentic relationships with buyers is critical regardless of what territory a seller has and the type of prospect they’re working with.

Executives and other business leaders are flooded with sales calls and emails daily and will not give the time of day to a vendor who doesn’t care to hear their feelings and opinions.

Forming and nurturing connections can help your reps engage more meaningfully. The ability to do this can be passed down from the top; if sales leaders and managers empathize with their teams, reps will replicate this behavior with their prospects.

#5 Effective communication

Written and verbal communication skills are not just important for interacting with buyers; they’re also required for impactful internal relationships, whether between members of the same team, between manager and rep, or colleagues from other departments.

To be successful in sales, reps must be assertive while mastering the tone and delivery of the information they’re delivering. Encourage reps to practice different messaging formats and techniques, share ideas, and provide feedback to one another.

#6 Storytelling

Shaping messaging into a compelling tale is a distinct skill that goes beyond knowing how to communicate effectively. Telling an authentic story to demonstrate how other customers have solved business issues with your solution appeals to emotions and stokes action. As with other important sales competencies, crafting persuasive narratives takes practice, so give salespeople plenty of opportunity to do just that within coaching sessions and team meetings.

#7 Product knowledge

Today’s buyers have high expectations and can see through salespeople who pretend to know what they’re talking about.

Rather than memorizing a minute-long product pitch, having extensive product knowledge allows sellers to share the value of products more creatively and meaningfully. It also enables reps to answer nuanced questions buyers have about features and functionality. Provide plentiful virtual sales training materials surrounding your product suite and walk your sales team through product demos so they know the ins and outs of what they’re selling.

Mindtickle Missions

#8 Active listening

It bears repeating: Generic pitches and presentations don’t work with buyers today. Sales reps must demonstrate the value of their solutions differently based on a buyers’ unique use cases. And the only way to do that is by letting them tell you what those use cases are. Sellers must ask about goals, roadblocks, priorities — anything that gets them to the heart of what that buyer needs — and then stop and listen.

Active listening means staying in the present, taking in what the person is saying, and waiting until they’re finished to respond. By doing so, a rep builds a further connection with that buyer and begins to position him or herself as a trusted advisor.

#9 Negotiation

Once a proposal has been put together, sales reps must be able to command the subsequent negotiation process. This means not giving in to a prospect’s every demand and instead being assertive and presenting alternative solutions that benefit both parties. Train sellers on how to manage negotiations and allow them to practice with their peers.

#10 Objection handling

A buying team will rarely accept everything a seller tells them without question. Rather than taking their challenges as obstacles, reps should take these as opportunities to get more visibility into how the buyers think. Ensure your salespeople can respond to common skepticism and objections with recorded role-plays scored by either AI or managers.

Take your virtual sales training programs to the next level

With the right sales training, tools, and support, every sales team member will be ready to tackle any deal that comes their way. While in-person sales training has a role, virtual sales training allows you to deliver engaging, personalized instruction, reinforcement, and practice opportunities to every seller– no matter where they live and work.

Technology is key to delivering wildly effective virtual sales training programs. With a revenue enablement platform like Mindtickle, you can create and deliver virtual sales training programs that help ensure your sellers master the skills that matter. What’s more, you can measure the impact of your virtual sales training programs and use those insights to optimize them for even greater impact.

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This post was originally published in October 2022, updated in October 2023, and again in January 2025.

11 Sales Enablement Trends to Watch for in 2025 and Beyond

Helen Waite on December 3, 2024

Sales enablement is relatively new in the long history of business. Its origins are often traced back to 1999 when John Aiello and Drew Larsen saw a need to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of sales reps.

In the past 25 years, sales enablement trends have evolved significantly. This evolution has been driven by many factors, including technological advancements and shifting B2B buying habits and behaviors.

The pace of change isn’t expected to slow down. Sales enablement practitioners must be ready, willing, and able to observe sales enablement market trends and adapt their strategies and programs accordingly.

But what can we expect in the coming year? Let’s explore 11 key sales enablement trends shaping the industry in 2025 and beyond.

#1: B2B buyer expectations will grow and evolve

B2B buyers are a tough bunch.

They expect relevant, engaging, and personalized content and experiences throughout the purchase journey. In fact, research tells us that for most B2B buyers, experience matters just as much as products or services.

Furthermore, B2B buyers do plenty of research on their own before contacting a sales rep. When they do reach out, they expect the rep to understand their needs and act as a trusted advisor. Yet, 59% of B2B buyers say most sales reps don’t take the time to understand their goals.

of buyers say reps don't understand their goals
0 %

Now, more than ever, revenue enablement teams must equip sellers with the right tools, training, and information to meet customers’ expectations and earn their trust.

#2: B2B sales will increase in complexity

There’s no denying that B2B sales are a lot more complex than B2C sales. Research from Gartner found that over three-quarters of B2B buyers rate their last purchase as very complex or difficult.

One factor contributing to the complexity of B2B sales is the number of people involved in a purchase decision. According to Gartner, the typical B2B buying committee includes up to 10 stakeholders, and each person typically consults four to five sources of information. It’s no wonder things get complicated.

of B2B buyers say purchases are complex
> 0 %

Sales reps who leverage depend on digital sales rooms to achieve this goal. With a digital sales room, every buying committee member will have a single source of truth for information and content relevant to their needs. This will simplify the sales journey – and accelerate deal cycles.

Digital collaboration rooms

#3: Digital selling skills and tools will be more important than ever

Today, a large (and growing) portion of deals are completed without the buyer and seller ever setting foot in the same room.

This trend is expected to continue – and accelerate. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between buyers and sellers will occur in digital channels.

By 2025

of B2B sales interactions will happen in digital channels
0 %

Increasingly, B2B buyers are navigating the purchase journey digitally. But that doesn’t mean the sales rep’s role will become obsolete. It’ll just evolve.

According to Gartner, B2B buyers are nearly two times more likely to complete a high-quality deal when they engage with vendor-provided tools in partnership with a sales rep, rather than navigating the journey on their own.

#4: One-size-fits-all sales enablement will (finally) get kicked to the curb

By now, we all know that sales enablement can significantly impact the metrics that matter most to your business, including quota attainment, conversion rates, and revenue growth (among others). But not all sales enablement is the same.

In the past, many revenue enablement teams developed and delivered content and resources without much insight into what teams needed. A report from 2024 found that a mere 40% of C-level executives said they could identify rep strengths and weaknesses for customized training.

Recent research found that only

of C-level execs know rep strengths and weaknesses
0 %

But this one-size-fits-all approach to sales enablement has never worked. Sellers waste their time on training and enablement that isn’t relevant to them, and many still lack the knowledge and resources they need.

In 2025, more businesses will abandon one-size-fits-all enablement and work to deliver revenue enablement personalized to each member of the go-to-market team.

It all starts with defining what skills and competencies are needed for each role on the revenue team. Then, enablement teams can measure each seller against the appropriate ideal rep profile, identify their weaknesses, and work to deliver tailored training and learning paths that help them improve their skills and behaviors.

#5: Revenue teams will leverage AI to deliver tailored coaching at scale

Quality, consistent coaching helps every sales team member reach their full potential. There’s data to back that claim. A recent analysis shows that top-performing sellers receive four times more coaching than the average sales rep.

Top-performing reps receive

more coaching than the average sales rep
0 x

However, traditional sales coaching practices are labor intensive, and sellers are left with no choice but to wait for their manager’s feedback.

In the year ahead, we’ll see innovative organizations leveraging artificial intelligence to deliver targeted, real-time coaching at scale. At these organizations, sellers will engage with AI role-plays, which allow them to practice their skills in realistic sales scenarios with a dynamic, AI-powered bot. 

AI-Roleplay

AI will deliver real-time qualitative and quantitative coaching to the rep, which they can use immediately to improve their behaviors. That means sales reps will have the feedback they need to improve their behaviors and won’t have to wait around for their manager to deliver it.

#6: More businesses will make the transition to revenue enablement

Sales enablement can significantly impact sales productivity and performance, so it’s no wonder that most organizations invest in sales enablement teams and technology.

But sales teams aren’t the only ones involved in growing revenue. Instead, it’s a team effort involving your customer-facing roles, including sales, marketing, customer success, and customer support. Equipping these teams with the tools, knowledge, and information they need to deliver outstanding customer experiences is important.

In the coming year, we’ll see many organizations expanding their enablement efforts to include all go-to-market roles. By embracing revenue enablement, these organizations will be better equipped to drive predictable revenue growth through a variety of strategies including acquisition, retention, and expansion.

#7: Enablement teams will tap into AI to develop and deliver programs faster

Change is constant. Products, markets, and customer preferences are constantly in flux. Sales enablement teams are under pressure to deliver and deploy programs that ensure their teams can keep pace with change.

But creating new sales enablement modules and programs can be challenging and time consuming – especially when teams are lean and resources are stretched thin. On average, it takes 3-4 weeks to launch a new program from scratch.

to launch a new program from scratch
weeks

In the future, innovative revenue enablement teams will tap into AI to develop and deliver new enablement programs in hours (or even minutes), rather than weeks.

#8: Sales teams will be empowered with just-in-time self enablement

Traditional training and sales enablement tactics may be effective but are often labor-intensive. Enablement teams (in collaboration with sales and marketing) spend time creating content and resources and training sellers so they know how to use the resources available to them. What’s more, enablement teams and subject matter experts must be on call to answer sellers’ questions and help them overcome barriers to success.

Revenue teams will empower their teams with just-in-time self-enablement in the coming year. This approach will allow customer-facing teams to easily find the information and answers they need whenever and wherever a need arises. They won’t have to rely on others to get what they need.

Just-in-time self-enablement will accelerate sales cycles and remove friction in the purchase journey. That means sellers will be able to close more deals faster.

#9: AI will enable reps to spend more time selling

The more time a seller can devote to engaging with buyers, the more deals they’re likely to close. It seems obvious, right?

But research found sales reps spend a mere 30% of their time selling during the average week. The remainder of the time is spent on time-consuming admin work and internal meetings.

Reps spend just

of their time selling
0 %

In 2025, innovative revenue enablement teams will leverage AI to help sales reps streamline (and even automate) time-consuming but necessary work. For example, AI will deliver content recommendations to sellers so they don’t have to spend time searching for the right assets. Or, generative AI will compose a first draft of an email to a prospect so the seller doesn’t have to start from scratch.

By streamlining and automating time-consuming, tedious tasks, sellers will have more time to engage with buyers and close deals.

#10: Organizations will trade point solutions for integrated sales enablement platforms

Revenue leaders understand the importance of equipping their sellers with the right tools and technology. But it’s easy for things to get out of hand.

In the past, it was common for organizations to invest in point solutions that addressed a single sales enablement need or pain point. This led to bloated sales technology stacks – and overwhelmed sales reps. Recent research found that nearly seven in 10 sales reps feel overwhelmed by the number of tools they’re expected to use.

of reps are overwhelmed by the number of tools in their tech stack
0 %

In the coming year, nine in ten sales organizations plan to consolidate their tech stack. One key way they’ll do this is to trade point sales enablement tools for an integrated sales enablement platform. With this approach, sellers will still have the tools, information, and content they need for success – but they’ll be able to access it all from one source of truth. That means they can spend less time searching for what they need and more time engaging with buyers.

#11: Enablement teams will (finally) make sense of all that data

Sales enablement strategies should be rooted in data, not gut feelings. But historically, compiling data – and making sense of it – has been a struggle.

By trading point solutions for an integrated revenue enablement platform, enablement teams can finally find the data they need to prove ROI, identify what’s working, and figure out what needs to be optimized. AI can even deliver recommendations on what actions to take based on the data and analytics.

Why should you care about these sales enablement trends?

Sales enablement aims to equip sellers with the knowledge, content, and tools they need to deliver great experiences that convert buyers to customers. But the B2B landscape is always changing. That means the sales enablement strategy you built a year ago may be ineffective.

Keeping a pulse on revenue enablement trends is key to ensuring your strategy and programs keep pace with rapid change. If you don’t, your sellers won’t be properly equipped to meet the needs of modern buyers, and you’ll find yourself losing business to a competitor that’s more focused on customer needs.

Is your strategy keeping up with sales enablement trends?

Technology plays a key role in the success of your sales enablement strategy. With the right sales enablement technology, your enablement team (and your sellers) can always stay one step ahead of the latest sales enablement trends.

Mindtickle is an integrated revenue enablement platform that empowers organizations to build and deliver personalized enablement that increases sales productivity and performance.

See Better Sales Enablement in Action with Mindtickle

Ready to see why the world’s best revenue organizations depend on Mindtickle to power their sales enablement programs?

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The Complete Guide to Sales Automation for 2025

Helen Waite on November 25, 2024

Behind every deal that’s won are countless tasks and processes. Multiply that by all the deals in your sales pipeline, and things get complicated – fast.

Sellers are bogged down with tedious, time-consuming tasks, so it’s easy to see why so many are missing quota.

Today, winning revenue organizations leverage sales automation to streamline manual processes and free up their teams to do what they do best: sell.

You’ve come to the right place if you’re eager to see what sales automation can do for your business. In this post, we’ll explore everything you need to know about sales automation, including:

  • What it is
  • How it can increase sales productivity
  • How it works
  • What sales automation mistakes to avoid

What is sales automation?

You’ve probably heard “sales automation” at least once or twice. But you may be unclear on what this phrase means.

So, what is it?

Sales automation is using technology to streamline and automate the time-consuming, repetitive tasks and processes that are part of the sales cycle. By streamlining these tasks and processes, you can significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your sales team.

Organizations use automation in many ways, from updating CRMs to streamlining workflows to unlocking valuable insights. Artificial intelligence is expanding the scope of sales automation even further, enabling teams to streamline more (and more complex) activities. We’ll explore some of these use cases later.

What are the top sales automation benefits?

Sales is a numbers game. The more time sellers can spend actively engaging with good-fit buyers, the more deals they’ll be able to close.

Yet research tells us sellers spend less than 30% of their time each week actually selling.

Research shows that sellers spend less than

of their time selling
0 %

But that doesn’t mean they’re slacking off the other 70% of the time. Instead, they’re spending it on time-consuming admin work and meetings.

A key benefit is reducing the time and effort required to complete tedious (but necessary) tasks. That means sellers can spend more time building customer relationships and guiding more deals through the sales cycle.

Depending on how it’s is used, there are several other benefits. For example, if an organization is leveraging automation for pipeline management, it’s getting insights that can help it improve deal outcomes. Or, if an organization is using automation to summarize and analyze sales calls, sales managers have insights they can use to deliver coaching that improves reps’ long-term behaviors and performance.

How does sales automation work?

There are countless ways organizations can leverage automation throughout the sales process. How sales automation works largely depends on how it’s being used.

At its core, sales automation is all about data. Often, it involves updating data based on an activity, such as a deal advancing to the next sales cycle stage.

Artificial intelligence takes automation to the next level.

For example, predictive AI can leverage sales data, make predictions based on that data, and recommend actions to increase the chances of the deal moving forward. AI can also provide recommendations on the best content to share with each prospect based on buyer behavior and past performance.

In addition, many organizations are now using generative AI to automate the creation of emails and other content. Sellers don’t have to start from scratch, which means they can accelerate deals.

Sales automation examples

When it comes to automation, the possibilities are endless. So, how should you use sales automation to improve the way you do business?

It depends on what your goals are.

However, here are some examples that can help you start your thought process.

Data entry

Data entry is perhaps one of the most common ways to leverage sales automation.

Logging data is necessary – but it’s time-consuming, especially if you use several different tools and platforms. With sales automation, your sellers’ activities can automatically be logged into your CRM. For example, if a seller shares a piece of content via email, that activity will automatically be logged in the CRM. That way, the seller can spend less time entering data and more time engaging with the prospect.

Pipeline analysis

Accurate forecasting is important. But often, deals go south – and you don’t know about it until it’s too late.

One use case for AI sales automation is pipeline analysis. This lets you quickly identify at-risk deals and provide remediation to get things back on track. AI can even deliver recommended next steps to improve the deal’s outcome.

Prospecting

Sellers only have so many hours in the day. They need to ensure they spend their time with prospects who are a good fit for their products or services.

Today, many organizations leverage marketing and sales automation to nurture and qualify leads. For example, if a buyer takes a certain action on the vendor’s website, it’ll trigger an email. Organizations can use lead scoring to assign certain points to certain actions. When a buyer score surpasses a specified threshold, the appropriate sales rep will be notified to contact them.

Call summary and analysis

Often, sellers spend a lot of time taking notes during calls and deciphering those notes after the fact. Organizations can leverage sales automation to analyze calls and provide summaries. This can help sellers understand what steps to take next and help sales managers identify opportunities for targeted coaching.

Content creation

Increasingly, sales interactions are taking place via digital channels. But developing written communication can be time consuming for sellers.

Today, sellers can use generative AI to help. For example, a sales rep can send relevant content to a buyer and ask a digital sales assistant to draft a contextual email to accompany the content. Sellers can also use sales automation to personalize content for each buyer.

Personalized training and enablement

Ongoing training and sales enablement ensure sellers are always ready for any deal. However, training and enablement must be personalized to each seller’s needs.

With automation, sellers can be assigned relevant training and sales enablement based on their strengths and weaknesses. AI can also recommend resources to help sellers bolster their knowledge and skills.

Common sales automation mistakes to avoid

Sales automation can simplify and streamline the many moving pieces of the sales process, allowing your sellers to focus on building authentic relationships and earning customers’ trust.

But rolling out initiatives isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. Instead, you must be strategic and avoid certain pitfalls.

Let’s look at some of the most common mistakes to avoid.

Using disparate tools and software

Automation requires the right tools. For example, a sales enablement tool allows you to automatically deliver personalized training paths at scale. And conversation intelligence delivers sales call summaries and insights.

However, these solutions are often siloed, and sellers find themselves overwhelmed by the number of tools they’re expected to use.

This approach makes your sellers’ lives harder – when you should aim to make them easier.

Instead, invest in marketing and sales automation tools that integrate with your existing sales technology stack. For example, your sales automation tools should integrate with your existing CRM to automate the data entry process.

In addition, look for opportunities to trade point solutions for integrated sales automation platforms. For example, consider investing in a single, integrated revenue enablement platform rather than purchasing a sales content management system, learning management system, and a conversation intelligence platform.

Failing to properly personalize

Modern B2B buyers have come to expect personalized content and experiences – no matter where they are on the purchase journey. According to research from Forrester, nearly three-quarters of B2B customers expect fully or mostly personalized content.

of B2B buyers expect fully or mostly personalized content
0 %

But often, organizations focus so much on automating content, communication, and experiences that personalization is overlooked.

When prospects receive generic content and communication, they’re likely to disengage. It’s important to strike the right balance between automation and personalization.

Neglecting data management

Great marketing and sales automation depends on great data. Your efforts will only succeed if your data is accurate and quality. For example, you may send the wrong emails to the wrong prospects or deliver irrelevant training and enablement to your sellers.

It’s important to prioritize data hygiene. Clean data is the foundation of effective automation.

Eliminating the human element

You can win more business faster with the right strategies. But remember that sales automation should complement human interaction, not replace it.

Be sure to strike the right balance between automation and the human touch. It’ll pay off in terms of customer acquisition and retention. According to Gartner, “B2B buyers are 1.8 times more likely to complete a high-quality deal when they engage with supplier-provided digital tools in partnership with a sales rep rather than independently.”

Taking a “once and done” approach to sales automation

Sales automation isn’t something you can set up once – and never think about again. But often, this is exactly what organizations do. As a result, B2B automation efforts become outdated and ineffective.

Instead, consistently track KPIs to see what’s working and what’s not. Then, use those insights to optimize your efforts.

Failing to provide proper training and coaching

Adoption will suffer if teams don’t know how to use the sales automation tools. Be sure to deliver proper training to help teams understand why you’ve invested in a sales automation tool – and how they can use it to be more successful in their roles.

Ignoring seller feedback

Your sellers have unique insight as they engage with customers daily. Yet, organizations often develop strategies without their input.

When developing sales automation strategies, be sure to involve sellers. Otherwise, you may implement strategies that don’t help sales reps and don’t align with customers’ needs.

See why Mindtickle is a critical tool in your sales automation toolbox

Your sellers only have so many hours in the day. With sales automation, you can streamline tasks and processes so sellers have more time to do what they were hired to do: engage buyers and close deals.

The right technology is key to any B2B sales automation initiative.

Mindtickle is an integrated revenue enablement platform that equips sellers with the training, tools, content, resources, and insights they need to effectively and efficiently engage buyers. The platform also leverages AI to automate and streamline the mundane tasks that take up so much of your sellers’ time – like searching for sales content, and drafting contextual emails. identifying key moments in sales calls, accessing real-time coaching, making sense of data and analytics, and more.

See Mindtickle in Action

Ready to see why top go-to-market organizations choose Mindtickle to simplify processes and ensure their sellers always have what it takes to conquer any deal?

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Formal vs. Informal Learning: Which Drives Better Sales Results?

Helen Waite on November 19, 2024

Ongoing learning is key to success in any field. Sales is certainly no exception.

When sellers have continuous training and learning opportunities, they’re better equipped to deliver engaging experiences that attract, win, and retain customers. In fact, research tells us companies that invest in training are significantly more effective than their competitors.

Revenue organizations often invest in formal learning and training programs and tools. But informal learning (when done well) also drives sales productivity and performance.

Which is the better option in a battle of formal vs informal learning? The truth is, both are important pieces of the puzzle.

In this post, we’ll explore what formal and informal learning are, how they’re similar, how they’re different, and why you need both to drive sales performance and revenue growth.

What is formal learning?

First things first: what is formal learning?

Formal training is what many people think of when they hear the phrase “sales training.” It typically takes the form of structured curricula delivered to a specific audience on a set schedule. For example, each new sales rep undergoes sales onboarding, which is a structured set of courses and tasks that are assigned and completed at specific points in time.

Formal enterprise learning can include a variety of components, like:

  • Live lectures (either in-person or remote)
  • Training videos
  • Assigned reading
  • Other assignments and tasks
  • Quizzes and other types of assessments
  • Certifications

Sometimes, formal learning takes place in a classroom setting, where all attendees are in the same physical location. But increasingly, formal learning takes place remotely, often via videoconferencing and other digital tools.

Typically, formal learning is developed and delivered by trainers, instructional designers, or sales enablement professionals. These folks may use a sales training tool to develop and deliver programs and measure their impact.

Why is formal learning important?

Organizations are largely in control of the formal learning experience. As such, formal learning can be a great method for delivering structured information to a group of people.

For example, if you’re launching a new product, your entire sales team needs to learn its features. Formal learning, including live training and assessments, helps ensure all sellers gain the right product knowledge to accurately articulate the solution’s value to buyers.

Formal training is also important for organizations in heavily regulated industries. For example, sellers in certain industries—such as pharmaceuticals—may need formal training to comply with rules and regulations.

What is informal learning?

Now that we know formal learning, you may ask yourself, “What is informal learning?”

Informal learning is a more flexible approach to sales training and learning. Informal learning is unstructured and typically takes place outside of the classroom.

Informal learning can take many forms, including:

  • Microlearning
  • Reinforcement
  • Practice opportunities like role-plays
  • Knowledge base
  • Coaching
  • Peer-to-peer sharing

Informal learning is typically employee-led. Employees seek out just-in-time information and learning opportunities whenever a need arises. They can get answers and information from various sources, including managers, subject matter experts, and peers.

Typically, informal learning requires less of a time commitment than formal learning. Rather than attending training at a specific time, employees can consume informal learning whenever and wherever their schedule allows.

Why is informal learning important?

Formal training has an important role. But according to Gartner research, B2B sellers forget 70% of the information they learn within a week of sales training.

Gartner found that B2B sellers forget

of training within a week
0 %

Informal learning helps reinforce concepts and skills taught during formal training. That way, knowledge sticks and sellers are more likely to apply it in the field.

In addition, informal learning is hyper-relevant to the needs of each individual. Rather than requiring a large group to sit in on a live training, informal training provides learning opportunities targeted to each individual’s needs. And individuals can access these opportunities anywhere, at any time.

As a sales leader, you understand that learning isn’t a one-time event but should be continuous. Informal learning helps foster a culture of ongoing learning within the organization.
Formal learning vs. informal learning: what’s the difference?
Now that we’ve shared definitions for formal and informal learning, one thing is clear: they are not the same.

Let’s look at some key differences between formal and informal learning.

Formal learning Informal learning
Definition A structured approach to learning that involves delivering a set curriculum to a specific audience at a specific time. A flexible approach to learning that enables employees to access just-in-time learning and opportunities to grow their skills and knowledge.
Structure Rigid Flexible
Setting Classroom, video conferences Virtual and on-demand
Who creates content? Instructional designers, enablement teams, HR Anyone with expertise in a specific area
Directed by Instructional designers, trainers, enablement professionals Self-directed by employee
Timing Typically, a larger, broader audience Typically, a smaller more targeted audience
Time commitment Large. Formal learning typically takes up a significant amount of time. Short. Informal learning like micro-learning can be completed quickly.
Examples of different components Lectures, required reading, assignments, tasks, assessments, and certifications Microlearning, reinforcement , role-plays, knowledge base, manager coaching, peer-to-peer coaching

What are some examples of formal and informal learning?

One of the best ways to understand the difference between formal learning vs. informal learning is to see some examples of each. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at some formal and informal training examples.

4 formal training examples

Some formal training examples include:

#1 Sales onboarding

Let’s say you have a group of 15 new sales reps who are scheduled to start next month. These sellers will all go through a formal sales onboarding program, which will kick off with three days of live classroom training sessions. Then, each seller will be assigned certain courses and tasks to complete over the next 90 days.

#2 Product training

Another formal training example is product training. This type of formal training may be developed and delivered when a business is launching a new product offering or making significant changes to an existing one. Product training might include on-demand and live courses, as well as assessments to ensure understanding.

#3 Sales kickoffs

Sales kickoffs often include at least some formal sales training. A sales kickoff is often the one time of year the entire team is in the same place at the same time, so it’s a good opportunity to deliver formal training on topics including (but not limited to) product offerings, sales processes, and new technology.

#4 Training on new technology

Let’s say you’re investing in a new piece of software—such as a revenue enablement platform—that will be used by the entire go-to-market team. You may want to develop and deliver formal training so your entire team understands why you’re adding this technology and how they can use it to do their jobs well.

4 informal training examples

Some informal training examples include:

#1 Microlearning

Organizations can develop bite-sized learning to convey new information or reinforce concepts covered during formal training. For example, a formal training may focus on different closing methods. Then, the organization might develop short, bite-sized videos of top sales reps using these different closing techniques.

#2 Knowledge base

A knowledge base is an informal training resource that allows sellers to find the knowledge and information they need when they need it. A sales content management system can serve as a knowledge base, providing sellers with a one-stop shop for sales content.

Sellers can search the knowledge base to find the information that they need without having to wait on a subject matter expert. Sometimes, a knowledge base incorporates an artificial intelligence sales assistant, which allows users to pose questions and get answers based on the information and content housed within the knowledge base.

#3 Coaching

Coaching is informal learning that can help sellers hone their skills for success. Coaching can be manager-led. In other words, a sales manager delivers coaching based on a rep’s performance. Or, organizations can deliver AI-powered coaching. For example, conversation intelligence software can analyze sales calls and deliver feedback. Or, sellers can engage in AI-driven role-plays and get real time feedback for improvement.

#4 Peer-to-peer feedback

Peer-to-peer feedback is a type of informal training that enables your top sellers to help each other learn and grow. For example, a sales rep can post a role-play or practice pitch recording, and peers can share their feedback.

Formal vs. informal learning: Which is better for your organization?

For example, imagine your organization is rolling out a new product offering. Your teams work together to develop a formal training program that’ll be delivered at your next sales kickoff. At the end of the sales kickoff, attendees will take an assessment to test their knowledge. These are examples of formal learning.

Once attendees have left the sales kickoff, they can tap into informal learning to strengthen their knowledge. For one, they can use an internal knowledge base to find information and resources about the new product offering. They can also watch short videos where subject matter experts go into depth on some of the key features and benefits of the product. Finally, they can practice pitching the new product via AI role-plays and get real-time feedback on improving their pitch. These are all examples of informal learning that can be done whenever and wherever sellers have the time.

Take your formal and informal training to the next level with Mindtickle

Formal vs informal training: which is the best? The truth is, both formal and informal training are key to ensuring your sellers have the knowledge and skills needed to build relationships with buyers and close more deals.

But generic, one-size-fits-all sales training topics won’t cut it. Instead, you need to deliver formal and informal training that addresses the needs of each seller.

That might seem impossible – especially if you have a large sales team. But with Mindtickle, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of each seller – and deliver personalized training tailored to their needs.

With Mindtickle, you can build and deliver formal training programs like onboarding and product training. You can also deliver informal training opportunities like microlearning, reinforcement, coaching, and practice opportunities that help sellers hone their skills for success.

Now that we’ve discussed the differences between formal and informal learning and shared examples of each, you may wonder which option is better.

The truth is, it depends on your organization’s needs and the types of information and knowledge you plan to deliver to your sellers. Often, the best approach is to use a blend of formal and informal learning.

See Mindtickle in Action

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Top 4 Tips to Planning the Most Effective Sales Kickoff

Helen Waite on November 18, 2024

It’s hard to believe it, but the end of the calendar year is just around the corner. For sales enablement professionals, the end of one year (and the beginning of another) can only mean one thing: sales kickoff planning season is here.

Often, the sales kickoff (SKO) is the one time of year the entire go-to-market team gathers together (either in person or virtually). That makes it the ideal time to celebrate the wins of the past year and strategize how to make the coming year your best one yet.

Sales enablement professionals work tirelessly to make a sales kickoff a smashing success. But it’s not always easy to strike the right balance between celebrations and getting down to business.

Whether your 2025 sales kickoff will be in person, virtual, or a combination of the two, thoughtful and strategic planning is critical to success. The team at Mindtickle is here to help you plan an engaging sales kickoff that will set your sellers up for success in 2025.

In our 2024 SKO-in-a-box, we share a framework for planning a virtual or hybrid sales kickoff. You’ll find plenty of tools and resources to help you plan your best SKO yet, including checklists, event planning tools, pre- and post-work exercise ideas, and plenty of tried-and-true advice from Mindtickle’s sales enablement team.

But first, here are four tips to help get your SKO planning underway today!

Tip 1: Unify SKO activities into one platform

One of the first steps in planning a kick-off event is identifying the right technology to execute your vision. You should use a platform that enables you to unify all activities for the event in one place and make it easy to engage both virtual and in-person attendees.

It’s important to start with a software solution where you can author and host content, build and manage course sessions for live events, keep reps engaged (gamification, competitions, interactive questions, etc.), and enable reps with learning and training sessions during and after the event.

Mindtickle for Sales Kickoffs

You should leverage the existing sales enablement platform for SKO wherever possible. Sellers already use many different systems daily, so asking them to log into and use another platform can feel cumbersome and jeopardize their engagement before, during, and after the event.

With a comprehensive revenue enablement platform like Mindtickle, you can create, organize, and house all SKO materials and activities in the same system sellers have already engaged in for training and sales content, making the technical overhead for participants easier.

And for sales enablement teams, using your existing platform means that, instead of figuring out how to set up and build everything in a new event point solution, you can focus on designing the content itself, finding the best speakers, and creating the most impactful session content possible. It also means it will be easier for sellers to access content in the future and enables you to better leverage SKO content from year to year.

Tip 2. Define an SKO theme and stick to it

Defining a theme for your SKO helps to refine your messaging, solidify objectives, and, ultimately, make the event memorable. Typically, themes are centered around motivation or growth but are general enough to bring together multiple messages and takeaways through the event’s presentations and activities.

From your session titles to your decor, awards, gifts, and team-building activities, you should tie back to your theme as much as possible. So whether your theme is related to climbing Mount Everest, launching into space, or going for the gold (2022 Winter Olympics theme, anyone?), pick and stick to one consistent theme.

You should meet with your chief revenue officer and other sales leaders to gather ideas, align behind a theme, and discuss how to mobilize and energize the team with the highest-impact sessions.

The following discussion points can help facilitate your conversation with sales leadership to define your theme and develop ideas for accompanying session content:

  • What competitive, market, or internal obstacles stand between us and hitting this year’s revenue goal?
  • What does our sales team need to do differently or stop doing this year?
  • What tools or skills are our sales team lacking?
  • What knowledge, skills, and behaviors from our top performers do we want to replicate across the sales team?

Tip 3. Deliver compelling SKO content

All too often, SKO training sessions are dull. When that happens, attendees start to disengage and minds wander. We’ve all been there.

Developing compelling SKO content is important so sellers stay focused and leave with the information and knowledge they need to tackle the year ahead. Work with speakers on their decks to ensure each ties back to the event theme and sales goals.

In addition, vary the format of SKO content to keep attendees engaged. For example, consider incorporating breakout discussions, games, and competitions. You can also leverage conversation snippets from real-world sales calls to bring different presentation concepts to life.

asset-hub-index-and-mobile-asset-white

As you solidify your SKO and the accompanying content, be sure to centralize all resources—including agendas, session presentations, event pre-work, breakout session instructions, and more—in one place. That way, attendees can easily access everything they need before, during, and after the event. Consider using Digital Sales Rooms to create a dynamic, seamless experience for your attendees.

Tip 4. Communicate expectations and assign prework

Players don’t arrive at the stadium on game day without having done some individual prep. On day one of SKO, your sellers should be warmed up after doing some prework and know exactly what’s expected of them during the event.

Ensure you send an agenda at least one week before so that sellers know exactly where to be and when. Creating a comprehensive agenda will accomplish two key goals: it’ll align team expectations and also get reps excited for what’s to come.

A pre-event communication to sellers usually includes:

  • Agenda and links to the different virtual sessions and resources
  • For hybrid events, include all relevant information for in-person meeting rooms, accommodations, travel logistics, meals, and more
  • Session materials and a what-to-bring checklist
  • A welcome video from leadership to set the context and build morale
  • A gamified knowledge challenge for participants
  • How-to guides for any tools sellers will need to use during the event

And depending on the SKO’s focus, various pre-work activities can engage sellers before the big day. This ensures sellers are ready to jump in, cuts down on the time the sales enablement team needs to spend setting the context and giving instructions for different sessions, and helps the event move more smoothly overall.

Examples of pre-work activities you can assign each rep include:

  • Pre-recorded territory plans: Record a territory review before SKO, enabling productive discussions. Remind sellers that the goal of the activity is not to talk through slides but to think through their priorities strategically and provide the thought processes behind their plans for the quarter. Make sure you have reps complete their videos at least a week before the event so you have time to review them ahead of time.
  • Research for group breakout: Complete competitive or market research about a specific area to be used during hands-on group breakout exercises.
  • On-demand training video: Watch a pre-recorded training video and be prepared to discuss it during an SKO session.

Sales kickoff checklist

When planning your sales kickoff, you must do certain things before, during, and after the event to ensure success and avoid common missteps.

Let’s take a look at five do’s and five don’ts of a successful SKO.

Do:

  • Establish a theme. Ensure your content, talk tracks, and activities tie back to this theme.
  • Determine your delivery strategy. For example, will you host on-demand sessions or live-streaming the entire event?
  • Assign your attendees any pre-work to be completed before the event.
  • Invite your attendees to a Digital Sales Room to access all materials and information, including pre-work.
  • Send out a post-event survey to all attendees to get delivery, content, and engagement feedback.

Don’t:

  • Forget to have the right technology in place to support your delivery strategy.
  • Wait until the last minute to send attendees the SKO agenda and supporting materials.
  • Treat the SKO like a dress rehearsal. Instead, coordinate a dry run with presenters to iron out any challenges in advance.
  • Stick with long presentations. Instead, incorporate breakout discussions, activities, and quizzes to keep attendees engaged.
  • Deliver once-and-done training. Instead, have a plan to reinforce learning and give attendees opportunities to practice their new knowledge and skills.

You can find even more do’s and don’ts in our 2024 SKO-in-a-box.

Get ready for a smooth, successful SKO

The SKO is an opportunity to gather the sales team together to celebrate success and plan for the year ahead. The pressure is on to deliver an engaging and fun SKO that properly prepares teams to crush their goals in the year ahead.

SKO planning can be stressful for sales enablement teams. But by planning (and using the tips we shared in this post), you can pull off an outstanding SKO that energizes your team and prepares them to reach new heights in the coming year.

SKO-in-a-Box

Looking for more tips and resources for planning and executing your best SKO yet? Our SKO-in-a-box is full of tools, resources, and advice for hosting an engaging, impactful sales kick-off for your team.

Get Your Kit

This post was originally published in December 2021 and was updated in November 2024. 

Your Guide to Knowledge Management Systems: What They are and 10 Must-Have Features

Helen Waite on November 7, 2024

“Knowledge is power.” It may be cliche, but it’s true – especially for go-to-market teams.

Customer-facing teams must be equipped with the right knowledge and information to be successful in their roles. But accessing the right information is easier said than done.

Modern businesses have an abundance of information. It’s often siloed, and sellers struggle to find what they need when they need it.

The right knowledge management system ensures your teams can access the right information quickly and easily at the right time.

But what is it?

In this post, we’ll explore knowledge management, why it matters, and why the right tools are critical to any strategy. We’ll also share a list of must-have features to look for when choosing a knowledge management system for your business.

What is knowledge management?

Perhaps you have a clear idea of what enterprise knowledge management is. Or maybe you’re not so sure. Either way, let’s start off by answering this foundational question: What is it?

Simply stated, knowledge management is the practice of gathering, organizing, and sharing knowledge and information with the right people.

Why is knowledge management important?

If you’re like most businesses, you have a huge volume of information spread across the organization. Some examples of the types of information include:

  • Fact-based, straightforward information. For example, a list of features of a specific product offering.
  • Formalized knowledge. Key knowledge and skills delivered through channels, including onboarding, ongoing training, and sales enablement.
  • Experiential knowledge. Information and knowledge employees gain through practice and on-the-job experiences.
  • Procedural information. Information that describes how to do something. For example, how to log in to the CRM for the first time or properly route a contract for approval.

Most organizations have a large amount of knowledge and information, and the volume continues to increase as the organization grows.

But often, knowledge and information are siloed. It lives in different places throughout the organization, it’s not organized, and employees struggle to find what they need.

Your customer-facing teams must be able to find the right information to do their jobs well. They shouldn’t have to spend endless time hunting down what they need.

A knowledge management practice (paired with the right system) ensures employees can always access the right information at the right time – quickly and easily.

What is a knowledge management system?

Organizations house an abundance of information, and this information is often siloed. Enterprise knowledge management is all about controlling the chaos so employees can find what they need, when they need it.

A knowledge management system makes this possible.

But what is it?

A knowledge management system is a tool or platform that enables organizations to find, store, organize, and share knowledge and information.

Knowledge management system examples

Organizations use different types of knowledge management systems. Broadly, they can be divided into two categories: internal and external.

Here’s a closer look at these two examples.

  • Internal system: This system consolidates, organizes, and shares knowledge and information internally. For example, the go-to-market team may have a knowledge management system that serves as a single source of truth for all information.
  • External systems: Some systems are used by external audiences. For example, you might use a one to ensure customers can access the information they need to get the most from your products and services. Or, you might use a knowledge management system to equip your partners with information and resources.

For this post, we’re focusing on internal systems – specifically those used by go-to-market teams.

The benefits of knowledge management systems

Knowledge and information accumulate. And often, it lives in multiple disparate systems.

A knowledge management system connects all information so teams have a single source of truth for knowledge and information.

These systems have some significant benefits. Let’s look at some that top the list.

Increased seller productivity

For sellers, the search for information can seem endless. They spend time hunting down information for one scenario just to turn around and do it all over again.

Unsurprisingly, reps spend less than 30% of their time selling.

Reps spend less than

of their time selling
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With a knowledge management system, teams have a single source for all the information they need. That means they can spend less time searching and more time engaging with customers and winning deals.

Better buyer experiences

Modern B2B buyers have high expectations for great experiences. And when they have questions, they expect timely, accurate answers.

A knowledge management system equips sellers with the knowledge and information they need to deliver consistent experiences that delight customers. And when a rep gets a question from a customer, they no longer have to wait around for an answer from a subject matter expert. They can find the information they need on the enterprise system.

Improved collaboration

Chances are, knowledge floating around your organization is not being shared. For example, you might have a top-performing sales rep that employs certain best practices to close more deals.

A system helps cultivate a culture of learning. Teams have the opportunity to come together to exchange best practices and knowledge, which helps the entire team grow their skills.

Increased sales performance

With the right knowledge management system, sellers can easily access the knowledge they need to reach their full potential. Furthermore, buyers are more likely to have great experiences. That means your sellers will close more deals faster, and your revenue will grow.

Must-have features of knowledge management systems

Which knowledge management platform is right for your business? There’s no easy answer. You must consider your goals and find a tool with features and functionality that’ll help you achieve those goals.

When shopping for a system, be sure your options have these must-have features.

#1 An outstanding user experience

Your employees won’t use a knowledge management system if it’s hard to use. And that means your efforts (and investment) will be for nothing.

Be sure to find an option that’s intuitive and easy to use. Users should be able to easily navigate the knowledge management platform and find what they need within a few clicks.

#2 Mobile-friendly platform

The need for information doesn’t always hit when a seller sits at their desk. Instead, they might need to access knowledge and information while on the field, at a trade show, or waiting for a flight.

It’s important to ensure your chosen platform is accessible and easy to navigate, regardless of the seller’s device.

#3 Robust organization capabilities

You might have a lot of great information, but it’s useless if users can’t find it.

Be sure your chosen knowledge management tool has features and functionality that allow you to tag and organize different knowledge assets. Then, your sellers can easily run queries to find what they need and when needed.

#4 AI capabilities

Today, winning knowledge management systems are leveraging artificial intelligence to make it even easier for users to find the information and knowledge they need to do their jobs well. For example, a platform may leverage AI to offer sellers knowledge and information assets based on their unique needs.

Some platforms also incorporate an AI sales assistant, which enables sellers to ask questions and get real-time answers and information.

#5 Integrations with existing technology

Chances are, your revenue teams already use several tools and technology to do their jobs. About 63% of sales leaders indicate they have 10 or more tools in their current tech stack.

Sales leaders say that they have

tools in their tech stacks
0 +

It’s important to find a tool that integrates with your current tools. Otherwise, users will feel bogged down by yet another disparate solution they must learn to use daily.

#6 Support for a variety of knowledge formats

Knowledge can take many different forms. It could be a training video, a live discussion, or a written piece of sales content, just to name a few examples.

It’s important to ensure your chosen knowledge management system supports various formats. Otherwise, you’ll be forced to store different types of content in different places, which can cause chaos.

#7 Simple course creation

Chances are, your organization has plenty of existing knowledge and information. But there will be times when you need to create new sales training content.

Ensure your knowledge management system offers templates and other capabilities that make it easy to create new learning content quickly and easily. For example, Mindtickle includes out-of-the-box program templates that you can populate with content and launch quickly. A recent report found that, on average, it takes organizations up to four weeks to launch a new program, but starting with a program template reduces that number to seven days.

The average time to launch a program

without a template
0 days
with a template
0

In the future, AI will make it even easier for organizations to quickly and easily develop and deploy learning content. As such, it’s important to look for a knowledge management platform committed to continuous innovation.

#8 Role-plays

Often, information learned in training is forgotten. It’s important to provide opportunities for your sellers to put their knowledge into practice and sharpen their skills.

AI-powered role-plays are a great way for sellers to practice before money is on the line.

With AI role-plays, sellers can practice their skills in a realistic scenario with an adaptive AI bot. AI delivers real-time feedback, which the seller can use to perfect their skills and master knowledge.

AI-Roleplay

#9 Robust analytics

Organizations need to understand how users engage with knowledge and information and how that engagement impacts outcomes.

Find a knowledge management system that provides robust data and analytics. Use these insights to optimize your knowledge management strategy.

#10 Knowledge sharing opportunities

When an organization builds a learning culture, teams and individuals often share feedback and best practices. Be sure your knowledge management software allows for this type of collaboration.

For example, some knowledge management platforms enable sellers to record role plays and share them with peers for feedback. Other organizations may incorporate best practices from top sellers in their video content.

It’s time to see what a knowledge management system can do for your revenue organization

Sellers rely on information to do their jobs—and do them well. For example, they need information to master the skills and behaviors they need to succeed. And when prospective customers ask a question, they need to get an accurate answer—and fast.

But often, sellers spend time and effort hunting down the right information. This time would be better spent delivering outstanding experiences that win customers.

With the right knowledge management system, your teams can find all the information and knowledge they need – whenever and wherever they need it. Sellers can spend less time searching for information and more time engaging with buyers. And that means they’ll close more deals – faster.

Better Knowledge Management with Mindtickle

Ready to see how Mindtickle equips go-to-market teams with the information and answers they need – right at their fingertips?

Request Your Demo

6 Practical Ways to Increase Sales Productivity

Helen Waite on October 30, 2024

Like any sales leader, you work hard to hire and develop a team of reps that will close deals and contribute to revenue growth. But the harsh reality is that your reps aren’t spending much time selling. According to recent research, sales reps spend a mere 28% of their time each week on selling activities.

That certainly doesn’t mean your sellers are slacking off 72% of the time. Instead, they spend the bulk of the week on time-consuming, tedious tasks and administrative work. This frustrates reps and stands in the way of them reaching their full potential.

To increase sales productivity, you must first pinpoint roadblocks and determine what’s eating up your team’s time. Then, you can work to optimize processes and procedures so reps have enough time to effectively tackle revenue-generating activities.

Increasing sales productivity doesn’t have to be a big undertaking. Even a small uplift in the amount of time each rep spends on core selling activities will add up to a big productivity boost across your entire sales team.

Not sure where to start? Read on to explore six practical ways to remove barriers and increase sales productivity across your entire team.

1. Automate data entry

Adding data to your customer relationship management (CRM) program is time-consuming and a top frustration for sales professionals. Fortunately, there are ways to automate data entry so your reps have more time to sell.

As reps work on more complex deals with multiple stakeholders and more touchpoints, each interaction creates more information and data for them to keep track of. It takes a long time to add detailed notes and provide meaningful updates for each sales activity in your CRM.

You need to automate data entry to get data into your CRM faster. Automation also improves data quality by reducing the number of incomplete CRM records — normally a clear sign that a rep started to update their records and then jumped on another call.

Use AI to analyze call recordings, outreach emails, and social media messages, looking for topics discussed, key messaging, or competitors mentioned

Then, connect that AI with your CRM to automatically link to call recordings, other sales activity, and appropriate tags based on the insights it gathers. Using AI to automate data entry enables sellers to spend less time inputting info without compromising data quality.

2. Consolidate tools to reduce context switching

Context switching is where you jump between projects, tools, and tasks — and it affects your productivity levels and focus. For example, Asana found that “workers switch among 10 apps 25 times per day,” greatly reducing their efficiency.

Workers switch between apps up to

times a day
0

For sales organizations, tool overload seems even worse. According to recent research, around 63% of revenue organizations have ten or more tools in their tech stacks. It’s not surprising that 49% of sellers feel overwhelmed by the number of technologies needed to do their jobs.

But it’s also not good, as overwhelmed sellers are 43% less likely to make quota than their peers who aren’t overwhelmed.

Consolidating your sales tech stack can increase productivity by reducing duplicated effort and context switching. According to Forrester, there is a “significant overlap in features and functionality that exists between different sales tech categories.” 

"There is significant overlap in features and functionality that exists between different sales tech categories."
Forrester Research

Consolidation will bring “greater value for buyers of sales tech, reducing dependency on point solutions.” A closer analysis of your existing tech stack may reveal duplicate functionality across multiple tools — so consolidation will save the business money, as well as help your sales reps increase productivity.

Before you start consolidating tools, sales managers should ask their teams which ones they use most and where they spend the most time duplicating work. This will help you understand the biggest inefficiencies for your sales teams and how your existing tech stack is affecting their workflow.

Then, you can review your existing tools and the functionality you get across each. Look for:

  • Overlapping features
  • Duplicate functionality
  • Opportunities to set up new integrations between tools
  • Options to switch to an all-in-one platform instead of multiple disparate applications

For example, Mindtickle’s revenue enablement platform integrates sales enablement, content management, conversation intelligence, and sales coaching. Ken Blank, senior sales enablement program lead at Infoblox, explained, “We’ve been able to integrate multiple disjointed systems into one single platform for our internal customers as well as the enablement team.”

3. Improve access to content and resources

Finding the best content and resources is another inefficiency for many sales teams. Forrester states that “not having the right content” is one of the biggest productivity challenges facing sales teams and that “finding content and information is a significant productivity obstacle.”

Sales teams often struggle because they don’t know what content is available or where to find it in shared drives. Finding sales content can be especially difficult if another team (such as marketing) creates the content, and each team has different ways of organizing assets. You can help sales reps improve their productivity by making it easier to find and use sales content to move their deals forward.

Salesforce - Asset Hub

Adopting a dedicated sales content management system makes it easy for reps to access your sales content. It provides a single, searchable home for all your content assets. In addition, you can organize your content into hubs based on topic or content type so that it’s categorized based on how your sales team will use or search for it.

When it’s easier for sellers to find relevant content to use in their sales interactions, reps aren’t spending time scrolling through shared drives hunting for relevant case studies. Instead, they can focus on their next sales conversation, equipped with the information they need for the call or follow-up message.

4. Make training and coaching an ongoing priority

At first glance, it may seem like sales training and coaching will negatively impact your sales team’s productivity. You may think it’s yet another activity that takes up reps’ time. That’s likely true if your company sees sales training as an ad-hoc checkbox activity rather than a long-term value-add. But personalized, continuous training helps reps improve their skills, enabling them to follow best practices and learn from other team members how to be more efficient and productive in their work.

Adopting a structured revenue enablement program enables sellers to increase knowledge, enhance performance, and adapt to change. It makes training and enablement an ongoing priority and helps to foster a team culture of continuous improvement.

Training personalized to each rep helps individuals make targeted improvements in key areas. For example, some reps struggle to handle sales objections, while others struggle to discuss your pricing. Sales leaders can help reps improve on areas of weakness identified using AI to analyze sales call recordings and other customer interactions. This helps reps improve their productivity by handling these regular, recurring situations more easily.

5. Deliver real-time coaching

Sales coaching—when done well—can significantly impact sales productivity and quota attainment. But traditional coaching practices tend to be time-consuming for sellers and managers alike.

Most sellers want coaching so they can improve their performance. However, they often have to wait around for feedback from their manager. For example, they might submit role-plays to their manager – and then have to wait around for their manager to watch the role-plays and deliver meaningful feedback. In the meantime, deals may stall – or disappear altogether.

On the other hand, real-time coaching allows sellers to sharpen their skills right away. Then, they can take their improved skills into the field to close more deals.

But how exactly can revenue organizations deliver real-time coaching? By tapping into AI role-plays.

With AI role-plays, enablement teams can create realistic sales scenarios and assign characteristics and behaviors to an AI-powered bot. When sellers launch a role-play, they can practice their skills in a dynamic, realistic environment with an adaptive bot. AI delivers feedback throughout the role-play experience, which the seller can apply immediately.

The seller can practice as much as necessary and get immediate feedback without waiting on their manager. Then, they can enter client interactions with stronger skills and a greater likelihood of closing the deal.

6. Streamline sales interactions

These days, sellers aren’t dealing with a single buyer. Instead, they’re typically juggling large (and growing) buying committees. Per Gartner, the average B2B buying group includes up to 10 people.

The average B2B buying group includes

stakeholders
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Each member of the buying committee brings a different perspective and unique needs, preferences, and questions. Keeping each stakeholder engaged and ensuring their needs are met can take a lot of time and effort for sellers.

If your sellers primarily use email to engage with buyers, it can get tedious. They probably find themselves sinking a lot of time into digging through their inbox or scanning long email threads to ensure they’ve addressed each stakeholder’s questions and concerns. And if one (or more) of these stakeholders goes silent, the seller may not know what to do next.

One way to streamline sales interactions (and increase sales productivity) is to start using digital sales rooms.

Digital sales rooms are personalized portals where all members of the buying and selling teams can collaborate throughout the sales cycle. Sales reps can use digital sales rooms to share content and information that’s relevant to each buyer stakeholder – instead of sending (and resending) countless email attachments.

In addition, digital sales rooms allow sellers to see how different buying committee members engage with information and content. Sellers can use that insight to adapt their approach and spend time on things that will move the deal forward. In other words, the insights in digital sales rooms can help increase sales productivity.

Increase sales productivity by helping reps spend more time doing what they love

Your sellers are responsible for delighting prospects and closing deals. But often, they don’t have the time to do so because they’re bogged down with admin and other time-consuming tasks.

Sales leaders must make it a priority to increase sales productivity. By implementing just one or two of the tips in this post, your reps can spend less time on admin and more time building relationships with prospects and helping them solve their challenges. Sellers will be able to close more deals – and they’ll be happier in their roles.

The math is simple: your sales reps need to spend more time engaging with prospects to close more deals. Increasing sales productivity will boost sales performance – and grow your bottom line.

More Productivity with Mindtickle

Are your reps spending too much time on admin work and not enough time closing deals? See how Mindtickle helps.

Request Your Demo

This post was originally published in March 2022 and was updated in October 2024. 

20 Best Sales Enablement Softwares, Tools, & Platforms

Helen Waite on October 22, 2024

By now, sales enablement has become a critical department for businesses of all sizes and industries looking to increase productivity and revenue growth. In fact, 84% of organizations invest in sales enablement teams.

It’s no wonder.

Sales enablement prepares sellers to overcome key challenges, effectively engage buyers, and land more deals when done well. According to a recent report, 76% of sales reps feel their enablement prepares them to make quota.

of reps feel enablement preps them to meet quota
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Sales enablement tools greatly impact the success (or failure) of any sales enablement program. It’s important to choose your tools wisely.

But sifting through all the options can feel pretty overwhelming. There’s tons of information, from review sites and analyst reports to the good old Google search. Whether you’re running short on time or just beginning your search, We’re here to help.

Today, we’ll explore 20 of the best sales enablement tools. We’ll break down each tool so you can determine which is best for supercharging your sales performance and taking your sales enablement program to the next level.

The best sales enablement platforms on the market today

Let’s jump in head first with a list of the best revenue enablement software tools today. Later on, we’ll take a closer look at each of these top tools.

    1. Mindtickle
    2. Seismic
    3. Highspot
    4. Gong
    5. Showpad
    6. Allego
    7. Brainshark/Bigtincan
    8. Paperflite
    9. Salesloft
    10. Chorus
    11. Spekit
    12. Whatfix
    13. Outreach.io
    14. Klue
    15. SalesHood
    16. Guru
    17. Intercom
    18. Storylane

    19. Hubspot
    20. Salesforce

What is a sales enablement platform?

Let’s define a platform before discussing the 20 best sales enablement tools.

Modern B2B buyers have high (and ever-growing) expectations. Meeting those expectations isn’t always easy. Sales enablement is a practice that equips sellers with the sales training, tools, information, and content they need to effectively and efficiently engage with buyers and close more deals.

A sales enablement platform is a software solution that enables organizations to build and deliver enablement programs that ensure sellers have what they need to engage buyers and convert more of them to customers.

Some sales enablement tools focus on a single aspect of sales enablement. For example, a learning management system (LMS) focuses on delivering training content, while other enablement platforms focus more on delivering, tracking, and sharing sales content.

There are also integrated sales enablement platforms that address all of the different elements of sales enablement – all in one software solution. Some of the key components to look for in an integrated sales enablement platform include:

  • Sales onboarding
  • Ongoing training
  • Sales coaching
  • Role-plays
  • Sales content
  • Conversation intelligence
  • Digital sales rooms
  • Robust data and analytics

How do you choose the right sales enablement tool?

There are countless vendors, each offering solutions that promise to increase the effectiveness of your sales enablement program. But not all sales enablement tools are the same. Each has its own set of features, functionality, and support.

How can you choose the right sales enablement tool for your organization? First, consider your organization’s most important use cases.

Let’s examine a few.

Your sales enablement goals and program scope

When choosing sales enablement tools, you must consider the goals and scope of your sales enablement program. Then, you can look for a sales enablement solution with features and functionality that’ll properly support your program and help you achieve your sales enablement goals.

For example, if content delivery, sharing, and tracking are part of your sales enablement purview, be sure to find a solution with robust sales content management capabilities and analytics.

Your budget

Nearly all sales enablement tools have a cost. It’s important to find one that fits your budget.

But don’t make your decision solely based on price.

It’s important to determine the value of a solution for your business. If one sales enablement platform is more expensive than the others but delivers more value, it may be the better option. As you evaluate vendors, it is helpful to create a business case to determine what solutions you will be replacing or consolidating and the ROI you can model with each solution.

User experience

If a sales enablement tool is difficult to use, user adoption will be low. Be sure to look for a sales enablement platform that’s easy for both sellers and enablement teams to use.

Point vs. integrated sales enablement tools

Some organizations use different tools to address different aspects of sales enablement. For example, they might use different tools for sales content management, training, and coaching.

However, using disparate tools may not be the right approach to achieving your sales enablement goals.

A recent survey found around 70% of sales reps are overwhelmed by the number of tools they’re expected to use to do their jobs. Furthermore, according to a Harvard Business Review report, sellers who feel overwhelmed by technology are 43% less likely to meet their quotas.

of reps are overwhelmed by the number of sales tools used in their daily work
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Many go-to-market organizations are streamlining their tech stacks (and increasing adoption) by investing in an integrated sales enablement solution. These all-in-one solutions holistically address the myriad elements of sales enablement – all from one platform.

Customer feedback

Researching and requesting demos is a great way to learn about different sales enablement tools. In addition, be sure to seek feedback from those already using various sales enablement platforms.

 

Case studies and testimonials are one way to see how similar companies use different sales enablement tools to achieve their goals. Another way to get feedback from current and existing customers is to read user reviews on G2.

The top sales enablement platforms, tools, and software

Now, let’s look at 20 of the most popular sales enablement tools for increasing sales productivity and revenue growth.

1. Mindtickle

G2 rating: 4.7 out of 5
Price: Mindtickle offers multiple pricing tiers. Contact the company for customized pricing.

Mindtickle is an integrated revenue enablement platform that empowers your go-to-market team to deliver outstanding experiences that drive revenue and retain happy customers.

Enablement professionals turn to Mindtickle to deliver personalized enablement programs and report the impact enablement has on revenue outcomes. Mindtickle Copilot, an AI-powered assistant, makes creating and deploying sales enablement programs even easier for teams.

Sellers use Mindtickle to access onboarding, training, content, coaching, Digital Sales Rooms (DSRs), conversation intelligence, AI role-plays, and more from one platform. Mindtickle leverages AI to streamline tedious, time-consuming tasks so sellers can spend more time building authentic customer relationships. The DSRs enable sellers to create tailored rooms for every opportunity and accelerate deals to close fast.xz

Teams can also measure sales enablement KPIs and use those insights to optimize their programs accordingly.

Notable features

  • Sales onboarding helps your new sellers hit the ground running so they can start contributing to revenue growth faster.
  • Ongoing individualized training allows each seller to strengthen key skills.
  • Mindtickle Copilot, the platform’s AI sales assistant, enables sellers to ask questions and get instant, accurate answers as well as surface relevant content and training.
  • Mindtickle Copilot makes it faster and easier to develop new sales enablement modules.
  • Sales content management enables sellers to surface the right content at the right time to engage buyers and move deals forward. Mindtickle Copilot can even draft a contextual email to accompany content.
  • Sales coaching enables sellers to access individualized coaching that improves long-term behaviors and performance.
  • AI role-plays empower sellers to practice their skills in engaging, interactive scenarios while getting real-time feedback for improvement.
  • Conversation intelligence records and summarizes calls, and Mindtickle Copilot makes it easy for sellers to quickly surface top insights. This intel can help sellers determine what step to take next to move the deal forward.
  • Digital sales rooms provide a single source of truth for everything related to a deal. Sellers can share relevant content with buyers, and both parties can collaborate and communicate in one central location. Sellers can see how buyers engage in the digital sales room, which can help them adapt their strategy for better outcomes.
  • Rich analytics enable teams to measure the impact of enablement. They can see how sellers engage with enablement and how that engagement impacts the metrics that matter most.

Best for

Mindtickle is used by several roles across the organization, including:

  • Sales/revenue enablement
  • Sales reps
  • Frontline managers
  • Sales leadership
  • Sales operations
  • Marketing
  • Customer success

Mindtickle has over one million users at companies ranging from startups to large enterprises. Mindtickle supercharges enablement programs for industries including automotive, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, manufacturing, chemicals, technology, and many others.

What customers say

“I appreciate how Mindtickle collaborates with other tools and systems, streamlining the learning experience and ensuring that it fits seamlessly into existing workflows. This integration helps maintain a smooth and efficient training process.”
Sheyla P.
"An intuitive and user-friendly platform for your training & enablement needs."
Anirudh I.
“What I most liked is the simplicity of the system, allowing complex operations to be executed easily - the complexity is left behind the scenes, while the operation is simple. I also liked the collaboration capabilities and the AI search.”
Daniel L.

2. Seismic

Price: Seismic offers multiple pricing tiers. Contact the company for customized pricing.

Seismic is a unified sales enablement platform that helps organizations engage customers and grow revenue. It equips customer-facing teams with the right skills, tools, content, and data to win more deals. Marketing teams leverage Seismic to create more effective content that’s actually used by sellers and buyers. 

Notable features

  • Robust content management features that make it easy for enablement professionals to develop new content and for sellers to find the content they need.
  • Extensive reporting and analytics, including the ability to see how content is being used.
    Integrates with your business-critical tools, including Microsoft, Salesforce, Google, and Adobe.

Cons

Many of the downsides of Seismic cited by G2 users are related to user experience. For example, many users mention challenges with navigation, and some feel the platform isn’t intuitive.

3. Highspot

Price: Highspot offers several different pricing options. Contact the company to discuss the right model for your organization.

Highspot is a unified enterprise sales enablement platform. Highspot incorporates many key components of a holistic sales enablement practice, including sales training, content management, sales playbooks, and analytics. 

Notable features

  • Learning management capabilities to quickly onboard new sellers and ensure knowledge retention.
  • Detailed reporting helps sellers understand when deals are at risk so they can take corrective action.
  • Highspot leverages AI across workflows to help teams work smarter.

Cons

Many of Highspot’s downsides are related to user experience. Reviewers mention layout issues and difficulty with navigation. Getting up to speed with Highspot can be challenging, as many users mention a steep learning curve. 

4. Gong

Gong logo

Price: Gong pricing varies based on several factors, including organization size and selected features. Contact the company for a customized price quote.

Gong is an “all in one” revenue intelligence platform. Gong leverages AI to empower businesses to capture and analyze customer interactions, including calls, emails, and live chat. Gong then delivers actionable insights to go-to-market teams, which they can use to drive better outcomes and increase revenue growth. Gong is trusted by 4,000+ customers across the globe.

screenshot of Gong's beat call timeline product

Notable features

  • Gong collects and analyzes customer interactions from various sources, including phone calls, emails, text, and web chat.
  • More than 40 AI models to help you understand your customers’ interactions
  • Robust insights help you coach buyers, understand the voice of your customers, and improve sales outcomes.
  • Gong may seamlessly integrate into your existing tech stack.

Cons

While Gong has strong call insights, it lacks key training and onboarding capabilities typically sought in a sales enablement platform. Gong users cite several downsides to the platform, including AI inaccuracy and issues with recording. Some users also feel there are missing features, such as pausing the tool during meetings. 

5. Showpad

Price: There are three pricing plans for Showpad Coach and two for Showpad Coach. However, the company doesn’t publish pricing information. Contact Showpad for detailed pricing information.

Showpad eOS® is an all-in-one enablement platform where sales and marketing teams collaborate to provide sales reps with the right content and training to effectively engage buyers. The platform features two distinct components: Showpad Content and Showpad Coach. Showpad Content equips sellers with the right sales content at the right time. Showpad Coach allows enablement teams to deliver onboarding, training, and coaching so sales reps can build the skills to foster customer relationships and close more deals.

Notable features

  • AI powers real-time feedback so sellers can hone the right skills on their own time.
  • Showpad Content leverages AI to curate relevant content, allowing sellers to become trusted advisors.
  • Robust analytics and insights help teams understand which content and training resonates with buyers and sellers, enabling organizations to optimize their enablement strategies.
  • Showpad has 65+ integrations and an open API.

Cons

Showpad users mention several cons related to user experience. For example, many feel the platform is not unintuitive, while others find the interface clunky. Some reviewers also mention that Showpad has fewer features than other sales enablement tools today. 

6. Allego

Price: Allego offers its products ala carte. Additionally, customers can bundle products, which consolidate seven tools into one. Pricing varies based on the number of users and the contract duration. Contact Allego for detailed pricing information.

Allego is a revenue enablement platform that empowers go-to-market teams to deliver experiences that meet modern buyers’ expectations. It includes content management capabilities, which ensure sellers can find the right content at the right time. Allego also incorporates sales training and coaching, as well as conversation intelligence to analyze what’s happening in the field. Digital sales rooms round out Allego, enabling buyers and sellers to communicate and collaborate throughout the purchase journey.

Notable features

  • Tools to easily create and deliver personalized training, enablement, and reinforcement.
  • Digital sales rooms enable collaboration between buyers and sellers and enable sellers to understand buyer engagement.
  • Conversation intelligence records and analyzes calls and delivers real-time coaching to sellers.
  • Content management capabilities allow you to easily create, organize, and personalize sales content. Sellers can also track sales content performance.

Cons

Some reviewers mention a steep learning curve with Allego, which can negatively impact user adoption and impact. Others mention the platform isn’t intuitive and is poorly organized. Another common review theme is that Allego lacks key features common in other sales enablement tools. 

7. Paperflite

Price: Pricing starts at $50 per user per month, with a five-user minimum. A free trial is available. Contact the company for customized pricing information.

Paperflite is a sales enablement tool that’s primarily focused on sales content management. Paperflite centralizes all sales content into a single hub and leverages AI to help sellers surface the right content at the right time for the right prospects. Paperflite delivers insights on how content is being used and how it’s impacting deals. That way, marketing teams can optimize their content programs for greater impact.

Notable features

  • This sales enablement tool leverages algorithms, user behavior, and AI to help sellers surface the right content for each sales scenario.
  • Engaging, personalized microsites enable sellers to share relevant content with buyers.
  • Sellers can access real-time insights on how buyers engage with content, enabling them to tailor their follow-up properly.
  • Insights on content ROI help marketing teams focus on content that makes an impact.

Cons

Paperflite primarily focuses on sales content, which means businesses must use other solutions to address the other aspects of holistic sales enablement. Common themes in G2 reviews include limited features and platform limitations. Some users also mention issues with the platform’s layout. 

8. Bigtincan/Brainshark

**Note**: Bigtincan acquired Brainshark in 2021 and will eventually combine their offerings. For now, they are separated in this list to evaluate their still separate features and functionality.

Bigtincan Price: Bigtincan offers customized packages based on an organization’s needs. Contact the company for detailed pricing information.

Bigtincan offers sales enablement tools that prepare customer-facing teams to deliver great buying experiences. The Bigtincan platform has three parts: Readiness, Content, and Engagement. It can be customized to your organization’s needs and evolve as your business does.

Notable Bigtincan features

  • Centralized repository for all sales content, so sellers can easily find what they need, when they need it – and tailor if for each buyer.
  • Tools to quickly create and deliver just-in-time training and enablement so sellers can master the necessary skills.
  • AI-powered sales coaching so sellers can perfect their skills before they take them into the field.
  • Robust analytics to understand how buyers engage with sales content so sellers can adapt their strategies.

Cons

One of the most common themes of negative reviews on G2 is that Bigtincan lacks many of the features of other sales enablement platforms. Comments about user experience are also common. For example, one reviewer said they must make several clicks to complete simple, routine actions.

Brainshark

Price: Brainshark offers two tiers, Pro and Premier. Each tier is available as an annual subscription using a per-user pricing model. Contact the company for detailed pricing information.

Brainshark is a data-driven sales readiness solution that equips client-facing teams with information, skills, and insights to reach their full potential. With Brainshark, businesses can deliver training, coaching, and enablement and measure the impact of these initiatives on sales readiness. Brainshark has customers in various industries, including IT, manufacturing, insurance, banking, and others. Brainshark was acquired by Bigtincan in 2021.

Notable features

  • Content authoring capabilities make developing and deploying new learning content easy.
  • Onboarding and ongoing training help sellers learn and retain the skills they need to be ready for any deal.
  • AI-powered coaching enables sales reps to get real-time feedback without waiting on their manager.
  • Readiness scorecards help sales leaders identify sellers’ skills gaps so they can proactively address them and improve performance.

Cons

Negative reviews for Brainshark most often focus on the platform’s limited features compared to other solutions on the market. Reviewers also cite difficulty with reporting and limited opportunities for customization. 

9. Salesloft

Price: Salesloft offers two pricing editions: Advanced and Premier. Contact the company for pricing information on both tiers.

Salesloft is a “revenue orchestration platform” that helps sellers more effectively engage with prospects. The platform leverages AI to analyze buyer signals, then delivers insights that help sellers know the right steps to take at the right time to engage prospects. Salesloft has more than 5,00 customers across the globe, including Google, IBM, and Cisco.

Notable features

  • Salesloft’s AI-powered engine integrates buyer signals so sellers can understand the urgency and act immediately.
  • Conversation intelligence transcribes and analyzes customer calls so sellers can tailor their follow-up.
  • Robust reporting and analytics enable organizations to improve processes and sell better.

Cons

While Salesloft includes impressive outreach capabilities, many G2 reviews mention that It lacks key features standard in other sales enablement tools, like robust training and onboarding capabilities. Reviewers also mention call issues and challenges with integrations. 

10. Chorus by ZoomInfo

Price: Chorus does not publish pricing information. Contact the company for more pricing information.

Chorus is an AI-powered conversation intelligence tool. The platform records and analyzes customer engagement across phone calls, email, and video meetings. These insights can help

Notable features

  • Instant insights on any customer interaction help sellers tailor their follow-up.
  • Sellers get instant feedback for behavior improvement.
  • Data enables teams to benchmark sales conversations on metrics like talk-to-listen ratios and the use of filler words.
  • Powerful insights inform more accurate sales forecasting.

Cons

Similar to Gong, Chorus focuses more on the conversation intelligence piece of sales enablement, with limited training and onboarding support. Negative reviews for Chorus mention various technical issues, including call and recording issues. Several reviews also mention accuracy as a concern. 

11. Spekit

Price: Spekit doesn’t publish pricing information. Contact the company for customized pricing information.

Spekit is an AI-powered sales enablement platform. Spekit centralizes everything related to enablement and makes it easy for sellers to find the answers, training, and content they need – whenever and wherever they need it.

Notable features

  • A centralized repository to organize, share, track, and analyze all sales content and training.
  • AI-powered content creation makes it quick and easy to spin up new content.
  • AI-powered recommendations help sellers surface the right content to engage buyers and accelerate deals.

Cons

Several G2 reviews mention challenges related to search. For each, reviewers find search functionality inadequate or limited. Some reviewers also feel the platform’s features are limited. For example, one reviewer wishes they could provide more complex knowledge checks and more in-depth options for sellers to provide feedback on content. 

12. Whatfix

Price: Whatfix offers multiple pricing tiers and add-ons. Contact the company for personalized pricing information.

Whatfix is a digital adoption platform that helps companies onboard, support, and train their application users. With Whatfix, businesses can create and deliver customized content – such as videos, help tips, links, and text – within the app experience. Users don’t have to leave the platform to get the information they need, which increases user engagement.

Notable features

  • In-app guidance enables users to learn within the flow of work.
  • Self-help, which integrates with existing knowledge repositories, provides users with quick answers whenever a question arises.
  • In-app surveys collect user feedback to inform product and process optimizations.
  • Guidance analytics help you understand how users are engaging with in-app content.

Cons

While What Fix helps guide teams and boost productivity, it is not meant to be used standalone for sales enablement. Many reviewers note that getting up and running with Whatfix is not easy. Some mention a steep learning curve, while others state the platform isn’t as intuitive as they’d like. 

13. Outreach.io

Price: Outreach offers multiple pricing packages. Contact the company for customized pricing information.

Outreach is a “sales execution platform” that increases sales productivity and empowers sales teams to create and close more pipeline. Outreach equips teams with AI-powered workflows to understand what steps to take when and which messages will resonate with which prospects. AI also streamlines tedious, time-consuming work so sellers can focus on engaging with prospects. To effectively increase pipeline conversion and seller productivity, sales leaders turn to Outreach to get a complete picture of the sales cycle.

Notable features

  • Sequences and playbooks empower sellers to build a healthy pipeline.
  • Conversation intelligence helps sellers pinpoint trends, competition, and deal threats.
  • Rich insights help teams prioritize winnable opportunities, identify at-risk deals, and take action to increase win rates.

Cons

While Outreach has strong sales execution capabilities, it lacks key training and onboarding capabilities typically sought after in a sales enablement platform. Many G2 reviewers mention Outreach’s steep learning curve, which can negatively impact user adoption and impact. Technical issues and integration issues are other common themes in reviews. 

14. Klue

Price: Klue does not publish pricing information. Contact the company for detailed pricing information.

Klue is a competitive intelligence solution that combines market, competitor, and buyer insights into one AI-powered platform. With Klue, businesses understand what they’re up against and what they need to do to win.

Notable features

  • Competitor tracking from millions of sources – all in one platform.
  • Battlecards and other content feature quick-hit competitive insights that help sellers position their solution as the best choice.
  • In-depth reporting on your competitive program’s ROI can help you make data-based optimizations.

Cons

While Klue excels in competitive intelligence for sales teams, it lacks key training and onboarding capabilities typically sought in a sales enablement platform. The topic of user experience often comes up in Klue’s negative reviews. For example, one reviewer noted, “Klue’s UI can be very confusing across the platform.” In addition, many users feel Klue offers limited or incomplete features. Klue also offers limited opportunities for customization. 

15. SalesHood

Price: SalesHood offers three pricing packages, starting at $40 per user per month. Contact the company for personalized pricing information.

SalesHood is a revenue enablement tool that helps sellers understand what to do and what to share in order to effectively engage buyers throughout the purchase journey. SalesHood incorporates many sales enablement components, including sales content, answers, digital sales rooms, training, and coaching – all in one, integrated platform. SalesHood also offers robust analytics that help organizations understand the impact of enablement on seller productivity and revenue growth.

Notable features

  • Digital sales rooms enable reps to deliver engaging buying experiences and track prospects’ engagement with content.
  • Sales content management capabilities allow organizations to centralize and organize all content in one location and understand its impact on sales outcomes. AI also delivers recommendations to help sellers share content that will resonate with buyers.
  • AI-powered role plays allow sellers to practice and hone their pitches.
  • Robust reporting and analytics help you understand the impact of enablement so you can optimize programs accordingly.

Cons

Navigation challenges are a recurring theme in G2 reviews. One user noted that the platform has an overwhelming number of features, which makes it difficult to navigate effectively. Another common frustration is the lack of customization options. 

16. Guru

Price: Guru offers multiple pricing options, starting at $15 per user per month. A free trial is available.

Guru is an AI-powered knowledge management platform that enables users to get answers and assistance right within the flow of work. That means your sellers can spend less time switching between tools to hunt down information and answers and more time engaging with buyers and closing deals.

Notable features

  • Provides a single source of truth by connecting existing apps.
  • Generative AI makes it easy to create new content.
  • Integrates with existing tools and technology, including Slack, Google Chrome, ChatGPT, OneDrive, Salesforce Service Cloud and many others.
  • Enterprise governance keeps your knowledge safe and sound.

Cons

While Guru excels in content management for sales teams, it lacks key training and onboarding capabilities typically sought after in a sales enablement platform.Challenges with search functionality are a common theme in G2 reviews for Guru. For example, multiple users mention that queries on Guru pull up too many results, which makes it difficult to sort through to find the most relevant answers and content. 

17. Intercom

Price: Intercom offers multiple pricing tiers, starting at $39 per user per month. A free trial is available.

Intercom is an AI-first customer service solution that enhances the customer experience and increases operational efficiency. With Intercom, customers get fast, accurate answers to most questions and agents no longer have to dig around for answers and information. In addition, organizational leaders can access insights to improve their business.

Notable features

  • Fin AI Agent, Intercom’s chatbot, instantly resolves customer challenges and provides fast, accurate answers, decreasing case volume for live agents.
  • AI tools enable your agents to find quick answers so they can spend less time hunting down information and more time fostering relationships with customers.
  • Reporting and insights enable organizational leaders to pinpoint opportunities for improvement.
  • Intercom integrates with over 100 apps.

Cons

While Intercom excels in customer service and AI, it lacks key training and onboarding capabilities typically sought after in a sales enablement platform.A common theme in G2 reviews is that Intercom lacks desired features. For example, one user cited wanting a CRM feature to measure health scores. Some users also mentioned challenges with integrations. 

18. Storylane

Price: Storylane offers multiple pricing editions, including a free one. Paid editions start at $40 per user per month. Free trials are available upon request.

Storylane is a sales enablement tool that allows sellers to build interactive demos for prospects. With Storylane, you can create a frontend copy of your product, edit it without code, add widgets to call out specific product elements, and share with prospects. Sellers can see how buyers engage with demos, so they tailor their follow-up and focus their efforts on those most likely to convert.

Notable features

  • Sandbox demos create an instant copy of your app in a customizable environment.
  • Demo hub allows prospects to explore different use cases – all in one spot.
  • Rich insights allow sellers to understand how prospects engage with demos and which are most likely to convert.

Cons

While Storylane excels in interactive demos for sales teams, it is missing key training and onboarding capabilities typically sought after in a sales enablement platform. Some G2 reviews mention technical difficulties when getting up and running with Storylane. Some also express a desire for a more intuitive user interface. 

19. HubSpot Sales Hub

Price: HubSpot Sales Hub is available in various tiers, from free to $150 per user per month.

HubSpot Sales Hub is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Its free plan includes content management capabilities so sellers can access the right content at the right time. Enablement content like playbooks and battle cards can help sellers engage buyers and close more deals.

Notable features

  • Email templates that can be personalized to each sales scenario, as well as AI to help sellers draft communication.
  • Content management so sellers can find what they’re looking for and understand how it’s used.
  • Automated workflows so sales reps never miss a beat.
  • Integration with myriad other sales enablement tools.

Cons

Hubspot Sales Hub isn’t a standalone sales enablement tool, as it lacks training and onboarding capabilities. Instead, it works better in combination with other sales enablement tools. In addition, some reviews mention a steep learning curve and missing product features. Others mention that HubSpot is an expensive solution for what it offers. 

20. Salesforce

Price: Salesforce pricing varies across different tiers, with Sales Cloud starting at $25 per user per month for Essentials and going up to $300 per user per month for the Unlimited plan.

Salesforce is a widely-used customer relationship management (CRM) platform designed to support various business functions, including sales, marketing, and service. It offers powerful tools to manage customer interactions and streamline sales processes. With robust reporting and forecasting capabilities, Salesforce helps sales teams monitor performance and identify growth opportunities.

Notable features

  • Lead and opportunity management to track prospects through every stage of the funnel.
  • AI-powered Einstein analytics to provide predictive insights and recommendations.
  • Customizable dashboards and reports to visualize key sales metrics in real-time.
  • Extensive integrations with third-party tools, enabling seamless workflows.

Cons

Salesforce has a reputation for being complex to set up and manage, especially for small businesses. Some users report that its customization options, while powerful, can be overwhelming without proper training. Others find the cost of Salesforce high, especially as additional features often require expensive add-ons.

Supercharge your sales performance with the right sales enablement platform

When done well, sales enablement can have a large, measurable impact on the metrics that matter most to your business. But a winning sales enablement strategy requires the right tools.

There’s no one-size-fits-all sales enablement tool that’ll work for every organization.

Instead, assessing your goals, needs, and budget is important. Then, you can look for a platform with the right features and functionality to help you achieve your sales enablement goals. The sales enablement tools we explored in this blog are a great place to start.

However, it’s important to remember that many sales enablement tools are point solutions. In other words, they address a single element of sales enablement – such as conversation intelligence or sales training. Adding another tool to a bloated tech stack can lead to tool fatigue and disengagement.

Consider streamlining your tech stack by trading your point solutions for an integrated revenue enablement platform like Mindtickle.

With Mindtickle, your sellers always have the training, tools, and information they need to build the right skills to effectively and efficiently engage buyers. Furthermore, when all your sales enablement lives under one roof, it’s easy to holistically measure the impact of your programs so you can optimize them for even bigger results.

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