13 Ways To Measure Sales Enablement Success

Vivian Batman on October 15, 2024

Having a dedicated sales enablement team was once the exception. But now, it’s the norm across organizations of all sizes and industries. Research tells us 84% of organizations currently invest in a sales enablement team.

While most organizations are placing their bets on sales enablement, many still struggle to gauge their programs’ success (or failure).

Of course, tracking revenue is important. But it doesn’t tell you the full story of sales enablement impact. You must also correlate sales activities with tangible business outcomes to discover what’s working – and what’s not.

Fortunately, several effective ways to measure and track your sales enablement efforts exist. In this post, we’ll walk you through how each method works so you can pick the one best suited to your company’s needs. Once you identify the best ways to measure your sales program, you can start improving, standardizing activities, and developing successful sales enablement strategies.

The importance of measuring sales enablement performance

Soon, we’ll dive into how you can measure sales enablement success. But first, let’s take a step back to discuss why measuring sales enablement performance even matters.

Ongoing measurement unlocks optimization opportunities

Every sales enablement team aims to build an enablement program that greatly impacts sales performance. Ongoing measurement is critical to building an optimized program that’ll have the greatest impact.

Regular measurement lets you understand what’s working and what’s not. Then, you can do more of what’s working – and optimize what’s not working.

For example, you might notice that video content has greater engagement (and impact) than written content. So, you make it a priority to create more video content.

Or, perhaps you notice that sellers in a specific region score low on certain competencies. So, you work to develop additional resources to strengthen those weaker skills.

The bottom line is, ongoing sales enablement measurement allows you to properly optimize your efforts for greater impact.

Proving ROI is essential for securing resources

We all know that budgets are tight. And, more than ever, companies are only investing in what they know will have an impact.

With ongoing measurement, you can prove the ROI of your sales enablement strategy, programs, and technology. When you can prove impact, you’ll have an easier time maintaining your resources – and potentially scoring additional resources.

Note: Each method is labeled direct or indirect. Direct ways of measuring sales enablement performance can be tied to revenue, while indirect ways can still impact the bottom line, but they’re not as immediate.

  1. Lead-to-opportunity conversion rate
  2. Win rate
  3. Competitive win rate
  4. Average deal size
  5. Quota attainment
  6. Sales process adherence
  7. Average time to productivity
  8. Time to quota
  9. Rep turnover rate
  10.  Employer Net Promoter Score (NPS)
  11.  Knowledge retention
  12.  Content usage and adoption
  13.  Call to action insights

1. Lead-to-opportunity conversion rate (direct)

Your lead-to-opportunity conversion rate tells you how often your salespeople convince your leads to stay in the sales funnel and potentially make a purchase. If your lead-to-opportunity conversion rate is high, your salespeople have the right skills, knowledge, and content to convince leads to consider buying your product or service.

How you track your lead-to-opportunity conversions depends on what you consider an opportunity. Opportunities have different specifications at different companies. A typical example of turning a lead into an opportunity is when a seller convinces a lead to attend a meeting or a demo. This scenario lets your company talk directly with your lead and move them through the sales funnel.

Track it in an Excel or Sheets spreadsheet or your CRM or sales readiness platform. Create a column for a list of leads and one for opportunities. At the end of each time period or cycle, pull a report from your CRM or sales readiness tool or use the formula below.

Take the number of opportunities divided by the total number of leads.

2. Win rate (direct)

Your sales win rate shows how often your salespeople convert opportunities into closed deals and gives you a gauge of individual sales rep performance and the abilities of your sales team(s) overall.

By looking at each rep’s win rate, you can tell whether or not they need more training or knowledge on how to convert. If the win rate of the team is consistently low, look into which practices aren’t working. For example, you may need to rethink your target customer, upskill all your sales reps, or review your marketing content.

Keep an ongoing record of your total number of opportunities and the number of those that turn into deals won. Track it in a spreadsheet or on your sales platform.

Create a column for a list of opportunities and one for wins. At the end of each sales cycle, pull a report using the win rate formula.

Take the number of wins your sales rep, sales team, or company has in a given month or quarter (sales cycle length) and divide it by the total number of opportunities.

3. Competitive win rate (direct)

This measurement is similar to win rate but only measures the rate of closed deals where your prospects (those who are in the opportunity stage) are also considered to be in a deal with a competitor.

If you have a lot of prospects who choose competitors, try to identify why they’re choosing competitors and use that info to equip your reps to close more of these deals. For example, if there’s a particular competitor your opportunities frequently choose over you, look at what they offer that you don’t. Or see what features their product or brand has that could be perceived as an advantage.

The ability to track your competitive win rate depends on whether or not prospects tell you that they’re considering purchasing from a competitor. You can make it part of your sales process to ask if they are, but they’ll have to voluntarily give you the information.

When you do get the information from your prospects, track it in a spreadsheet or on your sales platform. Make a column for a list of opportunities where the prospect considered working with a competitor and a column for how many were won. Then pull a monthly or quarterly report using the competitive win rate formula below.

Take the total number of team or company wins over a competitor and divide it by the total number of opportunities who considered a competitor.

4. Average deal size (direct)

This KPI tells you the average amount of money each customer spends on your product or service. Measure average deal size to identify patterns in the value of your deals. This can help you pinpoint better cross-selling and upselling opportunities for your salespeople.

To track average deal size, you need to log the amount of money each deal is worth and the number of deals closed. You can use a spreadsheet and the formula below to calculate the average deal size or pull a report from your sales platform.

Divide the total amount of money received from all customer orders in a given time frame by the number of deals you closed in that same period.

5. Quota attainment (direct)

Quota attainment is the percentage of your salespeople who are hitting their target sales goal during each sales cycle. Each rep has to meet their quotas for your team and your company to meet its quotas. If you have team members who have trouble meeting their quotas, you can help them improve with sales coaching, training, and enhancing their knowledge.

At the end of each month, log the individual sales for all your sales reps. You can also compare each sales rep’s quota attainment to their performance in previous quarters or previous years to identify patterns. For example, maybe they performed better after they received training on a specific skill last year, and now they need a refresher course on that skill.

Use a spreadsheet or your sales platform. Make a column for their actual sales and one for their monthly quota. Use the formula below or pull a report from your CRM or revenue productivity platform.

For each salesperson, divide their actual sales in a given time period by their quota (or target sales) for that same period.

6. Sales process adherence (indirect)

This is a measurement of how well your sales process is adhered to by your sales reps. If you see your sales reps are not adhering to the process and also not meeting quotas, there may be a correlation. You can track this and find ways to get your reps to adhere to the process more closely.

Create a standard way for your reps to follow and document the process. For example, you could create a list of steps they can easily check off as they complete them. Or you can create a fill-in-the-blank template for the different steps of your process.

If your sales tool lets you track sales adherence (like with a checklist or template), you can use it to pull automatic reports. Otherwise, your sales managers will need to track and measure it manually using a spreadsheet.

This measurement requires some estimations based on company knowledge. To manually measure sales process adherence, you need a documented sales process — one that requires your sales reps to fill in or check off each step.

First, give each step of the sales process a weight. For example, if you have 10 steps, each step has a weight of 10%. If you have eight steps, each step weighs 12.5%.
Then, managers need to identify the percentage of steps each rep adheres to. (They have to refer to each rep’s documentation for this.) As an example, if your sales process has 10 steps and a sales rep adheres to seven, they adhere to 70% of the process.

7. Average time to productivity (indirect)

The average time to productivity is often referred to as ramp-up time, and it tells you the amount of time it takes for your newly hired sales reps to reach full productivity. Knowing the average time to productivity helps sales leaders make more accurate forecasts based on the capacity of each rep.

7. Average time to productivity (indirect)

The average time to productivity is often referred to as ramp-up time, and it tells you the amount of time it takes for your newly hired sales reps to reach full productivity. Knowing the average time to productivity helps sales leaders make more accurate forecasts based on the capacity of each rep.

Start by defining productivity. For example, maybe you define productivity as:

  • Making [X] calls per day,
  • Reaching at least [X]% of quota
  • Successfully demonstrating relevant skills (like product knowledge and building rapport).

Once you define productivity, use a spreadsheet or your sales tool if it has the capability to run a report. Keep a quarterly log of how long it takes each sales rep to reach productivity and how many reps have finished ramping up.

Take the sum of the time to productivity for all reps who finished ramping up in a quarter and divide it by the number of sales reps.

8. Time to quota (indirect)

This key metric measures the amount of time it takes for your reps to reach their sales quota for the first time. It can tell you how effective your sales enablement onboarding is. If you see it takes longer for reps to meet their quota, you can pinpoint areas of your onboarding process that aren’t setting them up to succeed. For example, maybe the onboarding process needs to have more emphasis or focus on time management.

Keep track of how many sales cycles it takes for each of your reps to meet their quota for the first time from after onboarding. Pull a report from your CRM or sales tool using the formula below with a spreadsheet.

Take the sum of the number of sales cycles it takes for each rep to meet their quota after onboarding, then divide it by the number of reps you’re measuring.

9. Rep turnover rate (indirect)

Rep turnover rate measures how often your reps voluntarily leave your company for any reason. This can be indicative of a few things but, in general, a high turnover rate indicates a problem among your sales reps that needs to be identified and fixed.

To find out more from your reps who leave, conduct a voluntary exit interview. Ask questions related to preparedness and your sales enablement program to find out how effective they perceive it to be.

Use a spreadsheet or a human resource management system to track your rep turnover rate. Create a you can add to whenever a sales rep voluntarily leaves the company. Pull the report or use the formula below monthly or quarterly.

Take the number of reps who voluntarily left the company in a specific time period and divide it by your total number of sales reps.

10. Employee Net Promoter Score (indirect)

You may already be familiar with a Net Promoter Score, which helps you gauge your customer experience and how satisfied your customers are. Similarly, an employee Net Promoter Score lets you measure your employees’ experience and satisfaction with your company. The more satisfied your employees are, the less likely it is you’ll see high turnover.

To track your employee Net Promoter Score, use a survey tool like Google Forms or Survey Monkey. When you create the questions, frame each one so the answers are a number. For example, ask “On a scale of 1-10…” so you can use the numbers 1-10 as a range for measuring answers.

Then you’ll designate each rep as a promoter, passive, or detractor based on their score:

  • Average of 9 or 10 = promoters: the rep is committed, satisfied, and engaged.
  • Average of 7 or 8 = passive: they’re neutral and generally content but not fully committed.
  • Average of 6 or less = detractors: they’re disengaged and probably won’t recommend your company to other job seekers.

After you’ve designated all your respondents in the appropriate category, take the number of promoters, subtract the number of detractors, divide that by the total number of respondents, and multiply this by 100.

11. Knowledge retention (indirect)

It’s not enough for sales teams to just understand the knowledge and content related to their jobs. Sales reps need to retain the information they learn so they can easily recall it for use during customer interactions.

The best way to track knowledge retention is by listening to interactions between your sales reps and customers. When you listen to customer phone conversations, you’ll be able to identify any gaps in sales reps’ knowledge.

You can use conversation intelligence software or take notes manually.

Take an assessment 30 days after initial sales training or consumption of knowledge. Use reinforcement activities like role-play or simulations where you mimic real-life sales scenarios in which they can use the knowledge they’ve acquired.

12. Content usage and adoption (indirect)

A big part of measuring sales enablement is tracking how well received and used related content is by your sellers and customers.

For sales teams, use a drive like Dropbox or Google Workspace to look at insights for your content. To track content adoption for customers, use Google Analytics or another website analytics tool.

Measure content adoption for your sales team and customers separately since they are two completely separate audiences.

To measure content adoption for customers, look at the number of views, how much time they spend on each piece of content, and/or the number of downloads.

To measure content adoption for sales teams, look at how often a piece of content is opened and used or shared.

13. Calls-to-action insights (indirect)

Calls-to-action (CTA) insights show you how often a potential customer takes action on your content, including blogs, paid ads, emails, and more. The more your leads click on your content to learn something or take an action, the more effective the content is.

You can compare whether the actions taken on your content correlate to more leads or more opportunities won by your sales reps.

You may need to use multiple tools to measure your CTAs, depending on how you distribute your content. For example, if you use Mailchimp for your email marketing and Google Ads for your paid advertising, you’ll need to individually track the CTAs for each one.

When you look at CTA insights, the number of clicks tells you the most. The content with the most clicks means that it resonated most with your audience and made them want to learn more or take some other action with your brand.

Start measuring sales enablement success with Mindtickle

When it’s done right, sales enablement can significantly impact sales productivity and performance. Ongoing measurement is key to ensuring your sales enablement program is as impactful as possible.

The 13 sales enablement metrics we explored in this post can give you insight into what’s working and what’s not. But simply tracking these sales enablement metrics isn’t enough. You must also analyze the data and take action on it.

With Mindtickle, you can track, measure, and improve your sales enablement program holistically – all from one platform. Our integrated revenue enablement platform helps you keep your content up-to-date, analyze seller behaviors and skills, and deliver tailored training, enablement, and coaching that prepares sellers to conquer any deal that comes their way. With Mindtickle, you can easily track key sales enablement metrics – and determine how to put those insights into action to improve impact.

Want to see how others measure ROI?

See how leaders from PayPal, Zoominfo, and Patronix measure the impact of their sales enablement efforts. 

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This post was originally published in August 2022, was updated in November 2023, and again in October 2024. 

What is Virtual Selling and How Has it Evolved?

Vivian Batman on September 25, 2024

In the past, many B2B deals were struck face-to-face. Today, virtual selling has become the norm.

But the shift to virtual selling didn’t happen overnight. Over time, many consumers started embracing the convenience of browsing and buying online. Inevitably, the preference for digital interactions started to carry over to the business world.

Of course, the pandemic quickly accelerated the shift to virtual selling. And though the pandemic lockdowns are behind us, virtual selling is here to stay. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2025, 80% of interactions between B2B buyers and sellers will occur via digital channels.

By 2025, Gartner predicts that

of interactions between B2B buyers and sellers will occur digitally
0 %

What is virtual selling?

Virtual selling, as you’ve probably guessed, is a sale completely orchestrated by technology. However, it’s not the same as simply making a sale online — so what is virtual sales and what does the term really mean?

The difference is that the former uses technology to complete a process designed for in-person interactions. The latter is built from the ground up to be an entirely virtual experience — one that reimagines sales rather than just repackaging it.

Part of this difference is due to evolution driven by B2C buying experiences and expectations. Virtual selling is a response to changing customer demands; for example, 56% of surveyed shoppers said they like the flexibility of shopping on their own schedule, while 50% noted they like the convenience of avoiding shopping trips.

These preferences carry over into the business world. That means B2B buyers prefer (and expect) virtual sales experiences to cater to their needs.

10 challenges of virtual selling

Although the right virtual selling software and skills can make digital interactions feel as real as face-to-face experiences, this method has certain drawbacks. Here are a few key examples:

Sales reps may feel that their interactions are more limited and their ability to personalize service is reduced. This can leave virtual sales feeling a bit distant, hollow, or mechanical.

Many reps find it easier to build trust in face-to-face interactions where body language, proximity, and even a friendly handshake are all at their disposal. While connection over a distance is one of the biggest benefits of virtual selling, it can also be a drawback.

Virtual communication means there can be a lot of noise during a deal – whether it’s in the form of emails, Zoom meetings, phone calls, etc. Sellers have to rely on virtual-only communication with a prospect and it’s more likely that things can get lost (or go completely unseen) when shared digitally.

In some industries, demonstrating and showing a product in person is a huge differentiator. In-person product demos also allow sellers to give buyers hands-on experience and create a lasting impression. When everything is virtual, the power of the product can sometimes be lost.

33% of employees worry about what remote work can do to company culture, especially when it comes to connection, communication, and collaboration. That’s particularly relevant for sales, marketing, and customer success teams, who need to be on the same page to manage virtual selling tools and experiences.

A virtual selling environment may not be as engaging to some customers because it isn’t as immediate and all-encompassing. For example, shoppers in a conference room can’t exactly switch to another tab to check the weather or browse social media while a rep talks to them.

When you’re in the same room as a buyer, you can get their feedback right away. With virtual selling, there may be a lag in communication.

Distractions can include kids, pets, home noise, and all kinds of tech trouble. This can make virtual sales feel more disconnected for both the reps and the customers.

A sales rep that excels in face-to-face sales isn’t automatically adept at virtual selling. That’s because virtual selling and face-to-face selling require a different set of skills and competencies. Organizations must provide the right training and sales enablement to ensure sellers build the right skills for virtual sales.

Virtual selling requires the use of technology. Of course, challenges can occur anytime technology is involved.

Research shows challenges with virtual selling

[Source: The RAIN Group Virtual Selling Skills and Challenges Report]

Gaining a buyer's attention and keeping buyer engaged
91%
Changing buyer's point of view on what's possible or how to solve a problem
89%
Developing relationships with buyers virtually
88%
Connecting with buyers and building rapport
87%
Overcoming objections and dealing with resistence
87%
Collaborating and interacting with buyers virtually
82%
Prospecting and filling the pipeline virtually
81%
Making the transition to virtual selling
80%
Leading virtual needs discovery
80%
Educating buyers with new ideas and perspectives
79%

Best practices for virtual selling

While there are certainly challenges in virtual sales, there are also plenty of remote-selling best practices to set your reps up for success. And virtual selling does work. According to McKinsey research, 75% of decision-makers think virtual engagement serves buyers equally well or even better than the shift to remote work.

According to McKinsey

of decision-makers think virtual engagement serves buyers equally well or better than in-person
0 %

Here are some tips for making sure your virtual meetings are successful:

  • Have a professional setup: Good lighting and technology can make a huge difference, especially when it comes to eliminating distractions. Blur your surroundings or use branded background images to keep the focus on you — and don’t forget to dress to impress.
  • Take every virtual selling training opportunity: Virtual selling skills aren’t the same as in-person selling skills. Use training and coaching as a chance to learn more about the environment, customer expectations, best practices, and more.
  • Share data-driven sales materials: Different kinds of media can help grab and keep a prospect’s attention. Use videos, infographics, product images, and any data-driven sales collateral you can offer virtually.
  • Create follow-up and nurture strategies: Losing contact in the virtual world is easy. Make sure you follow up with prospects to stay top-of-mind — and always leverage nurture strategies to gradually reel them in over time.

4 best virtual selling tools

To capture all the benefits of virtual selling, you need a fully digitized environment, including sales rooms, enablement materials and more. Remember, you can’t just adapt existing sales techniques to the digital world; you have to completely reimagine them and build every step with technology in mind.

Here are some of the best virtual selling software options:

  • Zoominfo logo

    B2B database: Zoominfo

    One of the biggest challenges of B2B sales is connecting with prospects. This can be even more difficult in the world of virtual selling. ZoomInfo is a business-to-business (B2B) tool that connects revenue teams to customers. With ZoomInfo, remote sellers can access the right data to identify which prospects are a good fit for their products and services.. In addition, ZoomInfo provides insights on the best way to connect with each prospect. This platform also unites sales, marketing, and sales operations so these teams can build and deliver seamless, engaging experiences, whether the prospect is interacting with a sales rep or navigating the purchase journey independently.

  • Video conferencing: Zoom

    At the end of 2019, Zoom had 10 million daily meeting participants. By April 2020, that number exploded to 300 million. By now, the video conference platform is familiar to just about everyone. Zoom is flexible, easy to use and full of additional features such as email and calendar integration. With Zoom, sellers have the opportunity to engage with buyers face-to-face – regardless of geographic location. These face-to-face interactions help sellers build trust.

  • Document sharing: Google Drive

    Virtual selling involves the exchange of different types of documents and information. It’s important to house these documents in a single repository so revenue teams can always find what they need, when they need it. If you’re looking for cloud storage and document sharing, Google Drive is one option.. Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms — Google Drive enables you to share documents of all kinds and even integrates with the company’s email and conferencing offerings.

  • Virtual selling platform: Mindtickle

The above examples are great virtual selling tools, but you’d need to juggle more than one to succeed. This can lead to tool overload. Consider that 66% of sales reps are overwhelmed by the number of tools they’re expected to use.

Mindtickle is an integrated platform that eliminates jumping back and forth between different tools.

With Mindtickle, all your sales and revenue activities are together in one place. From sales onboarding and virtual selling training to forecasting and analytics, you’ll have access to a full lineup of solutions. This enables all your teams to communicate and collaborate in a shared digital environment, allowing you to build digitally native processes tailored to your virtual selling best practices.

In addition, Mindtickle incorporates digital sales rooms, which are online portals where buyers and sellers can communicate, share content, and collaborate on deals – virtually. Sellers can also see how buyers engage in the digital sales room, which can help them adapt their strategy and improve deal outcomes.

Future trends in virtual selling

As more companies discover the benefits of virtual selling, the platforms necessary to enable it, and the skills that make it more profitable, the environment will continue to shift. Trends will likely include:

  • Personalization and customization: To overcome the inherent limitations of virtual selling, reps will find new ways to personalize interactions and build sales around customized digital experiences. Marketing and sales teams will likely need to keep conversations going across multiple platforms. For example, a prospect who reaches out on social media will want continuity when switching to email or video chat.
  • AI and automation: From workflow automation to AI sales assistants, new tools will make it even easier to build digital-first processes and eliminate manual tasks that slow down your reps’ days.
  • Self-service: Self-service solutions enable prospects to do their research, essentially letting them be their own sales reps until they need more in-depth support. This saves time and money while boosting customer satisfaction.

How Mindtickle supports virtual selling

If you’re looking for a way to integrate virtual selling tools, skills, best practices, and whole teams, this is it.

Mindtickle doesn’t just put your processes in one place. It enables reps to do more and sell more by better utilizing digital tools, data, sales enablement materials, and even coaching opportunities. Top solutions include:

  • Sales training: Individualized goals, AI-supported lessons, practice opportunities, and consistent reinforcement — that’s all part of Mindtickle sales training.
  • Analytics: Role-based dashboards and customized insights help you track your teams’ progress and identify skills or knowledge gaps in real time.
  • Conversation intelligence: Help your reps sharpen their virtual selling skills by tapping into sales conversations, identifying best practices, and supporting growth across your team.

See Mindtickle in Action

Enable your reps to do more and sell more by better utilizing digital tools, data, sales enablement materials, and coaching opportunities.

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This post was originally published in June 2023, updated in December 2023, and again in September 2024.  

Do These 8 Things to Create Effective Sales Enablement Goals

Vivian Batman on May 29, 2024

If your sales reps are regularly missing quota, you’re not alone. A survey from Salesforce found that just 28% of sales professionals expect their team to hit quota.

But that doesn’t mean it’s time to throw in the towel.

Increasingly, revenue organizations are turning to sales enablement to ensure their sales reps have the skills needed to be successful in the field. According to the 2024-2025 Chief Revenue Officer + Sales Leader Outlook Report, 84% of C-suite executives invest in a sales enablement team.

According to research

of orgs invest in sales enablement
0 %

Setting goals is foundational to any successful sales enablement strategy. After all, how can you create sales enablement programs and initiatives if you haven’t first defined what you’re trying to achieve?

In this post, we’ll explore sales enablement goals and why they matter. We’ll also share some best practices for setting goals that work for your organization and some real-life examples.

Why are sales enablement goals necessary?

What exactly are sales enablement goals? Let’s start by defining what sales enablement is.

Sales enablement is the practice of equipping the revenue organization with the information, training, content, and tools needed to increase effectiveness and efficiency. Because each sales rep is different, a generic approach to sales enablement won’t cut it. Instead, organizations must create and deliver enablement that’s tailored to each seller’s needs.

These goals are the objectives you have for sales enablement efforts. In other words, they spell out what you hope to achieve with your sales enablement strategy, program, and initiatives.

Do sales enablement goals matter?

Establishing goals takes time. Is it worth the effort?

Absolutely yes.

Goals are critical to any sales enablement initiative. Without them, creating effective sales enablement programs and measuring their success is impossible.

For example, let’s say you’ve been tasked with developing a new sales onboarding program. There are no clear goals for the program beyond a generic goal of “onboarding new reps.” Because there are no clear goals, you’re unsure what content needs to be created and how and when it should be delivered.

Furthermore, without clear goals, the new onboarding program’s success or failure will be impossible to measure.

Establishing goals is key to developing the right programs and initiatives. For example, if increasing buyer engagement is the goal, your team can create a sales playbook to help achieve that goal. Or, if decreasing sales cycles is a key objective, you can develop content to accelerate sales.

Establishing goals is also important to ensure everyone is aligned on what you’re trying to achieve with your sales enablement initiatives.

When everyone is on the same page, you’re more likely to achieve your goals. In addition, with sales enablement goals in place, you can more effectively measure success and identify areas for improvement.

How to define sales enablement goals for your organization

Sales enablement goals serve as the north star for your sales enablement programs and initiatives. But what’s the best way to set them for your organization? There are a few important steps to follow.

Step 1: Consider your overall business objectives

Sales enablement goals can’t be set in a vacuum. Instead, they must align with the organization’s overall goals. As such, the first step is to understand the organization’s goals as a whole.

Step 2: Reflect on where you are now

Before determining your goals, you must take a hard, honest look at your current state. As part of your assessment, be sure to look at:

  • How are your teams performing
  • What challenges your teams are facing
  • What opportunities may lie ahead

This reflection should be a cross-functional effort as each team provides a unique perspective.

For example, marketing may spend a lot of time creating sales content – but sales may share the perspective that content is hard to find or they’re unable to find the right content for certain sales scenarios. Or, marketing may generate a high volume of leads. However, sales may find that a large portion of these leads end up being unqualified.

Step 3: Define your sales enablement goals

Once you understand where you are today, you can better determine your goals for the future. For example, you might set a sales enablement goal to decrease new ramp rep time. Or, perhaps you’re aiming to decrease sales cycles and increase quota attainment.

Setting vague sales goals like “improve seller performance” isn’t effective. Instead, a best practice is using the SMART methodology to set sales enablement goals. SMART goals are:

  • Specific: Be extremely clear about what you hope to accomplish.
  • Measurable: Make sure your sales enablement goal can be measured with the right metrics.
  • Attainable: Sales enablement goals should be challenging yet realistic. If you set sales enablement goals that are too easy, you’ll never achieve your full potential. If sales enablement goals are too hard, you’ll never achieve them, negatively impacting morale.
  • Relevant: Sales enablement goals should be relevant to the goals of the revenue organization and the company.
  • Time-bound: The sales enablement goal should have a specified time frame for achieving it. For example, you might set a sales enablement goal to increase quota attainment by 15% during Q4 2024.

Step 4: Identify key sales enablement metrics

Once you’ve defined your goals, you must determine which metrics you will track to measure your progress.

The sales enablement metrics you must track vary depending on your goals. However, some examples of sales enablement metrics include:

  • Average time to productivity
  • Win rate
  • Conversion rate
  • Average deal size
  • Sales cycle length
  • Quota attainment
  • Time to quota
  • Content adoption
  • Sales rep retention
  • Adherence to sales methodology

Step 5: Socialize your sales enablement goals

Once you’ve established your sales enablement goals, it’s important to communicate them. Be sure all key stakeholders understand the goals of sales enablement and their role in achieving those goals.

Step 6: Ensure you have the right sales enablement tools

The sales tech stack is a key piece of any sales enablement strategy. With the right sales enablement tools, you can build and deliver winning sales enablement programs. These tools can also give you the metrics to gauge progress on your sales enablement goals.

Today, many enterprise software solutions promise to boost your sellers’ performance. However, many sales enablement software options address just a single aspect of sales enablement.

For example, learning management systems are used to deliver training. Sales content management systems provide a solution for storing and organizing sales content.

Typically, these sales enablement solutions provide data and analytics. But if you use multiple sales enablement tools, it can be challenging to get a holistic view of how your sales enablement initiatives are (or aren’t) impacting business outcomes.

Instead, consider consolidating your sales enablement tech stack by adopting an integrated platform. An integrated sales productivity platform like Mindtickle incorporates all the key pillars of sales enablement, including sales content, sales coaching, sales training, and conversation intelligence.

When a single platform powers your entire sales enablement program, you can also get a 360-degree view on how all sales enablement initiatives—from content to training to coaching—are impacting sales outcomes.

Step 7: Monitor and track progress towards your sales enablement goals

Of course, you can’t simply set your sales enablement goals and never think about them again. Instead, you must regularly track your key metrics to understand whether you’re on track to achieve the sales enablement goals and where there may be opportunities to make adjustments.

For example, one of your goals is to shorten the sales cycle. However, upon analysis, you find that the sales cycle is increasing. You dig further and find that prospects often drop off at the negotiation stage. This may be an opportunity to optimize your existing training and enablement related to negotiation – or create something new.

As a reminder, regular measurement requires the right sales enablement software. Your chosen solution should go beyond adoption to show how (or whether) your initiatives are making an impact.

Step 8: Be prepared to adapt

Change is always guaranteed. New products are introduced, and old ones are retired. New competitors enter the scene, and customer expectations evolve.

Adjusting your goals may sometimes be necessary based on these changes.

Examples of sales enablement goals

Now that we’ve explored why sales enablement goals matter and how you can set better goals for your organization, let’s look at some real-life examples.

Focus Sales enablement goal example
Conversion rate Increase the percentage of leads that convert to customers by 5% in Q4 2024
Sales cycle length Decrease the average sales cycle length by 10 days by the end of 2024
Ramp time Decrease new rep average time to productivity by 10% in Q1 2025
Quota attainment Increase the portion of sales reps that achieve at least 75% of their quotas by 18% in 2025
Sales coaching Increase the average number of coaching sessions delivered by sales managers in the Northwest region by 10% in the next 60 days.
Product knowledge Achieve 90% completion of new product training in Q1 2025, with at least 75% of sales reps achieving a 80% or higher on assessment

Achieve all of your sales enablement goals with Mindtickle

Leading organizations are investing in sales enablement teams and tools, and it’s no wonder why. When it’s done well, sales enablement can greatly impact sales performance.

It’s important to set clear goals for your sales enablement programs. Then, you can develop initiatives that’ll help you achieve those goals. Remember: regular measurement is key to understanding how your efforts are performing and where there are opportunities for improvement.

The right sales enablement technology is key to developing effective sales enablement and measuring its impact on the metrics that matter most to your business. But, adding multiple sales enablement solutions to your software stack can create chaos. Instead, leading revenue teams opt for an integrated revenue productivity platform like Mindtickle.

Mindtickle incorporates sales training, enablement, sales content, and call insights—all from one platform. Sales enablement teams can develop and deliver enablement that addresses the needs of each sales rep. Sales reps can access everything they need to be ready to sell—all in one place.

Sales Enablement in Mindtickle

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What is a Sales Playbook and How Do You Build One? 

Vivian Batman on May 29, 2024

Every sales leader wants their sales reps to close more deals – faster. But it’s not enough to tell your sales reps to do better. Instead, you must equip them with the tools they need for success. Sales playbooks are one key type of sales tool.

Today, some of the best revenue organizations use sales playbooks to boost sales results. Sales playbook adoption is correlated with success. According to the Aberdeen Group, sales reps using sales playbooks are significantly more likely to meet their sales target than those not.

Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with the concept of sales playbooks. Or, maybe you’ve spent time developing playbooks – but they’re not having the impact you hoped for, and you’re looking for ways to improve. Whatever the case, you’ve come to the right place.

In this guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know about playbooks. We’ll answer key questions, including:

  • What is a sales playbook?
  • What is included in a sales playbook?
  • How can I create a winning one?
  • What are some key challenges I’ll face when creating and implementing a playbook – and how can I overcome these challenges?

What is a sales playbook?

Before we discuss how to create a sales playbook, let’s define what it is.

A sales playbook is a guide that outlines your organization’s sales strategies, processes, procedures, and best practices. Playbooks aren’t simply a collection of generic tips and practices. Instead, they outline strategies, processes, and techniques that have been proven to work at that specific organization.

There are many benefits. But at the end of the day, a playbook is a great resource for engaging any buyer at any point in the sales cycle. When sellers employ the strategies in the playbook, they can close more deals, hit quota, and grow revenue.

A playbook is a powerful tool. However, sales organizations must deliver training and ongoing learning opportunities to ensure sellers master the strategies outlined in it. In addition, sales managers must deliver sales coaching to help sellers understand how to use the strategies and best practices in the sales playbook.

What is included in a sales playbook?

There is no single sales playbook that works for all companies. Instead, they vary from company to company, depending on factors including industry and audience (among others).

However, you’ll find some common elements across most sales playbook templates. Let’s look at a few of those B2B sales playbook components.

Company overview

This section of the sales playbook includes high-level information about your company, its goals, and the role of sellers in achieving those goals. That information includes the organization’s:

  • Mission
  • Values
  • Strategy

This section also includes an organizational chart to help sellers understand who reports to whom – and how the organization fits together. There may also be a section in the enterprise sales playbook that outlines the roles and responsibilities of each individual on the sales team.

Product information

Successful sellers must become product experts. This section of the B2B sales playbook includes details about each of your product or service offerings – including pricing. Here, sellers can better understand:

  • What you sell
  • What your products and services do
  • How your products and services help buyers solve challenges and address pain points
  • How much your products and services cost

This section should also include details and pricing for any packages your company offers.

Compensation structure

HR should communicate a rep’s compensation structure during the hiring process. However, it’s also important to incorporate information about the compensation structure. Be clear and transparent. This will help sellers understand what to expect and eliminate confusion down the road.

Sales methodology

In the world of sales, there are myriad sales methodologies. Some of those methodologies include:

An organization must identify the sales methodology that best aligns with its goals and values.

Be sure to outline your organization’s chosen methodology in your enterprise sales playbook. This will serve as a framework for every deal your sellers face. In addition, you may want to include information about why this methodology was chosen.

Sales process

The sales process section should take up a good portion of your B2B sales playbook. Essentially, it explores each step sellers must take during the sales process – from identifying prospects to closing the deal. This section is a key resource for helping sellers understand what they need to do to be successful at each stage of the selling cycle.

Ideal customer profiles

Your reps have limited time. As such, you want them to spend their time with good-fit prospects.

Your ideal customer profiles outline the key characteristics of a prospect that’s a good fit for your offerings. The ICP can include information such as:

  • Company size
  • Industry
  • Geographic location
  • Job title
  • Challenges
  • Goals

Of course, a rep may engage with multiple personas during the sales cycle. For example, a rep selling sales enablement software might interact with sales, marketing, and sales enablement professionals. Including these personas in your sales playbook can help your sellers understand who these people are and what matters to them.

Sales plays

This critical section provides sellers to follow in a specific sales scenario – whether it be lead qualification or negotiation. Remember: sales plays shouldn’t be based on hunches. Instead, they should be rooted in practices proven to work at your organization.

Sales messaging

It’s important to ensure sellers are aligned on company messaging. This section helps sellers know what to say in certain circumstances. It might include messaging for:

  • Prospecting via phone or email
  • Delivering an elevator pitch
  • Handling objections
  • Asking questions
  • Closing deals

KPIs

Sellers must have a good understanding of what’s expected of them. That way, they can prioritize their time accordingly. Be specific about the seller’s key performance indicators (KPIs) and keep them in the loop if those KPIs change.

Additional resources

Most likely, your sellers have plenty of additional resources at their disposal to help them move deals forward. For example, they may have access to internal sources, including:

  • Training
  • Battle cards
  • Sales decks

They may also have access to customer-facing content, such as:

  • Sales sheets
  • Case studies
  • Product presentations

This section of your enterprise sales playbook should outline what resources are available to sellers and where they can find these resources.

How to create a sales playbook

Sales playbooks are unique to each organization. So it’s not as simple as running a Google search for “sales playbook” – and then adopting one of the top results as your own.

So, how can you build one that works for your organization?

Some organizations start with a template. In addition, there are some key sales playbook best practices to keep in mind.

1. Form your playbook team
2. Do your research
3. Determine your sales methodology
4. Map the sales process
5. Design sales plays based on what works for your top sellers
6. Create your playbook
7. Revisit your playbooks often

1. Form your team

A sales playbook can’t be a single-person effort. Instead, it requires cross-functional collaboration. Typically, you need to include representatives from the following groups:

  • Sales leadership
  • Top sales reps
  • Marketing
  • HR
  • Product development
  • Executive team

While this is a collaborative effort, one person should be tapped to lead the project. This person will coordinate the entire process and ensure the team develops an effective sales playbook.

2. Do your research

Once you’ve established your team, it’s time to audit your organization’s current processes. During this stage, your goal is to understand what processes, strategies, and resources are currently being used in the field – and how (or whether) they’re driving reps’ success. You’ll also want to identify common challenges and pain points.

Your sales reps are a great source of information. After all, they’re in the field interacting with buyers all day. Top sellers can convey what they do, which sets them apart. In addition, sellers of all experience levels can share insights on their processes and key challenges.

3. Determine your sales methodology

A sales methodology sets the tone for how your sellers interact with buyers. If you haven’t already, now is the time to determine which sales methodology fits your organization’s goals and values best. Be sure to include details on your chosen sales methodology in your playbook.

4. Map the sales process

To create an effective playbook, it’s key to understand how buyers and sellers navigate the sales process.

Based on your research, map the sales process – both from a buyer’s and a seller’s perspective. Be sure to define the common needs and pain points at each point in the purchase journey.

Then, identify which tactics and techniques are most effective for moving buyers from one stage of the sales process to the next.

5. Design sales plays based on what works for your top sellers

Sales plays are a key component of a sales playbook. But those sales plays shouldn’t be based on what should work. Instead, they must be based on strategies and techniques that are proven to work. Your top sellers are a great source of information for what works well.

6. Create your sales playbook

Once you’ve done all the background work, it’s time to write and format your sales playbook.

One common question is, “How long should a sales playbook be?” There’s no easy answer. It’s important to include all necessary information. But don’t be needlessly verbose. Sellers are more likely to read the entire playbook if it’s clear and concise.

Regardless of length, be sure to include a table of contents. While sellers should read the playbook, they will also use it as a reference guide. A table of contents helps them easily find exactly what they want.

In addition, be sure to consider format. Some organizations use printed playbooks. However, this approach isn’t usually effective. A better approach is to ensure sellers can digitally access it – and all supporting resources – within a single platform. With such a platform, you can also make updates digitally. That means sellers always have access to the latest and greatest version of the sales playbook.

7. Revisit your sales playbook often

In the world of business, change is constant. Markets evolve, and product and service offerings change. New sales techniques and tactics emerge that help sellers successfully close more deals. Your sales playbook must evolve to keep up.

Be sure to track the usage of the playbook. In addition, ask for feedback. This will help you understand what’s working – and what’s not. Then, you can use those insights to optimize your sales playbook regularly.

Sales playbook templates and examples

There’s no one-size-fits-all playbook that’ll work for every company. Instead, it’s important to build a playbook that’ll work for the needs of your revenue team.

That said, a template can serve as a starting point. You can then customize it to meet your organization’s needs.

Sales playbook templates vary. However, some common components should be included in every template. Let’s take a look at a few examples.

This section focuses on information about your company, including its mission, vision, values, and strategy. It may also include an organizational chart so sellers can understand where they fit and who they will work with.

Sales reps must become product experts. This section provides a breakdown of your products including what they do, how they help buyers, and how much they cost.

This section should outline how sellers are being paid.

This section should spell out the sales methodology your revenue organization has chosen as well as background information on why it was chosen.

These personas should give your sales reps a picture of an ideal customer. That way, they know where to focus their attention and how they can customize their outreach.

This outlines the steps the sales rep must go through in order to close a deal. You may also want to incorporate any messaging templates (such as email templates and elevator pitch scripts) that sales reps can use throughout the sales process.

This section spells out best practices for moving deals through the funnel. Remember: best practices aren’t created based on hunches. Instead, they’re based on what’s proven to work.

This section helps reps understand how success is measured – both at the team and individual levels. That way, reps can focus on what matters most.

Seeing real-life sales playbook examples can be extremely helpful when developing your own sales playbook. But generally, sales playbooks are only used internally. Companies don’t typically share their sales playbook examples with the public.

Key challenges when creating and implementing a sales playbook

A sales playbook serves as a guide to help sellers successfully navigate deals. As such, it’s well worth the time and effort required to create an effective sales playbook.

However, there are some challenges organizations face when creating and implementing a sales playbook. Let’s take a look at some of the common challenges.

Change can be difficult in all facets of life – including business. When you introduce a sales playbook, this is a change for your sellers. Some sellers and sales managers will resist this change

The market is always in flux. It’s important to ensure your sales playbook serves your sellers today – and in the future. However, it can be challenging to ensure your sales playbook always reflects these constant changes in the market.

Ongoing feedback is key to creating an effective sales playbook. Early on in the process, sales feedback ensures you understand what techniques and strategies are (and aren’t) working in the field. You’ll also have sellers who share feedback after the sales playbook has been created and distributed.

It can be challenging to collect feedback in a way that represents all sellers. In addition, it’s tough to distill this feedback into actionable insights you can use to improve and enhance your sales playbook.

The most effective sales playbooks are those that are revised regularly to reflect changes and feedback. However, regular updates increase the likelihood that sellers are using an outdated version of the sales playbook. This is especially true if you use printed sales playbooks or PDF versions that are distributed via email.

Using a revenue productivity platform can help. Your sales playbook – as well as all accompanying training and resources – are all housed in a single platform. It’s easy to make changes to the sales playbook and you can be sure your sellers are always turning to the most up-to-date version of the sales playbook.

Elevate your sales performance using sales playbooks

Sellers have a limited number of hours in the day. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel for each deal – especially when there are strategies that are proven to work.

Sales playbooks are a powerful tool for new and veteran sellers alike. Sales playbooks – when they’re done well – equip sales reps with proven tools and strategies to move any deal forward. When sellers have access to a proven formula, they’re more likely to close deals and drive revenue growth.

Printed and PDF playbooks aren’t the best approach as they quickly become outdated. A better approach is to create your sales playbook with a revenue productivity platform like Mindtickle. With Mindtickle, your sellers always have access to the sales training, enablement, and call insights they need to close more deals – all within a single platform.

Build a better selling team

Ready to see how Mindtickle empowers sales teams to identify and scale best practices that lead to better outcomes? 

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This post was originally published in November 2023 and updated in May 2024. 

Solution Selling: What is it and When is the Solution Selling Methodology Used?

Vivian Batman on May 9, 2024

In today’s world, B2B buyers do plenty of research independently. When buyers finally initiate contact with a sales rep, they expect that rep to understand their challenges and provide solutions. In fact, a recent survey found that 82% of B2B buyers expect sales reps to act as trusted advisors.

A recent survey found that

of B2B buyers expect sales reps to act as trusted advisors
0 %

But all too often, sales reps use generic sales presentations and spout off the features and benefits of their products or services – without considering whether or not these features and benefits are relevant to the customer. This one-size-fits-all sales approach is a sure way to send your prospects packing.

Today, some of the most successful sales teams have switched to solution selling. Sales reps who excel at solution selling demonstrate an understanding of their customers’ challenges and provide solutions for overcoming them. With this approach, sales reps can earn customers’ trust and ultimately close more deals.

Chances are, you have at least a basic understanding of solution selling. But in this post, we’re going to dig deeper on the topic to answer questions including:

  • What is solution selling?
  • What is the solution sales process?
  • When is solution selling used?
  • How is solution selling different from other sales approaches?
  • What are the pros and cons of transitioning to solution selling?

What is solution selling?

Solution selling isn’t exactly a new concept. The solution sales methodology was developed back in the 1970s. But it continues to grow in popularity.

As the name suggests, solution selling is a sales methodology in which sellers present solutions to prospective customers, rather than products. In the context of sales and business, “solutions” typically refer to products, services, or strategies that address specific challenges or problems faced by customers or clients.

To offer solutions, first, the seller must gain a deep understanding of the prospect’s unique needs, wants, and challenges. Then (and only then), the seller can recommend solutions to help the prospect overcome their challenges – and meet their goals.

What is the solution sales process?

In some ways, the process is similar to other selling methodologies. However, the solution sales process also differs from other selling approaches in some key ways. Let’s take a closer look at the key steps of the solution-selling process.

Step 1: Become a product expert

You can’t make a sale if you don’t have a solid understanding of what you’re selling. This is true for any sales approach – including this one. After all, you can’t identify a solution for your prospects if you don’t truly understand what you have to offer.

Solution sellers must be product experts. In addition to understanding the ins and outs of your own products and services, sellers must also be well versed in competitor offerings. That way, they’ll be prepared to overcome objections and clearly communicate what makes your solutions different.

Of course, a rep’s education should start at onboarding. But solution sales training shouldn’t stop at onboarding. Things are always changing. Ongoing sales training, coaching, and learning opportunities help ensure reps are always well-versed in what they’re selling.

Step 2: Qualify prospects

Sure, you may have great products and services. But the reality is, your offerings aren’t the right fit for every company out there.

There’s only so much time in the day. So don’t waste your time pitching your offerings to a company that isn’t the right fit – and will never make a purchase.

Instead, focus on good-fit prospects. Many companies have developed ideal customer profiles (ICPs) that outline the characteristics of a prospect that’s a good fit. If you have ICPs, make sure your reps know them inside out. In fact, ICPs should be a key component of your solution sales training program.

Step 3: Identify customer's unique needs and pain points

This stage is one that sets the solution-selling methodology apart from others.

At this point, the seller focuses on learning everything they can about the prospect, including their:

  • Needs
  • Opportunities
  • Pain points

Thanks to the internet, sellers can easily find some of this information on their own. However, sellers must ask thoughtful questions to gain a true understanding of a seller’s pain points. In fact, asking the right questions is a critical selling skill.

Active listening is another key selling skill. Be sure to stay engaged when your prospect is answering a question, and summarize their answers to ensure understanding. You may have to ask additional questions to gain clarity.

When you’re having a conversation with a prospect, it can be difficult to take notes while remaining present. Conversation intelligence software can record sales conversations and deliver insights, allowing you to remain present and engaged in the conversation as it happens.

Step 4: Determine the right solution

Once you have a clear understanding of your prospect’s challenges, it’s time to determine the solution to those challenges. This is another step in the solution sales process that makes it different from other sales methodologies.

Typically, the solution isn’t something straight “off the shelf.” Instead, it’s a combination of product and service offerings that address the buyer’s unique needs.

Consider building a “decision tree” of solutions to recommend in key scenarios your prospects and customers face.

 

#5. Present your solution

This is the point where you present the solution to your customer’s challenge. Remember: this isn’t about sharing a generic sales presentation that lists every single product feature. Instead, your goal is to communicate the solution – and help prospects understand why it’s the best solution for the challenges.

Content can help you convey the value of your solution. For example, a case study can help a prospect understand how your solution helped a company overcome challenges similar to theirs.

This is also where competitor knowledge comes into play, as you may need to communicate how your solution is a better choice than that of a competitor.

Step 6: Negotiation

You’ve taken the time to understand a prospect’s challenges and presented a solution to those challenges. But that doesn’t mean the work is done. Next up in the solution-selling methodology is the negotiation stage.

The goal of this stage is to come to an agreement that works for both the buyer and seller. During this stage, the buyer may come to the table with questions and objections, so it’s important to be prepared.

Step 7: Closing the deal

You’ve developed a solution to your customer’s pain points – and get them on board with the value of your solution. After the negotiation process is complete, the only thing left to do is close the deal.

When is solution selling used?

Solution-based selling can be an effective sales approach under the right circumstances. However, it’s not the right sales approach for all scenarios.

For example, many prospects do plenty of self-reflection and research before reaching out to a sales rep. They may come to the table with a clear picture of their challenges – as well as a solution. Let’s say the prospect is shopping for a new web hosting service. They know what their needs are – and which one of your “off the shelf” packages will meet those needs. They simply need advice on making a decision or understanding why your solution is better than a competitor’s.

In this case, solution-based selling may not be the right approach.

However, solution selling can be extremely powerful in situations when a prospect has unique needs that require a bespoke solution. In some cases, they may not be able to clearly articulate their needs – muchless know how to solve them.

For example, a consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand traditionally sold in brick-and-mortar stores is looking to sell directly to customers. They know they need an e-commerce platform, but they’re unsure what problems they’re trying to solve. They need your help defining their challenges and identifying a solution to solve them.

Solution selling is also a great fit when a customer needs a high level of support. For example, a customer deploying an enterprise-wide software solution may need a high level of support for implementation, training, and increasing adoption.

From the seller’s perspective, solution-based selling works best when you have many different products, services, or packages available. For example, you might offer multiple pre-packaged solutions – such as silver, gold, or platinum packages. You may also offer other add-on products and services. These can all be mixed and matched to create a custom solution that addresses your prospect’s challenges.

How is solution selling different from product and consultative selling?

How does solution selling differ from other popular sales methodologies like product selling and consultative selling? Let’s take a closer look.

Solution selling vs. product selling

Product selling is still extremely common. But what exactly is product selling – and how does it differ from solution selling?

Reps who practice product selling focus on communicating the features and benefits of a product or service – without considering the needs of the specific buyer. For example, consider walking into a car dealership. The sales rep starts to push the features and benefits of a newly released sports car. But in reality, you need a larger, family-friendly vehicle.

Product-based selling can be effective for smaller, transactional sales. But for larger, B2B sales, this sales methodology is ineffective.

When a seller engages in product-based selling, they’re often seen as pushy – and only focused on making a sale. The result is that prospective buyers disengage.

Today, a growing number of organizations are turning to solution selling.

Unlike product selling, solution-based selling is a consultative sales approach. Reps who practice solution selling don’t lead with features and benefits. Instead, they take the time to truly understand the prospect’s key challenges. Then, the rep can guide the buyer to a solution that solves those challenges.

Let’s say you walk into another car dealership. The sales rep sits down to understand your needs and frustrations with your current vehicle. Once they have a handle on your unique situation, they offer a customized solution.

Product selling

Consultative selling

  • Transactional
  • Focused on the sale at hand
  • One-size-fits-all approach
  • Seller-centric
  • Rep focuses on the features and benefits of the product
  • Rep doesn’t take the time to understand buyers’ needs and challenges
  • Relationship-building
  • Focused on the bigger picture
  • Personalized experiences
  • Buyer-centric
  • Reps focus on understanding the buyers’ pain points
  • Rep presents solutions to overcome these pain points

Consultative selling vs. solution selling

Solution selling overlaps in many ways with consultative selling. While the two terms are closely related, they’re not exactly the same.

As the name suggests, solution selling is focused on presenting the solution to a problem – rather than a product and its features. On the other hand, consultative selling is more focused on the consultation that comes before a seller presents a solution.

What are the key benefits and challenges of implementing solution selling?

There’s no perfect sales methodology. A sales methodology that’s a great fit for one organization may not be as effective for another.

If you’re considering adopting a new sales methodology, it’s important to understand the key benefits and challenges. Enterprise solution selling is no exception.

Pros of solution selling

There are countless benefits of solution-based selling. For starters, sellers who use this methodology are able to convey how a solution can solve a prospect’s problems – and the negative consequences of taking no action. This creates urgency that can move buyers to action.

In addition, solution selling helps ensure the seller’s offering is actually a good fit for the customer’s needs and challenges. Customers are more likely to be satisfied with their purchase decision – which will help boost retention.

Finally, solution selling allows sellers to build long-term relationships with customers. Customers can see that the seller truly understands their business. This fosters trust, which can help the seller close the deal. In addition, it can open up opportunities for upsell and cross-sell opportunities in the future – as well as referrals.

Cons of solution selling

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges of solution selling is that it takes time. In order to be successful with solution selling, reps must take the time to become experts in their offerings. In addition, they must spend time learning everything they can about a given prospect so they can present a customized solution.

In addition, the solution-selling process can be difficult to plan. There’s no set script or sales presentation. Sellers must be able to think on the fly to address what matters most to their prospects.

Finally, change can be difficult. Solution selling requires a shift in perspective. This shift can be challenging for those accustomed to product selling. Organizations can leverage sales training software to get sellers up to speed on the ins and outs of solution selling.

Solution selling with Mindtickle

Modern buyers expect sales reps to act as trusted advisors. Sales reps who are skilled at solution selling can deliver personalized experiences and solutions that meet B2B buyers’ needs and expectations.

Solution selling can help your sales reps build trust with prospects and close more deals. But making the transition to solution selling can be challenging, especially for reps who have never used this sales approach.

Sales reps must master a certain set of skills and behaviors to excel at solution selling. Revenue organizations must equip their teams with the tools, training, and support they need to master these key skills – and put them to work while interacting with buyers.

Jumpstart Solution Selling with your Team

Ready to see how Mindtickle is empowering businesses like yours to conquer solution selling?

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This post was originally published in November 2023 and was updated in May 2024. 

What is Business Enablement? Everything You Need to Know

Vivian Batman on May 7, 2024

In the world of business, change is the only constant. Organizations must keep a pulse on change and adapt accordingly. Otherwise, they’re sure to get left behind.

A business enablement mindset is a must for any modern organization. But what is it?

In this post, we’ll explore everything you need to know about business enablement and answer key questions, including:

  • What is business enablement?
  • How does it differ from sales enablement?
  • What are its goals, and how is success measured?
  • Who is responsible for it?
  • How can business enablement benefit your organization?

You’ll walk away with a clear picture of what business enablement is – and how it helps ensure your organization is effective and efficient – both now and in the future.

What is business enablement?

Business enablement is a relatively new concept. So, let’s start by answering the question, “What is it?”

Every business in the world wants to be successful. That’s a given.

Of course, an organization’s ability to achieve its goals rests largely on its employees. But organizations often don’t equip employees with what they need to be effective and efficient.

A survey from Gartner found that nearly half (47%) of digital workers struggle to find the information needed to be effective in their roles. Furthermore, research from McKinsey & Company found that more than half of employees are “relatively unproductive” at work.

Research from McKinsey found that

of employees are relatively unproductive at work
0 %+

When employees don’t have what they need, it negatively impacts the entire organization.

For an organization to achieve its goals, it must set up its employees for success. That’s where business enablement comes in.

It equips employees with the strategies, processes, people, and technology they need to be effective and efficient.

Successful initiatives reduce friction in employees’ workflows, making them more productive. When employees are more productive, the organization is better positioned to achieve its short- and long-term goals.

Business enablement initiatives are often “behind the scenes.” It can include anything from introducing a new technology that automates time-consuming processes to developing a new change management process.

Business vs sales enablement: what’s the difference?

The phrases “sales enablement” and “business enablement” are similar. So, it’s not surprising that people often confuse the two.

However, they aren’t the same thing.

Sales enablement is equipping the revenue organization with the right tools, sales training, information, coaching, and content they need to be effective and efficient in their roles. Modern B2B buyers have high expectations, and sales enablement helps sellers meet those expectations throughout the sales cycle.

While the concept of sales enablement is relatively new, it’s quickly grown in popularity. Per the 2024-2025 Chief Revenue Officer + Sales Leader Outlook Report, 84% of organizations invest in a sales enablement team. Typically, a sales enablement manager reports up to the organization’s Chief Revenue Officer. Sales enablement teams rely on sales enablement software to build, deliver, and measure sales enablement programs.

According to Mindtickle research,

of orgs invest in a sales enablement team
0 %

Sales enablement teams focus on supporting the sales team. However, business enablement initiatives typically have a broader audience. These initiatives often impact the entire organization.

Sales enablement Business enablement
Primary audience Sales or revenue team Entire organization
Goal Increase sales productivity Increase organizational effectiveness and efficiency
How they accomplish this goal Equipping sellers with the tools, training, information, coaching, and content they need to engage buyers and close more deals. Equipping all employees with the right tools, processes, resources, and strategies to be productive.
Ownership/responsible party Sales enablement team, typically reporting up to the CRO. Sales enablement closely collaborates with sales and marketing teams. Cross-functional

What are the goals of business enablement?

Ultimately, the goal is to ensure the organization can be as effective and efficient as possible. Business enablement achieves this goal by equipping teams with the right tools, processes, resources, and strategies to eliminate friction and increase productivity.

When employees have what they need to be effective and efficient, the entire organization is more effective and efficient. In addition, the entire organization is aligned around the customer, which means it’s better equipped to meet customers’ needs and expectations. As a result, sales and retention will soar.

What are the performance metrics involved in business enablement?

Organizations can’t simply launch an initiative and hope it’s successful. Instead, they must measure its impact and optimize accordingly.

Establishing goals is the foundational first step of developing an initiative. Then, you can monitor key metrics to see whether your initiative is or isn’t achieving those goals.

But what business enablement metrics do you need to track? It depends on the goals of your project. However, nearly all business enablement initiatives aim to save time and money. So be sure to track metrics to determine whether or not you’re achieving those objectives.

Other metrics that may be measured include:

  • Employee productivity
  • Employee satisfaction
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Customer retention

With consistent measurement, you can identify whether your program is effective and what you can optimize to improve performance.

Who is responsible for business enablement?

Not surprisingly, sales enablement is driven by a dedicated sales enablement team. But who is responsible for business enablement? In other words, who are business enablement specialists, and what are different functions?

Typically, business enablement is a cross-functional effort. The exact teams that are involved vary depending on the initiative. However, there are typically a few groups of people involved:

This is the person (or people) leading a specific initiative. These specialists are responsible for driving collaboration and ensuring the project’s success. Depending on the initiative, the project owner can hail from any number of teams. For example, someone from human resources may be the project owner for a new payroll initiative. A representative from IT would likely lead an initiative focused on rolling out new technology.

These people are expected to adopt a new business enablement initiative or tool. They could be all employees or a subset, such as a specific department.

Typically, this is the person responsible for approving a business enablement initiative. Often, it is the head of finance or IT. Gaining this person’s buy-in increases your likelihood of getting buy-in across the entire leadership team and the organization as a whole.

What are the benefits of business enablement?

Today, a growing number of organizations are adopting a business enablement mindset. That’s not surprising. Business enablement – when it’s done well – can deliver many benefits to the business.

Alignment across the organization

Each team within the organization is focused on their own projects and initiatives. But all too often, these teams work in silos.

It can unite the entire organization toward a common goal. In addition, a business enablement initiative can bring together teams that don’t typically work together. For example, a project may be led by a team composed of members from IT, customer service, sales, marketing, and finance.

Better communication across different departments

Effective communication within a team and across the organization is key. But it can be challenging, especially when teams aren’t working in the same physical location.

Business enablement initiatives can improve internal communication. For example, you might roll out new technology to keep teams aligned on key projects. Better communication will drive better business outcomes.

Improved operational efficiency

There are only so many hours in the day, and you want your employees to make the most of them. But often, they get bogged down by time-consuming, repetitive work.

Business enablement can streamline or even automate repetitive, time-consuming tasks and admin work. That means your employees have more time to make progress on meaningful work.

That means your entire organization can move closer to its goals – faster.
Increased employee satisfaction
Employees with the right tools and processes to do their jobs are more satisfied at work. Satisfied workers are more productive – and more likely to stick around long-term.

A competitive advantage

Customers’ needs and expectations are always evolving. It’s important to understand these expectations and adapt accordingly.

Businesses can leverage business enablement to ensure the organization is aligned with customers’ needs and equipped to meet those needs.

For example, according to Gartner, 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience. An organization can develop behind-the-scenes processes and leverage new technology to ensure the entire organization can meet customers’ expectations and preferences. If that company’s initiatives are a success, they’ll set it apart from the competition, making it easier to grow sales.

Increased customer retention

Winning new customers is important. It’s equally important to retain existing customers.

Business enablement initiatives enable teams to align around serving the customer. This will increase customer satisfaction, which will boost customer retention. In addition, customers are more likely to recommend the business to others, which will increase referrals.

It’s time to adopt a business enablement mindset

Business enablement is a relatively new concept. But a growing number of businesses are adopting it.

Equipping employees with the tools and processes they need to succeed will increase the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency. In addition, employees will be better equipped to serve customers, increasing customer acquisition and retention.

Business enablement and sales enablement aren’t the same thing. However, a solid sales enablement strategy – paired with the right technology – is a key way to boost sales productivity.

Today, winning revenue teams leverage Mindtickle’s integrated sales productivity platform to power their sales enablement programs. 

Sales Enablement with Mindtickle

With Mindtickle, sellers can access the training, content, enablement, coaching, and call insights they need to be successful – all from one platform.

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5 Must-Haves for Every Sales Enablement Program

Vivian Batman on May 3, 2024

It’s every CRO’s dream for each of their sales reps to meet quota every quarter. But that’s not reality.

Instead, missed quotas have become the norm. According to Forrester, more than half of sales reps miss their quota targets.

Today, a growing number of organizations turn to sales enablement to ensure all their sellers are ready to overcome challenges and conquer any deal that comes their way. In fact, per the 2024-2025 Chief Revenue Officer + Sales Leader Outlook Report, 84% of organizations invest in a sales enablement department.

According to research,

of orgs invest in a sales enablement department
0 %

But simply establishing a sales enablement team doesn’t guarantee you’ll build a team of top-performing sellers. Your team must also develop and deliver sales enablement programs and initiatives that’ll actually impact your reps’ ability to close deals.

But that’s easier said than done. This is especially true today when revenue organizations are faced with increasingly competitive markets and shrinking budgets.

But it’s not impossible.

In this post, we’ll explore the foundational, strategic initiatives that are necessary for any successful sales enablement program. We’ll cover:

Foundational

Programmatic

What is a sales enablement program?

Sales enablement is a strategic approach that aims to empower sales teams with the tools, information, and resources they need to engage with prospects and close deals effectively. A sales enablement program is a coordinated effort by an organization to provide sales representatives with the right content, training, and technology to sell more effectively.

The primary goal of a sales enablement program is to improve the effectiveness of the sales team by providing them with the necessary resources to sell more effectively. This can include training on sales techniques, product knowledge, and objection handling, as well as access to marketing collateral, customer testimonials, and other materials that can help them in their sales process.

Sales enablement programs typically involve a range of activities, including developing a content strategy, creating sales training programs, and implementing technology solutions such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, sales automation tools, and analytics platforms.

How to align your sales enablement with sales process development

Aligning sales enablement with sales process development involves integrating the tools, content, and training provided through sales enablement into the various stages of the sales process. This helps ensure that sales reps have the resources they need to effectively engage with prospects and customers at each stage of the process, ultimately improving their performance and increasing the likelihood of success.

Here are some steps organizations can take to align sales enablement with sales process development.

The first step is to clearly define the stages of the sales process, from lead generation to close. This helps identify the specific needs and challenges of sales reps at each stage, which in turn informs the development of sales enablement resources.

Based on the identified needs of sales reps at each stage of the sales process, organizations can create relevant and engaging sales enablement content, such as product information, customer case studies, and competitive analysis.

In addition to providing sales enablement content, organizations should also provide training to help sales reps effectively use the content and tools provided through sales enablement. This can include training on product features and benefits, objection handling, and sales techniques.

Once sales enablement content and training have been developed, they should be integrated into the various stages of the sales process. For example, sales reps can use customer case studies and competitive analysis during the qualification and discovery stage, and use product information and objection-handling techniques during the presentation and negotiation stage.

Finally, organizations should continuously evaluate the effectiveness of their sales enablement efforts and make improvements as necessary. This can involve gathering feedback from sales reps and customers, tracking key performance metrics, and iterating on sales enablement content and training to better align with the sales process.

By aligning sales enablement with sales process development, organizations can better support their sales reps throughout the sales process, ultimately improving their performance and increasing their chances of success.

How to align enablement efforts with the buyer’s journey

This is probably a broken record that sales enablement leaders are very familiar with hearing. While its importance is easy to understand, executing it well is not.

No matter where you are in executing them, here are the important steps organizations can take to align their sales enablement efforts with the buyer’s journey:

The first step is to understand the different stages of the buyer’s journey, from awareness to consideration to decision. This helps identify the specific needs and challenges of buyers at each stage, which can inform the development of sales enablement resources.

Based on the identified needs of buyers at each stage of the journey, organizations can create relevant and engaging sales enablement content that addresses their specific pain points and concerns. This can include educational content, such as whitepapers and case studies, as well as product-specific content, such as demos and product sheets.

To further align sales enablement with the buyer’s journey, organizations can personalize their content for each buyer persona. This involves tailoring the content and messaging to address the specific needs, preferences, and challenges of each persona.

Once sales enablement content has been developed and personalized, it should be integrated into the different stages of the buyer’s journey. For example, organizations can use targeted email campaigns to deliver relevant content to buyers in the awareness stage and provide personalized demos and case studies to buyers in the consideration and decision stages.

Finally, organizations should continuously evaluate the effectiveness of their sales enablement efforts in supporting the buyer’s journey, and make improvements as necessary. This can involve gathering feedback from buyers, tracking key performance metrics, and iterating on sales enablement content and resources to better align with their needs.

By aligning sales enablement with the buyer’s journey, organizations can provide buyers with the information and resources they need to make informed decisions, ultimately improving their chances of closing deals and increasing customer satisfaction.

How to align sales and marketing teams together

Does an aligned sales and marketing team sound like an impossible dream?

It’s not the easiest feat but if you look at alignment as something to be done in the phases outlined below, you can break off the broader initiative into more achievable and realistic blocks of work.

Here’s where to start:

The first step is to establish shared goals and objectives that both teams can work towards. This helps ensure that both teams are aligned and working towards a common purpose. Shared goals could include increasing lead generation, improving lead quality, and driving revenue growth.

To further align sales and marketing, organizations can develop buyer personas that both teams can use to better understand the needs and preferences of target buyers. This helps ensure that both teams are targeting the same types of buyers and messaging is consistent across both teams.

Effective communication is key to aligning sales and marketing. Organizations should establish regular meetings and check-ins between the teams to share updates, discuss progress, and provide feedback.

Sales and marketing should work together to develop content that addresses the specific needs and concerns of buyers. For example, marketing can develop educational content to attract leads, and sales can provide feedback on the effectiveness of the content in converting leads into customers.

Finally, organizations should implement feedback loops to ensure that both teams are learning from each other and improving over time. This can involve gathering feedback from sales on the quality of leads generated by marketing, and feedback from marketing on the effectiveness of sales messaging and content.

By aligning sales and marketing teams, organizations can improve lead generation and conversion, increase revenue growth, and improve customer satisfaction. It requires a commitment to collaboration, communication, and a shared understanding of the goals and objectives of both teams.

Elements of great sales enablement programs

The below are absolutely essential for a successful sales enablement motion.

1. Sales onboarding and training

A good sales onboarding program is designed to equip new sales hires with the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to be successful in their role. It should provide a comprehensive introduction to the company, its culture, products/services, sales processes, and best practices.

Here is a checklist of what to make sure is included as part of your onboarding and ongoing training program:

  • Set clear objectives and expectations by outlining what they are expected to achieve and how performance is measured.
  • Role-specific training provides new hires with a deep understanding of their responsibilities and how to execute them effectively.
  • Sales reps need to have a thorough understanding of the company’s products/services and the industry they operate in. Onboarding programs should provide in-depth training on these topics.
  • Onboarding should provide training on the company’s sales processes and tools, including CRM systems, sales scripts, and objection handling.
  • Sales onboarding should be evaluated based on metrics such as ramp-up time, quota attainment, and sales productivity to continuously improve the program’s effectiveness.

By incorporating these key elements, a good sales onboarding program can ensure that new hires are well-equipped to succeed in their role, ultimately contributing to the organization’s overall success.

2. Role-playing

This is a powerful and effective way for reps to practice and improve real-world selling behaviors while allowing sales leaders to get a firsthand look at how learning is applied. And the more often they’re done, the more productive your sellers will be. According to our 2024 State of Sales Productivity Report, reps at top-performing companies perform an average of 13 role-plays per year.

Reps at top-performing orgs perform an average of

role-plays per year
0

Here are some examples of sales role-plays to try with your team. Remember that not every seller might need role-play practice for each one of these scenarios. Take a look at call recordings to see where some reps fall short so they can be coached to improve:

  • Cold calling role plays: In this type of role play, a salesperson practices calling a prospect for the first time and delivering a persuasive pitch.
  • Discovery call role plays: In this type of role play, a salesperson practices asking questions to understand the prospect’s needs, pain points, and goals.
  • Objection handling role plays: In this type of role play, a salesperson practices responding to common objections and concerns that prospects may raise during the sales process.
  • Demo role plays: In this type of role play, a salesperson demonstrates how the product or service works and highlights its benefits to the prospect.
  • Closing role plays: In this type of role play, a salesperson practices asking for the sale and overcoming any final objections or concerns the prospect may have.
  • Cross-selling/up-selling role plays: In this type of role play, a salesperson practices offering additional products or services to an existing customer.
  • Negotiation role plays: In this type of role play, a salesperson practices negotiating price and terms with a prospect to close the deal.

These role plays can be customized to the specific industry, product, or service being sold. They provide a safe and supportive environment for salespeople to practice their skills and receive feedback from their manager or trainer.

3. Content

Sales content plays a crucial role in sales enablement. It refers to any material or resource that sales teams use to engage with prospects and customers throughout the sales cycle. Here are some ways in which sales content is used in sales enablement:

  1. Sales playbook: A sales playbook is a comprehensive guide that outlines the company’s sales process, best practices, and key messaging. It provides sellers with a roadmap for how to navigate the sales process and effectively communicate with prospects.
  2. Sales training materials: Sales training materials, such as e-learning modules, videos, and quizzes, can be used to provide sellers with the foundational knowledge they need to be successful in their role. This can include topics such as objection handling, lead qualification, and negotiation.
  3. Sales collateral: Sales collateral, such as sales decks, one-pagers, and white papers, can be used to support new hires during their sales conversations with prospects. They provide new hires with the messaging and talking points they need to effectively communicate the value of the product or service.
  4. Sales tools: Sales tools, such as CRM systems, sales enablement platforms, and lead generation tools, can be used to streamline the sales process and make it easier for new hires to manage their pipeline and stay organized.
  5. Personalization: Sales content can be personalized for specific audiences or buyer personas. This can include customizing messaging, using specific examples or case studies, and tailoring content to the prospect’s stage in the buyer’s journey.

4. Coaching

Sales coaching is an essential component of sales enablement. It involves providing personalized feedback, guidance, and support to sales teams to help them improve their skills and increase their effectiveness in selling. Here are some ways in which sales coaching is used in sales enablement:

  1. Skill development: Sales coaching can be used to develop and improve specific sales skills, such as prospecting, objection handling, and closing. This can help sales reps become more confident and effective in their sales conversations.
  2. Sales process improvement: Sales coaching can also be used to improve the overall sales process, by identifying areas for improvement and providing guidance on how to address them. This can lead to increased efficiency and effectiveness in the sales process.
  3. Goal setting and accountability: Sales coaching can be used to set goals and hold sales reps accountable for their performance. This can help to ensure that sales reps are aligned with the organization’s goals and that they are working towards achieving them.
  4. Performance feedback: Sales coaching can be used to provide regular feedback on sales reps’ performance, identifying areas of strength and areas for improvement. This can help sales reps to continuously improve their skills and performance.
  5. Coaching culture: Sales coaching can help to create a coaching culture within the organization, where sales managers and leaders prioritize coaching and development as a key part of their role. This can lead to a more engaged and motivated sales team and improved sales results.

By using sales coaching in sales enablement, organizations can ensure that their sales teams have the support and guidance they need to improve their skills and achieve their goals. It can also help to create a culture of continuous learning and development, which is essential for success in today’s fast-paced business environment.

5. Analytics

It’s important to close the loop on all these sales enablement efforts. This means tracking certain KPIs over time to gauge whether sales enablement training, coaching, and other approaches are helping to improve seller performance. Evaluating both individual and team performance metrics, as well as how they correlate to revenue, you can diagnose any issues or gaps within your enablement program. And when you’re able to locate where the problems are, you can make changes, like creating additional training materials around a certain topic or assigning role-plays to reps with specified selling scenarios.

Is your sales enablement program preparing your reps to close more deals?

Modern sellers face more challenges than ever before. Sales enablement – when it’s done right – can help sellers overcome these challenges and close more deals.

But creating a sales enablement team doesn’t guarantee results. It’s imperative to build and deliver programs and initiatives that’ll actually prepare your sellers to close deals. It’s also critical to incorporate five must-haves into your sales enablement strategy: sales onboarding, role-playing, content, coaching, and analytics.

Today, leading revenue organizations turn to Mindtickle to build and deliver sales enablement programs that ensure sellers have what it takes to crush any deal. Mindtickle’s integrated sales productivity platform incorporates all the key ingredients of sales enablement – right from one integrated platform.

 

Sales Enablement with Mindtickle

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This post was originally published in September 2022, was updated in April 2023, and again in May 2024. 

What is Sales Onboarding?

Vivian Batman on April 19, 2024

Sales onboarding is an education program that provides newly hired sales reps with the necessary knowledge, instills the company values, and shows them how to leverage the provided tools of a company in an easy-to-absorb and timely format. This process ensures all sales reps have what they need for success within the company, with the team, and in the field.

A well-defined onboarding program, in particular, allows sales reps to learn in consumable chunks, with defined learning objectives and onboarding materials that are readily available and updated with the latest competitive, corporate, and product information.

Sales reps who undergo standardized onboarding processes become productive 3.4 months sooner, on average than those who work at organizations with less formal onboarding. And those new hires are 50% more likely to stay with the organization.

To be successful, sales reps need an intimate knowledge of the products they are selling, as well as the specific procedures and behaviors that will help them succeed. To be clear, a strong sales onboarding program gives reps more credibility and confidence in their new role, boosting the success of the entire sales department. In this post, we’ll cover the the following topics so you’re ready to build an onboarding plan that sets every rep up to be a top performer:

What is the importance of sales onboarding?

What are the best sales onboarding practices?

What is a 30-60-90-day sales onboarding plan?

How does sales onboarding reduce ramp time?

What are the features of a sales onboarding platform?

What is the importance of sales onboarding?

Sales onboarding is an essential component of an effective sales enablement program. It’s the first step in ensuring sellers have the tools, resources, and support they need to be successful.

The numbers are in, and reports confirm the importance of a solid sales onboarding program for every organization.

According to G2, reps are productive in 3.4 months faster with best-in-class sales onboarding programs — that’s 37% faster than organizations with low-performing programs. 

Sales onboarding sets sellers up for success

Creating an onboarding program that is aligned with the specific needs of your sales reps as well as the organization leads to greater success in the field, as your reps will know the products they’re selling and have the knowledge and skills to back them up. Knowledge gained through onboarding also helps reps get to know their customers, both existing and potential. It provides information about current users and enhances creative thinking around new business opportunities.

Even further, reps enter the field with the comfort of knowing the values and standards of the company, so they can sell with confidence. If onboarding at your company is too general, you may miss out on opportunities to improve key sales skills aligned with your organization.

Sales onboarding improves retention and recruitment

Setting new hires up for success in their role is a huge part of attracting and retaining top talent. In today’s competitive job market, job seekers are more knowledgeable and discerning of their prospective employers than ever before. If a talented sales rep is considering joining your team, the onboarding and training programs may play a significant role in their success. A strong onboarding and training curriculum sets you apart as an employer that values and invests in its employees.

A strong onboarding program also helps you retain the top talent you have recruited.

Companies with ineffective onboarding lose 17% of new hires in the first three months.

With a great onboarding program, you can keep employees for months and years to come by giving them the knowledge and consistent onboarding experience they need to succeed in your sales department.

Sales onboarding increases rep engagement

Sales reps who are highly engaged in their work do everything they can to satisfy their clients, grow their client base, help other sales reps succeed, and contribute ideas to improve the overall sales department. These highly engaged employees are advocates for your company and an integral part of your sales department.

Building employee engagement starts with onboarding. When new reps get the tools and information they need right from the start, they are more likely to buy into the company’s goals, bond with the sales team through shared experiences, and contribute in a positive way every day.

What are the best sales onboarding practices?

A job done poorly gets poor results—and sales onboarding is no exception. An onboarding process that is effectively built from the start can lead to improved sales opportunities, more closed deals, and great salespeople who stay for the long haul.

Here are a few best practices to help you build your own sales onboarding program:

  • Build a company story: Come to the table with a clear vision of your goals. What is your company’s mission and vision? What are your company values? What do you bring to the table? How is it different from your competitors?
  • Provide clear, concise messaging: With a clear understanding of your company values, new sales reps need a guide for how to convey your message. Your onboarding program should provide key messaging tips for a variety of different sales situations and opportunities.
  • Target the right customers: Develop sample profiles of customers that are a good fit for your products, including personalities and relevant industries. Learning how to pick and choose potential customers is a great way to help new hires understand your ideal customers and sell to them effectively.
  • Standardize the process: Access to paperwork, manuals, onboarding materials, and centralized messaging can significantly improve the results of the process. Enlist the help of a dashboard-style system that keeps everything in one place. A simple, effective, repeatable system will help new reps feel confident when the process begins, and give a simple way to check back and review important information when needed.
  • Provide continuous support: Using a revenue productivity platform that standardizes your message is just the first step toward improved sales and retention. Provide opportunities for reps to check in, access sales coaching, and track their own productivity with assessments to cement the learning process with ongoing activities — a concept we call everboarding.
  • Offer engaging, varied training formats: Onboarding used to mean all-day training sessions and shadowing experienced reps — long days, information overload, and minimal retention. With advances in sales training technology, you can offer a more engaging and interesting onboarding experience. With sales training techniques like micro-learning and gamification, you can present information in various formats to keep new hires engaged and help them retain more information long-term.

While a consistent model of behavior and information makes the onboarding process run smoothly, creating one for your company is an individual, unique exercise. It must be consistently administered across new sales reps but customized for your industry, values, goals, team, and leadership.

What is a 30-60-90-day sales onboarding plan?

A common onboarding strategy sales organizations take is the 30-60-90-day plan — a roadmap for where you want new reps to be after the first, second, and third months in their role. It can look something like this:

  • 30 days: The new hire is familiar with the company mission, culture, history, products, buyers, sales processes, and tools. Offer some icebreaker activities and opportunities for collaboration and team building.
  • 60 days: The new hire becomes more hands on, participating in team meetings, confident in talking to customers and prospects, and seems motivated to perform well.
  • 90 days: The (not-so) new hire actively reaches out to their accounts independently and fits into the larger company culture. You can see a clear picture of their progress from day one.

There are different ways to approach a sales onboarding program, and where you start will depend on two things: your company objectives and what you already have in place. Using technology can help you customize the process for not only your company but also for the many different learning styles that each rep brings to the table.

How does sales onboarding reduce ramp time?

Average ramp time for new sales reps can be anywhere between six and 12 months. A strong onboarding program can use the following techniques to improve the onboarding process and decrease ramp time:

  • A repeatable process: A well-defined, easily accessed, and standard process with clearly stated goals for the first and second week, first month, and so on is a must-have. This process leaves the first impression with new reps and can make or break the relationship between the new rep and the company.
  • Written resources: Information must be easily accessed for learning and review, so ensure everything is properly recorded and accessible.
  • Goal setting: Expectations should be communicated and accountability tracked, but not rushed.
  • Company experience: Give new sales reps the opportunity to experience other aspects of the company, such as customer service and support and inventory control.
  • Mentorship and shadow opportunities: New hires get up to speed more quickly when there are ample opportunities for mentoring and shadowing. These activities allow reps to get guidance from more experienced sales team members in a less formal setting, giving them good opportunities to ask questions and learn in a real-world environment.

These techniques can be automated and/or streamlined with the help of a revenue productivity platform. 

What are the features of a sales onboarding platform?

Sales onboarding platforms are typically part of enablement or productivity software. Today, more sellers are working remotely than ever before, and using technology is crucial for ensuring that sales onboarding is accessible and adaptable for every individual rep.

These systems help to optimize the creation and execution of onboarding materials by:

  • Storing, managing, and distributing training content
  • Replicating in-person engagement through video conferencing tools and virtual instructor-led training (VILT)
  • Providing practice opportunities through recorded role-plays
  • Offering gamified learning and competitions
  • Personalizing learning paths based on proven competencies and areas for improvement
  • Tracking completion rates and scores

Successful sales onboarding with Mindtickle

The Mindtickle revenue productivity platform offers onboarding and training features that improve time-to-productivity, sales rep effectiveness, and much more. Mindtickle offers user-friendly dashboards and analytics to track new reps’ progress through onboarding modules and identify reps who need additional training in certain areas.

Once onboarding is complete, Mindtickle offers a full suite of sales training, sales coaching, analytics, and micro-learning tools to reinforce concepts and build key skills. 

Sales Onboarding with Mindtickle

Schedule a demo today to see how Mindtickle can improve your sales onboarding program.

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This post was originally published in January 2020, was updated in September 2022, and again in April 2024.  

The 3 Most Important Skills for Every Role On Your Sales Team

Vivian Batman on April 12, 2024

Today’s sellers face a ton of challenges. They need the right skills to overcome these challenges and emerge successful.

There’s a subset of top performers on every sales team. These are the folks who are adept at building relationships and closing deals—even in less-than-ideal circumstances. In a perfect world, you could clone these top sales reps.

Of course, this isn’t possible. But the most successful revenue organizations are doing the next best thing. They’re spending time figuring out what makes their top sellers so great and then working to replicate those skills and behaviors across the entire revenue organization.

Taking this approach, you can create an entire team of top performers. It starts with determining what skills are needed for each role on your sales team.

Defining what sales excellence looks like

Sellers have limited time, and it behooves them (and their organization) to focus their time on the prospects that best fit their offering. To help ensure that’s the case, most organizations identify and document their ideal customer profile (ICP).

Far fewer businesses take the time to identify and document their ideal rep profile (IRP), which is the list of skills, competencies, and behaviors a revenue team member needs to succeed in their role. However, the IRP continues to be a growing trend among sales productivity practitioners.

The growth of this trend makes sense. After all, how can a revenue organization drive excellence when it doesn’t even know what excellence looks like?

The IRP is essential to true sales productivity

The first step in driving org-wide excellence is to take the time to identify and document the skills needed for success. The most successful sales organizations define IRPs for their go-to-market (GTM) or customer-facing roles. The most common roles for which organizations define their IRP are:

  • Account executives (AEs)
  • Business development representatives (BDRs)
  • Channel sales specialists (CSSs)
  • Customer success managers (CSMs)
  • Sales engineers (SEs)

Team members should be continuously measured against this “gold standard” to identify each individual’s learning gaps. Then, organizations can deliver individualized learning and sales coaching that closes these gaps and creates more peak performers.

The top 3 skills for every member of the revenue team

Sure, it’s key to identify the skills each member of your revenue team needs to succeed. But what exactly are those skills?

Of course, these vary by role. The skills needed to be a successful BDR differ from those needed to excel as a sales engineer.

Recently, we analyzed activity from more than a million users at 400+ companies to understand how the best organizations are getting their sales teams ready to close more deals. We shared our key findings in our State of Revenue Productivity 2024 Report. Based on this analysis, we’ve identified the top three skills needed by five key revenue team members.

The 3 most important skills for account executives

Account executives work day in and day out to understand the needs and challenges of businesses — and then provide solutions to address them. The three most important skills for success in this role are:

Once an AE has determined the buyer’s needs, they must have the skills to articulate their solution’s value.

Our analysis found that over half (54%) of sales calls include more negative sentiment than positive. Objections are one example of negative sentiment. AEs should expect objections— and have the skills to address and overcome them.

Prospects often don’t accept an offer as-is. Instead, they want to negotiate. This is especially true in today’s economic climate. AEs must have the skills to navigate the negotiation stage of the sales cycle expertly.

The 3 most important skills for business development representatives

BDRs are often the first touchpoint a prospect has with your company. They need to master these three skills:

BDRs must know your ICPs inside and out — and be able to quickly and accurately determine if a prospect is a good fit for your company’s offerings.

Like AEs, BDRs must be prepared to expect resistance from prospects and equipped to handle it. The right enablement and coaching can ensure they’re ready to address any objection that comes their way.

Strong communication skills include both speaking and listening. BDRs must master active listening skills so they can understand what a prospect is saying and respond thoughtfully.

The 3 most important skills for channel sales specialists

Channel sales refers to the practice of a third party (also known as a partner) selling your company’s products. The top three skills needed for channel sales specialists are:

Channel sellers must know a product inside and out — and be equipped to handle any question. Continuous enablement and coaching ensure they always have current, accurate product knowledge.

Like AEs, channel sellers must be experts at conveying the value of a particular solution to the prospect.

Prospects are more likely to make a purchase from a sales rep who’s taken the time to get to know them and earn their trust. As such, relationship-building skills are essential for any channel sales specialist.

The 3 most important skills for customer success managers

Customer success managers spend most of their time meeting with current customers to address any issues and ensure the customer gets the most value from the product provided. As well, they’re often responsible for upsells and renewals. They must have a solid mastery of the following three skills to be successful in their roles:

CSMs spend a lot of time interacting with customers via phone and email. Often, they need to share feedback from customer interactions with other departments, including sales and product. Solid written and verbal communication skills are a must.

It’s less expensive to retain an existing customer than it is to obtain a new one. As such, CSMs must perfect their renewal skills. Renewal time can also be a great opportunity for upsells. CSMs should be skilled at identifying upsell opportunities and articulating the value of the upsell to the customer.

The CSM is typically their go-to if a customer runs into a problem. Customer success team members must have solid problem-solving skills to help resolve issues quickly and effectively.

The 3 most important skills for sales engineers

A sales engineer is a member of the B2B sales team whose specialty is selling complex technical products and services. They must have a mastery of these three skills:

Sales engineers must be well-versed in the myriad ways companies use a solution and can use this knowledge to articulate how the solution can work for a specific prospect.

Similar to other roles, sales engineers must be experts at articulating business knowledge to prospects.

Prospects often come to sales engineers with technical questions and objections. Sales engineers

Start building a winning revenue team

Today, many revenue leaders accept that great sellers are born, not made. They either have what it takes, or they don’t.

But that isn’t reality. Sales excellence can be taught.

First, organizations must identify the success-related skills for each revenue team role. Then, they can measure all revenue team members against their IRP to understand where they’re shining and falling short. Equipped with these insights, revenue teams can deliver personalized training, enablement, and coaching to ensure each master the skills that matter most in their role.

Mindtickle Readiness Index

In other words, you can build a team of top performers – no cloning machine required.

But not all enablement and productivity programs drive results. Instead, you need the right, data-driven strategy and technology to power your sales enablement and sales productivity programs.

Revenue Enablement in Mindtickle

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This post was originally published in June 2022 and was updated in April 2024. 

3 Types of Coaching Sessions You Need to Have With Your Sales Reps 

Vivian Batman on March 21, 2024

Like the best athletes, the best sales reps always ask for and get more coaching from their managers. 

The best managers are coaching their reps a lot more too.

According to our 2024 State of Sales Productivity Report, top managers tripled the number of coaching sessions since 2022, completing 40 sessions per month. Top-performing reps also get four more coaching sessions per month. 

The result? 

More wins. More revenue. 

So where do you start? 

Key takeways

  • The best managers are doing something differently with their reps during coaching sessions.  
  • There are three common types of coaching between managers and reps. We break them down. 
  • Next steps for setting up an efficient, personalized, and scalable coaching program at your own org. 

Coaching must go beyond deal reviews

Creating a “coaching culture” is often identified as a priority for selling orgs. We define a coaching culture as ongoing, data-driven, and infused into every manager and seller interaction.

When done well, it works. 

According to research, companies with dynamic coaching programs achieve 28 percent higher win rates.

Companies with dynamic coaching programs achieve

higher win rates
0 %

Unfortunately, many orgs struggle to create this coaching culture and instead take an ad hoc approach focused on short-term fixes. This approach is almost always primarily focused on deal reviews.

Of course, as-needed deal reviews are an important way to improve the outcome of a given sale. But on its own, deal coaching isn’t enough to improve long-term results.

The best sales orgs take a different approach to coaching. Rather than focusing solely on deal coaching, they deliver a blend of coaching types delivered at regular intervals to improve long-term success.

How the best sales managers are coaching their reps

Back to the best athletes: When they’re asking for coaching, it’s usually to address a specific issue with their game. 

The same can be said for sales reps.

However many orgs struggle to identify rep weaknesses, which makes effective coaching a struggle. 

According to our 2024 Chief Revenue Officer and Sales Leader Outlook Report, only 40% of C-level executives said they can identify rep strengths and weaknesses.

The first step to effective coaching is to understand rep strengths and weaknesses. To do this, you can take a look at your win/loss reports as well as call recordings to get a better understanding of where reps need improvement. From there, you can equip managers with what they need to “fix” those issues and get your reps back into the field with the skills they need to close more deals, 

Let’s take a closer look at the three types of coaching the best sales managers are delivering to reps — and how often they’re doing so.

#1 Opportunity sales coaching

When someone hears the phrase “sales coaching,” their mind might immediately go to opportunity coaching. That’s not surprising, as it’s the most common type of sales coaching. Our research found that 85% of sales reps report being coached on open deals.

Opportunity coaching is an important way to improve the outcome of a deal. For example, a sales manager might identify that something in a deal isn’t going as planned. This might be based on feedback from the rep during a pipeline review meeting. Or, they could get insight by leveraging a conversation intelligence solution that sheds light on how the rep is performing.

Salesforce- Coaching

In either circumstance, the manager can provide opportunity coaching to help the rep steer the deal back on course. And this will improve the chances of them ultimately closing the deal.

How often are the best managers delivering opportunity coaching? Sometimes, this coaching happens at a regular cadence — for example, during a weekly pipeline review. At these meetings, reps and managers discuss current opportunities — and how to move them forward.

Often, though, opportunity is delivered as needed — for example, when a rep raises a question or concern or meeting intelligence uncovers an issue.

#2 Skills sales coaching

In general, skills coaching is a lot less common. A mere 24% of reps report being coached on skills. 

While opportunity coaching improves the outcome of a single deal, skills coaching is required to ensure reps have the skills and behaviors needed to close deals consistently.

The best sales managers recognize the importance of skills coaching on long-term behavior. As such, they aim to deliver at least one skill-based coaching session per month per rep.

What skills do they focus on? The short answer is, it depends. The first step is for organizations to identify the knowledge, skills, and behaviors a rep needs for success by developing an ideal rep profile (IRP).

Ideal rep profile competencies

Then, each rep should be measured against this gold standard. This helps managers identify where there are skills gaps. Armed with this data, sales managers can deliver targeted, personalized skills coaching that addresses the needs of each individual rep.

#3 Targeted sales coaching

If there’s one thing sellers can count on, it’s that things are always changing. New products are released. Pricing or packaging is adjusted. A new competitor enters the marketplace. And those are just a few of the many changes faced by reps.

The best sales managers deliver coaching sessions to address changes and ensure reps are equipped to adapt. Typically, targeted coaching is a single session on a specific, targeted topic — often followed by enablement content such as content, training, or a role-play exercise.

When it comes to sales coaching, follow-up is key

Sales managers are busy. But the best ones know that coaching is worth the time and effort. On average, top managers complete 12 coaching sessions per month.

But coaching isn’t a one-time event. For example, a manager can’t simply deliver a skills coaching session focused on objection handling, check it off the list, and never think about it again — at least not if they expect actual improvement.

The best managers know that proper follow-up and ongoing reinforcement are key to effective coaching. Our analysis found that top managers are three times more likely to assign content, training or a role-play as a follow-up to a coaching session.

This follow-up is paying off. Reps who are assigned follow-up actions post-coaching see an average improvement of 13 points in Sales Readiness Index scores.

Mindtickle Sales Readiness Index

Start closing gaps and optimizing seller performance with coaching

Sales coaching, when done well, is proven to boost sales outcomes significantly. Deal coaching alone won’t cut it. The best sales leaders use a blend of deal, skills, and targeted coaching to ensure the entire sales team has what it takes to close deals.

Sales Coaching in Mindtickle

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