As a relatively new business concept, sales enablement is constantly adapting as it grows in popularity.
It’s catching on quickly at large companies, but fewer SMBs have a sales enablement program. According to a study by Demand Metric, 68% of enterprise companies have a sales enablement program compared to only 38% of small businesses.
For those that have caught on, it’s working. The same study reported that 75% of companies with a sales enablement program say it makes a moderate or significant contribution.
But how do these companies actually know it’s making a difference? The truth is, most of them don’t. Research by Vantage Point Performance shows that only 40% of companies track sales enablement metrics.
If your company falls into the 60% that isn’t measuring the impact of their sales enablement program, we’re here to help. An effective sales enablement program will lead to improvements in the following three areas:
- Conversion Rates
- Sales Cycle
- Win Rates
How can implementing a sales enablement program boost these KPIs? Let’s find out.
Improving Conversion Rates
The conversion rates in your sales funnel represent the effectiveness of your sales team. Sales enablement can increase conversion rates in three areas:
1. Top-of-the-funnel leads
In order to increase conversion rates at the top of the funnel, you need to refine your prospecting strategy, so that your reps spend more time with prospects that are a better fit for your product. You don’t want anyone wasting time on low quality leads.
2. Engaged opportunities
Improving conversion rates at this stage of the funnel comes down to delivering the right message at the right time, empathizing with your prospects’ needs, understanding pain points, and proving that your product is the best fit for them.
3. Late-stage opportunities
At the bottom of the funnel, the conversion rates depend heavily on the skill of the closer. Increases can be made here by automating repetitive tasks to ensure the closing process goes as smoothly as possible.
Shortening the Sales Cycle
You can cut down your sales cycle drastically by automating (or simplifying) repetitive tasks and discovering ways to influence prospects’ behavior. For example, if your sales cycle is being slowed down by time spent trying to get in front of decisions makers, then your sales ops team should evaluate tools that can expedite this process.
Increasing Win Rates
The key to increasing your team’s overall win rate is to identify each rep’s sweet spot, then position them to focus on opportunities in their strike zone. Let’s say a rep is especially closing mid-market deals with shorter sales cycle. By recognizing this individual strength and acting on it (i.e. making sure they see more opportunities of this type) your entire team will be better off, and your sales results will back it up.
For more information about how sales enablement can boost key metrics, check out our FREE eBook: Implementing a Targeted Sales Enablement Program.
