Summary

• Introduction

1. What is sales enablement?

2. Why is sales activation important?

3. Implementing sales enablement tools.

4. The 4 pillars of sales enablement:

1. Content and technology.

2. Inbound marketing.

3. Training.

4. Customer loyalty.

5. Sales activation tools.

6. Types of sales enablement tools.

The indispensable activation levers in 2022 :

To achieve maximum sales success, salespeople must equip themselves as best they can. There is no secret, the best salesperson uses the best tools. Fortunately, in 2021, there is no shortage of weapons on the sales field. It is just a question of making the right choices! If the abundance of tools and software allows you to find several adapted to your needs and your sales cycle, you must take the time to select them rigorously to be sure of their effectiveness in your daily life. Forget about sales brochures, sales pitches or physical sales tools, we will only talk about 2.0 tools that are available and can be used online or in the form of software.
Let’s take a look at the 25 best tools for a salesperson!C’est parti pour un tour d’horizon des 25 meilleurs outils pour un commercial !

What is sales activation?

We often quote Wikipedia (let’s face it, it’s a relatively reliable and comprehensive source of concept definitions), this time we’ll refer to Gartner, which groups under this term all “activities, systems, processes and information that support and enable knowledge-based business interactions with customers and prospects”.

The term has been popularised in the wake of the Inbound movement: it is about delivering value to the prospect throughout the buying cycle (and the life cycle in general). This is why inbound tools and strategies are often found in sales activation strategies.

In practice, sales enablement serves the bottom-of-the-funnel, from evaluation to purchase.

This is why sales enablement in the broadest sense is inseparable from marketing activities.

Why is sales activation important?

Although their methods differ, marketing and sales professionals share a common goal: to grow their business. And despite this common goal, the joke about the tension between the marketing and sales departments of a company, while old and overused, is still a reality. Implementing sales enablement levers will serve to better align marketing and sales teams.

How can this be done? By questioning processes, facilitating communication, and fostering an environment of mutual understanding and respect, a sales enablement programme can be the ideal foundation for a sales and marketing alignment strategy. It’s a win-win!

And let’s not forget the not so recent changes in buyer behaviour: information is just a click away,

The 4 pillars of sales enablement :

1. Content and technology

Content and tools are essential to a successful inbound strategy (and/or ABM strategy) and must be coordinated and connected. It’s about delivering the right content, to the right person, at the right time. Automated workflows deliver the right content to the right target group.
With sales activation, a content strategy can be directly translated into workflows.

2. Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is about generating leads through high quality content. There are four elements: lead generation, lead nurturing, lead scoring and lead management. The objective is to address the target audience throughout the buying funnel, providing them with the appropriate answers to their challenges, and thus determine their interest in providing the sales force with qualified leads.

Close cooperation between marketing and sales allows for transparency of activities and leads to more success and motivation in achieving the common goals of both teams.

3. Formation

The qualification of the teams is of course an important success factor in sales. Marketing and sales management(s) must equip the sales team with market and product know-how, as well as solution and sales skills. This is essential to ensure that the sales interactions provide value to the prospect.

4. Customer retention

In the context of sales enablement, customer loyalty is established by keeping customers interested in products or services. Individual communication with customers, continuous information sharing and integrated advisory services certainly help to turn potential customers into customers. However, these activities do not end with the conclusion of the contract: existing customers also need to be provided with relevant information and advice (and not only when extending the contract).

Sales activation tools

As mentioned, technology is an integral part of a Sales Enablement programme.

Indeed, sales enablement tools provide the repository for marketing materials and sales playbooks and manuals to provide salespeople with useful and timely content during all phases of the sales cycle. They ensure that any sales rep can find the right content, deliver it to prospects, and track the engagement of those prospects with the content.

Some sales enablement solutions offer the ability to create content within the tool, and some companies use their Sales Enablement solution to coach, train or onboard new hires.

However, sales enablement solutions are primarily intended to serve as a hub for marketing content ready for use by the sales team.

These tools are therefore implemented to ensure the alignment of marketing initiatives and sales engagements. The content provided helps sales people to be better prepared during presentations and calls to prospects.

In this respect, it should be used in conjunction with CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Sales enablement software is part of the sales acceleration ecosystem, along with sales performance management, email tracking and outbound call tracking.

Types of activation tools

Activation tools are implemented to ensure alignment of marketing initiatives and engagements to be better prepared for presentations and calls to prospects.
Activation software is part of the sales acceleration ecosystem along with sales performance management, email tracking and outbound call tracking, and is naturally categorized as follows:

Implementation of Sales Activation Tools

To execute an effective sales enablement strategy, you need to implement the right tools and resources. While there are many resources that can be useful to sales teams, we will cover some of the most important ones.