Sales Enablement: are you adding or removing obstacles for your team?

B2B reps are asked to wear many hats - they need to research, pitch, present, project manage, create urgency, negotiate, close, and deliver on promises made. It is the type of occupation that requires a wide range of skills and responsibilities. However, to get the most out of your sales force, one must actively work to remove obstacles rather than keep adding more and more responsibilities to an already full plate.

Let’s look at 3 ways this can be done.

Focus on strengths 

Different sales people will be skilled at different things. Question is, how do you fit someone’s natural strengths and talents into your more standardized best practices? Some are master presenters, others great closers. Rather than spending a lot of time working on one or two weaknesses, focus on improving their strengths. Naturally, there needs to be a minimum performance level across all activities – even if their negotiation skills are second to none, a sales person cannot ignore the basics of prospecting. In order to get into the position of negotiating a close, they need to be able to prospect well enough to consistently generate high probability opportunities. However, beyond the minimum acceptable level, your time is better spent turning a good presenter or closer into a great one, rather than trying to lift someone from below average to mediocrity.

Removing barriers

What obstacles can you remove for your sales people? If administration and coordination is not their strong suit, how can this person best be supported if a customer pushes back on a standard contract clause before signing? 

How do you avoid the unproductive situation of this person acting as the liaison between legal and the customer purchasing department? Can certain types of tasks be delegated to other resources? Can you put together templates for emails and call scripts to minimize time waste? Who can help with the nuts and bolts of a presentation that needs to be produced, so the sales person can focus their efforts on messaging and delivery?

Relevant information at the right time

Regardless of the inherent strengths and weaknesses of individual sales people, knowing the next step in the sales process, and having access to the relevant information required to complete that step, will improve performance. Information is not limited to marketing content, product brochures or email scripts. In addition to documentation and static material, each step needs to include things such as desired outcome (gaining commitment, identifying decision makers) and the types of questions that need to be answered (Are they ready to invest in change? What perceived risks do we need to address?) to move the deal forward. 

Relevant information for each activity not only contains the what. It also provides information on why the activity is important and how it is best executed. In terms of the how, try to offer alternatives so the tactic employed suits the natural strengths of the individual. Remember, a desired outcome can be achieved through a variety of means. 

Allow your sales people to shine. Focus on developing their inherent strengths and give them the tools and resources needed to reach an acceptable level in the areas where they are not naturally strong.