Revenue Ops & Automation Blog

In the past decade, the sales playing field has changed dramatically. What may have worked for sales reps before is now insufficient.

In the recent past, a bright charisma, creativity, and improvisation drove the majority of sales. Then, authenticity ruled the day. Most recently, social proof and trust-building are essential for brands.

While all of these are still valued today, these approaches alone just don’t cut it. 

Sales enablement is a term that has recently gained a lot of traction in the business world. While sales enablement has always existed, it is only in the past five years that a universally accepted term has been put forth to describe the processes, people, and technology that reduces friction in the sales process.

Companies of all types have been placing a heavy emphasis on inbound lead strategies for the past few years. While some may argue inbound is the key to sustainable sales success, others point to the lack of control of your pipeline.

Many sales leaders wonder if the inbound mentality is creating a culture of less-effective salespeople who can only close leads that are served to them on a silver platter. For the long-term success of your company and its salespeople, is outbound sales the real game changer? 

Sales enablement is a term that is gaining traction in the corporate world and its definition varies greatly depending on who you ask. 

To some, sales enablement means content management. To others, it means sales rep training or coaching. Some would venture even deeper into the concept of sales enablement and say it’s not a business strategy, but instead, a company vision.

Being a successful salesperson doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll make a great sales manager. After all, the customer-centric skill set that helps you close deals is much different than the team-focused skills needed to coach, motivate, and inspire a diverse group of salespeople. 

According to HubSpot research, the average salesperson only spends about one-third of their day selling. The rest of their day is spent on non-revenue generating activities such as writing emails, entering data, prospecting and researching calls, going to meetings, and other administrative tasks. 

The most successful sales teams are made up unique individuals with different backgrounds, personalities, and levels of work experience. As a sales manager, you understand that working with and coaching a diverse group of talent can be as challenging as it is rewarding. 

Sales skills are one thing, but building a world class business development organization is a whole different ball game. From motivating your team to follow a unified process to aligning your sales and marketing teams, creating a business development engine is just as much art as it is science. 

While many companies have been selling their products online with a remote sales team for years, sales managers that are new to this “COVID-19” sales model face tremendous challenges. Tasks such as keeping your sales team engaged, finding new ways to demo/sell products online, and promoting collaboration within a remote team can seem daunting to even the best sales executives. 

While product, markets, and messaging may vary, a successful sales organization always starts with plugging the right team into the right culture. The best people in an unhealthy culture will result in unproductive habits and slower than expected growth. And eventually, you’ll lose top talent. If you have the wrong people with a strong sales culture, you are not much better off.