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Wouldn’t it be great to shorten your sales cycle and increase revenue per salesperson? A sales enablement platform makes it possible by enabling. Your new salespeople will ramp up quicker, and leads will close faster. A sales enablement platform makes this all possible. Sales enablement provides the sales team with the information, content, and tools that help salespeople sell more effectively.

That’s not to say it’s all good news. There are several sales enablement challenges and pitfalls you’ll want to be aware of to avoid. Before we get into those, let’s define a sales enablement platform.

What is a Sales Enablement Platform?

Gartner defines sales enablement platforms as tools that unite sales enablement functions and customer-facing sales execution. They predominantly feature helpful and convenient capabilities for sales proposals, content, and sales training and coaching. This platform provides a foundation for success. A proper sales enablement strategy can give the salespeople what they need to engage the buyer throughout the buying process, and progress leads to clients.

Common Sales Enablement Challenges

Your sales team’s job is easier and more effective with the right sales enablement platform. Your leads and clients will be much happier as their buying cycle is shorter and geared specifically towards what is best for their organization. You’ll also be thrilled once you see the revenue stream in!

It does need to be pointed out, though, that sales enablement platforms and a sales enablement focus, in general, are not without their potential hang-ups. Not all platforms are truly designed with you in mind. Because of this, we see several common sales enablement challenges in the industry. They are:

There is no training and development

You’ve provided your sales team with a great tool… now, what? As part of a well-done sales enablement strategy, your salespeople must know how to use the resources you provide to them. For this reason, training and development must be a big part of most programs. The most effective programs conduct traditional training programs and use technologies like collaboration tools. We also encourage you to make sales training continuous, which we will get into later on.

The tool is too confusing or complicated

The best sales enablement programs are robust but not overly complicated. You need to ensure that whatever you provide salespeople is easy to use. Even the best sales enablement programs can die quickly if no one uses what’s been provided to them.

Be sure to ask for a tool demo before you purchase it. Consider how easy it will be to implement and use within the team. When thinking about usability, make sure the platform’s content resources are easy to find and simple to apply as well.

There isn’t a customer focus

At the end of the day, this tool is put in place to increase your revenue. That doesn’t mean you are putting the entire sales process into autopilot. Effective sales enablement is still customer-centric. It should provide salespeople with the tools and information they need to deliver what buyers want in the form of a proposal. This is not to talk over them, trick them, or confuse them.

It doesn’t scale

Sales enablement plays a key role in scaling the sales organization beyond a handful of people to a large digital marketing agency. It provides your salespeople with the best practices, knowledge, tools, and resources required to succeed. What is the point of putting a platform in place now, only to replace it when your team is successful enough to grow larger? When shopping for a platform, remember that it should ideally scale along with your sales team.

You only train once

Training is where salespeople learn how to sell more effectively. Most sales training programs suffer from a fatal flaw: They happen once a year. Perhaps, yours only occurs when they are hired or when the platform is put in place and then never again. This is a big mistake! Make training an ongoing aspect of the sales team’s jobs.

Without continuous training, salespeople quickly forget what they’ve learned. They can also forget about the information, content, and tools you’ve provided. We recommend at least one formal training a month. In addition to this monthly session, we encourage you to use tools like newsletters and collaboration platforms to keep sales enablement at the top of mind for the sales team.

White Shark Media Helps You Overcome These Challenges

You can have peace of mind that you and your team won’t stumble over any of the common sales enablement challenges listed above if you implement White Shark Media’s Compass. Compass will change how your marketing agency pitches, sells, and provides PPC services. Our digital marketing tool can fine-tune your business strategy, reduce time spent on training, minimize the trial-and-error approach, and shorten the entire sales process.

Once you see what Compass by White Shark Media can do for your team and your digital marketing agency, you won’t believe it took you so long to provide your sales team with this solution. You’re about to get busier because your sales team will be bringing in new client after client. What an exciting time to be a part of your agency!