{"id":7727,"date":"2022-12-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=7727"},"modified":"2022-12-15T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T16:00:00","slug":"salesforce-sales-enablement-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/in\/news\/stories\/salesforce-sales-enablement-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"How Sales Enablement Helps Reps Close Deals and Drive Revenue in a Downturn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nearly 70% of sales professionals say<\/a> selling is harder now than before the pandemic, and 82% report having to adapt quickly to this new landscape. Despite these hurdles, and amid economic headwinds, sales teams must be the engine that keeps revenue flowing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales enablement is a key function to help teams navigate these challenges. It\u2019s important that reps are trained<\/a> and informed in the right ways so they can forge trusted customer relationships and maximize the impact of their work. This means acquiring a deep understanding of what they are selling and their customers\u2019 needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To see this in action, we spoke with Salesforce\u2019s EVP of Global Sales Enablement, Jody Kohner<\/a>, and learned how she tackles enablement to drive rep productivity with outcome-based solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/play.vidyard.com\/Fb8zFvjEaCQDCL3bNf5AnT?\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Q.  What is sales enablement?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

At its core, sales enablement<\/a> is anything that drives learning and increases productivity for sales reps, using content, coaching, training, and tech to ultimately give them the tools needed to close deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. How have customer expectations changed sales enablement strategies?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When the economy changes, so do customer expectations. That means sellers need to adapt too. They still have to be really knowledgeable about the industry in which they are selling and now, also be able to demonstrate how a product is going to drive productivity for their customers in the context of the moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sellers have to be able to position their product in a way that helps solve problems that weren’t top of mind a month or a year ago. <\/p>Jody Kohner, EVP, Global Sales Enablement, Salesforce<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

They have to understand trends and unique obstacles because today, every customer is looking to maximize impact by reducing costs and increasing efficiencies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we create our training curriculum, our rule is 80-20. We want to prescribe 80% but leave 20% open for local teams to customize the content for what’s really relevant in their culture, region, industry, or team, now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. What\u2019s the next big step forward in sales enablement?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sales enablement is really having a moment and rightfully so. We\u2019ve seen a 300% increase<\/a> in people on LinkedIn with sales enablement in their job title since 2015 and it\u2019s evolving quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, sales enablement KPIs have been focused on consumption metrics: how many people took the course, what’s the CSAT score, how many clicks on a CTA did we get? But the business doesn’t really care about those things. They want to see how learning time converts to sales, which equals revenue. In the past we couldn\u2019t identify those correlations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why we created the world’s first enablement accountability performance matrix \u2013 or APM. With the enablement APM, we are now able to run algorithms and compare people who took the course and those who didn\u2019t, and show if the training helped the seller to generate more leads, potential revenue, or follow-up opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the enablement APM, we are now able to run algorithms and compare people who took the course and those who didn\u2019t, and show if the training helped the seller to generate more leads, potential revenue, or follow-up opportunities. <\/p>JODY KOHNER, EVP, GLOBAL SALES ENABLEMENT, SALESFORCE<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That is a massive transformation for the sales industry. It transitions the entire enablement organization from being a cost center to being a mission critical revenue generator. It’s galvanizing the troops to generate success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Q. Where did the inspiration for APM come from, and what technology are you using to power the app? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When I came into this role two and a half years ago, I did not have a background in enablement \u2013 most of my career was spent in marketing and employee engagement. With that background, I believed data would be the best argument to explain how investments in sales enablement would yield more dollars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have the world’s number one CRM and we have the world’s number one analytics platform. When you put those things together, we have tremendous data at our fingertips.<\/span><\/p>Jody Kohner, EVP Global Sales Enablement, Salesforce<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

From that, we were able to create an algorithm that built employee segments by tenure, geographies, or quotas. Then within those segments, we compared the revenue of people who took a certain training with those who didn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through that, I can directly see how consumption leads to upticks in revenue, and that is the \u2018Holy Grail\u2019 of sales enablement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n