The Missing Ingredient in Sales Enablement

Deb Calvert, President, People First Productivity Solutions

In the last 10 years, the term “sales enablement” has experienced explosive growth. Now, nearly 32% of companies have a formal sales enablement department, and even more have initiatives related to sales enablement. It’s come a long way since the early days when Elay Cohen pioneered sales enablement to accelerate the growth of Salesforce from $300 million to over $3 billion in revenue.

The strategies, tools, and processes at the root of sales enablement strategies may include sales training and coaching, marketing assets, productivity metrics and systems, technology, artificial intelligence (AI), hiring and onboarding support, and more. In short, anything at all that enables sellers to sell more, better, and faster could be lumped in.

Despite all that, there’s still something missing from most sales enablement strategies.

Finding the missing ingredient for sales enablement

With all of the sales enablement efforts happening, there’s still a missing ingredient for success. The proof is both quantitative and qualitative. Quota attainment dropped to 53% in 2017, and many sellers still have a persistent, nagging feeling that there’s something unsavory about being in sales. In turn this creates a real barrier between buyers and sellers. What’s missing in most sales enablement is sales ennoblement.

To ennoble means to dignify, to make someone feel important and worthy. Sales ennoblement includes recognizing sellers’ struggles, encouraging them, equipping them to rise to their challenges, and inspiring them with more than a quota. Ennoblement is what creates engagement and commitment. It gives sellers a sense of meaning and purpose in the work they do and a sense of belonging in their organization.

Ennobled sellers take pride in themselves, the products they represent, and their companies. They have confidence and swagger that’s genuine, not manufactured for the moment. They apply additional discretionary effort to the work they do, and they are less likely to give up when the going gets tough. Ennoblement takes enablement to the next level because, without it, even the best strategies, tools, and processes are compromised by lackluster application.

To read the complete article, The Missing Ingredient in Sales Enablement, visit Quotable.com.