What is Sales Enablement? You might be tempted to ask the ChatGPT robot, but here's my definition, based on working at every level in sales for the past 45 years: Sales Enablement should be a focus on increasing human skills in the art of generating receptivity, rapport and trust between buyer and seller.
This means taking a deeper look at what makes a great sales person? What's the natural skills? What's coached? And now with the hype surrounding 'Generative AI' and ChatGPT, what's technology got to do with it? You may think of this as Sales DNA. and it's building on three key words from my definition above: receptivity, rapport and trust.
Maximising Sales DNA
In any high-value, high-touch sell, the ability to generate receptivity and rapport between buyer and seller is a defining competitive differentiator. It leads to maximising trust and with that, the ability to generate open, meaningful buyer-seller conversations.
So, how do you maximise Sales DNA in your market-facing teams or partners?
Receptivity. The art of conversation is a crucial part of buyer-seller engagement. To maximise receptivity, sales people should avoid 'death by PowerPoint' and focus on empathising with the buyer's needs and concerns - early and often. This means conversation, underpinned by a curiosity in a sales person that is akin to the mindset of a designer.
Rapport. In generating receptivity, rapport between buyer and seller will follow. As you will see in my blog post on Value Engineering, a great way to build rapport between buyer and seller is to set-up an interactive session (online or in-person) around a ROI Model, exploring the Economic Basis of Decision and Emotional Basis of Decision related to a particular product or service.
Trust. If you generate receptivity between buyer and seller, this leads to rapport. In turn, what follows is the building of trust between buyer and seller. In my blog post Design Thinking in Sales I talk about how Empathy Mapping is a technique used to achieve receptivity, rapport and trust. What follows is a true understanding of the problem, to create a solid foundation to sell the solution.
Coaching. A Fresh Perspective
My work is focused on increasing sales effectiveness - applied across very diverse industries and buyer-seller scenarios - but always where a high-value, high-touch sell is crucial to success. This ranges from tech startups identifying early adopter customers, through NHS hospitals engaging private patients, to non-profits fundraising with large enterprises. All challenging environments.
As an outsider, I am able to bring a fresh perspective to your Sales Enablement. I translate this into hands-on Sales Coaching, linked to real-world deals - and underpinned by technology. This means 15-minute online Sales Coaching Sessions, at crucial stages of each buying and selling cycle.
Sales Coaching is the most important aspect of Sales Enablement. It requires deep experience and empathy with market-facing people operating at every level of an organisation. I understand how a sales person operating in a tech startup is working in a very different culture to say, an adviser in a NHS private hospital or a fundraiser representing a charity. But all are engaged in sales.
The outsider view removes the bias of organisational politics or 'group think' that may, otherwise, dilute what's needed at the crucial stage of a buying and selling cycle. Learning through real world scenarios sticks - and this may be further enhanced by embedding best practices into technology. Read more about how Design Thinking in Sales embedded in Salesforce Sales Cloud works.