This is a preview of your story

Powered by

Storydoc
Home/
Blog/
What is b2b sales enablement/

What is B2B Sales Enablement: Strategies & Tips

Learn about B2B sales enablement: From key components to KPIs, aligning sales and marketing, and successful strategies and tips for revenue growth.

Hadar Peretz

5 minute read

What is b2b sales enablement
Trusted by top companies:
client logo: meta
client logo: RTL
client logo: Yotpo
client logo: NetApp
client logo: healthy.io
client logo: deliverlight

Short answer

What is B2B Sales Enablement?

B2B sales enablement aligns marketing and sales, providing teams with essential tools and training. B2B sales enablement addresses client pain points, enhancing efficiency and boosting revenue through prepared interactions.

Browse presentation templates
Try our presentation maker

ineffective B2B Sales Strategies Costs Businesses Billions

Without the right strategies in place, you're not just losing deals, but leaving significant revenue on the table.

Dive into this post, where we unravel proven insights and actionable steps to counteract this loss, ensuring you're not just in the game, but leading it.

Don't just stand there - learn, adapt, and conquer!

3 Key Activities of Sales Enablement

Ever watched a basketball game? The coach doesn't just hand a ball to the players and say, "Go play!" Instead, they provide them with strategies, game plans, and training.

  1. Training programs: Tailored sessions to enhance product knowledge, soft skills, and sales techniques.

  2. Content libraries: A repository of collateral like case studies, product sheets, and FAQs to support the sales pitch.

  3. Feedback mechanisms: Regular review sessions to ensure continuous learning and improvement.

3 Essential Types of B2B sales enablement Tools

Just as a bee needs nectar, water, and a hive to produce honey, sales teams need specific resources to be effective. These include:

  1. CRM software: To track customer interactions and manage leads.

  2. Collateral creation tool: To produce high-quality content tailored to the audience. try some of us Sales and Marketing Collateral Templates to improve your skills.

  3. Sales analytics platforms: To measure the success and areas of improvement.

The Role Sales Enablement Plays in B2B Sales

  • Aligning Teams: Ensures sales and marketing collaborate effectively, using unified content to engage clients.
  • Training Sales Reps: Provide ongoing training, equipping reps with updated knowledge and techniques.
  • Content Access: Gives sales teams timely access to essential materials, enhancing pitch effectiveness.
  • Tech Integration: Streamlines processes with tools like CRMs and analytics platforms.
  • Understanding Buyer's Journey: Tailors strategies by mapping out the stages from awareness to decision.

How Does Sales Enablement Work in B2B

The B2B selling approach in sales enablement focuses on optimizing the sales process by providing sales teams with the resources, tools, and training they need to effectively engage and sell to other businesses.

  • Customer-Centricity: Prioritize understanding client challenges and goals, tailoring solutions accordingly.
  • Collaborative Alignment: Ensure sales and marketing unity for consistent messaging.
  • Continuous Training: Regularly update sales reps on products, trends, and techniques.
  • Leveraging Technology: Use CRMs and analytics for data-driven strategies.
  • Content Access: Provide sales teams with essential, ready-to-use content.
  • Feedback Loop: Implement mechanisms to refine strategies based on experiences.

What Is the Buyer’s Journey in B2B Sales?

The Buyer’s Journey in B2B Sales refers to the process that businesses go through when purchasing products or services from other businesses.

It's more complex and typically longer than B2C due to the higher stakes, larger financial commitments, and the number of stakeholders involved.

Here's a breakdown:

  • Awareness Stage: The potential buyer realizes they have a problem or a need. They begin initial research to understand the issue and potential solutions, often through online searches, reading articles, or attending webinars.
  • Consideration Stage: The buyer has a clear understanding of their problem and starts exploring available solutions. They research vendors, read reviews, ask for recommendations, and might download detailed guides or attend industry events.
  • Decision Stage: The buyer is ready to choose a solution. They'll solicit proposals, get quotes, maybe try demos or product trials, and then make a final decision.
  • Purchase Stage: Contracts are signed, and the product or service is acquired.
  • Post-Purchase or Retention Stage: The buyer uses the product or service and might require support or additional training. Their experience can lead to upsells, renewals, or referrals.

What Is the Best B2B Sales Enablement Strategy?

Crafting a sales enablement strategy is akin to constructing a building.

You need a clear, robust blueprint to ensure each component seamlessly integrates, creating a strong foundation for success.

Blueprint of a sales enablement strategy:

1. Analysis: Much like determining the right soil type before sowing a seed, you first identify the specific requirements of your sales team.

2. Content creation: Here's where you produce the seeds - your engaging content that will attract and nurture potential clients.

3. Training & onboarding: Once your seeds are sown, they need care and attention. Train your sales team to be the ideal caregivers, ensuring they have the skills and knowledge to nurture these seeds.

4. Continuous feedback: In nature, regular pruning ensures trees grow strong and tall. Similarly, regular feedback and adjustments will ensure your strategy remains on the path to successs

Gartner's Strategic Advice for B2B Sales Enablement

Remember the last time you went on a road trip, and you pulled out your trusty map to guide you? In the vast universe of B2B sales enablement, Gartner is kinda like that trusty map - leading us through the intricate lanes and highways of the business landscape.

Let's go on a quick detour and unearth some of Gartner's golden nuggets on this topic.

1) Stay Updated With Industry Research

Gartner regularly churns out some mind-blowing research.

One such gem? They discovered that sales reps who utilize best-practice approaches and behaviors close deals up to 2.8 times more often.

Whoa, right? Imagine being that friend at the party who drops this stat and has everyone hanging on every word!

Example: A tech startup implemented Gartner's recommendation to adopt consultative selling. In mere months, they saw a 25% surge in deal closures!

2) Embrace Digital Tools but Keep It Human

Gartner's a big fan of digital transformation. But guess what they also emphasize? The human touch. As they put it, while automation tools are fantastic, nothing beats genuine human connection.

After all, it’s humans buying from humans!

Example: Think of it like online dating. Sure, the app matches you, but it's the genuine conversations that spark the real magic.

2 Crucial KPIs for Sales Enablement

Every coach has a game plan. And for sales enablement, KPIs are that plan.

1) Tracking and measuring sales performance - If football teams only counted goals and ignored assists, they'd miss out on a lot. Similarly, apart from revenues, KPIs like sales cycle length, lead conversion rates, and customer feedback are vital.

2) Correlating enablement efforts with revenue growth - Just as the wind's direction affects a ship's course, sales enablement efforts directly impact revenue. By correlating the two, businesses can ensure they're sailing in the right direction.

2 Crucial KPIs for Sales Enablement

Every coach has a game plan. And for sales enablement, KPIs are that plan.

1) Tracking and measuring sales performance - If football teams only counted goals and ignored assists, they'd miss out on a lot. Similarly, apart from revenues, KPIs like sales cycle length, lead conversion rates, and customer feedback are vital.

2) Correlating enablement efforts with revenue growth - Just as the wind's direction affects a ship's course, sales enablement efforts directly impact revenue. By correlating the two, businesses can ensure they're sailing in the right direction.

5 Top B2B Sales Enablement Tools

In the ever-evolving realm of B2B sales, having the right toolkit is as vital as a seasoned magician possessing a wand.

Dive deep into five game-changing tools, each crafted to boost specific areas of your sales strategy.

From lead tracking to crafting compelling narratives for your audience.

  1. Salesforce CRM: An industry-leading Customer Relationship Management platform, Salesforce bridges the gap between sales and marketing, ensuring smooth communication.

  2. HubSpot: An integrated platform, HubSpot ensures that content hits its mark and relationships flourish.

  3. Storydoc: Elevating business presentations, Storydoc emphasizes storytelling, personaization, interactivity, and provides collaboration between collateral creators and AI- guided content and design.

  4. Seismic: This sales enablement powerhouse delivers timely content, backed by performance analytics.

  5. Gong.io: Harnessing AI-driven insights, Gong.io deciphers sales conversations, refining pitches and strategies.

Hadar Peretz

I am a Marketing Specialist at Storydoc, I research, analyze and write on our core topics of business presentations, sales, and fundraising. I love talking to clients about their successes and failures so I can get a rounded understanding of their world.

Table of contents
What is B2B sales enablement? Key Activities of Sales Enablement Essential Types of B2B sales enablement Tools The Role Sales Enablement Plays in B2B Sales What Is the B2B Selling Approach The Buyer’s Journey in B2B Sales Best B2B Sales Enablement Strategy Gartner's Strategic Advice for B2B Sales Enablement Sales Enablement KPIs Top B2B Sales Enablement Tools
More on this topic
Grab a sales deck template

Create your best presentation to date

Try Storydoc interactive presentation maker for 14 days free (keep any presentation you make forever!)

Create my presentation
Book a demo