Let’s talk about sales enablement
I see a lot of new PMM teams being casual about sales enablement (or CS or Partner enablement)
They just take their customer facing messaging work directly to sales without thinking about how to storytell it effectively
Even the best value prop/strategic narrative/messaging work can fail it you don’t do the hard work of landing it properly with your sales/CS/partner teams
Here are some tips on how to excel at sales enablement
1. Know what your audience wants
Treat your sales and CS teams the way you would treat your customers
Know the outcomes they care about - hitting quota, higher win rates, closing deals faster, increase deal size
Know the challenges they are facing - pipe coverage is weak, competitive pressures are high, deals are slipping and slowing down, can’t get hold of exec buyers
Know what else is happening in their world - Too many new reps ramping up ? A major pricing/packaging change that made them lose face ? Morale and attrition issues ?
Then craft your enablement around that. If your sales team is struggling with reduced budgets., explain to them how the value prop helps elevate the message to the economic buyers. If deals are slipping, focus on improving deal velocity and creating that sense of urgency.
You don’t have to create fake narratives. But you can always reinforce the value prop of your product by connecting it to the outcomes that sales cared about.
For one of our trainings, we changed the session title from “Learn how to sell Product xyz” to “Learn how to retire your quota faster with product xyz”
Our participation rate went up AND the reps were more engaged…..
2. Tell great stories
Good PMMs are strong at customer storytelling
Great PMMs are also strong at internal storytelling
A good story has a beginning, a middle and an end
Beginning - Explain the customer challenges that compelled you to build the product. Link it to the company vision/narrative. Make it relatable to the challenges on the sales floor. Use simple language.
Middle- now explain them how your new product/solution/messaging refresh/packaging change solves for that problem. Focus on outcomes but don’t hesitate to go deep on features
End- Bring it all together for them. Leave behind all the materials. Presentations. One pagers. Demos. FAQs. Make the resources easy to find. Package it all together as a playbook
Construct every enablement session as if you are writing a story. Start with a hook, keep the middle engaging and end on a high. Humor is your best friend
3. Social proof your enablement
If you are releasing a new pitch/value prop, chances are you have tested it with some customers and sales reps
If you want to land that message best, bring those customers and reps to your enablement sessions
Social proof works just as well in internal storytelling as in customer storytelling
If your message is helping reps improve win rates, bring two reps who actually closed deals faster by using that message
In some of my best trainings, we asked the reps to share share the winning email they used, or play back the excerpt of the demo that wowed the customer
In another enablement session, we asked a customer to join the training call and explain the challenges they are facing today, and the reason why they picked up our call
Find champions to advocate for your message. Your training will be 10x more effective if you bring other sales reps to deliver the message with you