Tech Sales Enablement

What Is The State Of Play Between Buyers And Sellers In 2012?

Bradford Holmes — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:54:55 +0000

The world of buyers and sellers has changed -- vendor CEOs enter 2012 with growth strategies that favor deeper relationships with customers and that push sales to do more cross-selling at higher levels. In this new world, however, buyers are telling us there is a gap. Of the executive buyers Forrester surveyed, a mere 13% believe that a typical salesperson can demonstrate an understanding of their business issues and articulate how to solve them. Enter the VP of "broken things": the leader who is helping shape an emerging discipline into a strategic function: sales enablement.

During a webinar this coming Wednesday February 15th, I will share Forrester's latest insight into:

What is the state of the gap today between what buyers expect and what sales is communicating?
What successful frameworks and approaches are sales enablement leaders using in 2012?
How can you engage with Forrester and your peers to advance your company's sales enablement practices and elevate your own role?

Webinar attendees will also receive an exclusive discount off an event ticket to Forrester's Technology Sales Enablement Forum 2012 in San Francisco!

I hope you will join. Thanks, Brad

Overhauling Battle Cards (And Transforming Other Sales Tools)

Dean Davison — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:47:54 +0000

As part of Forrester's research into sales enablement, I recently took a journey to "plumb the depths" of sales battle cards. Why?

Sales reps at technology companies tell Forrester that they must understand their competitors if so that they can outmaneuver them during the sales cycle; but, these same sales professionals tell Forrester that, despite the best efforts of product managers, competitive teams, and sales operations, current battle cards are not consistent, instrumental tools that help win more deals.

And thus, my journey into battle cards begins.

During my career, I've worked in competitive intelligence at two technology companies, so I already had some strong opinions about battle cards. I tried to set my own views aside, though, and adopted Forrester's methods of developing a hypothesis and interviewing professionals in the industry.

My initial research looked at the "thing" called a battle card - the layout, structure, and content with the goal of building battle cards that helped sales reps address competitive issues during customer conversations. While testing some really good ideas that came out of the interviews, I could see that the improved battle cards still weren't enough to meet our objective - routinely helping reps win more deals.

I turned my attention to the "process" of building battle cards - specifically, how sales enablement professionals identify the competitive issues that merit battle cards, how they work with product managers and marketing teams to create the content for battle cards, and how they deliver battle cards to sales reps. While testing some really good process ideas that came out of the interviews, I could see that even when the groups creating battle cards actively work with sales, their points of view and professional skills are so different, that they miss important details.

Join Me And Your Fellow Sales Enablement HEROes In San Francisco!

Bradford Holmes — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:26:52 +0000

The plans for the Sales Enablement Forum are in full swing, so here is a quick video update on the theme, the speakers, and why I believe this is a can't miss opportunity to put you and your team on a fast track to delivering measurable results for your CEO.

I hope to see you in March. Thanks, Brad

Sales Enablement Forum 2012: HEROs In The Making!

Bradford Holmes — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:27:52 +0000

We chose the lead image for this year's Sales Enablement event to grab your attention because we believe you can truly be a HERO to your CEO. But it won't be an everyday task - it will take new skills and strong powers!

Vendor CEOs today are communicating strategies that depend on winning deeper relationships with customers. And that is putting pressure on sales teams to cross-sell at higher levels. So how is that working?

Our Buyer Insight study found that on 13% of executive buyers believe that a salesperson can clearly show they understand their business issues and articulate a way to solve them. And when we ask vendor CEOs, "Are you satisfied that your sales force is getting your company to its strategic objectives?" the answer is a resounding "No."

This is the strategy to execution gap that today is filled with well-intentioned but uncoordinated activity all intended to help sales sell.

From within that chaos, an emerging discipline is taking hold. Leaders assigned to "fix the broken things" and their teams are beginning to approach the gap with a new vision and some practical ideas. Making the move from random acts to purpose built plans, and shifting their focus from products and services to customer problems, they are making customer focus a new discipline, not just a catchphrase.

What we are seeing and saying is that it's not about how you go to market, it's about how you go to customer. And if you can get that right, you will be a HERO to your CEO.

'Tis The Season - Sales Kickoff Meetings Under The Microscope

Brian Lambert — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:09:56 +0000

As the 2011 calendar year winds down, many sales enablement professionals are working on their sales kickoff initiative for the coming year. These large-scale events are an integral part of annual cycle, where the sales team converges on a fully prepared hotel for a days-long pep rally full of content sessions, vision-setting, and plenty of networking. Many of the sales kickoffs we hear about, and participate in, are focused on motivating and inspiring the sales force to hit their annual quota, or better yet, set new sales records.

While a healthy dose of motivation for the sales force is always important, next year's sales kickoff may require a healthy dose of reality as well.

It seems the expense of sales kickoffs is being scrutinized more than last year at higher levels of the organization. In fact, many of sales enablement professionals we talked with this quarter are being asked to justify the sales kickoff investment by their CEO. On top of that, sales leaders are asking for a more specific description of what's going to happen in the sales kickoff, and how the content in the event is going to help their salespeople drive the sales process forward. Both of these views - the view from the top and the view from the trenches - converge at a seemingly simple, yet often difficult to answer question:

"What's the expected impact of the sales kickoff next year?"

Harnessing The Sales Chaos With Agility Selling

Brian Lambert — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:46:33 +0000

I have yet to meet a senior executive who doesn't agree that agility is important in business. At Forrester's 2011 Sales Enablement Forum, Forrester CEO George Colony shared some of his research with fellow CEOs. He asked a simple question; "Are you satisfied that your sales force is advancing your strategy?" The answer was a resounding "No!" Giving their sales forces an average grade of C- [read the full post here]. George's research found that CEOs have the following problems with their sales forces:

"Speed." The sales force is always 12 to 18 months behind strategy.
"Calling too low." Sales reps aren't getting to power.
"The sales force can't tell the story." The focus is on price and not on the full value and quality of products.
"We have the wrong people." Not smart enough; not tuned in to the market.

Cleary CEOs are looking for more agility from sales.

When it comes to helping salespeople be more agile, I often hear comments from sales managers and sales trainers like; "we need to keep it simple," or "we need to deliver information in bite-sized chunks." When did simplicity become the path to overcoming complexity? In the words of Alan Perlis, "Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses [overcome] it." In other words, if you're "keeping it simple," you better do it in a way that tackles complexity head on - a challenge being discussed over in our online community right now - what does "keep it simple really mean?".

From Sales Complexity Comes Sales Chaos

Helping Coaches Get Started: Driving Sales Coaching Success

Brian Lambert — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:07:09 +0000

Technology vendors continue to focus on implementing sales coaching programs. I'm finding that sales coaching programs mostly focus on providing sales managers the skills they need to be more "coach-like" with their reps. When you step back and look at what kind of skills sales managers need to be more coaching oriented, you end up with a broad ranging list like objectively assessing reps and where they're at, or clearly defining future rep behaviors, or using technology to help inform sales coaching decisions. Along with this focus on skills, some sales coaching programs focus on defining the critical elements of each sales coaching conversation (like increased relevance, giving developmental feedback, and providing motivation). Yet, despite these efforts, the sales enablement professionals we talk to share their frustration that sales coaching doesn't quite take off with frontline sales managers like they were expecting.

For example, in one technology vendor, sales coaching didn't take off despite sales coaching training, top-down sales leader support, and feedback from reps demanding more coach-like interactions with their managers. In another technology vendor, it seemed massive communications and sales coaching training efforts were a non-starter (and dare I say it, dead on arrival). Why is that? Why are technology vendors seemingly doing the right things, but not getting the traction they expect?

It seems that one critical and often overlooked aspect of helping sales coaches be more successful is the ability to help coaches get started: 1) defining their sales coaching approach, and 2) starting each and every interaction with reps in a valuable and meaningful way, especially when those interactions are around previously identified sales coaching scenarios.

What's Happening With Forrester's Battle Card Standards?

Dean Davison — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:22:05 +0000

For those of you following Forrester's project to create industry standards for battle cards, I want to give you a glimpse into the group's progress and remind you about Forrester's public webinar on September 7, where I'll touch on battle card standards in more depth.

Each member of the standards group has success stories with their battle cards, but each member also struggles to change battle cards from being "random acts of sales support" to providing consistent, reliable support that helps sales reps win more deals. The purpose of our standards initiative is to do just that - identify and repeat how battle cards help sales reps win competitive deals.

Last week, the standards group reviewed the first draft of specifications for battle cards. Getting these definitions correct is important because all the downstream work we will do depends on these specifications. Our working document defines for battle cards the:

Join Me! And Learn Strategies For Effective Sales Coaching

Brian Lambert — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:58:56 +0000

Sales training and enablement professionals who effectively build an internal sales coaching capability help sales reps overcome complexity and sell more successfully. According to the sales enablement professionals we interviewed, building an internal sales coaching capability has two major components: strategic architecture and effective enablement.

The strategic architecture is built from thoughtful design, implementation, and reinforcement of sales coaching initiatives. Effective enablement comes from using sales coaching conversations as the design point while making sure coaches have the right content, skills, and tools to do tailor those conversations.

Unfortunately, most of the sales coaching programs we see lack the tools and methods to do just that.

So what is an enterprising sales training or sales enablement professional to do?

Join me for a Forrester workshop on sales coaching

To understand the state of sales coaching today, Forrester interviewed sales enablement professionals at 35 technology vendors. They universally agreed that achieving the goals of the sales leadership team, including selling at higher levels, often requires a change in salesperson behavior. This workshop provides sales enablement professionals the strategies and tools needed to create effective sales coaching programs at their companies to more effectively support their sales initiatives in the field.

Many sales enablement professionals we talked to have looked to sales coaching as a key enabler to salesperson success. So we built the workshop to

Join Me On September 7th For A Discussion On Building Better Battle Cards

Dean Davison — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 22:04:35 +0000

For months, I've blogged about the reasons why battle cards are important, ways to evaluate battle cards, and most recently, the need for standards to tighten their value and give battle card creators and users common ground. In an upcoming webinar, that is open to the public and free of charge. I will tie this theme together with a focus on business impact.

Join me on September 7 for a public webinar by Forrester - Register here.

On the webinar, I'll tackle a straightforward question:

"How do sales enablement professionals work cross-functionally to optimize sales content about competitors for reps so they can improve the win rate in competitive deals?"

I'll outline the path forward for sales enablement professionals to collaborate with their peers in marketing, product management, and competitive intelligence to build better battle cards by:

Focusing on the problems that buyers are trying to solve
Prioritizing the criteria that drive buyer choices in purchase scenarios
Shaping your content based on how buyers perceive your company and competitors
Communicating the benefits and results that buyers care about

I hope you will join me on the 7^th.

Three Pillars Of Sales Coaching Success

Brian Lambert — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:47:09 +0000

Why does sales coaching continue to be an important sales enablement trend? Perhaps it's because salespeople learn new skills through mutually beneficial relationships with individual coaches. If you think about it, sales coaches can come from many parts of the organization and include sales managers, sales trainers, sales engineers, and in some cases from product marketers. When sales enablement professionals effectively support tailored sales coaching conversations between coaches and reps, salespeople learn faster, converse more confidently with their customers, and achieve specific sales objectives, like gaining access to the right buyers or building a winning business case.

If you think about it, the role of a sales coach is challenging. Sales coaches must process many different content inputs from across the organization, package those inputs (in their head), and then deliver content through an effective sales coaching conversation to one salesperson at a time. And, sales coaches must make sure they treat everyone uniquely, so they maximize their sales coaching impact. Sales Enablement professionals need a strategy, a methodology, and tools to effectively enable their sales coaches to implement and sustain high-quality coaching conversations that help salespeople achieve sales objectives.

In order to make sales coaching successful, Sales Enablement pros need a clear definition. The definition should drive specific sales coaching behavior while at the same time clearly defining the business reason why sales coaching is important. The definition should serve as a clear design point for sales coaching success.

For example, Forrester defines sales coaching as:
The iterative and collaborative process of accelerating salesperson performance by creating lasting behavior change through one-on-one conversations that are relevant, developmental, and motivational.

The Widening Divide: Two Points Of View On The Value Of Sales Training

Brian Lambert — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:42:14 +0000

Over the past several months, I've had conversations with a lot of technology vendors about "overcoming sales training challenges." While all of the people I talked to fall into the Sales Enablement function, (meaning they come from product groups, marketing groups, and sales groups and are working to support the conversations that salespeople have) only 2 of those people were actually from within the sales training function at their company. In other words, there seems to be a lot of concern about sales training and a lot of work going on in the name of sales training but the discussion is happening outside the sales training group!

This finding led me to ask, "Is sales training strategic or tactical?" over on LinkedIn [check out some of the answers]. Taking a step back and looking through those answers in light of the conversations I've been having, I found an interesting pattern emerging.

Most of the people involved in sales training initiatives have a specific view on the role, scope, and value of sales training. This view biases the ways these people approach solving these sales training challenges or leverage training for solving the sales challenges their organizations face. At a macro level, these differing views, or paradigms, can be broken down into two camps which are often in direct conflict with one another. These competing mindsets can end up pulling in opposite directions, creating a sales training stalemate with noting really being solved and lots of money being wasted.

Here are a few examples of these different, often competing views:

1. Regarding the Scope of Sales Training

Why Standards For Battle Cards Are A Good Idea

Dean Davison — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:42:08 +0000

During the first week in August, Forrester launched the Battle Card Standards Group to address head on the challenges and opportunities that they face in creating competitive battle cards for sales teams. This group is meeting weekly to outline industry standards to help sales enablement professionals bridge the gap between what a myriad of groups create and what sales reps actually need to win in competitive deals.

Some challenges mentioned by participants include:

"Sales reps often ask for negative information about competitors - FUD (fear, uncertainty, or doubt) - but, customers usually react negatively when reps say derogatory things about competitors."

"We struggle to map our battle cards to (1) different selling situations or engagement models (transactional vs. consultative) and (2) the levels of stakeholders that we are addressing (influencers, decision-makers, or purchasing professionals)."

"We structure battle cards in a way that reps can use directly in their conversations with customers."

As a next step, on August 9, 2011, I will be hosting a Forrester teleconference to address how:

1. Organizational silos result in battle cards that are mashups of product and competitive intelligence rather than assets that help improve win rates in competitive deals.

2. Gaps between battle card users (sales reps) and creators (corporate groups) are too wide to remedy by having sales "tell corporate what they need."

3. Industry standards for battle cards become a common ground for creators and users of battle cards to line up their expectations and delivery.

Join Me In Creating Standards For Competitive Sales Battle Cards!

Dean Davison — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:07:07 +0000

Forrester's sales enablement team is launching a collaborative effort with our clients and other experts to establish standards for competitive battle cards and I invite you to participate - send me an email to join.

If you are on the receiving end of battle cards today, you know the big challenge intimately because I hear you daily in my inquiries saying things like, "how can we standardize battle cards that come from dozens of different teams?" and "How do we equip our sales reps to anticipate and respond to competitive obstacles more effectively?" For those of you on the supply side, I hear you too, saying, "every sales rep asks for different things" and "we don't have a way to measure the impact of our work, so we keep doing what we think is best."

Stuck in the middle are the folks battle cards are supposed to be helping in the first place - sales reps - who tell me, "it takes too much work to find and use our battle cards" and "I need competitive insights, but I tap other sources that are more reliable."

Consider the size of this opportunity! When we get this right, we will be able to connect battle cards with real business outcomes - like faster sales cycles and win rates against key competitors - and isn't that why we build battle cards in the first place? Opportunities will advance through the pipeline more quickly when sales reps have tools to anticipate and effectively respond to obstacles created by competitors.

We can fix this!

So why take this on now?

Establishing Standards To Manage Battle Cards

Dean Davison — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:57:38 +0000

During my daily conversations with technology vendors about battle cards, I am encountering leaders that are taking a different approach. Sales leaders are taking responsibility for the portfolio of battle cards - some larger vendors have hundreds - and assigning someone to "fix the problem."

Individuals who get assigned to fix "the battle card problem" sometimes report into sales operations and other times into corporate marketing. Sometimes this individual has a background in competitive intelligence, but other times the person is completely unacquainted with battle cards. The one trait that these individuals do share is that they have empathy for sales teams.

Battle cards come from a variety of internal groups including product managers, competitive teams, partner alliances, industry groups, or others who want to educate sales reps to handle obstacles caused by competitors. Each group packages up battle cards differently so that sales reps experience differences in the quality of content every time they use a battle card. As I talk with individuals tasked with fixing "the battle card problem," they tell me that when they look at their current collection of battle cards, they don't even know where to begin.

During these conversations, we often discuss techniques for evaluating their current portfolio of battle cards, prioritizing the competitors that are currently disrupting sales, and creating templates that lead corporate teams to build the right kind of content. The problem? None of these techniques gets to the root problem that plagues battle cards - industry-wide confusion about what a battle card is and what value it provides to sales reps. I plan to confront this challenge head on by organizing a group of industry participants and building standards for sales-ready battle cards.

I'll put out more on this project next week, but let's start talking about it.

Tech Sales Enablement

What Is The State Of Play Between Buyers And Sellers In 2012?

Overhauling Battle Cards (And Transforming Other Sales Tools)

Categories:

Join Me And Your Fellow Sales Enablement HEROes In San Francisco!

Sales Enablement Forum 2012: HEROs In The Making!

'Tis The Season - Sales Kickoff Meetings Under The Microscope

Categories:

Harnessing The Sales Chaos With Agility Selling

Helping Coaches Get Started: Driving Sales Coaching Success

Categories:

What's Happening With Forrester's Battle Card Standards?

Categories:

Join Me! And Learn Strategies For Effective Sales Coaching

Categories:

Join Me On September 7th For A Discussion On Building Better Battle Cards

Join me on September 7 for a public webinar by Forrester - Register here.

Categories:

Three Pillars Of Sales Coaching Success

The Widening Divide: Two Points Of View On The Value Of Sales Training

Categories:

Why Standards For Battle Cards Are A Good Idea

Categories:

Join Me In Creating Standards For Competitive Sales Battle Cards!

Categories:

Establishing Standards To Manage Battle Cards

Categories: