Sales Enablement: Tools and Techniques for Modern Sales Organization 3658403640, 9783658403645

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Dietmar Kilian Peter Mirski Britta Lorenz

Sales Enablement Tools and Techniques for Modern Sales Organization

Business Guides on the Go

“Business Guides on the Go” presents cutting-edge insights from practice on particular topics within the fields of business, management, and finance. Written by practitioners and experts in a concise and accessible form the series provides professionals with a general understanding and a first practical approach to latest developments in business strategy, leadership, operations, HR management, innovation and technology management, marketing or digitalization. Students of business administration or management will also benefit from these practical guides for their future occupation/careers. These Guides suit the needs of today’s fast reader.

Dietmar Kilian  • Peter Mirski Britta Lorenz

Sales Enablement Tools and Techniques for Modern Sales Organization

Dietmar Kilian PDAgroup/MCI Innsbruck, Austria

Peter Mirski MCI/PDAgroup Innsbruck, Austria

Britta Lorenz Britta Lorenz – Be Human/ PDAgroup Innsbruck, Austria

ISSN 2731-4758     ISSN 2731-4766 (electronic) Business Guides on the Go ISBN 978-3-658-40364-5    ISBN 978-3-658-40365-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-40365-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 Translation from the German language edition: “Quick Guide Sales Enablement” by Dietmar Kilian et  al., © Der/die Herausgeber bzw. der/die Autor(en), exklusiv lizenziert an Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature 2022. Published by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. All Rights Reserved. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature. The registered company address is: Abraham-Lincoln-Str. 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, Germany

Preface

Sales Enablement: Powerful integration of all customer activities for the best sales performance of your company.

In times of significant change, it is particularly important to continuously identify opportunities and immediately address risks so that the corporate strategy and its implementation can be powerfully adapted and implemented. But, of course, this is easier said than done. The constant change and, thus, the pressure on companies can be felt, especially in times of the pandemic, and raises the question of how adaptation should proceed in companies—starting with the appropriate corporate strategy and the right tactics to remain competitive—followed by questions of corporate organization and employee development, the orientation moves toward current topics such as sustainability and especially the challenge of digitalization. In this book, we want to contribute and address the opportunities that arise from optimizing the distribution of your products and services. This aspect of a functional company design often falls by the wayside and is only illuminated and designed when all other strategic decisions have already been made. We believe that sales and the company’s orientation v

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toward sales processes are particularly important for success and growth. We want to show how much effort is needed to establish a sales organization that is optimally geared to customers and their purchasing decisions and, thus, be able to generate decisive competitive advantages. Innsbruck, Austria July 2022 

Peter Mirski Dietmar Kilian Britta Lorenz

Acknowledgment

Our thanks go to the entire PDAgroup team, who, despite the difficult times in which we have developed and established the topic of sales enablement with our customers, have lived our motto “enabling best performance” with incredible motivation and passion! We are very impressed, proud, and delighted to be able to work with you on our project! Innsbruck, July 2022. Britta Lorenz Peter Mirski Dietmar Kilian

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Contents

1 B  ackground and Motivation 1 1.1 Factors Influencing Sales and Sales Processes  2 1.1.1 Digitalization in General and Its Basic Concepts  2 1.1.2 Changing Working Conditions in Companies: And the Expectations of Customers  5 1.1.3 Changed Competence Profiles  5 1.2 The Strategy: Sales Enablement as a Management Task  8 1.2.1 Overall Model of Strategic Corporate Management  9 1.2.2 “Open Strategy” 10 1.2.3 Sales Strategy 11 1.2.4 Sales Key Performance Indicators and Analytics 12 1.2.5 Closing the Loop: Or How to Bring Sales Experience Back into Strategy 13 1.3 The Sales Enablement Process 14 1.4 The Innovation and Initiation Process in the Design Thinking Format 17 1.5 An Outlook: What the Future Holds 23 References25 2 Sales  Enablement at a Glance27 2.1 Definitions and Customer First 28 2.2 Sales Enablement Strategy 32 ix

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2.3 Processes, Training, and Sales Coaching 33 2.4 Content and Content Creation 34 2.5 Tools & Technology 36 2.6 Sales Enablement Charter 37 2.6.1 Overview of Historical Development 39 2.6.2 The Path from Problem Solver to Strategic Partner in the Company 41 2.6.3 Increasing Efficiency and Effectiveness Through Customer First 45 2.7 Practical Example 48 2.7.1 Possible Initial Situation 48 2.7.2 Problem Identification of the Initial Situation 48 2.7.3 Sales Enablement Solution Approaches 49 2.7.4 Outlook and Further Steps 50 2.7.5 Sales Enablement Charter for the Practical Example 50 References53 3 The  Practical Start in Sales Enablement55 3.1 The Sales Process Adapted to Customer Behavior 56 3.2 Sales Enablement Canvas 56 3.3 Evaluation of the Status Quo—Relevant Factors 59 3.4 Creating the Right Conditions 61 3.5 Continuing Education, Training, and Coaching 62 3.6 Technology and Tools 67 3.7 Content Structure and Offer 76 3.8 A Concrete Example 78 References83 4 Hybrid  Sales Approach and Sales Enablement85 References91 S  ummary and Outlook93

List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 DigComp framework of the EU, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 6 Fig. 1.2 The holistic system of strategic corporate management, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 9 Fig. 1.3 Strategy process, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 11 Fig. 1.4 Self-assessment of your company, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)12 Fig. 1.5 The Sales Enablement Process, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 15 Fig. 1.6 Foto Workshop, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 22 Fig. 1.7 AI in Marketing and Sales, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 24 Fig. 2.1 Sales Enablement Overview, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 32 Fig. 2.2 Sales Enablement, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 33 Fig. 2.3 Historical Development, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 40 Fig. 3.1 The enablement process, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 57 Fig. 3.2 Sales enablement canvas, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 59 Fig. 3.3 Account growth workshop, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 79 Fig. 3.4 Sales enablement canvas MABAU, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 81 Fig. 4.1 Change, PDAgroup GmbH (own design) 87

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List of Tables

Table 2.1 Table 2.2 Table 2.3 Table 2.4

Sales enablement illustration Rates Pillars of a sales enablement strategy Sales enablement charter

30 43 51 52

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1 Background and Motivation

What do you Take Away from this Chapter • Overview and background to sales enablement: Why the change in sales is necessary • The pillars of sales enablement • Outlook for further development

It would be far too sweeping to claim that sales organizations do not function optimally in most companies. However, our consulting practice shows that significant potential is often wasted. A good explanation is that we often find a sales practice in medium-sized companies designed according to grown and existing structures. However, this is only loosely based on today’s customer expectations. It can be said that today we are under the influence of significant factors that have intensified so rapidly over the years and even months that sales structures are almost inevitably exposed to high pressure to change. This is mainly derived from the fact that customer expectations and purchasing behavior have changed considerably. In this chapter, we briefly and succinctly address these factors and thus lay

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 D. Kilian et al., Sales Enablement, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-40365-2_1

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the foundation for our holistic view of corporate design. We, therefore, place “sales enablement” (SE) as a framework concept at the center of this book and thus want to present a holistic approach, the understanding of which is beneficial in actively changing sales activities. Similarly, we want to show which methods and approaches are particularly promising from our point of view and how they can be applied. For this purpose, it makes sense to analyze the entire sales process, put it to the test, and critically question whether and where the new framework conditions and the digitalization of our society are taken into account accordingly. This Quick Guide “Sales Enablement” aims to be a valuable support for both the analysis and the implementation.

1.1 Factors Influencing Sales and Sales Processes Of course, an environment that is characterized by changed production possibilities, changed consumer behavior, and a change in personal work and leisure time patterns cannot remain without its effects on sales processes. In the following, we would like to single out individual factors and illuminate how they relate to each other in terms of sales.

1.1.1 Digitalization in General and Its Basic Concepts When we talk about digitalization, it is often a general position that is clear and structured but still leaves us with some questions about operational implementation and use. Through digitalization, business models, processes, products, projects, and services that are based on software solutions can be implemented. The software solutions interpret the semantics of the exchanged data. As a result, software can also take over tasks that were previously handled by humans. Data from and interaction with market participants play a prominent role in digitalization. The modeling of society and the world of work, as well as

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the protection of privacy and the security of applications, are the challenges of digitalization. (Barton et al., 2018, p. 4)

Quite apart from the fact that definitions essentially describe positions and do not intend to be instructions for action, we would like to address the question of what digitalization means for sales and then describe and illustrate the interrelationships. Behind the term digitalization, which represents the changes from production to purchasing behavior and consumption, the following factors are particularly worthy of attention when it comes to the strategic and operational decision-making factors for the design of sales. Because we create it [digitalization] with our actions or even our inaction. We must therefore become aware of it and ask the increasingly urgent question: How do we want to shape the digital transformation? Because digitalization is neither good nor bad and certainly not neutral. (Piallat, 2021, p. 9)

For example, Rogers (2017, p. 18) summarizes the five digital transformation domains: changes in customers, value creation, competition, data, and innovations. In a more abstract form, the authors Oswald and Krcmar address four critical characteristics of digitalization: It is characterized by its inevitability—especially its economic benefits, secondly its irreversibility—because by now, essential areas in our society can no longer be imagined without digitized processes, thirdly its incredibly rapid progress, and ultimately also by the uncertainty of the actual implementation of the transformation in detail (Oswald, 2018, pp. 7–9). • Communication between prospects and companies is multi-­directional and can be documented much better. This means that the communication of customers with each other, but also with companies— whether actively through direct contributions on social media, rating platforms, etc., or indirectly through pure search or click behavior— provides marketing and sales with a great deal of information and insight into their different needs, wishes, and preferences. Today, it is no longer the company with information sovereignty over its services

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and products but the interested general public, the community. However, it may also be pointed out that the interpretation of contact points is not unproblematic (…). “For example, ‘data veracity,’ the credibility or realistic nature of online data, is now a serious problem for the viability of Big Data” (Binckebanck & Elste, 2016, p. 552). It is easier than ever for customers to rely on the recommendations of others and to enter into a dialog with others about them. Production methods today allow the ability to combine the advantages of mass production with customized manufacturing. Prototypes and smaller test products are more accessible, faster, and can be produced in smaller batches. Business models are more diversified now than ever before. In particular, the possibility of networking quickly and easily with other producers or service providers and offering customers services or product combinations via collaborative platforms, passing the ball to each other and sharing profits, enables the creation of entirely new shopping experiences and thus a new type of customer loyalty and value creation. Moreover, digital, smart contracts, and/or payment through cryptocurrencies increasingly support such collaborations. Sales channels are increasingly being linked and are thus intended to ensure a uniform purchasing and consumption experience—the keyword here is omnichannel sales, in which prospective customers can choose between ideally coordinated sales channels.

Since the above changes are based almost exclusively on significantly improved data and can only function based on such data, we need to clarify terms briefly to provide a clearer view of the situation. Data, Information, Knowledge We first distinguish pure data, which represent only facts and is stagnant without any context, or meaning—only with context do we speak then of information—and only if we can draw comparisons and conclusions from the information or derive actions do we speak of knowledge. Then, finally, one can talk of wisdom if one wants to go one step further in more profound knowledge (Ackoff RL, 1989, From data to wisdom).

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By processing data to be able to make information, knowledge, and forward-looking creative decisions from it is, in any case, a labor-­intensive and lengthy process which requires precise specifications, goals, and resources. The decisive scarce resource here is not technical but rather the expertise of appropriately trained specialists.

1.1.2 Changing Working Conditions in Companies: And the Expectations of Customers The world of work has changed significantly in recent years—especially due to the pandemic—and collaboration within companies has also been confronted with new realities. • New job profiles are emerging • New forms of work are emerging • And, associated with this, an adapted recruiting process—the approaching and hiring of new employees for tasks in sales.

1.1.3 Changed Competence Profiles It is evident that digital literacy, the ability to navigate the digital world, is a fundamental prerequisite for accomplishing crucial work in today’s companies. At the same time, it is still not a given matter that sales and purchasing teams have these skills across the board. To get a first impression of the status quo of a sales team, we would like to point out how important it is to create a competence map of the sales team at the beginning of an SE process and to develop necessary competencies based on this map. There are numerous programs in Europe, some publicly financed, which are the basic prerequisite for a smooth process.

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The DigComp framework (Fig. 1.1) of the European Union was created to describe digital competencies in a standardized way (Comm/dg/unit NaN). Furthermore, under the auspices of the Ministry of Economics, the Austrian association “fit4internet” has taken on the task of serving as a platform for increasing digital literacy in Austria (https://www.fit4internet.at/view/verein). As part of this process, the Austrian adaptation and a free competence check were developed, the results of which are then summarized in a short report.  

 

 


 

   

 

   

Fig. 1.1  DigComp framework of the EU, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

Essentially, the following six areas are counted as digital competence and are further subdivided into various levels, eight in total (Fit4internet, 2022). 1. Basics and access (understanding concepts and operating devices) 2. Handling information and data (researching, evaluating and managing data) 3. Communication and collaboration (communicate, shop, and sell, use digital technologies for social participation, use appropriate forms of expression, shape digital identity) 4. Digital content creation (developing, integrating, and redesigning digital content, understanding work usage and licensing, programming and automating workflows) 5. Security (protecting devices, protecting data, protecting health and well-being, protecting the environment)

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6. Problem-solving and learning (solving technical problems, identifying needs and technological responses, using digital technologies creatively) Of particular interest for sales, in addition to building knowledge in the fundamentals, are the areas of communication and collaboration and the creation of digital content, which we will briefly discuss. This is because part of the competencies, sub-competencies, namely, in areas 3 and 4 are directly related to the work of active sales organizations. In the area of communication and collaboration, this would include: • Communicate using digital technologies • Share data and information while collaborating using digital technologies • Use digital technology to participate in society • Make purchases and sales • Use appropriate forms of expression • Shape digital identity According to the source mentioned earlier of the fit4internet association, the following sub-competencies are important in the field of digital content creation: • • • •

Develop digital content Integrate and recreate digital content Rights of use and licenses Programming and automating processes

Tip We recommend a review at this point which consists of a combination of a self-assessment and a quiz. If you want to check your own or your team’s digital competencies quickly and efficiently, we recommend the following assessment test, which can provide a good overview and position: https://www.fit4internet.at/page/ assessment/

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Based on this, training, education, or coaching can be designed according to the necessary requirements and existing competencies. This then forms the basis for a sales team operating in the digital environment, which can act in coordination with other internal company departments.

1.2 The Strategy: Sales Enablement as a Management Task From our point of view, the strategic and operational management of a company, with particular focus on the requirements of sales enablement, can be divided into five essential processes: • External consideration, for example, of environmental factors, competition, society, digitalization, and their assessment. • Internal consideration of the existing forms of organization, processes, and coordination in the company and their assessment. • Derived from this is a design that will create meaningful alignment of the company. The design aspect of working out the sales enablement strategy is discussed here. • And further derived from this is the company’s need for continuous internal (re)design and adaptations to changing conditions. • Finally, monitoring the achieved transformation and ensuring its dynamic adaptation to the constantly changing environment is how the strategy is maintained. The external view concedes to, in particular, the classical—which in this case means paying attention to communication, marketing, and sales activities—environmental analysis. For example, we can carry out this process with the help of the PESTEL analysis and then deal with the comparison with our own company. A simple but handy tool for this purpose is the strengths and weaknesses analysis, which compares internal capabilities with the outside forces acting on the company.

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1.2.1 Overall Model of Strategic Corporate Management The overall model of strategic corporate management based on Hinterhuber (2011, p.  7) shows the relationship between the internal organization of the company and the external influencing factors to be shaped (Fig. 1.2). The outermost layer shows the attitude of employees, suppliers, strategic partners, the society where, for example, the demand for sustainable management and the shareholders as well as the customers exists, and a possible recommendation. The layer is carried into the company via the leadership and is interpreted and operationalized

      








   

 

     

        

 

Fig. 1.2  The holistic system of strategic corporate management, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

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accordingly. The company is guided by its vision, which translates into the company policy, mission, and/or model. The strategy is created and separated into sub-strategies so that specialized or product areas can better contribute to the overall success. Action plans are implemented in the organization and then fed back via controlling. This creates a learning, agile organization.

1.2.2 “Open Strategy” Stadler and Matzler et  al., in their book “Open Strategy: Mastering Disruption from Outside the C-Suite,” address the possibilities for developing a corporate strategy, especially when it comes to the external view of the company. The question has to be answered whether the company has to change fundamentally or whether external influences have a significant impact on the company’s development. Here the authors show which practical possibilities are available to move out of the apparent security that has often only developed within the company and to integrate new impulses in a structured way (Stadler et al., 2021). Without going into further detail, we highly recommend the literature on Open Strategy. After all, the particular framework in which we take up our topic of sales enablement and then develop it further is precisely the time in which digitization has a strong influence and—this is of fundamental importance here—can currently change internal as well as external processes in companies so that disruption is very likely or even inevitable. The remarkable thing here is that the need for change is often underestimated or misjudged, and the signs of the times are overlooked. In the models we propose below, we assume that companies have found and developed an appropriate sales strategy and are also using processes and mechanisms to enforce the further development and adaptation of the strategy correctly. As soon as this internal and also externally inspired system is established, implications from the KPI system can then be fed back, as can analyses that we have obtained from sales meetings or, for example, successful launches of the products or services sold, and thus contribute to the further development of the company.

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It is precisely this incredible power to manage a new course and to be able to collect all necessary changes and indications promptly that is the desirable state that we want to achieve through Sales Enablement. Example Let us start with a short story: A company successfully positioned on the market for many years does not have an explicitly formulated strategy. Then, after an imminent generational change in sales and new management was appointed, the young sales management turned to the owners and asked to be in a position to align sales activities accordingly. Moreover, they have wished to better understand what to look for in the design and how doing so would affect the company as a whole. After all, sales management says, this is “state-of-the-art.”

• What questions does a strategy answer and why is it so important? • How do you create a strategy? • How do you measure whether the chosen path is progressing correctly?

1.2.3 Sales Strategy The strategy process (Fig. 1.3) requires constant further development because, as Hinterhuber quotes Moltke, strategy is “the further development of the original guiding thought following the constantly changing circumstances” and the original guiding thought is in turn based on the core competencies of a company.

             

Fig. 1.3  Strategy process, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

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Sales Enablement Process

Sales Process

Personal Enablement

Communication und Information

Marketing Integration

IT- Integration

Sales Enablement Strategy

Fig. 1.4  Self-assessment of your company, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

Let us start with a short self-assessment of your company according to the following pattern: The idea is to make an initial assessment and enter the current status here (Fig.  1.4). At the end of each chapter, you can enter the potential that you think could be a reasonable stage goal for your project.

1.2.4 Sales Key Performance Indicators and Analytics Data–Information–Knowledge–Decisions The effectiveness of key performance indicators (KPIs) is often underestimated. In addition, the use of traditional sales KPIs often obscures a necessary change process. Especially because previous KPIs can tell us little about a new—in our case, digital—environment. Good KPIs are usually maintined in the company for many years and integrate the experience that  the sales team has gained from working with existing

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markets and customers. The forecasts and plans have been adjusted over time, making them a reliable companion for corporate and sales management. All stakeholders of a company (society, employees, their private environment, suppliers, business partners, …) build their trust on this information and data. It is entirely normal to rely on these results or information, of course, in the hope to show that one’s own previous decisions were the right ones. In many cases, it is a matter of having decided in favor of a company’s cooperation or a product. Whether as an employee, a supplier, or a financier, decisions made by stakeholders based on the effectiveness of KPIs or reporting are often not questioned further. Numerous companies have relied on existing number systems and, as a result, have failed to recognize the signs of the times. Research shows that people prefer to doubt reality before questioning existing factual situations (examples—to be found among others in Clayton Christensen, the Innovators Dilemma). Basically, key performance indicators aim to fulfill three essential functions to help the company maintain orientation in an uncertain environment. 1. Presentation of previous sales figures—changes and comparisons, initially with internal figures, plays a crucial role here. 2. Comparison with external KPIs and data, for example, with typical industry KPIs, in order to get a better, general picture of one’s own position. 3. Preparing KPIs for forecasts and scenarios, which help to check various decisions for their effectiveness or plausibility and to think them through.

1.2.5 Closing the Loop: Or How to Bring Sales Experience Back into Strategy Since we assume that new processes and metrics will have to be established to implement the strategy, in our experience, the rule applies that emphasis must be placed on short feedback cycles at the beginning. The basic idea here is that the introduction of sales enablement, as we will see

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in the next chapter, is a project that not only has to be coordinated with specialist departments in the company but also requires ongoing involvement. After all, the goal is to coordinate as many customer-related activities as possible, thereby making them more attractive and the company more successful. This can be achieved, for example, by significantly shortening the response times to customer inquiries and/or customer activities, evaluating them, and providing information or activities that are adapted to the buying cycle.

1.3 The Sales Enablement Process Figure 1.5 intends to provide an overview of the essential activities of a sales process. It particularly describes the views and actions of both worlds, the sales organization and, simultaneously, the customers. When we observe the parallel processes at a glance, we can see which aspects need to be taken into account, coordinated, and designed for the relevant time period. This is because it is important to optimize the purchasing process from the needs analysis to delivery, implementation, invoicing, and, at best, referral and recommendation. When analyzing a company's processes, it  is always important to perceive  and understand the entire process from the perspective of the customer’s side. This sounds easier than it is because it is understandable that the individual departments are used to, and are mainly measured by the fact that their organization functions well, with a harmonious connection between the work and workflow process.

An easy-to-follow exercise is to ask a trusted person to go through the buying process and document it—this way, an outside perspective can be integrated into the design process. It can provide many suggestions as to whether, for example, response times are too short or too long, or whether the information meant to address proper needs is too complex or too detailed. Maybe a personal call could be more helpful, a recommendation from a particular customer that is more informative, etc.

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Management & Strategy

Content

Training, Coaching & Processes

Methods & Software

Fig. 1.5  The Sales Enablement Process, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

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The first step is to capture the customer’s contact points with the company regarding their buying activities. This may begin with the first search on the Internet on the recommendation of a friend and develops along the so-called customer journey. This journey occurs to the point of the purchase decision, implementation or receipt of the service or product, receipt of the invoice, the payment process, and finally their own recommendation, which in the best case opens the door to new, further customers. Let us start at the same time with the company’s known sales process, in which the processing of the prospective customers occurs. Here the journey begins anew, where all activities, which are set by the enterprise, are to be analyzed precisely. An important point here is to have detailed recordings of the processes, lead times, documents, information, activities such as customer conversations, and reports on social media or professional networks along the entire journey. The design space begins with harmonization, alignment, optimization, and focusing on the customer’s experience or perception. We have had outstanding experiences with moderated workshops lasting several days, in which the consideration of the customer experience, costs, change processes, and the utilization of technology are discussed intensively. To conclude the workshop, we then set concrete tasks and responsibilities with an assigned time frame that set the change project in motion. Such sales enablement change projects must be very well chaperoned to closely track and align the changes in the company, the team, and the overall perception so that the company’s goals can be achieved. With the background of the sales organization, the corporate policy practiced there and—in the best case scenario—an established sales strategy, you will have: • Analyzed your customers, usually through an intensive Internet search, and processed them based on the available information, for example, about their growth potential. • A sales strategy which will describe the prioritization of potential customers and provide strong support for qualification and disqualification. • Key figures that are generated immediately and should be stored in a sales system accessible to all responsible persons.

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1.4 The Innovation and Initiation Process in the Design Thinking Format Sales enablement aims to empower employees to achieve better and faster deals through training, coordination, processes, tools, and more. Therefore, Design Thinking offers itself as a complementary methodology to be able to launch customer-centric and demand-driven initiatives. Design Thinking is an iterative method to drive innovation in a customer-­centric way and can support the development of sales enablement measures that are adapted to target personas. In a process-oriented structure, the first step is to put oneself in the shoes of the customers. In the case of sales enablement, this is the sales employees, managers, marketing employees, and other customer-facing stakeholders, and thus work together in a practice-oriented manner. But How Does Design Thinking Work in General? Design thinking is a method developed by Larry Leifer, David Kelley, and Terry Winograd at Stanford University and has since been used enthusiastically in all areas of science and business. In three initial steps, it deals with the environment, influences, and impacts of a problem or challenge, and only then proceeds to try and develop a solution, which is also a process divided into three steps. This helps to keep the phases of divergent and convergent thinking apart and thus aiding to bring alternative and unusual ideas to light. By focusing on the challenge in the first step, there is an avoidance to jumping to conclusions; solutions can be developed that are ultimately adapted to the outlined needs. The process of understanding the problem is divided into three consecutive steps: Understand, Observe, and Point of View. Step 1: Understand The first step focuses on understanding the challenge. What exactly is the problem, and who is affected or involved? This step is essential to grasp, on the one hand, who is impacted by the specific challenge, i.e. who can benefit from a solution, and on the other hand, who can be a contributor to the solution.

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A method often used in this phase is the “Silent Braindump”: it is a form of brainstorming in which participants write down their ideas on Post-Its. About 5 minutes are used for this, during which time everyone remains silent. Then each participant has 1 minute to present their Post-­ Its on a flipchart and explain them to the other team members. Then any findings or ideas that are similar are grouped or clustered together. Step 2: Observe Following on, you then proceed to put yourself in the position of the customer of sales enablement. How do the sales employees act? What is their daily routine like, and where do they encounter challenges? Where do employees, managers, or other departments see challenges? At this point, the focus is on looking at the problem landscape rather than finding solutions. In this process, the status quo of customer journeys is elicited, personas are identified and defined, and, in particular, those affected are spoken to or observed directly to understand their reality. Methods that are often used in this phase: The “stakeholder map” focuses on the topic, and all stakeholders that impact the issue are documented and grouped. Then interviews are conducted with people (comparable to the stakeholders) to get as much real-­ world information as possible. Based on this information, one or two “personas” are developed. The persona represents a potential customer or user so that the offer can subsequently be aligned with them in the best possible way. Step 3: Point of View In the last step of the problem analysis phase, all data collected thus far is condensed and analyzed to decide exactly which problem should be solved in the next phase. This helps to solve particular challenges and not to overshadow the need by using a general approach. After a complete understanding of the context and the challenges, the process moves to the solution-finding phase. This again comes in three steps: Generate Ideas (Ideate), Create Prototypes (Prototype), and Test (Test).

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A method that is often used in this phase: Using the “Point of View Statement” via documentation, the potential offering is aligned and focused on the defined persona. Step 4: Ideate In the solution-finding phase, the task is to find a solution catered to a specific persona. Involving different people and their perspectives can help to develop a wider range of solutions. Initially, the realistic implementation of an idea is irrelevant in this phase; the goal is to find as many ideas as possible that could contribute to a solution. Only after is the idea defined in more detail and applied to realistic solutions. A method often used in this phase is the “Disney Method,” where the team looks at a potential idea from three different perspectives. 1. The Dreamer; all kinds of ideas are allowed and are documented. 2. The Realist; all issues are looked at from a realistic perspective. 3. And the Critic; the results are critically examined and then summarized to serve as a basis for the next step. Step 5: Prototype The success of the design thinking method is based on getting feedback on an idea as quickly as possible, which is why the next step is to create an initial prototype as soon as possible. The main reason for collecting feedback is because according to the guideline of “Fail early, Fail often,” early feedback can help to make final initiatives profitable. These prototypes can be created within a few hours and should receive feedback from test users. Methods that are popular at this stage: ideas are prioritized, and then an “Idea Sketch” is developed for the best idea, i.e. a summary of the idea, what is behind it, and what it will do. A “prototype” is then developed based on these findings. The prototype can be created in many different ways, for example, using a story to describe the idea, mock-ups of software solutions, LEGO models to explain a product, or other methods.

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Step 6: Test The last step is to go out and get feedback. It is important to ask for differentiated feedback to be able to continue the development of the solution. Depending on the feedback, the design thinking process goes back to the respective step in iterative loops. Rapid implementation and testing in small groups can prevent potentially complicated innovations from missing the mark. The design thinking methodology is suitable for building the entire sales enablement process, as it brings attention to customers, i.e. people, and focuses on their needs. An initial design thinking workshop can break down and describe the complex landscape of enablement and thus provide a successful starting point for a sales enablement program. The “presentations” method is often used in this phase, which are given to potential customers. With the direct feedback provided by these people on the prototype, reflection can take place, and the input is summarized, which is then incorporated into the implementation of a better solution. As an example of such a workshop, the following briefly describes a design thinking workshop that should precede a sales enablement workshop. This is because it deals with the question of which essential changes should be considerd and planned, with regard to specifications and corporate goals. We refer to this workshop here as the innovation workshop, to show how the design thinking process can be understood and implemented. Design Thinking Briefly explained, Design Thinking is a set of methods that mainly facilitates the collaboration of interdisciplinary teams when working on complex topics. The process pays special consideration and integration of the customer(s) perspective on a given topic. Different people are involved in the process in order to achieve the best possible result.

The economic perspective is developed with attention to its feasibility and technical practicality toward the direction of an entrepreneurial desire or reaching a strategic goal.

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In our workshops on the sales innovation process, we like to work according to the following guidelines and adhere to the individual steps and methods of design thinking: 1. Identify core issues with a small team of experts—customers must not be left out! 2. Focus initially on three key scenarios that could significantly change the sales process. 3. Assemble the groups according to the processing of the different scenarios. 4. Divide the tasks to collect 360-degree data in the information search for:

(a) Other industries that are already experiencing, implementing, or have already gone through these scenarios. (b) The technical needs. (c) Business and incentive models that could be relevant and inspiring to the scenarios. 5. Summarize the findings and: (a) Focus on possible implementations. (b) For relevant sample customers, the so-called personas are to be described in detail. 6. Ideation. (a) Now the search for visionary and exciting solutions starts. (b) In the same way, work can be done simultaneously to find what could help the company flourish if other companies pick up on these innovations and implement them. 7. Develop three prototypical solutions that fit the scenarios. The main thing here is that the prototypes can be presented comprehensibly. This could be through role plays that compare the customer’s view with the company’s internal view or via short videos. Flipcharts can also be used to present supporting products, websites, or social media

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posts. As described, it is particularly important that the other groups, the experts, and the management can experience the idea of the innovative proposal and get involved in the next step. The power of simple prototypes developed using innovative methods lies in the fact that they can be viewed, experienced, criticized, and reinvented using various perspectives. 8. The next step is validation, which can be designed with structured questions. Good questions are more powerful than good answers, which usually only emerge from a discussion. To take full advantage of the deep immersion of the participants, adaptations can be promptly incorporated and any new ideas that can be further developed in the next iteration of the workshop are also recorded. Figure 1.6 gives an insight into the work done in a design thinking workshop.

Fig. 1.6  Foto Workshop, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

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1.5 An Outlook: What the Future Holds Artificial intelligence is a frequently mentioned technological support that could also benefit the areas of marketing and sales. We see enormous potential here and would like to provide a brief overview of how we see its impact and possibilities in sales and sales enablement. Andreas Wagener (2019) summarizes the three areas of AI in marketing as follows, with a striking classification of artificial intelligence in the context of marketing. In summary, his perspective is that data collection and interpretation areas have always been in the realm of marketing, and AI systems provide significant support for both quantities and comparisons. The automation of marketing activities such as the recommendations of certain consumer goods based on comparisons by other customers, or based on an analysis of other behaviors triggered by data traces, are further steps that are already commonplace. If new products or services are automatically compiled from this, and if these are supplemented under certain circumstances with automated dynamic pricing, we have reached the highest level of its model in the area of automation. Very similar features can be identified in the sales interface. First, AI can help sales when it comes to generating and interpreting data to get a better picture of the prospect(s) and their needs. Likewise, this insight can be supplemented with further data and fed into a deeper structured analysis, as we know from guided Deep Learning. The “intelligent” performance thus then consists of independent prediction, not based on human assumptions and the rule of three, but in identifying patterns and regularities independently (Wagener, 2019, p. 65). Other areas becoming increasingly attractive are the automated evaluation of recorded customer conversations, and the ability to have images and videos rapidly available to the sales department. The unique feature here is that the automatic reading of call transcripts creates the possibility of recognizing in real time and across all contact points whether the customer approach was properly carried out, supplemented, or even shortened in accordance with your strategy’s specifications. Being able to evaluate different areas of customer interactions allows conclusions to be made about the total processing time, but also illustrates the time it took

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Fig. 1.7  AI in Marketing and Sales, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

for customers to receive an initial response. New insights could be gained into what really constitutes as an optimal handling process and which processes are most likely to result in potential customers completing the purchase or existing customers making further purchases. Direct incentives allow for a better understanding of what works best through overall analysis. Based on this, it is easy to imagine that more complex automated offers can be made. Chatbots can also be brought into play to create a rapid response and appropriate dynamic in the offer process. If we think one step further, it is quite conceivable that avatars, lifelike sales agents presented in the context of virtual reality, will soon conduct active dialogs with customers (Fig. 1.7). Your Transfer Into Practice Has your company already started the transition to a digital sales environment? Find out what challenges digitalization poses for sales and the collaboration with customers in this overview. A summary of which qualifications sales management and leadership require and which key performance indicators are necessary for the active management of sales. How you can redesign your sales organization and tasks with the tool of design thinking. What does the future hold for artificial intelligence to support sales?

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References Barton, T., Müller, C., & Seel, C. (2018). Digitalisierung - eine Einführung. In T.  Barton, C.  Müller & C.  Seel (Hg.), Digitalisierung in Unternehmen. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden (Angewandte Wirtschaftsinformatik), S. 3–7. Binckebanck, L. & Elste, R. (Hg.) (2016). Digitalisierung im Vertrieb. Strategien zum Einsatz neuer Technologien in Vertriebsorganisationen. 1. Aufl. 2016. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler (Springer eBook Collection). Comm/dg/unit (NaN). DigComp - EU Science Hub - European Commission. Digital Competence Framework for citizens. Hg. v. Europäische Kommission. Joint Research Centre. Online verfügbar unter https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/ digcomp, zuletztaktualisiert am 05.01.2021, zuletzt geprüft am 26.01.2022. Fit4internet. (2022). Startseite - fit4internet. Verein fit4internet.at. Online verfügbar unter https://www.fit4internet.at/, zuletztaktualisiert am 26.01.2022, zuletzt geprüft am 26.01.2022. Hinterhuber, H.  H. (2011). Strategische Unternehmensführung. 8., neu bearb. und erw. Aufl. Berlin: Schmidt. Kourteli, L. (2000). Scanning the business environment: Some conceptual issues. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 7(5), 406–413. Kroeber-Riel, W. & Gröppel-Klein, A. (2019). Konsumentenverhalten. 11. vollständig überarbeitete, aktualisierte und ergänzte Auflage. München: Verlag Franz Vahlen. Online verfügbar unter https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/ lib/kxp/detail.action?docID=5909683. Lewrick, M., Link, P., & Leifer, L. (2018). The design thinking playbook: Mindful digital transformation of teams, products, services, businesses and ecosystems (design thinking series). Wiley. Matzler, Kurt; Füller, Johann; Koch, Britta; Hautz, Julia; Hutter, Katja (2014): Open strategy – A new strategy paradigm? In: Kurt Matzler (Hg.): Strategie und Leadership. Festschrift Für Hans H. Hinterhuber. Unter Mitarbeit von Harald Pechlaner und Birgit Renzl. 1st ed. : Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, S. 37–55. Oswald, G. (2018). Digitale Transformation. Fallbeispiele und Branchenanalysen. Unter Mitarbeit von Helmut Krcmar. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH. (Informationsmanagement und Digitale Transformation Ser). Online verfügbar unter https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/kxp/detail. action?docID=6422730

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Piallat, C. (Hg.) (2021). Der Wert der Digitalisierung. Gemeinwohl in der digitalen Welt. Unter Mitarbeit von Tyson Barker, Ulf Buermeyer, Petra Grimm, Stefan Heumann, Eric Hilgendorf, Lorena Jaume-Palasí et  al. transcript: Open Library 2021 (Politik). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag (Digitale Gesellschaft, 36). Online verfügbar unter https://openresearchlibrary.org/ content/8e1bbc8e-­fdb6-­4fd4-­a572-­d6fd81a0237d. Rogers, D.  L. (2017). Digitale transformation. Das Playbook. 1. Auflage. Frechen: mitp (mitp Business). Online verfügbar unter http://www.content-­ select.com/index.php?id=bib_view&ean=9783958455740. Stadler, C., Hautz, J., Matzler, K., & von den Eichen, S. F. (2021). Open strategy. Mastering disruption from outside the C-suite. The MIT Press. (Management on the cutting edge series). Wagener, A. (2019). Künstliche Intelligenz im Marketing  – ein Crashkurs. 1. Auflage. Freiburg, München, Stuttgart: Haufe Group, zuletzt geprüft am 24.02.2022.

2 Sales Enablement at a Glance

What you Take Away from this Chapter • Overview of sales enablement and a description of why this transformation and change (digital transformation and collaboration between different parts of the company) is so important • The pillars of sales enablement and how the added value can be measured • Sales enablement and customer-centric thinking

Sales enablement is a strategic approach that involves not only sales and marketing but also employees from other areas, such as product management, customer success, and customer service. It is not a technical panacea for inefficient sales processes or marketing management. Moreover, even if the basic principle is to have laser-sharp focus on customers, sales enablement encompasses much more than just practical “buyer-oriented” sales methods such as Customer-Centric Selling, Consultative Selling, Smarter Selling, or Value Selling. Customer-Centric Selling (Walker, 2016) is a methodology that is fully oriented to the buyer’s needs. It aims in all activities to ensure that

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 D. Kilian et al., Sales Enablement, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-40365-2_2

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the buyer achieves their set goals, their problems are solved, and their needs are met. Consultative Selling aims to create a relationship of trust, with the core of the methodology revolving around the understanding of the underlying buyer problem (cf. SPIN questioning technique), and thus providing a comprehensible explanation of a bespoke solution (cf. Solution Selling) for customers. Smarter Selling (Dugdale & Lambert, 2011) focuses on building and developing trusting relationships through the methodology’s models and tools. The salesperson owes it to the prospect to identify his or her actual needs and to solve their challenges to the best of their ability. It can also be seen as a further development of the consultative selling approach. The Value Selling approach focuses on how the salesperson can consistently generate measurable benefits for buyers in all actions, procedures, and solution offers. If sales enablement is implemented effectively, it equips a company’s sales force with the tools, strategies, and resources to operate successfully. In particular, it provides informative and educational content to attract potential new customers and grow together with existing customers. This results in an interactive, pleasant, and comprehensible customer experience along the so-called customer journey; the perception and experience of the customer throughout their purchasing process with your company. The overall effect is to support the sales department in shortening sales cycles, while increasing their efficiency and effectiveness accordingly.

2.1 Definitions and Customer First Definitions of sales enablement are constantly evolving, especially as more and more sales organizations put this strategic approach into practice, share their corresponding results, and consequently adapt sales enablement to the specific needs of their business. While in 2019, just over half of the companies surveyed had established a dedicated sales enablement position or program or function, this has increased by +19% points in recent years to 74% of all companies surveyed (State of Sales Enablement Report, 2021). This trend is also

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confirmed with 77% in PDAgroup’s “Annual Report on the State of Sales Enablement in Europe” that has an existing sales enablement initative, with the research bearing particular focus on the DACH region. Sales enablement leader Tamara Schenk defines sales enablement as a strategic, collaborative discipline that aims to drive predictable sales results by providing consistent, scalable enablement services that enable customer-­ facing professionals and their managers to add value to every customer interaction (Matthews & Schenk, 2018).

According to the definition of the Sales Enablement Society, the following still applies: “Sales enablement ensures that buyers are targeted at the right time, in the right place and with the right assets by well-trained customer-facing staff to deliver a world-class experience along the customer journey. Using the right sales and performance management technologies and synergistic cross-organisational collaboration, Sales Enablement optimises sales to grow the pipeline, drive opportunities and win larger deals more efficiently to drive profitable growth.” (seosociety.org, 2021).

The authors see sales enablement as: “…a multidisciplinary, high-performing, strategic approach to improving sales performance through people-centered, process-oriented, and technological measures. Sales enablement supports the salesperson in enabling buyers to make a buying decision and orchestrates all customer-­ facing activities in an organization in the interaction of strategy, production, marketing, sales, and service.”

The common denominator of both definitions is people, customers, and the team—increasing efficiency in the interests of customers so that everyone benefits—especially the customer! Sales enablement strongly follows customer first as a principle. Other features include content, communication, training and coaching, technology, and processes—all of which are supported by a uniform strategy that controls sales, marketing, and also other functional areas of the company.

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What Is Sales Enablement NOT? Sales enablement is not another word for sales training. However, sales training is an important element of it. Sales enablement is not another word for sales content or sales content management. The same applies here to sales training: sales content and its management are merely aspects of the whole approach. Sales enablement is not another term for sales and marketing alignment. However, good coordination between these two departments is a prerequisite for guiding sales enablement along a successful path. Sales enablement is not the same as sales operations. Sales operations is a function that provides structure, builds processes, tools, and technology, and deals with issues such as sales forecasting, rather than the challenge of empowering people to be successful.

Sales enablement has proven to be a unique, cross-functional, and strategic approach that combines multiple functions. However, it does not work if we think and operate in silos (Table 2.1). Executives, sales, marketing, services, operations, or partner teams: there is no area of the business that integrates the meaning of “cross-­ functional” like Sales Enablement. Successful implementation is only possible if the corporate strategy supports it and the implementation is supported by management and employees. Sales enablement also requires a comprehensive understanding of processes, planning, potential customers, and their challenges. Table 2.1  Sales enablement illustration What is sales enablement?

What is sales enablement not?

Communication, content and content creation Training and coaching (skill and mindset) Sales process and tool effectiveness Employee training Analyses

General business skills Sales operations Sales controlling Career planning Sales

Own representation, PDAgroup GmbH

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Today’s sales organizations and teams are more diverse than ever before. Understanding how to execute effective sales enablement can be challenging as sales teams span across generations, geographies, and diverse backgrounds. Sales enablement is an iterative process that is continually evolving. One of the most important goals of sales enablement is to make salespeople’s jobs more efficient, providing them with the latest and most up-to-date information, content, and tools, and training them accordingly. Other sales enablement goals include reducing the internal complexity of sales organizations and teams, reducing time to close, increasing sales efficiency, providing support in attracting new customers, and developing existing customers. This can be achieved by building a cohesive internal network that increases harmony and collaborative efforts between departments. Sales enablement is designed as a cross-functional approach to increase customer-facing teams’ performance, communication, and efficiency. This collaboration aims to prepare sales, service, and marketing teams with the best and most relevant information to create customer-­ facing content and enable optimal buying experiences. These various elements require a responsible person or team to manage and coordinate all activities, to ensure they are consistently executed with the overarching business goals in mind. In addition, the nature of sales enablement is to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. The sales enablement approach described here is based on the three pillars shown in Fig.  2.1, a) processes, training, and sales coaching, b) content and content creation, and c) tools and technology, all of which are steered by the pairing of a strategy and strong leadership and implemented by appropriate orchestration. Sales enablement is a strategic approach aimed at maximizing sales performance. Content and content creation, skill and mindset, as well as technical support and process optimization, play a key role in this.

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Fig. 2.1  Sales Enablement Overview, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

2.2 Sales Enablement Strategy Buy-in and commitment to sales enablement at the highest levels and implementation across the enterprise will bring employees from all functional areas together. A sales enablement strategy promotes and supports this synchronized communication across the organization by connecting content, training and coaching, technology, processes, and, most importantly, people. When a company brings all of these components together to strengthen a unified sales organization, salespeople are empowered to deliver the sophisticated customer experience that today’s highly connected and self-informed buyers both expect and demand. Effective implementation and execution of a sales enablement function positively impacts the management level and the employees with customer contact. All employees and stakeholders involved in the sales process and supported by sales enablement ultimately benefit through increased performance. The revenue-generating teams are fully activated through this far-reaching integration of sales enablement. To do this, it is essential that the team in charge of enablement knows and understands the core competencies of the business, the organizational barriers, and the stakeholders’ and customers’ critical factors and goals. As simplified in Fig. 2.2, there is a close link between sales enablement on the management and top executives, the internal supply chain (marketing, product development and management), the organizational infrastructure, and the sales force. As already described in Fig. 2.1, it is

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Fig. 2.2  Sales Enablement, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

important to emphasize that sales enablement is not responsible for driving sales but rather supports the increase in efficiency and effectiveness of sales.

2.3 Processes, Training, and Sales Coaching The ability to achieve sales quotas quarter after quarter leads to more predictable and scalable revenues. Sales enablement is critical in equipping employees with the tools, routines, and qualifications (skills and mindset) they need to perform consistently.

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Sales enablement supports companies in designing their sales process by intergrating a particular focus on customer satisfaction. Everything implemented by sales enablement is ultimately done for the end customer, therefore sales processes must be adapted accordingly. To build a standardized and dynamic sales process, it is crucial to first understand customer behavior and their expectations. Every successful company follows the standard steps in their sales processes such as lead qualification, planning, product presentations, negotiations, and contract signing. The goal is to enable a standardized process. In this way, the effectiveness of new practices can be evaluated, and it can be deduced whether a corresponding sales enablement strategy should be maintained or adapted in the spirit of customer-centricity. In addition to training and education, continuous improvement of processes requires ongoing evaluation and, if necessary, appropriate adjustments. One way to integrate some small adjustments is by adding training activities into the daily routine of sales staff. On-the-job learning is an efficient way to train talent and allow them to choose trainings that are relevant to their tasks. The advantage of integrated training is that employees can use their new skills immediately and learn how to better adapt them to their needs. Sales coaching and mentoring are also essential for further development. Individuals from all areas of a sales organization should aim to continually develop themselves, making sales coaching a critical aspect of this pillar. Equally important is to develop managers who can provide the best support, motivate their teams, and ensure that a positive customer experience is consistently delivered at every touchpoint.

2.4 Content and Content Creation The second pillar focuses on content creation and usability not just for sales teams and customers, but for all customer-facing teams. Alignment and communication between sales and marketing departments is necessary to create compelling sales materials. Information from customer

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interactions can help marketing teams create content that is more targeted, increasing the likelihood of a successful sale. Sales enablement reinforces the importance of regular exchanges between these departments to promote the flow of information. Notably, the content created for sales enablement purposes has a purely internal audience. The sales enablement strategy defines what content to create, but also monitors whether it is used efficiently and effectively. It should be stored in a way that sales reps can easily find and use different content as they perform their tasks. In addition, version confusion must be unequivocally avoided. Finally, relevant content should be easily accessible for customer interactions. Content should be available to employees according to the customer journey and sales process, to truly adopt the customer-first mindset. Sales enablement is the perfect partner to create a fluid connection between the various customer-facing departments. It enables collaboration, feedback, and insights to be shared efficiently, with the ideal outcome lying in winning customers. It is imperative to consider the changing customer behavior, to align our content for sales reps along the sales cycle. Put simply, the three phases of the customer journey are interest & attention, consideration or evaluation, and purchase. When we talk about the sales process, we talk about internal processes that salespeople follow. These range from qualifying the customer, engaging in initial conversations, delivering a demo within necessary negotiations, and finally closing the deal. It is crucial to map the marketing content in accordance with the sales process so that the sales staff can use it effectively in the appropriate phases. The longer the sales process, the more important content becomes. With a customer-centric approach, which is also the core of a customer-first mindset, the focus can be placed on correcting and adapting to the customer journey.

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2.5 Tools & Technology Sales enablement also includes tools that support the task execution of customer-facing processes. Sales enablement technology has evolved to not only display relevant content according to the customer journey and sales process, but also to enable the creation of dynamic content in a compliance-friendly manner. It must aggregate data from multiple systems to provide broader insights that impact the effectiveness of each customer touchpoint, and it should integrate seamlessly across the tech stack. Introducing or merging the right technology into the employees’ work environment reinforces a standardized process. It enables the sales enablement team to adapt the three pillars of sales enablement to the ever-changing needs of customers and sales reps. Knowledge in the form of data, customer experience, and sales rep feedback is essential to the sales enablement team. Technology provides access to all of this data. It also provides a detailed overview of the company’s performance along the sales process. Specific activities can be customized and targeted to achieve the goals of the sales enablement strategy, which is in line with the company’s overall objectives. When selecting tools, it is essential to focus on the needs and tasks of customer-facing employees. Technology should always bring added value instead of representing additional effort in their daily work life. Sales technology should generate valuable information, such as the opening rate of e-mails and content and the response time to inquiries, to help question and adapt existing practices to support employees in their further development. The holistic and strategic concept of sales enablement is indispensably oriented to the buyers and customer journey. It is crucial to approach the big picture continuously and systematically in small steps. Creating an overarching sales enablement charter is essential to support and promote the transformation process. As with other change processes, the results of a newly implemented sales enablement concept cannot be expected in the short term, which is why the support of the management level is crucial and should not be underestimated.

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2.6 Sales Enablement Charter A so-called sales enablement charter presents an overview of the sales enablement initiatives in the company. It shows which departments are supported, what is understood of the customer’s view, and how the results are measured. The sales enablement canvas has proven to be a supporting tool for creating a charter or could even be used instead of the charter (see also Sect. 3.2). The charter is the heart of the sales enablement strategy and includes the company’s sales enablement mission statement. Creating a formal sales enablement charter is one of the first steps in implementing this strategic approach. It helps define the role of sales enablement in the company, while laying an important building block for the successful implementation and execution of future enablement initiatives. A sales enablement charter is a written agreement between the sales enablement team and customer-facing teams that enablement initiatives will help to achieve their goals. It defines what sales enablement can do for sales reps, what data, tools, and technology are provided to enable salespeople, but also what is considered to be outside the scope of sales enablement. This shared understanding fosters better collaboration, clear expectations, and a smooth flow of sales enablement activities. Ultimately, successful activities contribute to the achievement of overall business objectives such as increasing sales productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness. There is no “one size fits all” in sales enablement. Nevertheless, there are important components required of a sales enablement charter: • Collaboration with the sales department to optimize the corresponding processes • Training and coaching of customer-facing teams • Content creation (sales and enablement content) and its management • Tools and technologies • Alignment between sales, marketing, and all other customer-­ facing functions and teams in the company • Budget

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In the spirit of the customer-first mindset, sales enablement’s primary aspiration is to empower all customer-facing teams to overcome their challenges in the best possible way. To meet these requirements, it is essential to recognize that the customer journey is not the same as the sales cycle. Therefore, the focus of sales enablement activities should not be exclusively on the sales and marketing teams, but should encompass the daily work of all customer-facing teams. A good balance between the focus on customer experience and the promotion of internal teams is an important key to success. There are many factors to consider in sales enablement, but a clear understanding of the sales organization’s status quo, the planned goals, and developments is essential. This is precisely what the sales enablement charter should show and map. The charter is a dynamic document that will evolve according to the needs of the business. Strategic questions, which can support the creation of the charter, are: • Who are the stakeholders and sponsors involved? • What are the top priorities for leadership? • How does the program align with top leadership and go-to-­ market priorities? • What are the key metrics and KPIs for benchmarking, measurement, and correlation? (include the role and functions if possible).

Orchestration as a Decisive Success Factor for Sales Enablement The alignment and orchestration of enablement initiatives is critical to their success and acceptance within the organization. Ideal conditions for orchestration occur when there is an open corporate culture, in which all stakeholders in the company feel comfortable expressing their opinions, experiences, and observations while working together. In addition, developing an appropriate learning and coaching culture is desirable. A guide for the first steps may include the following: • Analysis of the current situation • Creating a plan based on these findings

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• Implementing communication and collaboration tools to share insights from customer conversations and content between departments such as sales and marketing teams • Leveraging virtual, hybrid, and physical environments to coach and train all stakeholders • Managing business goals against general and department-specific KPIs • Continuous monitoring of development potential Challenges: The Reality Check The basic principles of sales enablement are: • A strategic, continuous process to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales force • Focus on business needs and alignment to achieve those goals • Buy-in from executives and management is critical to successful implementation • Change management, especially during the implementation phase • Collaboration and alignment between sales, marketing, and product teams lead to more significant, strategic results • Qualitative and quantitative data as the basis of all initiatives and programs, providing information on what to look for and how effective activities are The basic principles do not change, but the tactics that lead to successful implementation do.

2.6.1 Overview of Historical Development Henry Ford had already recognized this major key to success: If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.

We also find this quote in the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” which was written by Dale Carnegie back in 1936 and is still

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1936

        


 

19401960

1980

 

  

1990

2000

  


 

2020

Fig. 2.3  Historical Development, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

read today. One of the core themes back then was better customer access and relationship building. From the 1940s to the 1960s, we speak of the “traveling salesperson” (Fig. 2.3). Most of us think of the classic door-to-door salesperson, selling household appliances and similar things. During this time, there were also the salespeople who went to visit other companies, who were constantly on the road and had extremely little supporting technology available—at most a landline. The 1980s saw the birth of strategic selling, the first formulated sales methodology. The basic principle of this method was to build a structure around the daily workflow of salespeople and to document it accordingly. Technological developments also supported the salesperson by this time. Parallel to the first sales methodology, the first cell phones came onto the market. Companies that could afford this new technology to support their sales force were able to gain a competitive technological advantage. The cell phone helped to improve the way of communicating with prospects and customers. The dawn of the age of digitization and the invention of the Internet in the 1990s brought a significant step forward in development—information at the touch of a button. Not only sales staff but customers also took advantage of this. To the same extent that salespeople could now learn more about their customers, customers suddenly acquired access to information about products and services. With this progress, another element further increased the complexity of sales; customers were much better informed about offers and products.

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Various types of new technologies conquered the market in the 2000s. Companies started to develop marketing tools and software that could interact with sales tools. This changed the way these two functions communicate and work with each other. For example, marketing campaigns were created that fed into sales solutions, giving sales reps insight into all aspects of the process. By around 2020, a scientific, data-driven sales process had developed, with artificial intelligence and similar things becoming established. All kinds of data could be collected, analyzed accordingly, processed, and passed on to the sales teams in order to help them sell better. Since the early 2020s, the focus on selling along the customer journey was established in parallel with the scientific sales process. The customer-­ first mindset and the focus on business outcomes have become progressively relevant. The new sales channels that have emerged in recent years are influencing and changing the behavior of buyers at an unprecedented speed. It is expected that these new sales channels will continue to change dramatically in the coming years. This will add an additional dynamic to the sales landscape. As has been the case in recent years, established sales channels are expected to be completely replaced by new, currently unknown sales channels. The development of the metaverse alone will open up a wide range of opportunities. The latest developments also reflect the shift to remote working as one of the consequences of the pandemic. A particular challenge for enablement teams is to provide their services remotely. This includes the full spectrum of activities, from onboarding to training and coaching to content delivery and much more. This brings us to the sales enablement challenges of the future.

2.6.2 The Path from Problem Solver to Strategic Partner in the Company Sales enablement must grow out of the sales problem solver roles and start to position itself accordingly as a contributor to business outcomes. This change was initiated by the transformation focused on the customer

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journey and continues to be reinforced. Sales enablement provides scalable, consistent tools, and processes across an entire sales cycle that is built along the customer journey. Great attention must be paid not only to increasing sales productivity, but also to consistent communication and relationship building with customers. Furthermore, sales enablement must pay tribute to the new forms of work and flexibly adapt. Adaptations are needed in the relevant areas: onboarding, coaching, metrics, technology, change management, collaboration, strategy, and leadership. Where Does the Budget for Sales Enablement Come From? Ideally, the budget item is integrated into the sales enablement charter. Controlling one’s own budget is one of the biggest challenges. In most cases, activities are cross-financed from other departmental budgets such as sales, marketing, product management, or human resources management. To ensure a sales enablement budget, meaningful performance measurement is a critical factor. Sales Enablement Key Figures A good mix of leading and lagging metrics (indicators) is recommended to show how effectively sales enablement activities are supporting business goals. There are a variety of appropriate KPIs (key performance indicators). There are many factors that contribute to successfully correlating enablement activities with performance data, while also tracking the right metrics and KPIs: • • • • •

Understand the differences between leading and lagging indicators Create enablement plans by role and function Communicate the appropriate KPIs to the team Develop a learning and coaching culture Work with operations to develop the systems and processes for scaling correlation analysis

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Table 2.2 Rates Activity metrics

Conversion rate

Key earnings figures

Number of e-mails sent

Development of the deal Progress of the phases

Bookings

Number of calls made Number of scheduled meetings Number of opportunities generated

Win rates Customer prolongation rates

Average lead response time Average sales cycle time Average volume Cost of customer acquisition Customer lifetime

Own representation, PDAgroup GmbH

Leading indicators look ahead and point the way. Lagging indicators provide an insight into the past. A financial indicator, such as sales, is a lagging indicator. Leading indicators give the opportunity to coach in real time—for example, by looking at the activities of the sales staff or the number of calls made. Lagging indicators, such as sales or quota fulfillment, show us what has already happened. These metrics give us the opportunity for strategy review and development. When leading and lagging indicators are measured in tandem, we get the most holistic view of sales performance. To have a greater impact on the business, you need to understand the activity, conversion rate, and outcome metrics (Table 2.2). Leading indicators are measurable or observable variables that predict development before it is too late.

In enablement, we do not want to wait months to find out there is a performance issue. We want to know within days and weeks how our teams are doing and how they are performing. Leading indicators are important sales metrics in the sales process to ensure that salespeople are on the right track to meeting their revenue goals. Leading indicators are important in an onboarding program for new hires to see if they are achieving the appropriate onboarding goals.

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Examples of leading indicators that provide insight into sales productivity include: • • • • • • •

Calls made E-mails sent Videos shared Open and response rates Meetings scheduled Generated opportunities Value of generated opportunities

Leading indicators support managers and enablement to increase productivity, achieve sales targets, and enable continuous growth within the sales cycle as well as future growth. Lagging indicators are reflective in nature and measure what has already happened. A lagging indicator is a metric that can be used to measure sales effectiveness. It helps to identify the business impact already achieved. Many companies today focus mainly on lagging indicators such as: • • • • •

Sales bookings Quota fulfillment Profit rate Contract renewals Cancellation rate on the part of customers

These are important, but enablement cannot make much of an impact after activities have happened in the sales process. It is not the direct impact on the individual metrics that is critical. A key issue in positioning sales enablement activities is to demonstrate the relationship with and impact on the corresponding activities.

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In sales enablement, it is critical to know what problems are being solved and which sales metrics are most important to show the impact of enablement initiatives. Access to performance data and transparency regarding sales metrics is indispensable when interacting with executives. Based on the above indicators, here are the most important metrics for sales enablement to align with executives and top management: • • • • • • • • •

Quota fulfillment Distribution of quota fulfillment Profit/loss ratios Length of sales cycle Volume of business Time to market Employee turnover Content effectiveness Customer-facing selling time

Having a clear understanding of metrics allows the enablement team to conduct data-driven conversations with decision-makers and executives, in addition to developing enablement strategies and tactics.

2.6.3 Increasing Efficiency and Effectiveness Through Customer First Sales enablement is one of the success factors for strengthening the customer-­first mindset. Instilling this customer-centric mindset among all sales employees is a core component of sales enablement. KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for monitoring and controlling the company’s performance have been established. In the context of sales enablement, the customer perspective should move to the forefront of every action, as already shown in the sales enablement charter. In this context, metrics that customers consider important—the so-called customer performance indicators (CPIs)—become relevant in order to achieve higher-level corporate goals. This is supported by the focus to align with the customer and buyer’s journey that has been mentioned several times.

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To orchestrate enablement initiatives, it is vital to measure behavioral change in the sales process along the customer journey as well as the productivity of the sales force. Additionally, implementing and measuring CPIs is recommended. Examples of CPIs: • How are customer inquiries answered? How satisfied are the customers with the conversation, the problem identification, and the solution proposals? • Which products do customers use? Which products don’t they use? • Why are customers dissatisfied? • Number of calls/interactions with added value: How often do sales employees communicate with customers? How effective are the individual interactions? • What is the length of time it takes to create and deliver a quote? Successful sales organizations strive for a balance between achieving the best results and making the best use of resources, while not leaving customers out of the equation, in line with the motto “doing the right things in the best possible way.” Sales enablement opens up the possibility of ensuring that this is not only achievable, but also sustainable. Ideally, sales and all parties involved in the customer approach should act as a single unit, seamlessly interlocking like Swiss clockwork. Feedback loops and efficient communication about customer conversations between sales colleagues and other customer-oriented employees are necessary to optimize internal processes. Through this communication, enablement teams can start to have interactions and plan optimization changes based on answering the following questions: • Are the documents that are used fulfill their purpose and do they add value? • What are the customers’ perceptions/thoughts on the content provided? • Do the documents help to facilitate the purchase decision?

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Training and coaching have an equally large impact on the mindset of a team. Customer feedback, in addition to all other data collected, serves as the basis for a comprehensive analysis of the knowledge gaps within the sales team. A balance should be struck between CPIs and KPIs, between efficiency and effectiveness. Moreoever, it is critical to ensure that the relevant metrics are aligned to a sales process that is adapted to the customer and buyer’s journey. The goal is to build an infrastructure of tools, qualifications, and content that facilitates the daily work of sales employees and offers customers and prospects the best customer experience. The goal of this sales enablement overview is to help organizations understand that sales enablement is a cross-departmental, strategic concept that requires extensive coordination, collaboration, and strategic execution. Likewise, it aims to visualize the analysis and understanding of the key support roles, responsibilities, processes, technology, content, and metrics that are essential for success.

The following steps are recommended for the introduction of a promising sales enablement system: 1. Analysis of the organizational framework.

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Need for sales support (skill and mindset) Alignment of sales and marketing Sales processes Tools and technologies

. Create business case 2 3. Create sales enablement charter 4. Introduction and implementation of first activities incl. corresponding KPIs 5. Success measurement and adjustment for further optimization

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Involving executives and top management is important from the beginning to gain the appropriate support to implement and execute the activities. Sales enablement supports sales with all its initiatives but is not responsible for sales.

2.7 Practical Example Sales enablement is a broad concept that impacts many areas and departments of a company: onboarding, coaching, metrics, technology, change management, collaboration, strategy, and leadership. For this reason, there can be various situations where companies make the initial decision to introduce or implement a sales enablement strategy. This practical example of the implementation of such a strategy describes a possible starting situation.

2.7.1 Possible Initial Situation A small company (according to the definition of the WKO up to 49 employees and an annual turnover of up to ten million) sells paper and other merchandise. This is a B2B (business to business) sales situation. The company has a sales team of 10 employees and a marketing team of 5 employees. The company has a few major customers and is trying to further expand its offering to existing customers. Customer acquisition takes place through referrals from existing customers or through selective tactics such as cold calls by the sales team. Marketing activities are limited to the company website, newsletter marketing to existing customers, and a blog integrated into the website. The company’s management reports to you, as the sales enablement expert, that the company’s sales are continually declining or flat and that the sales team is failing to meet its quotas.

2.7.2 Problem Identification of the Initial Situation The first step in any form of establishing or introducing a sales enablement strategy is to identify the company’s problems. For an initial

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overview of a company’s status quo, the following must be analyzed in detail: sales situation, sales processes, marketing procedures and existing content, corporate structures (role of management, clearly defined structures, etc.), tools or aids used, and the use of new media. For a more detailed analysis of the problems, the previously mentioned sales enablement metrics (activity metrics, conversion rate, result metrics)—if any—should also be considered. In such a scenario, several problems can be identified at once: • • • • • •

No use of sales support tools (CRM) Social selling is not used as a sales channel Social media is not used in marketing Marketing content is not used by the sales team to acquire customers No coordination between marketing and sales Management cites only lagging indicators as the basis for the sales team’s success, suggesting that management is acting too late

These problems are just some of many possible options in this scenario. Upon further inquiry, other deficiencies can be identified, such as whether there is an established onboarding process in the company, whether the sales team receives regular training and development, or, whether the company is truly customer-centric (customer experience management), etc.

2.7.3 Sales Enablement Solution Approaches Once the company’s problems have been identified, a sales enablement strategy must be developed on this basis. The primary objective in this scenario is to address the shortcomings down the road, but it should always be remembered that sales enablement is a never-ending process. It should not only act initially as a problem solver, but inevitably become a strategic partner in the company. For this reason, it is recommended to hire a sales enablement manager to fulfill this role and act as an interface between the customer-facing teams.

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To solve the problems of the company in our practical example, a sustainable sales enablement strategy must be established. The points in Table 2.3 should be taken into account here.

2.7.4 Outlook and Further Steps After the development of a sales enablement strategy for our practical example, it is time to implement this strategy. For a successful and sustainable enablement strategy, there needs to be a sales enablement manager in the company who ensures that the sales enablement strategy is properly implemented and that there is maintained communication between the customer-oriented teams. However, sales enablement managers embody more than just the interface between these different departments, they also act as motivators and orchestrators for the employees of their company and must lead by example in all matters. Sales enablement should not and cannot solve the company’s problems in the short term, only to disappear from the scene again. Sales enablement is not a one-time process, but a corporate philosophy that must be lived out. Customer-centricity and employee satisfaction are the focus of successful implementation.

2.7.5 Sales Enablement Charter for the Practical Example In Table 2.4, you will find an example of a sales enablement charter. Your Transfer into Practice • How does sales enablement as a holistic approach support different areas in becoming sales- and customer-oriented? • Which elements characterize the implementation of sales enablement in a company? • A practical example supports the transfer into your own environment.

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Table 2.3  Pillars of a sales enablement strategy Tools

Content

Key figures

Training and coaching

Establishment of sales support tools: CRM (Customer Relation Management) Project management tools Use of social media/social selling General/additional communication tools needed Establishing sales enablement content: Blogs Newsletter Social media pages (for the company and the sales staff) Whitepapers Videos Expert talks Articles/other types of publications Higher-level data: Define OKRs (Objective and Key Results) Defining KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) Implementing and measuring CPIs (Customer Performance Indicators) Lagging indicators: Sales bookings Quota fulfillment Profit rate Contract renewals Cancellation rate on the part of customers Leading indicators: Activity indicators Conversion rate Earnings indicators Other key performance indicators for sales enablement: Quota fulfillment Distribution of quota fulfillment Profit/loss ratios Length of sales cycle Business volume Time to market Employee turnover Content effectiveness Customer-facing selling time Regular employee appraisals Defining KPIs individually for each employee Regular training and development for teams as well as for individual employees Defined onboarding process

Own representation, PDAgroup GmbH

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Table 2.4  Sales enablement charter Targets

Increase revenue by XY% by identifying up-sell and cross-sell opportunities through targeted sales training. Shortening the sales pipeline time of a lead by XY% by introducting sales enablement tools. Increase in new customer acquisition by XY% leads through the incorporation of social selling. Tactics Build upon the basic knowledge of the sales team. Introducte targeted and regular sales training to increase the productivity of sales staff. Integrate sales training on up-selling, cross-­ selling, and social selling methods. Introduction of a CRM tool. Introduction of social selling as a sales channel: Sales team creates and builds their social media profiles. Development of a content strategy in coordination with marketing. Stakeholders Primary: C-Level, Sales Management, Marketing Management, Sales Team, Marketing Team Secondary: Product Management, Personnel Management Key results 6 months: CRM tool is introduced and integrated into the sales process. Basis for social selling has been laid in sales and marketing. Further training (internal and external) on the subject of up- and cross-selling. Further training on the topic of social selling. 6–12 months: Hiring of a sales enablement manager. Provision of a platform for training and content (internal) on the topic of sales enablement. Further development of the social selling strategy. Introduction of sales enablement content (external): videos, blogs, expert talks, ... Key figures Length of the sales cycle Deal size Effectiveness of content Internal “quiz” on competencies of new learners Budget Required budget: XY € 30% of the budget—Implementation and rollout of the CRM tool 50% of the budget—Training and education 20% of the budget—Additional tools Own representation, PDAgroup GmbH

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References Dugdale, K., & Lambert, D. (2011). Smarter selling: How to grow sales by building trusted relationships. Prentice Hall. ISBN-13 978-0273750444. Jefferson, R. (2021). Sales Enablement 3.0: The Blueprint to Sales Enablement Excellence. Poppy Court Publishing. ISBN 978-1736190913. Matthews, B., & Schenk, T. (2018). Sales enablement. Wiley. ISBN 978-1-119-44027-7. Melissa Madian, T. (2020). Enabler? I hardly know her! TELLWELL TALENT. ISBN 978-0-2288-4044-2. Sales Enablement Society. www.sesociety.org abgerufen am 01.07.2021. State of Sales Enablement. (2021). https://salesenablement.pro/ assets/2021/05/2021-­State-­of-­SE-­Report_SE-­PRO.pdf Walker, G. (2016). The CustomerCentric selling® field guide to prospecting and business development: Techniques, tools, and exercises to win more business. Mc-Gray Hill Education. ISBN-13 978-0071808057.

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• • • •

How to get a practical start in sales enablement? What methodology helps to develop a sales enablement strategy? Which prerequisites are important for this sales enablement strategy? Why further education, training, and coaching are essential in sales enablement? • The importance of content in sales enablement • How the implementation of a sales enablement strategy can look like, thanks to an example

As described in the previous chapters, the tasks and activities in sales have changed significantly. Digitalization and Covid-19  in particular have accelerated this development. How can the overall challenge of a sales enablement strategy and its implementation in a company be addressed? However, there are many tools and, in the context of sales enablement, also numerous offers on how the sales process can be organized, on the one hand, and on the other hand, methods and tools to support sales in these new challenges. This chapter is now about the active implementation of the sales enablement strategy. How can you successfully use the Canvas to develop a strategy? What other methods additionally accompany your company to create the implementation? © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 D. Kilian et al., Sales Enablement, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-40365-2_3

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3.1 The Sales Process Adapted to Customer Behavior Customer behavior has changed drastically in recent years. They are better at informing themselves before any contact is made with a company. In addition, purchasing processes have become increasingly more complex as more departments and decision-makers are involved. These changes must also be integrated on the sales side. This fact is further solidified by dynamic developments in sales channels and personal behavior, which is why newly established processes must also be subjected to a constant review process. Social selling has made cooperating with customers easier in some aspects, but more complex in others. The use of virtual sales, virtual presentations, and much more can promote a faster approach to customers. In addition, sales activities and training elements can be supported by the likes of artificial intelligence and business intelligence. Another key point is the collaboration between marketing and sales, which changes significantly in the context of sales enablement—they should be working together as a unit, not alone and separately. The status quo of how customer-facing departments are coordinating and working together is the starting point of all sales enablement activities. The precise identification of responsible parties, values, drivers, and sponsors of enablement initiatives is also necessary to define in these initial stages. Experience shows that these start with a sales enablement canvas, a status quo analysis of all the different areas—customer and buyer behavior, internal processes and systems, and even the mindset (Fig. 3.1).

3.2 Sales Enablement Canvas To support the development of the charter and all sales enablement activities, it is recommended to develop a sales enablement canvas (as already mentioned in Chap. 2). The central, internal driving principle in sales

3  The Practical Start in Sales Enablement 





  



  

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enablement is to help the entire organization achieve its key strategic objectives. Therefore, developing the ideal sales enablement strategy requires a complete, holistic view and understanding of your organization. The sales enablement canvas is designed exclusively to guide you through the definition and strategy development of sales enablement with specific questions, while maintaining a holistic view of all the elements and areas that flow into it.

In doing so, the canvas allows for different implementations, as there is no specific solution or one-size-fits-all method to building your sales enablement unit. You should apply it to your company’s individual needs and available resources. The canvas visualizes the relationships between your overall strategic goals, from which you derive your strategic sales and marketing goals, and finally obtain your sales enablement goals. The basis for this is the acute challenges in customer-facing interactions, combined with the precise definition of drivers and responsibilities. This is essential in order to achieve acceptance and effectiveness of sales enablement in companies. The vision and mission of sales enablement are central to its effectiveness. The working methods and enablement initiatives must ultimately be aligned with both these guiding principles. The next step is to identify the individual action steps. The final phase of the sales enablement canvas is to identify your future enablement activities within the three pillars and the foundational leadership level. While the left side of the canvas deals with the status quo, the right side deals with the vision and successes to be achieved through sales enablement. To get buy-in and good successes from enablement strategies, it is fundamental to directly relate them to corporate, sales, and marketing goals. Finally, you can combine these interrelated goals with other strategies from customer-oriented departments, resulting in your sales enablement canvas (Fig. 3.2). Through this process, it becomes transparent that the

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 CUSTOMER’S CHALLENGE

INTERNAL COMPANY CHALLENGES THAT AFFECT CUSTOMERS

      

   LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY TRAINING / COACHING / PROCESSES

  METHODS & SOFTWARE

 
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Fig. 3.2  Sales enablement canvas, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

sales enablement unit serves not only the customer-facing teams, but also the higher-level goals of your organization. On a general level, it first requires you to analyze your company’s customer-­facing challenges and opportunities from both internal and external perspectives. Then, you need to define the categories of people participating in your activation activities and strategy. You will then be asked to outline the strategic goals for the organization, sales, marketing, as well as the relevant KPIs to track the progress toward these goals. This section ensures that subsequent steps covering sales support focus areas are aligned with your organization’s stated goals. If not already documented, this provides the perfect opportunity to define, shape, and form the vision and mission of your enablement unit. We use design thinking methods to systematically work through the lessons learned from developing the deliverables of your canvas.

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3.3 Evaluation of the Status Quo— Relevant Factors The starting point for setting relevant and effective measures in sales enablement is a sound status quo analysis. Since sales enablement has a multidisciplinary approach to increasing sales performance, this should also include all customer-facing teams in the company, especially marketing, sales, and product development. This involves both functional and successful processes for collaborating, when in contact with a customer, and when faced with challenges. Ultimately, it can then be ensured that the activities developed will combine well together and all work toward the same strategic goals. Save a mass amount of time and resources while also developing a coherent customer approach by achieving successful alignment between departments, establishing clear processes, and utilizing marketing collateral consistently. The effort required to set up these processes can be kept relatively low in the operational business by applying the previously developed and coordinated processes, and this structured approach contributes significantly to conserving resources.1 On the one hand, a status quo analysis is about how departments coordinate internally with each other, with a basic focus on the buyer journey. This considers all interactions that customers have with a company. The whole customer-facing collective want to convey their message with a common language and coherent content throughout the entire communication with customers—and simultaneously be relevant at all times. This means conveying exactly the information that is required at that particular moment. This customer-centricity is a big leap from the previous, traditional sales channels, where much could be driven and controlled from within the companies. This information supports both marketing and sales in a market-­ focused strategy implementation. These analyses can be supplemented by customer surveys, the creation of customer journey maps, analyses of the  Laut Susanne Heckel (Seismic) nutzen Vertriebskollegen bis zu 50h im Monat zum Suchen und Erstellen passender Marketingunterlagen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEBqf4zswBw&lis t=PLBqk8ueGef07ZOpId2Ksko-8c3lYoaRe-&index=3 1

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company’s own social media and web presence to obtain a comprehensive picture. Based on this information, the sales enablement strategy can be developed. It is advisable to start with quick successes and “low hanging fruits” in order to kickstart the acceptance of sales enablement measures with the first few quick successes.

3.4 Creating the Right Conditions Especially in view of our current economic and global political situation, long-term planning and key figures are becoming increasingly difficult to assess correctly. In recent years, our situation in the VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) has been given a further characterization: BANI (Brittle/Fragile, Anxious/Non-Linear, and Incomprehensible) (Grabmeier, 2020). Due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, the climate crisis, and also the geopolitical crisis, the fundamentals of daily life and the economy have been completely overhauled. Situations can very rapidly lead to the demise of successful models and methods. There is a rather anxious mood regarding the future. Developments are unexpected and often current events become almost inconceivable or impossible to understand. But if straightforward planning is no longer possible, it is also feasible to focus on creating good framework conditions. In this context, it is essential to develop the foundations for self-directed learning. But what does learning mean in this context? Martin Heidegger says: “Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teaching calls for is this: to let learn!” It is necessary to give learners the right environment for holistic and self-directed learning. They need to be clear about their capabilities and orientation, and based on this knowledge, focus on their future “cognitive, psychometric, emotional and social learning.” In the process, it has become clear that a company-wide change in attitude toward learning and integrating new things, including corporate leadership and management, is necessary for this change to work successfully.

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A successful learning culture starts with the buy-in and participation of the company’s management. Management must be actively involved in the change process in order to create structural and long-term success.

3.5 Continuing Education, Training, and Coaching Our knowledge is currently doubling every 4 years. In order to cope with this exponential growth in information, companies and their employees must constantly adapt to new situations. It is essential to not lose touch with what is relevant, and this can be achieved by continuing education, learning new competencies, and offering self-reflected or self-directed learning opportunities for all employees. In sales, too, there are different tactics for staying up-to-date. This subchapter describes the measures companies can apply, offer, and use in the area of training and coaching to drive the change process in an organization that wants to develop in sales. Further Training as a Basis for the Development of Employees in Sales Enablement Learning, and even more so the willingness to learn, is an essential building block for the further development of organizations in change processes. Change processes in modern companies are usually accompanied by training measures. As a rule, training takes place not only for managers, but for all those affected. Only when the employees of a company are willing to change and learn, and if the basis for learning is supplied, can renewal take place. Self-directed learning is the self-imposed urge for further development. Holistic learning is to be considered in the context of the person with its totality in relation to the past and future of learning development.

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Models of learning It is an interesting fact that in the first 3 months after entering a new job, there is generally little learning development. The new employees gather information, ask many questions, and simply observe their new environment. The next 18 months consists of the highest learning development, which subsequently levels off and after 36 months there is almost no change. A similar phenomena can be observed when moving within a company to new tasks or departments. Overall, 160 particularly ambitious people who have goals in mind or are willing to change and develop are looking for new challenges in a stagnating situation. In this context, it is initially about developing the person themselves, and only later about their relationship with the organization. Further information on this topic of Continuing Education in Change Processes (Kilian, 2009). Nowadays, there are many different learning models. These have two fundamentals in common: active learning, on the one hand, and the direct implementation of learning elements on the other, in order to learn and train skills as sustainably as possible [e.g. 70/20/10 model—where the aim is to experience as much as possible so 70% of learning is in applied settings, 20% of learning is through social learning and only 10% of learning is in a traditional learning experience (Doll, 2021)]. The goal is to achieve a fundamental behavioral change in learning. Moving away from more consumption-driven learning (prescribing and providing content, passive learning opportunities, knowledge review and assessment—driven by a few), it is about adopting a completely new way of thinking about learning and teaching. Learning is no longer “stockpiled,” but knowledge elements must be directly available at the right moments and in the place where they are needed. Modern learning management systems and sales enablement platforms greatly help to meet these requirements. Learning elements are much more strongly packaged in the form of microlearnings, i.e. small learning bites. Each of these smaller elements has their own self-contained aspect and can be worked through piece by piece. There are no limits to the design of the microlearnings. There are many interesting aspects such as storytelling, gamification, etc., that learners want to keep interested and interactive. Due to information being available everywhere, employees are becoming increasingly

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impatient with learning content that is overly elaborate and poorly developed. At the same time, teachers must also adapt to new methods of didactics, a new independence, and a new speed of knowledge transfer and propagation. Knowledge Management With the rapid growth of knowledge in our society, and increasingly complex issues, the transfer and organization of knowledge when employees collaborate becomes more relevant. In contrast to learning strategies, where employees are expected to absorb and internalize information, the first step in knowledge management is to externalize information from employees. This becomes important to create synergies between individuals and entire departments because collaboration in today’s network society is an effective way to gain more knowledge. In addition, a comparably higher turnover than a few years ago brings further challenges. Obstacles in knowledge management are often systemic and only secondarily driven by individuals. Therefore, systemic and organizationally driven changes are required: • Knowledge complexity: When trying to collect and categorize knowledge in any way, there are countless possibilities. One speaks of implicit (acquired knowledge, but not documented) and explicit (clearly documented knowledge) knowledge. Implicit knowledge can be captured, for example, by means of the debriefing method. Explicit knowledge is already documented and can be made available in this way... • Willingness to be transparent: Nowadays, it is easier to create complete transparency simply because of the possibilities granted by technology. Especially in times of cloud solutions and shared documents, transparent working is a question of readiness, culture, and attitude. Here in particular, obstacles can arise that need to be broken down. This works with a team of employees

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that believe in team culture and team collaboration; with teams consisting of lone wolves, many opportunities are missed. • Time resources: Documentation, knowledge sharing, and learning are a time-­ consuming task. Here again, it is a matter of management deciding to prioritize that this task is equally important and successful. • Lack of coherence and informal pathways: Increased remote working means that chance (informative) encounters in the coffee kitchen or the hallway are eliminated. Team structures can suffer in this context, information channels can break away, and thus a great deal of knowledge is not passed on. This type of knowledge should not be underestimated and should also be passed on. Ultimately, this is purely a question of attitude and team culture. The basis for the transfer of knowledge is an open learning culture within a company and examining the problem of learning in organizations. In this context, the guiding paradigm of the network society has become established. But this mindset is yet to be widespread everywhere. In many companies, knowledge is still “hoarded” in departments or by managers, and in an initial analysis, it is often unclear why this happens. Therefore, the first step is to clarify the reason for this and how it can be changed. An important step is to become aware of the reasons that prevent learning in the company or among individuals. If all levels are positively prepared, and a procedure is established to continuously improve upon a structured process to transfer knowledge, then companies can be called a learning and knowledge-oriented organization. An essential basis for the development of knowledge is the recognition of implicit and explicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge: systems, procedures, technologies, guidelines, patents, trademarks—this is knowledge that is methodically and systematically acquired and can be transmitted and stored using IT technology tools.

Implicit knowledge: Culture, values, skills, organizational knowledge, informal networks—is based on intuition, experiences, and feelings. It is not conscious knowledge for the person concerned and is, therefore, also difficult to transfer.

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Cooperation Between Generations A significant challenge in sales today is the clash of different generations, namely digital natives and digital adopters. The younger generations are much more familiar with modern sales platforms and techniques, even if they lack industry knowledge and experience. This creates tension between the generations which must be resolved for the benefit of the company and its employees. Here it is essential to understand the sales department as a team, where each employee supports one another. However, there is often even less of a team feeling, exacerbated by remote work and field service. Learning culture and managers are clearly needed here. The idea of “H2H”—i.e. “human to human”—is essential, especially when it comes to collaboration. We do not sell to companies but to the people who work for companies. This means that networks, cooperation, and informal channels remain very important. These can be better utilized through a shared “we” culture within the sales team. Of course, cross-generational networking and support are also on the agenda. Such diverse teams can reach a conclusion much faster than incoherent teams. Learning and Training in Sales In addition, it is important to integrate the new learning content into everyday working life. If required, learning then occurs in small bites (microlearning). This is the only way to ensure continuous integration of development opportunities into everyday working life. In addition, there are some basic requirements for modern learning, such as the easy and intuitive access to learning materials. This means it can be found directly where it is to be learned, which could include mobile access and also at the POI (Point of Interest). Modern sales enablement software includes information and learning elements exactly at the point where they are used. In addition, targeted training and moments to practice different interactions with customers are paramount to success along the entire sales cycle, from the first conversation up until closing. New concepts,

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questioning techniques, and presentations must be tested in a protected environment. The opportunities and resources required for this (time, in particular, is an elementary part that is often neglected in corporate learning) must be made available to the sales staff. It has been shown that challenging training, which in this case is “harder” than real customer acquisition, can bring about better success (Winters, 2018). Try to adopt a holistic and participation-based approach when creating training and derived development plans within your organization.

Coaching In recent years, sales coaching has established itself as a method to make an impactful difference. Sales coaching has been proven to have the greatest impact on sales success. Nevertheless, coaching in sales is a delicate matter. On the one hand, sales managers lack the necessary coaching skills to support their employees adequately. On the other hand, there is the question of who among the sales staff should receive coaching. While coaching often focuses on both the most successful and unsuccessful salespeople, the most gains can be made from coaching the individuals that find themselves in the middle (Dixon, 2011). Coaching is unleashing a person’s potential to maximize their performance. It is helping them learn rather than teaching them (Timothy Gallwey).

A key factor here is that sales coaching explicitly supports employee development. Additionally, sales managers usually view their coaching performance as much greater than the associated employees (Edinger, 2015). As a result, sales coaching cannot be just an ad hoc activity, but must be done in a formal coaching setting, especially by trained coaches.

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3.6 Technology and Tools As already described, the marketing/sales process is supported digitally or virtually. IT support is required and necessary throughout the entire interaction with customers. Which tools and which technology can be used is described below with some important examples. The evolution of sales enablement brings a large amount of technology that can help sales and marketing teams optimize their work. In the previous sections, we mentioned that sales leaders rely on robust analytics and measurement to accomplish their tasks and report on ROI. Implementing sales enablement tools can yield significant benefits in quota achievement. Best-in-class companies implement sales enablement platforms and see a 50% increase in quota achievement. Here is a select list of technologies that should be part of a successful sales stack. Analyses and Surveys Before implementing changes within a company, it is important to understand the current state of sales, marketing, and other customer-­ facing departments. The initial role of sales enablement is to analyze the available sales and marketing data in a structured way. The data can be found in multiple sources, including customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation software, prospecting tools, and sales asset management tools, to paint a complete picture of the sales process and its performance. In addition to these analyses, direct surveys of customers and partners are absolutely necessary to gain further insights and derive actions, e.g., to focus on the “right ones” for new customers, this basis can be drawn from a customer survey, e.g. “Why did they choose us or our products?”. Surveys can be implemented using various IT tools or via agencies. Using tools such as Qualtrics, Leapsome, or others is essential for frequent surveys. BI (Business Intelligence), Big Data, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) Business Intelligence (BI) supports companies or departments in their decision-making through the targeted evaluation of data based on

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structured reports. Big data can be seen as a consequent extension of BI that not only draws data from the corporate environment (ERP, CRM), but also supplies relevant information from outside the company (Internet). Thus, with the use of big data solutions, one can obtain even better results for decision support. Artificial Intelligence (AI) goes a significant step further than big data, it connects many data sources, and based on previously defined algorithms in the background, generates decision-making routes and independently executes those which are possible. Machine learning as part of or a step toward AI enables systems to work with each other, network, and optimize or improve themselves independently. Chatbots Support in quickly answering customer questions, but also internally within the company, is becoming increasingly important. In the past, attempts were made to intercept some of the questions via “Frequently Asked Questions” or to answer them via the website or other information portals. With chatbots, one goes a significant step further, as the questions asked are answered via IT solutions and voice systems. The answers are based on an acquired and learned information base. Chatbots are now in use in many areas and are constantly evolving. Customer Relationship Management CRM software is an essential tool for all businesses. Its main function is to manage customer data and interactions throughout the sales process. There are many benefits to using a strong CRM system. The most important benefit for the sales enablement team is that data from a well-­ maintained CRM system improves customer contact, team collaboration, productivity, revenue forecasting, and sales metrics, to name a few. CRM solutions are offered by the likes of HubSpot, Membrain, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP, and numerous other companies. When deciding on a CRM solution, the focus is on the actual and future need for departments, the ability to integrate with existing, e.g., ERP solutions, but also on the ease of use of the solution. When implementing the software solution, it is important to involve the sales staff and to ensure that they all work actively with the solution and thus keep the data current. This can

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be integrated as a qualitative KPI in the employees’ goals to ensure that the data is up-to-date. CPQ Software Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software allows companies to create accurate and configured quotes for complex products. CPQ software helps salespeople create their quotes according to business rules while meeting the customer’s needs. It ensures that prices are correct and that all information is effortlessly put into a format that is then sent to customers. This speeds up the sales process. Customer Journey Another function of sales enablement is to focus more on the buying process, customer needs, and customer journeys across different industries and markets. This type of market knowledge is invaluable. The customer journey map helps the company to best manage the necessary steps to acquire the customer or even to expand the offerings for existing customers. Data Analysis With high investment in time, resources, and money, data analytics is a key performance driver for sales enablement. It ensures that the team is using marketing content and that training is driving real behavior change and improvement. Today’s technology makes it easier to monitor the effectiveness of the sales process, and adjustments can be made based on real data rather than subjective assumptions. How this can be done is also described in sections BI, Big Data, and AI. Purchase/Sale Portals Such portals support the sales and purchasing processes but also further data processing. Tenders are presented in the market via these portals, and one can apply for the tender and submit offers. Subsequently, the entire process, such as awarding the contract, managing the company data of both parties, invoicing, etc., is coordinated directly via the system. Thus, you can perform ongoing order tracking and use the information to support the supply chain process.

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In these purchase/sales portals, all important suppliers and customers can be located, so you can be quite sure that no tender will go unanswered. For the sales department, these portals have become a significant gateway into supervising the possible orders or offers to existing and new customers. IT-Supported Communication The term IT-supported communication covers many areas, such as webinars, newsletters, online communication, e-mail automation, mobile working, etc. Essentially, it refers to all fields of communication that are supported by software solutions. When we talk about IT-supported communication in the marketing and sales environment, we primarily refer to information that is distributed to the customer. Webinars: Online events for sharing information with customers and partners, typically offered via invitations to a contact distribution list or more openly, e.g. via LinkedIn. Newsletters: Bundled and compact information with links to topics that may be relevant for prospects and customers. These newsletters are usually distributed via e-mail. Due to the large amount of continuously distributed information, newsletters must be prepared in an attention-­ grabbing way with links to further articles, integrated images, and videos. Otherwise, there is the risk that the recipient will not pay attention to them. Online communication: Any form of communication carried out via tools such as Google Meets, MS Teams, Zoom, or many other software solutions. Due to digitalization and Covid-19, these tools have become solidified and indispensable in companies. Now it is a matter of sensible use and a clear change between online and personal communication with customers and partners—keyword: hybrid communication. Mobile working: Due to the spread and use of online tools for communication and online work, mobile working (working from wherever you want) has almost become the standard of the modern workplace. In almost all organizations, mobile working and home office are offered to employees for tasks where its not imperative to be face-to-face.

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Email automation: It is to be seen in the sales and marketing climate as a support for targeting information to customers. Automated and partially automated links to important information are distributed via e-mail. It is important that the data is stored in a CRM system or that distribution via CRM systems is supported so that all information can be found directly in the customer account and tracked accordingly. Lead Analytics, Qualification and Management The aim is to analyze prospective and existing customers, identify their potential, and translate this into a strategy for further processing. Market analyses and customer surveys provide the basic data for analyzing leads: Why have existing customers decided in favor of the company, product, or service? This information flows into the customer journey or another tool for processing and collecting customer data. The results are used to qualify the customers and determine the next steps. Then you can start to classify leads based on level of priority, taking all criteria into account; deal size, growth potential, other customers who have chosen the products and why, references, contacts, decision period, budget, etc. Customer and lead management is about systematically approaching and managing existing and potential customers to keep the pipeline filled. The control and management of customers, orders, the team as a whole, and each account manager is carried out via the CRM system and additional functions. Lead Generation As in the lead analytics environment, lead generation aims to generate sufficient potential customers or, in the case of existing customers, follow-­up sales opportunities to maintain a healthy pipeline. Lead generation is carried out in cooperation with marketing and based on strategic planning. Leads are generated via campaigns (social media and traditional), webinars and other supporting online measures, online or live trade fairs, direct contact with sales staff, and all other marketing/sales measures that incite contact with potential customers.

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Marketing Automation Software Companies can automate many of their marketing activities with marketing automation software, especially web-based services. It can enable companies to optimize marketing tasks and operations. The advantage of marketing automation software is that it can measure the effectiveness of content sent to potential customers by automatically sending them updates and informtion to maintain customer loyalty. Experience shows that salespeople still need help to use a CRM system in detail, but at the same time this is where the greatest potential for sales success can be found. Product/Offer Visualization Today, the offers that a company wants to position in the market have to be presented in various ways. The search for potential solutions and products usually occurs via online platforms, recommendations, or a direct search on the Internet. Thus, as described in the SEO section below, it is important to present yourself so website visitors can find you quickly and to describe your products or services clearly and simply. This is realized with the product and offer visualization. This can be achieved using simple descriptions with supporting images, case stories or via video-­ testimonials. The implementation can vary, but be sure to choose the best form to describe the product, solution, or service, or to combine a mix of different possibilities. Potential customers must receive the information they need for a (preliminary) decision very quickly and easily. Sales Enablement Platforms This software category helps companies store, organize, track, and share sales materials so that sales reps can easily find them. The main function of sales enablement platforms is to provide a single source where relevant marketing content for each stage of the sales process can be found. The information obtained through analytics in the background can make an applicable difference in targeting customers correctly. S.I. Software Sales Intelligence (S.I.) software is a collection of technologies that enable sales managers to analyze and integrate sales data from internal and

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external sources. The goal is to provide better data analysis to improve decision-­making and increase sales performance. Sales Tech Automation Includes a variety of solutions available for sellers to conduct research about their customers and competitors, but also the ability to communicate with potential buyers. The world of B2B sales is becoming increasingly digital. Sales enablement ensures that salespeople have the sales technology and training to use these tools to optimize their sales performance. SEO/SEA Search Engine Optimization and Advertising SEO serves to design a homepage so that visitors will easily find the information they are searching for, leading the website to be ranked high in search queries. It is, therefore, about the company and how its offers can be found on the Internet as quickly as possible. SEA is about targeted advertising (with search engine providers such as Google or Bing) to support SEO. Social Networks and Social Selling Social networks such as LinkedIn, XING, Facebook, or others can serve as another channel to sell a company’s services and products. On the one hand, the company will have its presence in these networks, and on the other hand, employees in contact with customers can present themselves in these networks. It is important that the information presented via the account is clear, coherent, and naturally linked to the company. Individuals need to separate private between professional matters and thus present themselves clearly and unambiguously in these networks. Social selling leverages being active on social networks to support sales. This can be done by using blogs to draw attention to oneself or the offers of the company one represents. It would be conceivable to use these social media pages to send invitations to be visible and position oneself in related fields. Moreoever, social sellings lends one the chance to present

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themselves in this network in order to be deemed—reduced to the lowest denominator—as an expert. Sales Content The primary role of sales enablement is to guide marketing to create relevant and insightful content that can engage buyers and customers throughout every stage of their journey with your company. This content can take many forms, from blogs, whitepapers, customer testimonials and webinars to industry reports and presentations. The most important precedent is to speak the customer’s language and ensure that the content addresses challenges and concerns that matter to them. Sales Training A key component of sales enablement is providing the proper training to the sales team to improve their individual and overall team’s sales performance. Successful enablement strategies have several ways to provide targeted sales training to their teams. Training types include product training, sales tool training, and sales skills training. These can all be delivered in various of ways, including microlearnings, virtual, classroom learning, and coaching. Up-/Cross-selling Up-/cross-selling refers to all measures aimed primarily at expanding existing offerings to existing customers, e.g., more software solutions users, or selling additional products and services. The potential analysis of up-/crossselling starts at the lead generation or qualification phase and continues along the entire customer cycle. The potential data flows into sales planning and thus in many cases represents a significant contribution to generating sales. Companies must ensure that they can achieve a good mix of new customer business and follow-up sales to familiar customers. Web Analytics and Tracking WEB analytics and the tracking of acquired data pertains to the evaluation of data, e.g. on the use of the homepage, how long “visitors” linger

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on individual pages and products, how quickly one of these pages is found, and the click path of users. All this information supplies contextual detail to decisions, on how to further develop the homepage or utilize advertising measures. The data is associated with SEO/SEA as described before and, therefore, also for the application planning or the investment of money in the online advertising environment and the ongoing development of how a company chooses to present itself online (e.g., homepage). Web Stores Web stores are used to sell products and services online. You can set up your own web stores directly linked from the homepage, or make a sale through platforms like Amazon or others. Web stores are also used to make products and offers more visible. As one uses these, they are to be integrated clearly into a sales strategy and planning, in order not to cannibalize itself. However, they have become an essential sales channel for many companies and offer many opportunities in this way.

3.7 Content Structure and Offer The provision of up-to-date information, internally for employees and externally for customers and partners, is imperative in today’s world. When providing information, it is important that content can be found quickly and easily, but also equally significant to ensure that it is up-to-­ date and thus provides the searcher with the right assistance in answering a question or searching for specific information, e.g. on the company’s products. The provision of information can be realized directly via the homepage, the company’s intranet, an integrated LMS (Learning Management System), or even in the sales enablement software itself. All cases must take the points listed—quick to find, up-to-date, clear assistance in response to questions—into account. In addition, the challenges of the General Data Protection Regulation and the possible separation of externally/internally provided information must be considered, as well as the need for information to be continuously updated.

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Content for Your Team Salespeople use sales materials when they are in contact with customers. They are purposely created to motivate customers, arouse their interest, and make buying a product or service easier. Training is required for the skillful and targeted use of sales materials. Communication between sales and marketing departments is necessary to create effective and compelling sales materials. Information from customer interactions can help marketers create more targeted content, increasing the likelihood of a successful close. Sales enablement reinforces the importance of regular meetings between these departments to encourage information sharing. Enablement content, on the other hand, has a purely internal audience and serves several purposes: • Informs all stakeholders about upcoming challenges in management and specific departments • Supports employees in developing specific skills that are not quite up to speed • Informs employees about competition, trends, and market developments • Improves the work expereince of salespeople, especially new hires with checklists and other helpful documents • Highlights discrepancies between expectations and behaviors at various stages of the sales process • Communicates upcoming training sessions that employees can attend • Ensures that salespeople use the same approach when communicating with customers by storing and regularly updating product and service information Content for Customers

The sales enablement strategy defines what content is created and observes whether it is used efficiently and effectively. It should be stored in such a way that salespeople can easily find it when performing their tasks. Relevant content should be easily accessible for interactions with specific customers. An evaluation of which elements are helpful and often used can help to shape future development accordingly.

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A company’s customers and interested parties must also be provided with content so that they can keep themselves informed. This information is offered via the homepage and customers can be granted selective access to their own “knowledge management,” i.e. documents that are also used internally. It is generally important that the sales staff can refer customers and interested parties to this information and reflects the same knowledge shared internally, albeit less extensively. The provision of this company/product/service information can be done via an LMS-­driven tool.

3.8 A Concrete Example The Company Our example company is a medium-sized mechanical engineering company with around 2500 employees, we simply call it MABAU. MABAU develops and builds special machines for the electronics industry and was founded in 1970. Due to growth in the electronics and electrical engineering environment and subsequent growth in the IT industry, the company has grown rapidly and is now represented worldwide directly, through service, and contract partners. MABAU has 25 sales employees responsible for direct customer support, developing the sales network, and supporting the sales/service partners. The last few years have been extremely challenging for MABAU: the market has continued to evolve and the competition is now stronger, but through continuous innovation MABAU has been able to maintain its position. Covid-19 and the resulting changes for the sales team of MABAU were enormous, and so the question arose as to how these challenges could be solved quickly and in a future-oriented manner. The short-term goal was to expand the existing customer base quickly and to win new customers. Furthermore, this was to be achieved under the changed conditions with virtual sales and, after the Covid measures had been completed, with a hybrid sales model. The First Step The decision was made to hold a workshop to formulate some sales options to promote further growth with existing and new customers.

    
   
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Also included in the workshop was the sales management, selected sales employees, and a person from marketing. The procedure and measures were developed during an account growth workshop (Fig. 3.3). The aim was to achieve rapid success and confirm the need for further measures and steps for the company, and similarly, to motivate the people involved. After a sound analysis of existing and potential customers, a solid account growth plan is drawn up in which future goals are documented transparently so that concrete work can be done to implement them. In addition, defined measures and activities are used to improve relationships with key customers. In the account growth workshop, our experts demonstrate an innovative approach that allows them to expand their existing customer contacts and develop sales opportunities. Applying design thinking tools and techniques in the account growth process enables sales teams to gain a deeper understanding of their customers’ businesses, including their key and end customers. The approach enables new sales potential to be identified and maximized within an existing customer base. In addition, potential new customers and markets are identified and planned for. Account growth plans are created for the next 3 years which address the basic needs of the customers. As a result, participants can generate long-term revenue streams and identify up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. Following the workshop, a clear task plan was developed as a project plan. A 3–6 month activity plan was created for all sales staff, which was focused on working with existing customers and acquiring new customers. Accompanying measures included supportive market analyses to obtain data for sales, the targeted revision of product descriptions, and training sales staff in the methods of digital sales. The Second Step It was decided to implement further steps for the sales department’s transformation into the hybrid world. This was only after achieveing the first successes within the first 6 months of completing the workshop, the accompanying coaching, and the training they received about the digital/ virtual sales ecosystem.

Fig. 3.4  Sales enablement canvas MABAU, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

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The Sales Enablement Canvas Workshop As described in Sect. 3.2, the sales enablement canvas method (Fig. 3.4) is a basis for aligning sales for the future, building holistically on MABAU’s strategy. The actions orginating from the sales enablement canvas were incorporated into an implementation plan and realized step by step with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders. The Third Step—Implementation of Sales Enablement The implementation of the sales enablement canvas for MABAU has further advanced the focus on customer/market development. Numerous other ideas, including the evolving requirements of the market, have been coordinated between sales, marketing, and development. It was highlighted by the discussions across the different departments that an even stronger and focused cooperation from all areas will be necessary to support the growth of MABAU. Based on these results, MABAU’s management decided to holistically implement the sales enablement organization, of which some aspects were already in place, and to transform the company to meet future challenges. As already described, activities were defined in the following areas: –– Introduction of sales enablement software for consistent implementation and traceability of interactions and content –– Training of all customer-facing employees in hybrid customer contact: company-wide definition of which appointments can take place online and which can take place on-site –– Additional training in virtual communication –– Defined processes in all areas of customer interaction that are transparent for all employees –– Re-introduction of a CRM, including training on proper contact management –– Creation of informative and appropriate content for internal and external use

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The Fourth Step—Ongoing Development Over the past 18 months since the workshop, the sales transformation measures have allowed MABAU to grow by a further 20%, and to a large extent, the implementation of the sales enablement strategy and organization has already been realized. Now the plan to further develop and navigate MABAU has to be secured. For this purpose, it was decided to conduct an annual review of the corporate planning (annual workshop over 2 days) and the sales canvas within the core team and to adapt them to the changed framework conditions. Based on the results of this planning, a monthly sales review is carried out, and a detailed analysis of the results and the planning data for the next quarter is carried out quarterly. The development of sales, the acquisition of new customers, and the further development of existing customers are accompanied by sales coaching, and all steps are measured in order to have a basis for each further development step. Your Transfer Into Practice • An analysis of the current situation, documentation, and the derivation of actions in the sales enablement canvas create the basis for all future initiatives. • The training courses that are helpful in sales enablement and digital sales are summarized. • The overview of the supporting tools provides an introductory explanation and encourages further discussion of the topics. • The MABAU example supports reflection upon the company’s own situation and the extraction of possible steps for one’s own company.

References Dixon, A. (2011). The dirty secret of effective sales coaching. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2011/01/the-­dirty-­secret-­of-­effective Doll, T. (2021). Das 70:20:10 -Modell  – Lernen neu Entdecken. Haufe Akademie. https://www.haufe-­akademie.de/blog/themen/personalentwicklung/das-­702010-­modell-­lernen-­neu-­entdecken/

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Edinger. (2015). Sales teams need more (and better) coaching. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2015/05/a-­high-­percentage-­move-­to-­increase-­ revenue Grabmeier, S. (2020). BANI vs. VUCA. https://stephangrabmeier.de/ bani-­vs-­vuca/ Kilian, D. (2009). Weiterbildung in Veränderungsprozessen. Suedwestdeutscher Verlag fuer Hochschulschriften. ISBN-13: 978-3838103549. Winters. (2018). How we made our sales training more effective by making it harder. Harvard Business Review.

4 Hybrid Sales Approach and Sales Enablement

What you Take Away from this Chapter • Knowledge of hybrid customer behavior and thus also a hybrid sales approach. • You will gain an understanding of the distinction between digital sales and sales enablement and what they have in common. • What organizational development do you need to implement to maximize sales success?

For Sales to Respond in the Way Customers Expect Today When we ask ourselves what now distinguishes the concept of digital sales and the concept of sales enablement from one another, particularly in the B2B sector, we want to pick up on relevant aspects here and thus help clarify this question. In choosing the different sales strategies, we want to point out at this point that we do not believe that digitalization and the use of digital media should be understood as the golden standard for modern sales. On the contrary, we often see the use of classic sales methods, for example personal customer approaches, etc., as the right tool of choice and even © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023 D. Kilian et al., Sales Enablement, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-40365-2_4

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as a means for differentiating. It is evident that even with a high level of digitalization, the significant aspects of entrepreneurial activity take place in the real world. Virtual and real routes in the customer experience and their decision-making process behind a purchase decision occur alongside each other. They should not only be coordinated with each other but in the best case, complement each other and even open up the possibility of being combined. Thus, it should first be acknowledged that the term digital sales refers to the importance of the communication possibilities that have changed due to digitization and its impact on sales. This is completely independent of the change in internal company processes and structures. It is precisely for this reason that the concept of sales enablement exists, and demonstrates the effects of digitalization on customer expectations and outlines how to correspondingly adapt the processes and coordination within a company. The purpose is to convey as consistent an impression as possible with a uniform, non-contradictory message to the outside world and to ensure that customer enquiries are processed quickly. This is a task to be taken seriously since both goals, although at first glance are very well suited to each other, can be difficult to optimize simultaneously. This is in consideration with tackling existing structures and processes. If we assume that, ideally, all the information available to customers (here, for example, we mean existing posts and ratings on the Internet) are to be coordinated with one another, then it becomes clear that this requires time for coordination and adaptation. The situation is further complicated by the fact that nowadays, customers have their individual expectations on what they require and, thus, adaptations must be additionally presented and communicated. Quotations also need to be prepared individually, quickly, and without contradiction across departments. Such systemization takes time and can only be realized at first glance without resistance and conflicts within the company. In order to master such requirements, a major rethinking is usually needed, a change process, the focal point of which should always be customer satisfaction. This suffers from inconsistent information policies and contradictory statements. Sales enablement, as we have presented it in this book, is intended to sharpen the view of this necessary change and shows concepts and procedures for mastering these challenges in a company.

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Fig. 4.1  Change, PDAgroup GmbH (own design)

Digital sales, on the other hand, aims to focus in particular on those aspects undergoing major change due to digitalization and must therefore be taken into account in the corporate decision-making process. The key influences for digital sales shown in Fig. 4.1 are relevant here. In this context, the question arises as to whether a new role is needed to coordinate these digital, entrepreneurial challenges within the company? On this topic, many are now talking about the new job position of Chief Digital Officer (CDO). The task of the CDO is to coordinate the tasks mentioned above and very different challenges in the company, and to build up expertise to be able to implement business decisions and projects efficiently. Their task is also to introduce a new corporate culture and integrate the effects of digitalization into the company’s self-image.

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The tasks of the new management position of CDOs were analyzed and summarized by Walchshofer and Riedl (2017), based on job advertisements in German-speaking countries. Essentially, this involves shaping the digital transformation in companies. Cross-functional work, technical competence, project management, and soft skills are basic requirements. Ideally, their location in the company structure is in top management. In addition to coordinating tasks, their core activities are seen in developing digital business models and, correspondingly, in facilitating the digital development of the company (Walchshofer & Riedl, 2017). This role or position clearly supports sales enablement. It requires the integration of digitalization to organize the three pillars of sales enablement and all internal stakeholders involved. The following is a list of the coordination tasks that are the responsibility of the sales enablement team leader: • Support in deriving the SE targets from the corporate strategy • Joint definition of SE objectives derived from the corporate strategy together with top management • Discussion and determination of the initial investment into SE • Creation of an SE team • Ongoing communication with top management to consistently align the sales enablement strategy with corporate objectives • Establish or improve communication and collaboration among all teams with customer interaction/contact • Optimize collaboration between customer-facing teams • Design and optimization of the customer experience • Adjust sales enablement strategy according to data collected, the evolving needs of internal stakeholders, and goals communicated by management In general, the cooperation between marketing and sales departments is definitely influenced by digitalization, according to a recent study by Hauer et  al. (2021). Despite the fundamental customer orientation in general, differences are evident in the respective assessment of their priorities and performance. The authors point to four key integration

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mechanisms that force integration and can thus lead to better overall performance for the respective company. These are mutatis mutandis, common structures, processes (author’s note: these can, of course, also be strongly promoted by the use of common IT systems), common culture and personnel. A common understanding of customers, the corporate environment, the competition, and the company are cited as moderating factors. Leadership, i.e., management quality, is also cited as an important factor (Hauer et al., 2021). Implementing a sales enablement strategy requires a change in the corporate culture and often also in the corporate organization. From today’s perspective, there is a very close link between organizational development and the team’s willingness to learn. This is due, among other things, to the necessity of learning while experiencing ongoing change processes. The connection of Lewin’s 3-phase model with learning in companies can appear as follows: • Phase 1: Unfreezing the environment of learning, intervention, opening for learning readiness. • Phase 2: Moving from the learning perspective in this step is the training itself. • Phase 3: Freezing, implementation in the change of action of the actors. In the nineties of the twentieth century, the concept of the learning organization was coined, carried by Peter Senge and a group of researchers at MIT (USA) and other representatives such as Chris Argyris or Donald A. Schön. The considerations in the direction of a new form of organization, in which learning is central, build on the insights of Lewin and the pioneers of organizational development. In this context, we want to point out learning agile working principles, which, as we will see in a moment, hold promising concepts in store. But there is still an unfilled gap when it comes to orchestrated coordination of sales activities in a company, which is decided by the board and implemented by the CDO in many different digitalization projects. This is because, in order to direct the full force of the company to its sales activities, there is now an even greater need for a orchestration role that aligns product promises, sales, IT solutions, etc.—and not an isolated

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improvement in the sense of process optimization, but on an ongoing basis. Newly acquired customers may bring with them new expectations, and, as we have seen, the habits of customers and employees are also changing in the short term. Agile forms of organization that do not rigidly adhere to familiar, previously practiced structures but organize themselves and their teams flexibly, would be a perfect response to the streamlined adaptation of a company’s internal workings to the constantly changing environment. The opposite, so to speak, is a company’s reaction to simply add a new “digitalization department” to its existing organization due to its growing importance. One might even suspect that the very categorization of “department” was more indicative of the intended further division and compartmentalization. Teams that are primarily oriented toward customer requests and projects and then only spend a small portion of their attention on administration tasks would be a fitting image for the concepts presented in this book. It brings priority to a short, well-coordinated cycle time for the realization of customer requests and places the customer at the center of attention. The resulting value should then automatically promise the greatest customer benefit and, in the best case, also optimize staff satisfaction, because customer proximity and the feeling of having worked directly on the product or service has a generally positive affect on motivation. In their book “Das Scrum-Prinzip, Agile Organisationen aufbauen und gestalten” (The Scrum Principle, Building and Designing Agile Organizations), the authors Gloger and Margetich argue for an expansion of the agility principle from pure project development according to SCRUM principles to a development and redesign of the entire organization, and provide corresponding instructions for action or go into detail about best practices (Gloger & Margetich, 2018). Within the scope of our experience, we can not only confirm that the management of agile projects promises success but also that the inclusion of departmental and then by extension, the corporate organization is a timely and promising concept. The change in our traditional ways of working has contributed to the acceptance of such concepts. Now it is necessary to work on this prepared field accordingly.

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Your Transfer into Practice • A single sales process in a company is usually not enough—different approaches such as “hybrid sales” must be implemented (digital and classic, or different approaches in the respective model). • For further development in the new environment, change support must be implemented to ensure the success of the transformation. • In general, agility, i.e., flexible adaptation based on the results of the quarterly checks and the annual planning, is important.

References Gloger, B. & Margetich, J. (2018). Das Scrum-Prinzip. Agile Organisationen aufbauen und gestalten. 2., aktualisierte und erweiterte Auflage. Stuttgart, Freiburg: Schäffer-Poeschel Verlag. Online verfügbar unter. https://www. schaeffer-­poeschel.de/shop. Hauer, G., Naumann, N., & Harte, P. (2021). Digital transformation challenges successful enterprises – An exploration of the collaboration of marketing and sales department in German organizations. INMR, 18(2), 164–174. https:// doi.org/10.1108/INMR-­05-­2019-­0066 Walchshofer, M., & Riedl, R. (2017). Der Chief Digital Officer (CDO): Eine empirische Untersuchung. HMD, 54(3), 324–337. https://doi.org/10.1365/ s40702-­017-­0320-­7



Summary and Outlook

Customers have never had as much control over the buying process as they do now. Many companies are no longer able to keep up with this development. The new transparency of the company’s offering, its personnel, and the opinions of hopefully satisfied customers bring about entirely new challenges. It should also be noted that the reaction time on the behalf of companies is unfavorably short. Our experience has shown that a specially designed process is needed to orchestrate customer-­facing activities within a company. Not only to eliminate obvious weaknesses, such as inconsistencies in offers, etc., but rather to ensure efficient work. This inefficiency is caused in particular by the fact that the environment, the customers, and the company are all changing simultaneously, fueled by digitalization. For example, salespeople need cutting-­edge marketing and sales content appropriate for the various stages of the buying cycle. This needs to be distributed across a wide range of coordinated channels, and customer inquiries need to be analyzed and responded to accordingly. The concept of sales enablement presented here goes far beyond elementary sales management. Sales enablement is also the infrastructure that connects different customer-facing departments and ensures efficient

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cooperation. Its role is subtle and invisible to customers, but sales enablement has the potential to make the entire customer experience incredibly engaging and enjoyable. Sales enablement’s contribution to the bottom line is visible internally through the evaluation of specific metrics. However, while it is generally clear that sales enablement has a positive and strong long-term impact on sales productivity, a big question remains: How can we isolate and measure the real impact of all sales enablement activities on revenue?

B2B sales activity has slowed due to the general decline in economic activity. Companies should prepare their salespeople for new, virtual work habits corresponding to developments in the post-pandemic era. The emergence of the “well-informed buyer” has had a lasting impact on sales. To remain competitive, companies should equip their sales team with the relevant information, processes, and skills to provide the best experience when they interact with buyers and customers. They are a decisive factor for customers making a purchase and should therefore be adequately prepared to ensure customer satisfaction. Departments that are directly, and indirectly, involved in the sales process should be viewed as a single unit and therefore function cohesively. Their objectives and goals should generally be interrelated and designed to be interdependent. There are many variable parts to this general concept, which is why a sales enablement strategy that is well thought out and supports the company’s overall goals is necessary. The pillars of sales enablement must work together to improve content usage, process management, training, coaching, and tool usage across the sales organization. We propose to establish a dedicated, specially trained sales enablement team to monitor and follow-­up on the impact and activities of these pillars on sales effectiveness. Sales organizations should focus on building trust and a genuine connection with their customers. A compassionate sales approach ensures that your organization creates more loyalty to survive challenging times. Equip your salespeople with a collaborative and open mindset, the

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appropriate tools and skills, and efficient processes to maximize your sales performance. Sales enablement is not the evolution of classic sales management, as many may think. Sales management is an independent approach that is being reshaped and will find its way into everyday corporate life. However, we expect a change in responsibilities. Having the right expertise that can bring together the vast amount of sales technology solutions now available and combine them with continuous learning is a must. Many professionals face the challenge of building efficient and successful sales enablement processes but do not know where to start or what specific steps to take. To do this, companies look for inspiration from other companies that started their sales enablement journey before them and consider themselves sales enablement pioneers. However, to build a sales enablement strategy that adds the most value to the customer experience, the most important thing is to consider all the individual factors that differentiate a company from its competitors. The best strategic choice is to implement a successful sales enablement strategy with cross-functional expertise to skillfully coordinate all departments directly and indirectly involved in revenue generation. This journey is not uncomplicated and also takes time before it delivers the expected benefits. But once the process is properly established, and adequate commitment and authority are in place, sales enablement will provide the critical differentiator. This factor will tip the scales and ensure the long-term success of a company.

References Binckebanck, L. & Elste, R. (Hg.) (2016). Digitalisierung im Vertrieb. Strategien zum Einsatz neuer Technologien in Vertriebsorganisationen. 1. Aufl. 2016. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler (Springer eBook Collection). Comm/dg/unit (NaN). DigComp  - EU Science Hub  - European Commission. Digital Competence Framework for citizens. Hg. v. Europäische Kommission. Joint Research Centre. Online verfügbar unter https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/ digcomp, zuletzt aktualisiert am 05.01.2021, zuletzt geprüft am 26.01.2022.

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Fit4internet. (2022). Startseite - fit4internet. Verein fit4internet.at. Online verfügbar unter https://www.fit4internet.at/, zuletzt aktualisiert am 26.01.2022, zuletzt geprüft am 26.01.2022. Hinterhuber, H.  H. (2011). Strategische Unternehmensführung. 8., neu bearb. und erw. Aufl. Berlin: Schmidt. Kilian, D., & Peter, M. (2016). Digital Selling: Erfolgreiche Strategien und Werkzeuge für B2B-Marketing und Vertrieb. Linde Verlag GmbH. ISBN-13: 978-3714302967. Oswald, G. (2018). Digitale Transformation. Fallbeispiele und Branchenanalysen. Unter Mitarbeit von Helmut Krcmar. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH. (Informationsmanagement und Digitale Transformation Ser). Online verfügbar unter https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/kxp/detail. action?docID=6422730 Piallat, C. (Hg.) (2021). Der Wert der Digitalisierung. Gemeinwohl in der digitalen Welt. Unter Mitarbeit von Tyson Barker, Ulf Buermeyer, Petra Grimm, Stefan Heumann, Eric Hilgendorf, Lorena Jaume-Palasí et  al. transcript: Open Library 2021 (Politik). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag (Digitale Gesellschaft, 36). Online verfügbar unter https://openresearchlibrary.org/ content/8e1bbc8e-­fdb6-­4fd4-­a572-­d6fd81a0237d. Rogers, D.  L. (2017). Digitale transformation. Das Playbook. 1. Auflage. Frechen: mitp (mitp Business). Online verfügbar unter. http://www.content-­ select.com/index.php?id=bib_view&ean=9783958455740. Stadler, C., Hautz, J., Matzler, K., & von den Eichen, S. F. (2021). Open strategy. Mastering disruption from outside the C-suite. The MIT Press. (Management on the cutting edge series). Wagener, A. (2019). Künstliche Intelligenz im Marketing  - ein Crashkurs. 1. Auflage. Freiburg, München, Stuttgart: Haufe Group, zuletzt geprüft am 24.02.2022.