Once upon a time there was a girl called Maeve. Maeve was a very energetic and bold thinking type of a person. She was also a great observer and business consultant. Thanks to this she generated a lot of ideas about how to improve human life. Not only was she reading a lot of books but she also generated her own content. She was gifted to do it! “How to make people happier and healthier?” – she kept thinking. “Is it possible? Especially these days when the world goes mad?”
Days and months were passing by and Maeve became an expert in improving human life. She discovered what was the magic sauce! From that moment everything seemed to be complete and obvious. But only for her, not yet for everybody. Smiling to herself, after her own discovery, Maeve decided to visit the little shop on her way home and to buy the most delicious loaf of bread.
“Ben, Ben where are you?” That guy is losing his potential. “Ben, why do you act without any specific plan”, said Mr. T, the owner of a little grocery shop. “You can’t talk to our clients like this. Treat them differently, with respect and care… It’s an order”, he said. But poor Ben had no clue what that meant. He was giving the best of himself, by treating every customer in the same way, the way that he thought was most appropriate. The business was not growing, and the tough days with almost no daily income were about to come.
“I am closing the business, I am afraid”, Mr. T said sadly to Ben. Customers are choosing the competition, not satisfied with our service. “I told you about the importance of customer’s experience, but you did nothing about it and our business is not profitable anymore”. Mr. T added that “only a miracle can help to keep the business. If so, I will change my mind, and you’ll keep your job.”
“Can I get a piece of bread, please?” asked the girl softly, while standing in front of the cash desk and looking into Ben’s face. “Certainly, right away” he replayed loudly. “One second later a fresh, crispy and very nice smelling loaf of bread landed on the desk. “Here you are”, but Ben’s face twisted into a very sad mask. “Why are you so sad?” asked Maeve. “Because the business will soon be closed, because I cannot treat customers right” Ben whispered.
Maeve knew what had to be done… She simply shared her discovery with Mr. T and Ben! This is all about sales enablement:
- Getting the right people
- In the right conversations
- At the right time
- With the right decision makers
- With the right tools …in order to drive the revenue.
The critical successful factor is a mindset which should be split into three distinct areas:
- Sales productivity (Ben)
- Customer experience (Mr. T)
- Marketing effectiveness (Maeve)
In the Story Seekers organization we help to explore those areas which are important to build sales enablement techniques within a company. These techniques are: competence (knowing what you are doing), responsiveness (meeting customer needs), credibility (trustful partner), personalization (every customer is different), consistency (no surprises), omnichannel (impact).
There is no one magic recipe for effective sales enablement. It often depends on the type of business, customer profile and market segments. However, there are some common factors critical to developing an effective plan:
- Engage sales, marketing, and customer service together.
- Conduct market research and find out what is the voice of the customer.
- Create a sales engagement strategic framework to help prioritize and guide your planning process.
- Base your strategic framework on your strategic marketing work (“plan on page”).
- Use your tactical list to track progress.
- Test messages and materials prior to launch.
- Build ability among sales teams on key messaging (sales data driven insights).
And how do you work side by side with your client? Do you want Story Seekers to help you and your organization to become more effective at enabling sales?
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Autor: Michał Grzbiela, konsultant/trener Story Seekers