With the B2B landscape changing in its very core, it is no surprise that modern B2B Sales Enablement is becoming absolutely vital. Where sales enablement tools that offer ways to personalize the customer experience, and allow sales and marketing to collaborate, can play a large role.
B2B sales have changed. Buyers are going digital, while sales organizations are adjusting their models accordingly and investing more in sales enablement tools to help them do so. Which explains why the area is positively booming, and why we’re seeing so many new solutions popping up and offering ways to tackle the challenges B2B sales organizations are experiencing.
This also means that there are a ton of sales enablement tools to choose from, and that, in turn, tackle a ton of different needs and areas. Out of which we’ve chosen a few needs and tools to highlight, and that we think are particularly important (full disclosure, we couldn’t help but add our own SP_CE platform to the mix, but we’ve kept the pitching to a minimum):
– Creating a personalized and relevant customer experience
Personalization is all the rage – and for good reason. B2B buyers now research more before reaching a sales rep, and can expect an experience that’s rather close to the one they get as B2C buyers. Making it close-to necessary for sellers to create a relevant and personal customer experience at all touchpoints.
Luckily, this is also an area where sales enablement tools can do some awesome things, and there are now tools that can let you send quick and personal video messages (like Vaam.io that’s doing some very cool things with video-as-a-message), or create a personalized space for your customers (like our own SP_CE platform).
– Collaborating across functions
It’s been said a few times before, but having sales and marketing aligned is kind of important. In fact, an HBR article recently said that “sales-marketing misalignment is estimated to cost businesses more than $1 trillion each year,” while an article in Entrepreneur explains that:
“Sales and marketing alignment is key for any successful business. Buyers always expect a tailored experience right from the first interaction. To create this experience, custom sales assets and data of their previous interactions and preferences are essential.”
In other words, there is a great need to have marketing and sales be on the same page, and work together to create the nice experience that customers are to experience.
This is also something that a few sales enablement tools can help with. Like Showpad, that lets you distribute material and create a nice link between marketing and sales, or SP_CE, that gives the two functions a unique space to collaborate in, and where you can make sure that the right material is always presented in sales interactions. There, you can even follow up on how customer’s have interacted with your material, offering you a chance to tweak it accordingly.
Choosing B2B sales enablement tools
Depending on your business and situation, one of these needs may be a bit more important than the other. Or, you may find that your biggest needs are elsewhere, and that the sales tech – and sales enablement – you should look for address completely different needs and challenges. Which you can read more about in our follow-up article.
Do you want to talk more about your Sales Enablement needs, or get some general tips on how you can close more deals with remote sales? Contact us to talk to one of our Remote Sales Experts, or find more resources and sales tips in our Remote Sales Hub.
