With 60% of the typical B2B purchase decision being made before the prospect makes direct contact with the vendor*, mapping marketing messages to sales conversations and enabling sales to have the right conversations has become more critical than ever before. It’s less about how great you and your products are and more about how you can help your customers run a better business. This means a shift in the type of content and information we are currently delivering to our sales teams and channel partners to better meet end customer needs and drive profitable outcomes. But what does this mean in practice for B2B marketers? How do we define customer buyer journeys? What do customers want to know at each stage of purchase consideration? In this EDGE Marketing Best practice forum we will examine the problems faced by B2B marketers and help solve them with practical tools, advice and examples.

1. @Direction_grp #dgedge
© DirectionGroup 2014

2. What is sales enablement?
The activities, systems, processes and information
that support and promote knowledge-based sales
interactions with client and prospects
Gartner
…a function that plays a critical role in readying
sales to succeed in an ever changing and
increasingly challenging marketplace’
Sirius Decisions

3. Way back when…
No salesperson
No relationship
with the buyer
No deal

4. Buyers now have access to
x20 times the amount of
information they had even
only five years ago

5. Buyers now completing
60-70% of the purchase
decision BEFORE they
come into direct contact
with the brand
Source: Sirius Decisions 2012

6. Decision
makers
regard
only
17
in
of their
meetings with
sales people
as
“valuable”
Source: Forrester

7. Over
50
%
of apparently wellqualified B2B sales
opportunities end
in a decision to
“do nothing”
Source: CSO Insights

8. Sales professionals’ challenge
Wrong kind of preparation
Wrong expectations
Wrong materials
Wrong approach

9. The expectation gap
Although informed, budget conscious B2B technology
buyers are looking for advice, best practice, and
tangible business impacts ahead of product
pitches or standalone solutions…
…buyers disappointed with vendors‟ sales engagement
 Almost 60% indicate that sales people are
poorly prepared for meetings/engagements
 Over 65% of vendor switching is due to sales
relationship problems
Source: IDC 2013

10. Even worse…
Buyers actually think sales people
slow down their buying process…
 Vendors don‟t sell the way they want
them to buy
 Salespeople, collateral and demos
are forced on them out of sync with
their buying process
“31% of sales reps are
not prepared with even
a basic level of Web
available information
before taking a buyer's
valuable time.”
Technology Marketing Blog (IDC),
“Sales Enablement and the Year of the Sales Rep”

11. Sales priorities are changing
Customer is selfserving through
the early stages
Sales need to
focus on the
later sections.

12. The goal of Sales Enablement
To ensure that every seller has
the required knowledge, skills,
processes and behaviours to
optimise every interaction with
buyers

13. A well enabled salesman can:
1. Understand the customer‟s marketplace and issues
2. Help the buyer envision solving their problems
using his/her products & services
3. Sell newly launched/acquired products
4. Cross-sell unfamiliar products
5. Frame the buyer‟s evaluation criteria so that
competitors are at a disadvantage
6. Help the „buyer champion‟ sell within his/her
organisation
7. Overcome objections raised by the buyer
8. Respond to tough questions immediately and with
credibility

14. Bob Apollo’s Golden rule:
If you haven’t thought about the
subsequent
conversation, you’re wasting
your time creating the content in
the
first place

15. What really matters to today’s b2b buyers
Sales
Experience
Buyers value insights
53%
Price
Offering
Brand
19%
19%
9%
• Unique, valuable
perspectives on the market
• Help in navigating
alternatives
• On-going advice and
consultation
• Help to identify and avoid
potential land mines
• Education on new issues
and outcomes
• Sales person wins
widespread support across
organisation
• Sales person makes it easy
to buy from them
[Source: CEB]

16. Key Principles
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lead towards your solution, not with it
Reflect the customer‟s language
Eliminate techno-babble, industry-speak
Focus on developing urgent needs
Promote the need to solve the problem
Elevate the cost of sticking with the status quo
Facilitate the buying process
Why Change? > Why Now? > Why Us?

17. SALES ENABLEMENT
IS THE MODERN B2B
MARKETER’S MOST
IMPORTANT
RESPONSIBILITY

18. What’s the impact?
A broadening of the remit from
providing sales assets - to ensuring
that reps are competent in using
those assets
A shift in the type of content and
information we are currently delivering
to our sales teams and channel partners to
better meet end customer needs and wants

19. From sales support to sales enablement
We need to rethink sales enablement as
something other than a one-way deposit of sales
tools in a portal
Enable sales to have valuable conversations
that advance the buyers through:
 The right knowledge
 Specific to the current selling situation
 At the right time
 In the right place
 Tailored to the needs of the buyer

20. DirectionGroup’s E³ Sales Enablement Framework
1. Educate
2. Equip
3. Enable
SKILLS:
TOOLS:
CONTENT:
 Sales skills and
behaviour
 Buying landscape
workshops
 Corporate readiness
 Business strategy
sessions
 Product/solution training
 Mentoring
 Sales Boot Camp




 Big Bets
Playbooks
Webcasting
Sales hub
Peer/community
Xchange
 Applications
 Automation – pipeline
management
 Messaging /
conversation mapping
 Success stories
 Competitive analysis
 Market context
 Products/solutions/
services
MANAGED APPROACH FOCUSED ON SOLVING CUSTOMERS‟ PROBLEMS

21. Educate
 It‟s a sales 2.0 world
 Sales teams need to understand the new buyer
landscape
 And be supported to have insight-led
conversations with senior stakeholders
 Best practice – what are other sales people doing
and using to win deals?
 Sales and marketing collaboration to build the
new skills required

22. Equip
 Collateral in a box has three flaws:
1. Too much information
2. Not aligned with selling situations
3. Disconnected from daily reality
 Need to look at more dynamic and real-time tools:
 To avoid sales people feeling overwhelmed
 To share experiences and proven strategies
 To ensure valuable conversations are being enabled
 The sales portal is dead!! (Well almost)

23. Enable
It’s a move from collateral to
conversation.
Relevant
Our sales enablement content will
be valuable to our sales audience if
it is:
Compelling
relevant to the sales person and their
end-customer‟s business needs and
available in a suitable format
compelling enough to drive further
engagement or a change in their selling
behaviour
timely available to sales and customer
at the point in time when it is most
valuable
Valuable
Content
Timely

24. Contact
Geraint Holliman
Planning Director
Eoin Rodgers
Tactical Planner
GeraintH@directiongroup.com
EoinR@directiongroup.com
@geraintholliman
@eoinrodgers
/geraintholliman
/eoinrodgers
@Direction_grp #dgedge