Most people who change the world don’t set out to do so. Innovation expert and New York Times contributor Pagan Kennedy has found genius often unexpectedly strikes those “in a position to see a problem that needs fixing in a very personal way.”
The evolution of sales enablement technology follows this pattern. For decades, salespeople have wasted precious hours searching for sales assets while marketers have been beset by countless inbound content requests. Necessity demanded a more efficient way of organizing, discovering, and analyzing content — and those who experienced these challenges first-hand invented technology that is now changing the way millions work.
But not all sales enablement platforms are created equal. Recognizing real innovation is increasingly difficult amidst industry hype and buzzword-laden marketing. So how can you separate a genuinely game-changing platform from the rest? Look for these critical capabilities:
Visibility into Buyer Engagement
Sales content can easily vanish into the black hole of a prospect’s inbox. When you don’t know what recipients are reading, ignoring, or loving, providing value and building a relationship is challenging.
Modern reps like Christopher Kiernan know this better than anyone. Christopher, who works in business development at AT&T Cybersecurity, explains that a great sales enablement platform must make it easy to “send effective pitches to prospects.” His preferred platform achieves this by providing visibility into content engagement.
“It helps me see if a prospect is showing interest or hadn’t even opened my sent pitch,” Christopher said. In a world with few chances to make a good impression, a sales enablement platform that offers visibility into buyer engagement can make all the difference.
Content Analytics That Uncover Seller Engagement
Sales enablement and marketing teams often describe sales organizations as their “customers.” And they need visibility into their customer engagement — how reps do or don’t use sales assets.
Without content analytics, you run the risk of creating content that doesn’t have impact or languishes unused. Mendi Robinson, AVP of Marketing and Creative Director at Lamar Advertising, described the difficulty of working in these opaque environments. “We didn’t have proper metrics to guide our marketing team on what pieces of content were being utilized most and least.”
After implementing a sales enablement platform with robust analytics, Mendi noticed an immediate difference. “As a department that supports a sales force of almost 1,000 people, Highspot was a great solution for us,” she explained. “We are able to quickly add content, update it, and allow our users to live pitch it to customers. The metrics we get in return are ideal to see what content is being utilized by our sellers.”
This insight, she added, has been able to “steer our team in the right direction.”
Content Publishing Experience That Empowers Publishers
Over its lifecycle, a sales asset can live in many different places. A modern sales enablement platform must have a variety of technology integrations to streamline workflows and ensure content is always up-to-date.
Adriane Maron, Sales Enablement Manager at SendBird, understands this well. Her rapid work pace requires a sales enablement platform that “syncs with multiple cloud services” and allows teams to “publish directly into Spots™ and decorate assets with metadata quickly.”
Instant updates and deep integrations, along with easy administration, make asset governance simple and eliminate the risk of reps sending stale content. For Adriane, investing in sales enablement gave her “autonomy over their content” — and the ability to focus on enabling sales, not managing assets.
Find Innovation in a Crowded Field
Selecting a sales enablement platform that solves your most pressing needs today and will scale as you grow is no small task. Simplify the process by looking for all three of the above capabilities as you explore G2 Crowd’s latest analysis of sales enablement platforms – where we’re proud to be the highest customer-ranked solution.
