The Secret To Effective Sales Enablement – An Exclusive Sneak of My New Book

I completed my second book, Effective Sales Enablement!  Well, let’s be clear, it’s not published yet. The manuscript was submitted to my publisher in April. After several rounds of minor edits, it’s officially been in the production stage since June. The book is scheduled to be published on 10/3 in the UK and 10/28 in the US. Since I will do a workshop and a speaking session at Content Marketing World on 9/4-9/7, I will give-away some books at my workshop and session. I hope to see you there. Of course, you can also pre-order it on Amazon.

So, what is this book about? This is not your typical sales enablement book. Most sales enablement books are written by sales training professionals and sales managers and focus primarily on sales training and development. I approach sales enablement from a marketer’s perspective. What can marketing do creatively to enable the sales team? In the past, sales and marketing often worked in silos, with marketing driving brand awareness at the top of the funnel and sales taking the lead on the middle and bottom of the funnel.

Conventionally, marketing’s role in sales enablement has typically been:

• Drive demand generation
• Work closely with sales on nurturing prospects
• Fulfill content needs
• Aid sales training and onboarding
• Craft value propositions

Consequently, sales and marketing talked to each other, but their overall strategies and execution may not have aligned.

With the rise of digital, sales and marketing are using the same tools (e.g. email, social media channels, and online communities) to reach out to the same customers. In order to provide a seamless customer experience throughout the customer journey, it’s important that sales and marketing not only communicate and collaborate frequently but also align on key strategic initiates. Furthermore, as boundaries between different functions evolve and merge due to digital integration, marketing’s role will need to expand to:

• Identify marketing elements which can be part of the sales discussion
• Educate sales in key marketing programs so that relevant sales element can be incorporated as part of marketing outreach
• Help sales teams understand technology’s impact on marketing and sales
• Brainstorm specific marketing programs which can aid sales negotiations
• Integrate sales and marketing tools to minimize duplication of the sales tech stack and martech

Above all, this book provides insights and ideas on how to better align with sales from the perspective of marketers. This requires both teams to brainstorm, plan, and collaborate. At the same time, it also requires marketing to be nimble and spontaneous. Planning and collaboration are indispensable, but you’ll need to adjust marketing tactics and budget allocation when salespeople need help closing deals.

So, who should read this book?

This book is targeted at B2B marketing professionals who are interested in supporting sales or who work closely with the sales team. Sales professionals, sales operations managers, and sales enablement managers can also benefit by understanding what marketing can do to further enable and support sales.

My intended audiences:

• Marketing agencies and consultants who work closely with sales teams
• B2B Sales and Marketers in enterprises as well as growing start-ups
• Millennials and entrepreneurs who decide to start businesses and want to know how to integrate sales and marketing
• Any company interested in refining and implementing sales operations and enablement

Let’s be clear on what this book is…

This book will give you strategies and knowledge of how to implement and improve your sales enablement strategies, processes, and programs. In other words, after finishing this book, you will:

• Understand trends that impact sales professionals and how to take advantage of them
• Become a better marketer with creative ideas on how to support sales
• Be able to integrate sales elements into select marketing programs
• Comprehend technology’s impact on sales enablement
• Gain insights on how to assemble a first-class sales enablement team

Sound interesting? In my next blog post, I will share a quick sneak preview of the table of contents.

Got Question? If you have any questions about how marketing can enable sales, send your questions to me via the contact form. I’ll make an effort to address it in my podcast, 7 Min Marketing with Pam. Love to hear from you.