If you work in a corporate sales team, these two terms should not be new to you. However, since they are two very similar concepts whose semantic boundary can appear rather blurred, do you know what “sales training” and “sales enablement” really mean?
Find out with us – and maybe share it with your company’s L&D team! ?
Table of Content
Sales training: a definition
Sales training refers to the act of instructing salespeople in the behaviors, processes, and tools that will help them become sales professionals.
Training sales accounts on the subject involves teaching them sales skills and strategies that will help them close more deals.
Remember: while the onboarding process is a part of sales training, it is equally important to provide ongoing training to all members of the sales team. This can take the form of individual or group training, certification programs, and more.
Why choose sales training?
Sales training is a key resource for all companies.
Let’s look together at the advantages of adopting such a practice for sales accounts.
- The ability to modernize their approach on an ongoing basis: in other words, long-time and experienced sales professionals learn to update their skill sets so that they can meet emerging sales challenges.
- Meanwhile, new salespeople develop a skill set that enables them to begin a career path efficiently.
- Sales training shows that the organization invests in the salesperson’s success. Ergo, salespeople see that their success is the company’s success.
- Sales training revives the motivation and drive of the salesperson, who knows that he or she must practice a new set of skills to succeed best in his or her practices.
- The entire team aligns with a universal sales language, which allows them to work in a more supportive and cohesive way.
Sales enablement: what is it?
Sales enablement refers to the act of providing the salesperson or sales team with the resources and tools needed to carry out or win the sale.
In short, a sales enablement professional is the salesperson’s “wingman.”
Sales enablement professionals provide salespeople with the resources they need to win the sale. These are typically digital resources and tools that can be shared with the customer to push them to buy, or used only by the salesperson to understand what really works with the customer.
What are the main aspects of a sales enablement process?
Beyond theoretical definitions, it is important to understand why sales enablement is a crucial part of the sales preparation process.
The main reasons are 3:
- it continuously improves the sales process;
- it involves the opportunity to test and implement effective technology;
- it monitors and uses analytical data.
In short, sales enablement:
- provides the customer with concise data to support the solution;
- presents the solution in a simple and easily understood manner;
- clearly communicates how the solution can be implemented.
Conclusions
- Sales enablement and sales training are two sides of the same coin. Each cannot be fully effective without the other.
- Sales enablement provides the resources, but sales training is what gives salespeople the skills to properly leverage those resources.
If you want to know how to create a great online Sales Academy, contact us!
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