Introduction to sales enablement training
You might think that sales training and sales enablement training are the same, but they both serve different goals. Antina tells us that sales training is part of the larger sales enablement program:
“Sales training focuses mostly on selling skills, behaviors, and techniques. Sales enablement training gives reps more context aligned with the team’s overall goals. For example, how to do a discovery call is classic sales training. However, how to use discovery questions to focus on your specific team goals is sales enablement training!”
Sales training teaches the fundamentals of selling (your products, sales techniques, and closing strategies). Sales enablement goes beyond that by giving your team the resources, knowledge, and ongoing support they need to have the most impactful conversations with prospects.
You are giving your sellers the insights they need to understand your ideal customer profile (ICP), master their sales tools, and access the right content at the right time to close more deals.
Why is sales enablement training important?
Your buyers are the ones in control. They do their own research, have plenty of options, and expect instant information. To succeed, your sales teams need more than just a great product and winning attitude.
Sales enablement training becomes the critical tool in your toolbox for turning reps into trusted advisors. Here’s why:
Understand the modern buyer
Sales enablement training helps teams get inside the minds of today's buyers. Knowing their challenges, their decision-making processes, and the questions they'll ask gives reps the edge they need to connect.
Sales and marketing alignment
Sales enablement breaks down silos. It ensures everyone's speaking the same language – using consistent brand messaging, understanding the ideal customer, and focusing efforts on the right opportunities at the right time.
Time is money
Digging through slide decks and shared drives for the right piece of content wastes precious selling time. Sales enablement puts approved presentations, case studies, and competitor info right at reps' fingertips, freeing them up to focus on building relationships.
Closing with confidence
Sales enablement isn't about memorizing pitches. It's about teaching reps how to have meaningful conversations, anticipate objections, and offer real solutions. This knowledge-based approach leads to higher win rates.
Constant and consistent learning
Sales enablement creates a culture of growth. It's focused on ongoing coaching, practice, and sharing what works. For sales teams, this constant improvement is key to staying relevant and outpacing competitors.
Implementing sales enablement training
It’s just good business to invest in sales enablement training. But to get the results you want, the program needs to be thoughtfully developed and delivered. We’ll break down what matters most:
Key components of an effective sales enablement training program
Antina has seven main focus areas she says a successful program needs to have:
1. Aligned content
Your revenue team needs content that’s aligned with the overall objectives so they can consume and gain knowledge independently. It’s important to have different formats to accommodate the different types of learners. So, content can be written, videos, or even podcasts.
Antina says that it’s important to remember that, "...creating a content library that's easy to find, aligned with the sales process, and addresses challenges that reps actually face." Outdated or irrelevant sales enablement materials won’t engage your sales reps or help them sell.
2. Knowledge training
Ask yourself how the content can be used in daily business, for example, in customer communication. How does it work in specific contexts? Actionable guidance is very important as are practical examples and tips. These can be things like group training or coaching sessions where everyone is working towards the same objective(s).
3. Repetition
Going over things repeatedly consolidates your efforts and it can be implemented over and over again. Make it fun! Role-playing, simulations, and peer feedback helps reps apply what they’ve learned to build confidence when it’s time for the real-world sales scenarios.
“Sales enablement isn’t just about knowledge transfer. It’s about turning that knowledge into action!” - Antina Sommer, Senior Sales Enablement Manager at Dealfront
4. Always lead with your ‘Why’
Your sellers need to see the direct connection between their goals and the potential impact they could have. This will help them stay motivated, make things easier, and improve processes.
5. Make learning easy to consume
Training and content shouldn’t take them days because they need to be doing what they do best: talking to the prospects. Give them what they need in more compact bites and you’ll find they’ll be more likely to spend time learning.
6. Get external experts
Changing things up can help give your team fresh perspectives. While your internal experts understand your people and business, someone from the outside may be able to inspire your sellers to think differently.
7. Data drives improvement
Your sales enablement training program isn’t static. You need to track content usage, training effectiveness, and overall sales metrics. Antina says, “Data is the guidepost for fine-tuning your program to ensure it’s constantly delivering value.”
How to develop your sales enablement training plan in 4 steps
With Antina’s seven components in mind, here is how you put it all together:
Step 1: Start with the gaps
Thoroughly assess your sales team's needs. What skills are lacking? Where are leads getting lost in the process? Your training plan should target specific improvement areas.
Step 2: Get everyone involved
Secure buy-in and input from stakeholders like sales leaders, marketing, and product teams. Alignment is essential for a consistent message and ongoing support.
Step 3: Variety is key
Blend live workshops, on-demand sales enablement resources, coaching, and peer learning to keep your sellers engaged and cater to different learning styles.
Step 4: Measure and adapt
Use data to track progress and identify areas for improvement. Be prepared to adjust content, delivery methods, and even redefine goals as needed.
How do you know if your sales enablement training is actually working?
Here’s what Antina says you should look out for:
- Evaluating your sales enablement efforts is crucial and requires collaboration between enablement and team leaders.
- Set clear goals in advance to measure impact. For example, aim to increase the conversion rate from A to B. Track how specific sales enablement courses, coaching sessions, and other materials correlate to this KPI's improvement.
- For less specific content like FAQs or handouts, analyze if their usage correlates with an increase in deal closures. Your team leaders are vital here as they monitor your sellers’ progress through coaching and shadowing to identify areas needing additional support.
And what happens if your salespeople are resistant to training?
Antina says it's natural to encounter varying levels of enthusiasm within any team. Some topics might resonate more strongly with certain individuals. That's why it's crucial to tailor training whenever possible, addressing specific needs and skill levels. While completely individualized training isn't always feasible, most reps appreciate a company's investment in their growth – whether it helps daily tasks or promotes outside-the-box thinking.
When early adopters see success and become champions of your training programs, it can be immensely persuasive. Having internal advocates share best practices demonstrating their results is a powerful motivator to engage even hesitant colleagues.
Now that you understand what goes into creating a sales enablement training plan, you’ll need to have people in place to facilitate the actual training.
Roles and responsibilities: Who facilitates sales enablement training?
A successful program involves collaboration. Your team leaders will play a big role here as they need to empower their teams, ensuring knowledge is being put into practice.
Here’s what Antina recommends if you want to execute strong sales enablement training:
Sales enablement manager
Antina talks about her role:
"I lead strategy, development, and execution of the training program. An effective enablement manager needs excellent project management skills to coordinate diverse stakeholders and quickly grasp new topics for their teams."
Here are the other roles/specialties she feels are essential:
Sales trainer
Specializes in delivering training sessions and coaching reps.
Enablement team (larger organizations)
Focuses on content creation, technology, data analysis, and overall program success.
Structure of Sales Enablement Teams
Building an effective sales enablement team structure means aligning strengths and focus. You’ll often find enablement teams often divided into these areas:
- Onboarding: Covering all sales-related topics for new hires.
- Go-to-Market: Focusing on product knowledge, competitive intelligence, and processes.
- Skills: Developing sales skills, coaching, and applying theoretical knowledge.
- Administrative: Handling analysis, content maintenance, and LMS management.
Important Note: The specific focus of a sales enablement team may vary depending on whether a company also has dedicated sales operations or training and development teams.
Sales enablement training best practices
Every sales enablement program will have its nuances, but there are certain best practices that will boost your success rate. Let’s talk about how to make sure your training program will hit the mark.
Tailor training to fit your sales team’s needs
Consider these factors when tailoring your training program:
- Experience level: New reps will need foundational knowledge, while veterans may benefit from honing specific skills like objection handling or closing techniques.
- Role-specific training: The needs of an inside sales rep differ from those of a field sales rep. Customize content and scenarios to make it directly relevant to their daily work.
- Individual learning styles: Some people thrive on live workshops, while others prefer self-paced online learning. Giving your team a variety of formats ensures everyone gets the most out of the training.
Incorporating modern learning techniques
While tried and tested methods may still give you positive results, you need to branch out. You can keep your training fresh and effective with these modern techniques:
Microlearning
Antina mentioned this as part of her seven focus areas, and for good reason. Being able to break down complex topics into bite-sized modules makes the information easy to digest and retain. Your sales reps are busy and shouldn’t be bogged down with hours of learning in one sitting.
Gamification
The majority of salespeople love competition and rewards. Sales simulations and quizzes can help boost engagement and motivation by being both fun and instructive.
Video-based learning
Short, dynamic videos are great for demonstrating product features, sales techniques, or showcasing real-world customer interactions.
Peer-to-peer learning
Encourage your reps to share knowledge, best practices, and success stories with each other. This helps promote a culture of continuous improvement.
Measure the impact of sales enablement training
You can’t assume your training is working - prove it with data. Here are the keep metrics to track:
- Knowledge retention: Use quizzes and assessments to check reps' understanding of critical concepts and tools.
- Content usage: Track how often reps access resources, indicating which materials are valuable and what might need a rethink.
- Sales performance metrics: Look at indicators like lead conversion rates, win rates, and average deal size to see if there's a correlation to your enablement initiatives.
- Seller feedback: Regularly survey your sales team to gauge the perceived value of the training and areas for improvement.
We can’t talk about training without actually talking about…training. We’ve found some great sales enablement training courses that we’re sure can provide your team value.
Sales enablement training courses
Sales Enablement Collective
They offer a comprehensive sales enablement training catalog covering core knowledge all the way up to masters. All their programs are certification courses so you’ll come away with knowledge and credentials!
Winning by Design
They offer live and interactive sales enablement training. You’ll need to contact them for more details and pricing.
HubSpot Academy’s Sales Enablement Certification Course
This comprehensive course is perfect for beginners. You'll learn how to align sales and marketing, build a sales playbook, and create a coaching culture.
LinkedIn Learning: Sales Enablement
If you are a LinkedIn subscriber, you’ll gain access to the LinkedIn Learning platform. There are several courses to choose from and you can sort them to find the ones with the best ratings.
RAIN Group
Known for their sales expertise, their courses teach the art of consultative selling and negotiation.
Sales Enablement PRO
Get certified or access individual courses on building a sales enablement function, analytics, and strategy.
Udemy
Udemy's marketplace features countless sales enablement courses. Be sure to read reviews and select an instructor that aligns with your specific needs.
Factors to Consider
- Experience level: Are you new to sales enablement or fine-tuning your strategy? Choose a course that matches your needs.
- Specific goals: Do you want to improve onboarding, content, or coaching? Many courses offer niche focuses.
- Budget: Free options are a great start, while paid courses often provide greater depth and support.
- Learning style: Do you prefer live instruction, self-paced study, or a mix?
emlen also has some great sales enablement resources if you’re looking for broader sales enablement insights during your lunch break:
- What is sales enablement: A complete guide gives you a comprehensive overview of the scope of sales enablement.
- If you want to understand how to set your team up with the right content, The Complete Sales Enablement Content Strategy Guide will ensure that you give your seller the right resources from the get-go.
- There are so many tools out there to help you on your sales enablement journey, we compiled a list of the Top 29 Sales Enablement Tools to Use in 2024 - complete with ratings and prices.
- You can’t just launch a training program without monitoring if it’s working. You need to check out Sales Enablement Metrics: A Deep Dive Into Data-Driven Sales Success to understand the effectiveness of your efforts.
- If you’re a sales enablement manager, you should definitely check out how emlen helps make your job easier and more effective.
While these resources give you a strong foundation, sales enablement is constantly evolving. Let's explore some emerging trends, how to adapt to a shifting sales environment, and how emlen can support your sales enablement efforts.
The future of sales enablement training
Blink and the world of B2B sales has changed again. How can you keep your teams current so they’re not being left behind?
Emerging trends in sales enablement in training
Hyper-personalization
Go beyond tailoring to individual styles, and focus on specific challenges and situations reps face for truly relevant training.
Predictive analytics
AI proactively identifies knowledge gaps and skill deficiencies for proactive training interventions.
Immersive learning
Simulations and VR experiences can create realistic sales scenarios for practice and refinement.
Your sales enablement program also has to equip your teams with deeper buyer understanding. Focus your training on buyer psychology, pain points, and decision-making processes. Having reps that are agile means they can adapt to unpredictable conversations to build trust quickly.
And don’t forget, your sellers need to seamlessly integrate tools and CRMs for maximum efficiency and insights. Emlen’s solution is a great way for your business to address these emerging trends.
How emlen helps with sales enablement training
emlen's solution offers several key features that directly translate into a more effective and impactful sales enablement training experience:
Centralized content hub
emlen eliminates wasted time searching for outdated resources. Reps have a single source of truth, ensuring everyone receives consistent and up-to-date training materials. This helped boost the confidence of Mews’ sales team when creating content and distributing. Curated learning paths further improve knowledge acquisition by providing a structured roadmap for skill development.
Data-driven insights
emlen's analytics shed light on content usage and how training translates to real-world situations. This allows sales enablement teams to identify knowledge gaps, tailor content and training to specific needs, and measure the effectiveness of training programs.
Continuous learning & reinforcement
emlen fosters a culture of continuous learning by offering features like role-playing with feedback and peer knowledge sharing. This reinforcement helps reps retain information better and translate theory into practical sales skills. Easy microlearning integration allows for bite-sized knowledge bursts that fit seamlessly into busy schedules.
Additional Benefits: emlen integrates with your CRM, offering contextually relevant training materials right when reps need them during sales interactions. Additionally, agile updates ensure reps are always armed with the latest product knowledge and process changes.
By providing a centralized, data-driven, and interactive platform for learning, emlen empowers sales enablement teams to create and deliver training programs that are more effective, engaging, and ultimately lead to a more skilled and successful salesforce.
Empower your sales teams with sales enablement training
We've talked about aligning goals, creating a killer training plan, and using technology to your advantage. Hopefully, you have a better overview of how to tackle sales enablement training.
But remember, it's about more than just checking items off a list.
Sales enablement is all about making your team feel unstoppable. It's like giving them a personal toolkit full of the knowledge and resources they need to understand your customers, master their tools, and feel confident in every conversation. You’re creating a supportive community where they can learn from each other and celebrate wins.
And it's getting insights from data so you can see what's working and what might need a change. Investing in sales enablement tells your team, "We believe in you!" – and that kind of confidence translates into serious wins. Ready to get started?
