Sales enablement intelligence is a data-driven approach to learning, coaching, and content to maximize revenue per rep. Sales enablement intelligence harnesses your sales analytics to help you identify strengths and weaknesses—and gives you actionable insights to achieve your goals. More importantly, sales enablement intelligence will help you lead a winning team.

Analytics are at the heart of a modern data-driven business.   When it came to content, we used to rely almost entirely on anecdotes and guesswork. That is no longer good enough - content is at the heart of the sales and marketing process and we must know how it is being used and how it is performing.   Marketing Automation tools made that a reality for marketing content. They let marketers analyze and optimize content marketing efforts during the first half of the sales cycle, providing analytics to show how effectively content moves customers through the funnel. But until recently, as soon as a deal was handed off to the sales team, it entered a content black hole.    There has been no way to answer very basic questions about sales content. Do reps have what they need? Do they use it? Do customers pay any attention to it? Does any of this actually generate real revenue? Even in our increasingly data-driven world, sales content has remained back in the days of guess and hope. But an emerging set of Sales Enablement platforms has changed that. They manage sales content throughout your sales engagements and use analytics to give you full visibility into how that content performs.   This guide walks through eight reports that answer the key business questions about sales content and shows how to use them to optimize the way your company engages with customers.

Planning for the Next Normal Sellers are working harder than ever—and sales enablement has never been more important than it is today. The business of sales has been completely disrupted by COVID-19 and the resulting shutdown. At the start of the pandemic, you may have shifted overnight to virtual selling, with the expectation of returning to normal within a month or two. Experts now say we’re not going back to the way business was done. But the processes and tactics you put in place in the spring likely weren’t designed for the long term, and sales teams have often had to learn on-the-fly how to succeed when in-person meetings aren’t possible. It’s time to figure out what works in this new world and what doesn’t.

Many companies approach orientation like it's a formality. It has to be done, but no one wants to waste too much time on it. So, new employees are ushered in, given a quick tour of the office and a rundown of the benefits offered, and then they're expected to get right to work. It seems leaders assume that more detailed information on things like the company's processes and customers will simply be absorbed by new hires as they go along.

Without a doubt, technology has become a great tool for improving the effectiveness of B2B marketing. Social media, marketing automation, mobile marketing, and search engine arketing all aid in efficiently generating a high volume of leads. Whether marketing teams support sales efforts by generating and nurturing high quality leads or following up on events, technology can make their work more efficient and productive. However, smart businesses know that purchasing decisions are made by human beings who respond to personal interactions with other human beings. Though many simple business transactions can exist entirely online, effective marketing practices must include a human touch.

Your buyers’ lives, preferences, and expectations have changed. Two-thirds or 67% of buyers prefer remote or digital interactions — and they expect those interactions to be substantive and valuable. They hold your sellers to a high standard. That means the buying experiences of the past — in-person meetings, transactional conversations, and linear sales funnels — no longer deliver. Read this Essential Guide to the Buying Experience of the Future to learn how a unified, three- pillared revenue enablement framework of preparation, tools and assets, and communication empowers your customer-facing teams to thrive in modern selling environments.

Mastering Virtual Selling Virtual selling—working a deal remotely when you can’t be there in person—is the new normal for B2B salespeople. But being a great virtual salesperson doesn’t mean simply conducting every meeting via video conference. Virtual selling means understanding a prospect’s mindset when you can’t meet in person, using all the tools and techniques available to close the deal. While the fundamentals are the same, you have new obstacles to overcome and new skills to master. Allego’s learning and enablement platform accelerates results for virtual teams. From our work with hundreds of thousands of sales professionals around the world, we’ve developed unique expertise in virtual selling techniques that can give you the edge you need to hit your targets. This guide distills that learning to help you and your team understand how to master virtual selling and stay ahead of your competition.

A brief scanning of The Wall Street Journal - or, tellingly, almost any other newspaper in the country - reveals the alarming prevalence and far-reaching impact of organizational dishonesty. Reports of malfesance or criminal conduct in corporate governance, accounting practices, regulatory evasions, securities transactions, advertising misrepresentations and so on have become all to commonplace. Its no wonder that business schools across the country have been rushing to design and introduce courses that emphasize a subject traditionally given short shrift: Ethics.   

Sales are the lifeblood of every business. A company that is more effective at selling its products will out perform its competitors, even if they offer higher quality or better value. It is, therefore, essential for businesses toemploy a highly dedicated and motivated sales staff. While many companies reward salespeople on a commission basis, research demonstrates that non-cash incentives such as gift cards are more effective at improving motivation, boosting performance, and increasing a company’s bottom line. 

As we enter 2022, Covid-19 and uncertainty continue to impact every aspect of incentives. Adaptation, flexibility, and communication will continue to be key as companies weigh their options about bringing employees together, whether it’s opening the office or travelling on an incentive trip. Incentive professionals are called to motivate a changing workforce while corporate goals also continue to change. For the foreseeable future, a remote and hybrid workforce is here to stay. A Mercer survey last May found that 83% of employers will continue to provide flexibility at greater scale post pandemic. Given the importance of recruitment, retention, and engagement, incentive programs will be more important than ever. Dramatic hiring shifts are driving companies to examine how to be even more competitive in the job market, and a robust incentive program is an important part of a company’s full benefits package. According to the IRF’s Industry Outlook for 2022, overall incentive budgets are expected to increase by 34% in 2022, with the per-person spend increasing to $806 from $764 the prior year - although these budgets will need to accommodate price increases resulting from workforce, inventory, and supply chain challenges. Click below to download this important report.

"If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think."  - David Ogilvy David Ogilvy, the famous marketing and sales executive, said it this way, "If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think." Nelson Mandela said it like this: "If you talk to [people] in a language [they] understand, that goes to [their] heads. If you talk to [them] in [their] language, that goes to [their] heart." The ability to communicate—whether to persuade or just to understand—goes beyond using words well; it requires the ability to use words in a way that has meaning for those with whom you are speaking. The ability to talk with someone in his or her native language isn’t just about them understanding you; it’s about you understanding them—their experiences, their thinking, their beliefs, and their values. While definitions lie in words, meaning lies in the people who use them.

Sales Enablement For Marketers If you’re a marketer supporting a sales team, you’ve got a lot on your plate. Sellers are facing one of the most difficult buying landscapes in recent memory—and they need your help. To be effective, you need to align with sales, deliver the best content and other resources that will move deals through the pipeline, and make sure sellers can find and use these resources properly. "Sales enablement has never been more important than it is today." You crank out solution briefs, case studies, videos, blog posts, product guides, and more to support reps' interactions with prospects and help them be productive. You work closely with sales to learn which types of content are working to nurture leads and close deals. You keep your ears open to industry trends and one eye on the company roadmap to anticipate content needs and fill in any gaps. It’s a continuous process of creating and sharing those new materials with reps to allow them to reach customers and sell more effectively. But it can often seem like all your hard work is for naught. You need a better way. Find out how the right sales enablement solution can help you overcome these issues and turn your marketing into an engine that can turbocharge your sales growth for years to come.

In the era of data discovery, analytical power has migrated from the IT department to business users. Surveying over 700 analytics users, Aberdeen set out to understand modern analysts to identify what makes them successful. Among many interesting findings, Aberdeen discovered that modern analysts are 55% more likely to have access to interactive data visualization tools, and 46% more likely to have a data governance solution. Download this report to learn more.

Business leaders look for predictability. They seek insight from mounds of data to get just a glimpse of the future. They demand their sales and marketing executives put the business on the right path to meeting or exceeding sales and margin goals. Sales executives create detailed business plans to identify new opportunities and retain existing customers.  They train sales reps and channel partners on product benefits and teach them to overcome objections. They develop compensation plans aligned with corporate goals to encourage growth. Marketing leaders identify competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. They define buyer personas and construct profiles to ensure the right messages reach the right prospects. They carefully map out every step of the buyer’s journey to know when and how to influence behaviors. All this to increase the likelihood of success, to gain more certainty and predictability. Shouldn’t your sales incentive program work this hard to engage your participants? Knowing how and when to nudge your participants could mean the difference between blowing past your goals and scrambling to explain a disastrous failure. This eBook maps the sales incentive journey which participants embark upon when engaging with a program. We’ve developed it from insights gained during almost 50 years of observing and influencing participants, and it can help put your program on the road to predictable success. Click below to download this eBook.​

The Sales Leader’s Guide, 2023: Mitigate Market Risk and Drive Sustained Revenue in an Uncertain Economy With 2023 around the corner, it’s no secret that rumors of a recession are looming as inflation is at its peak and the market continues to fluctuate. While economic uncertainty is difficult to ignore, what does it mean for sales leaders and businesses? Readjusting expectations and evaluating processes will be a big part of successfully mitigating market risk and driving revenue in an uncertain economy. However, rather than reacting to market conditions, the successful leader will purposely pivot - using strategy, data, and resources efficiently to make better, data-driven decisions for their organization. With employee churn at a high, factors including upskilling and retaining talent, focusing on the quality of conversations, streamlining your tech stack to preserve time and budget, and mitigating organizational risk are just a handful of factors to consider when evaluating your readiness for the new year. This eBook outlines the following ways in which sales leaders can purposely pivot and utilize both data, technology, and strategy to remain resilient and overcome obstacles presented by a changing economic environment: Readjust your expectations to adapt to the changing economy Ramp new hires to full revenue productivity sooner Focus on quality conversations, not the quantity Mitigate organizational and budget changes by improving sales effectiveness Consolidate resources to better preserve time and budget Streamline tech to provide a seamless loop of insights and integrations Tailor your communications to avoid fines or upset consumers Ensure that your decisions are data-driven; it’s more important than ever

Are you struggling to improve adoption of your sales methodology or deliver outcomes with your sales performance improvement initiatives? Do you want to guide behavior changes in your sales force? Or do you simply want to improve the outcomes and ROI for your sales training? Click below to download your copy of Transforming Sales Results' latest eBook, "The Sales Learning System with the 5 Stages of Sales Mastery & Behavior Change: How to Get Adoption and Deliver Outcomes with your Sales Performance Improvement Initiatives."

If your sales team isn't producing the results expected, the pressure is on you to fix the situation fast. One option is to replace salespeople. A better option is for you to optimize your performance as a sales leader. In The Sales Manager's Guide to Greatness, sales management consultant Kevin F. Davis offers 10 proven and distinctly practical strategies, skills, and tools for overcoming the most challenging obstacles sales managers face and moving your team ahead of the... (click below to download excerpts from this eBook)

If your sales team isn't producing the results expected, the pressure is on you to fix the situation fast. One option is to replace salespeople. A better option is for you to optimize your performance as a sales leader. In The Sales Manager's Guide to Greatness, sales management consultant Kevin F. Davis offers 10 proven and distinctly practical strategies, skills, and tools for overcoming the most challenging obstacles sales managers face and moving your team ahead of the... (click to download excerpts from this eBook)

High-quality coaching requires not only effort and collaboration between sales managers, reps, and sales enablement professionals, but also agreement on coaching effectiveness and best practices. Without agreement, it’s hard to make improvements and drive increased sales success. To find out how these stakeholders feel about coaching effectiveness, we surveyed nearly 300 sales reps, managers, and sales enablement professionals, asking them fundamental questions about their perceptions and preferences. While we found alignment in some areas, reps, managers, and sales enablement leaders differed in their opinions about coaching quality, coaching needs, and even the impact of coaching on results. Left unchecked, differences between key stakeholders on coaching quality and value can pose a significant risk to revenue goals, and even threaten the relationship between reps and managers. Click below to download and learn what the data showed, what it means, and how you can use this information to improve coaching efforts at your organization.

Over the past several years, Qvidian has surveyed hundreds of executives and sales leaders around the world from various industries, markets, and company sizes to create a comprehensive ongoing study of the changing objectives and challenges facing sales leaders.   This Sales Execution Trends Report investigates new obstacles sales organizations face to meet these objectives, as well as explores current conditions and investment areas needed to improve sales execution; providing further market insight into the state of sales today. 

Inside organizations coaching has become common practice to address issues such as developing talent, ‘onboarding’ key leaders and supporting senior executives. Yet, there is clearly widespread opportunity to integrate some of the skills and competencies inherent in coaching into the roles of managers and contributors at all levels in an organization. We call this: the Coaching Mindset. Click below to download this White Paper.

One of the most significant barriers to sales organizations is bringing their sales cycle under control. Read this research from Aberdeen Group to discover how the use of electronic signature tools can improve sales team performance. 

Coaching and leadership are about people. People are unique and to compound the situation they behave differently under varied circumstances. So is it not an overstatement to suggest that there is a framework that can be applied to achieving greater success with people and through them? I will answer with my standard mini-exercise. Assume you are a recruiter. You are asked to identify a Field Commander for a hot war zone as well as a Guidance Counsellor for an all-girls high school. Did your mind automatically paint different pictures as to who will fill the roles? Intuitively, you recognize the differences but what are the factors that brought you to that conclusion? Also, what if the roles were not so far apart, could you intuitively distinguish among candidates? That is role and the value of a reliable framework. For decades, as a member of member of the Extended DISC™ network, I have been using an approach that I call DISCerning Communication to drive healthy interpersonal relations among a cross-section of groups. When people experience others communicating with them in a manner that is comfortable for them the opportunities for positive cooperation increases exponentially. Someone referred to it as communicating from inside the head of the other person. Course after course, webinar after webinar, article after article I receive encouragement to present DISCerning Communication principles in a concise publication to a wider audience. This is your invitation to join the mission and make a positive difference in how we communicate and relate to others.