Sales Enablement Measurement: The Highlights
Our recent webinar with VP of Revenue Enablement Kunal Pandya provided an insight into how to tackle the challenge of measurement in sales enablement and offered some great examples of the decisions that can be made based on some simple metrics. If you haven’t had time to catch up, we’ve summarised some of the highlights for you.
Avoid ‘so what’ metrics
Sales is not short of metrics but if your sales enablement measurement is focusing on how many hours of training your sales reps have completed then you might be faced with a look of ‘so what’?
Kunal considers the following 4 goals when considering which metrics are important:
How do we align enablement to the business’ revenue strategy?
How do we use metrics to prioritise what we do?
How do we use measurement to get stakeholder buy-in?
How do use measurement to identify why we are doing something and the outcomes of our activity?
And its not just about ROI...
Measurement has been a topic of conversation for years and often that focuses on ROI and ‘proving your worth’. Now of course this is important but this should be as a bi-product of delivering maximum value and that can only be achieved by being clear on where you have the biggest impact and then delivering on that by having the confidence to continually measure it.
The key to this is understanding what your customers, i.e your sales reps, are measured by and KPI’d on and aligning your activity to it. One way to get to the heart of this is using what Toyota call ‘The Five Whys’ technique to find the root cause of a problem. Once you can connect these needs of your sales team with the areas that enablement can impact then you are well on your way…
Why is it so important?
We are all operating under challenging conditions. Companies have slowed or paused their hiring, our sales teams are having to achieve more with less and now is the time for sales enablement to make sure it is having maximum impact as a strategic business driver.
So where do you start?
You start by walking backwards! Picture a board meeting in 12 months time where you have achieved success. What does that look like and how are you showing it?
From there, your lagging indicators, you can then walk backwards from a goal that seems hard to influence to identify the skills and behaviours today that will contribute to it.
And how do you actually measure?
The job is then to assess where everyone is against these competencies so you can focus activity where needed - and remember this needs to be set out for every role within your sales team and fit for purpose for what you are trying to achieve.
Only 68% of enablers on the call were yet to benefit from a fully operationalised competency framework - take a look at our whitepaper if you need a hand here.
Data on these competencies can come from many areas; observation, evidence, feedback, assessment, benchmarking.
BUT they all rely on buy-in from your stakeholders so don’t forget this step - focusing on ‘what’s in it for them’ and the direct correlation to how this will help them to achieve their targets is key. You also need to be clear and consistent about what you are looking for in each competency and how to rate them.
This is not a ‘once and done’ job
When we asked those sales enablers who were already using competency framework how often they refreshed it - the answers were polarising; many had never reviewed and updated theirs but those that had, did so more frequently than annually.
Reviewing more regularly will allow you to adapt to changes in market conditions and business needs as Kunal explains.
The insight can be valuable in many areas
Kunal talked us through just one example of how a performance vs competency dashboard can inform so many decisions within your organisation. What are your retention strategies for your top performers? Where are the biggest opportunities for growth? Is there a need to accelerate the ramp time of some sales reps?
If you would like to learn more, watch the full session here or book a demo of e4enable to see how we can help with insight like this to address skills gaps and drive revenue for your business.
