As I alluded to in our last post: Designing a Sales Enablement Solution: Part 1 - Getting Started, if you're thinking about a sales enablement solution for your company, you can be easily overwhelmed by the myriad of solutions available in the market. Every vendor has their own unique offering, whether it's content management, sales playbooks, knowledge management or sales training. Only you can determine where the weaknesses lie in your sales force enablement program, and then evaluate and select a solution or solutions that best fit your organization.
Before I talk about part 2: designing a pilot solution, I'll stick a stake in the ground and tell you where we fit (and for the past 10 years, have always fit) into the sales enablement landscape:
n-tara interactive equips sales forces with visually persuasive and interactive client presentations to improve sales performance and create strategic customer relationships. These presentations are delivered to sales forces on a technology platform that allows automatic content updates and capture of real-time intelligence. The result is a conversation that is in context to the client’s industry, company, role, and need.
We believe that the conversation between seller and buyer is the MOMENT OF TRUTH that results in either alignment with your customer, or a massive failure to communicate. To make certain that this moment of truth has the intended positive outcome, our focus is on extending the preparedness of the seller through to the actual client interaction. To that end, we believe that the 'visually persuasive and interactive client presentation' should function in both preparation for the meeting and presentation of a solution that is tailored to and reflects the customer's needs.
So, back to our process. With our position and offering in mind, here's step 2 in designing a sales enablement solution. After we have our step 1 Blueprint, we can now embark on developing a...
PILOT:
A low-risk, high-reward method of beta testing the solution derived from the Blueprint findings. Affords the opportunity to test, tweak and hone the features, content, and functionality of the sales enablement solution framework before making additional investments.
.jpg "Bell X1")
(Don't worry, your pilot program is designed to reduce risk, unlike Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1)
Your objectives:
1. Work hands-on with sales team to develop core functionality
2. Design the 'shell' to house sales content
3. Incorporate relevant existing sales assets
4. Implement a launch strategy
5. Provide training
6. Continuously improve
7. Build success stories with 'mavens'
8. Refine and rollout to a wider audience
How long it should take: 10-12 weeks
What you should receive:
1. Working prototype with complete presentation assets for a single channel/line of business/product/industry
2. Tracking and reporting components
A sales enablement pilot program is a CRITICAL stage in the process, and should not be overlooked at any cost. The pilot allows your sales team to mold and shape the solution, resulting in a higher level of advocacy and adoption for the end solution.
After all, shouldn't your 'test pilots' be involved in designing the vehicle?
Check back soon for Part 3: BUILDING your sales enablement solution