If you’ve been anywhere near sales the last couple of years you’ve probably heard the term “sales enablement” and maybe even “sales app”. As selling and buying processes rely more on digital tools and assets, a sales enablement app is not something your company can afford to ignore. But what features should your sales app have?

If you need an overview of what sales enablement is you can go here. If you’re all caught up on what sales enablement is, read on!

Here is our list of the top 10 sales enablement features and benefits that your solution should bring to the table to improve the success of your sales force as they engage with prospects, and as marketing creates and optimizes sales content!

1. One Single Source of Truth

You could argue that content is one of the most important things when it comes to the sales process. After all, content is what inspired your prospects to reach out to you in the first place. It serves as a vital tool that sales representatives use throughout the entire sales process, whether it’s a one-sheet, case study, product image, or video, to keep prospects engaged.

But the problem is that most of the time content is created by other departments, and is distributed through a variety of channels getting lost in inboxes, different folders, and image repositories. Sales reps end up wasting their valuable time, up to 43 hours per month, searching for relevant content to use. And if they do find it, how are they to know if it’s the most up-to-date file? When your content is all over the place you risk your reps sharing inaccurate and non-compliant sales collateral to prospective customers. In turn, this can lead to poor service causing your reps to have to work even harder to make the sale. Why risk it?

A sales enablement solution serves as the one single source of truth for your sales reps. It allows for all of your departments to upload content to one central location. They are able to archive or replace outdated files as needed. Your reps are always receiving and sharing accurate, powerful content.

2. Ability to Share Sales Collateral

Your content needs to be easy to access and share. When using a sales enablement tool, you have the capability to share multiple pieces of sales collateral straight from the app that will resonate with each buyer. It allows you to share content as a digital leave behind. It’s way more powerful than a printed piece of paper that they most likely will get lost or thrown away. It keeps the conversation going even after the presentation is done. With SoloFire, you can share content via email and text! It’s important to communicate the way that’s most convenient for your customers. You want them to respond, right?

3. In-Depth Tracking Analytics

DemandGen found that 49% of B2B buyers rely on content to research and make purchasing decisions. So your sales content needs to be pretty stellar, don’t you think? But do you track how it’s performing? One of the most beneficial features of sales enablement is the ability to track and measure the performance of your sales collateral. You get actionable insights into how your reps and prospects are engaging with your sales and marketing content. This allows you to identify your top performing content, and what is assisting in closing deals. These metrics are powerful for marketing because they can really tune into winningest content, and continue to create and optimize it.

It’s just as powerful for sales representatives too. They are able to see how their prospects are engaging with the content they share so they know how to position their next follow up. They also get metrics on what content is trending throughout all the sales reps. This is helpful for rookies, or those who aren’t meeting their quotas, showing them content that other reps have found success with.

4. Aligns Sales and Marketing

Finger pointing between sales and marketing gets old, real fast. Marketing creates content but gets frustrated because they don’t know if it’s getting used or if it’s providing value to the reps during their sales pitches. Sales reps get frustrated because they can’t find content and they feel like they don’t have the right content for their different buyers. A sales enablement solution is just that, a solution. By implementing one into your organization you can create a unified force working towards a common goal. Your sales and marketing teams work together and collaborate to create compelling, engaging content.

5. Personalizes Each Buyer’s Journey

The buying process has changed and sales teams can no longer rely on a scripted sequence. When using a sales enablement app you have the capability to personalize each and every buyer’s journey to fit their unique needs and wants. You can’t force buyers to fit into your “sales process”, you have to adapt to fit their “buying process”. What case studies, product sheets, or reports will benefit them and show them how you can solve their problems?

Because your sales and marketing teams are aligned, they work together to create strong content based on a variety of buyer personas. The content is built around specific pain points, focusing on adding value, whether they are in the awareness, consideration, or decision stage. Sales reps are armed with the right content for every stage of the sales cycle. They can hand pick content within the platform to share with prospects, personalizing the conversation to fit each one. Your prospects will feel heard, understood, and valued.

6. Sales Onboarding & Training

On-boarding and training are some of the most critical pieces of hiring a sales rep, but they are often neglected. Many companies are still taking an informal approach to onboarding with no set training protocols in place. Not only does it limit their productivity and revenue, but it can eventually lead to rep turnover costing even more money to restart the hiring process.

When it comes to onboarding and training sales reps it’s vital to have a sales enablement strategy in place! CSO Insights found in their annual sales enablement survey that there is a strong linkage between coaching and win rates, and that strong onboarding programs help sellers ramp up to full productivity nearly two months faster! With your sales enablement app serving as a structured training hub, you can create, update, and distribute training content as needed. Your onboarding and sales training team can take it a step further with the analytics they receive for all the content and reps. They will know what reps viewed it, how long they viewed it, and give extra coaching to reps when needed.

7. Complete Accessibility

As we mentioned earlier, with a sales enablement solution, you have one single source of truth. One central place to house your content. But it needs to be accessible for your reps since they spend a lot of their time on site with customers.

With a solution like SoloFire, reps can access content on whatever device they have, whether it’s an iPad, Samsung Galaxy, or a laptop. And the best part is that it’s wifi independent. They don’t have to worry about asking for a wifi password when presenting at a hospital, they know their presentation will work. Once the device is connected to the web all the session analytics are sent to the cloud.

8. Integrates with your CRM

A customer relationship management (CRM) gives you a clear overview of your sales process. It’s a tool used to track prospects, customers, sales pipeline, and more. Basically, it serves as your 4-1-1 on all your contacts with the information you gather as you engage with them, such as their phone number, job position, the content shared, and eventually the close date.

Your CRM, like SalesForce or whatever software you use, is a powerful piece of your sales enablement app when integrated effectively into your solution. They automatically sync to update your customer’s profile so you don’t have to worry about inputting the details of the meeting after it’s already happened. Any action made within the platform, like sending and sharing content, is automatically inputted into the appropriate fields. It eliminates the need for sales reps to login and manually update the details of every conversation.

9. Flexibility for Customization

Not all companies are created the same, so your sales app shouldn’t be either. You need the ability to do more than pick colors and logos. You need to be able to create a tool that will help your sales reps sell in a way that fits your company and specific needs. With a custom sales enablement platform powered by SoloFire the possibilities of how you want your app to look and function are endless.

10. Scalability & Durability

Technology is always advancing, features are constantly changing, and your company is evolving so you need to make sure your sales enablement tool can keep up! When your sales tool is an app like SoloFire, you don’t have to worry about it becoming obsolete. It continually gets updates and you can continue to build on top of your app when needs and wants arise to match your growing company. Your sales app is future-proof!

TL;DR?

A sales enablement platform is an invaluable tool with some impressive features for your sales and marketing teams! Here’s an overview of 10 powerful features and benefits that a sales enablement app brings to the table.

1. One single source of truth for all your sales and marketing content
2. Your sales reps can share content via e-mail and text, whatever is most convenient for customers
3. Tracks sales collateral with actionable metrics for both your sales and marketing teams
4. Aligns sales and marketing to successfully work together
5. Gives buyers a personalized journey, no matter where they are in the buying process
6. Onboard and train your reps with a structured training hub and watch win rates increase
7. Reps can quickly access all the sales and marketing content on their favorite device, no matter where they are
8. Integrates with your with CRM and automatically updates customer profiles
9. Customize your sales enablement solution to fit your needs
10. Build on top of your sales app as needs and wants arise to match your growing company

Interested in learning more about sales enablement? Download our free ebook!