B2B Sales Enablement in 2021: 3 Things Not To Do To Avoid Failure

In this article, Heather Cole, VP Market Growth, Seismic, talks about sales enablement trends that marketers need to watch out for in 2021.

Every year around this time, dozens of enablement articles are published on the “5 trends you absolutely need to consider for the new year!” or the ever-popular provocative articles proclaiming “The death of (fill in the blank) in (fill in the new year).”

Looking back at those predictions for 2020, most of us missed the most significant trend of all – not just because worldwide pandemics are difficult to predict, but also because remote selling was considered a trend more than five years ago – so who would want to write about that? As it turned out, by April, remote selling was the only “trend” everyone in B2B sales wanted to talk about.

Predicting the future is always a risky business, and as the past year has dramatically proven, you cannot always get it right. So why do we still do it? PsychologistsOpens a new window tell us uncertainty is the most powerful influence on fear. Predictions help us feel in control. In an effort to placate the control freak in all of us, I sought out some of the biggest brains in B2B enablement but gave it a bit of a twist—here are the top three things NOT to do in 2021.

Learn More: How Marketers Can Help Sellers Create Compelling Content Experiences That Result in More Sales

1. Believe Digital Selling Is Temporary

Is remote buying, selling, and enabling here to stay? This question may even seem rhetorical, with studiesOpens a new window showing over three-quarters of global office workers saying they want to continue work remotely and 68% of B2B salesOpens a new window organizations committing to remote or hybrid selling approaches. Clearly, the best sellers have always met their buyers wherever they are to help them navigate the path to purchase. Buyers have become increasingly comfortable with that path being digital. A recent McKinsey reportOpens a new window indicated that 70% to 80% of B2B decision-makers prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service to make their purchases. This same reportOpens a new window indicates that over 75% of sales organizations feel that remote selling is equally or more effective than their pre-COVID-19 approach – and this includes both new and existing buyers.

So, what does this mean for enablers? Juliana Stancampiano, president, Sales Enablement Society board of directors and CEO, Oxygen, put it this way: “The one thing that all sales enablement leaders need to stay focused on is evolving. The world has changed very fast. What we saw in 2020 would have normally taken a lot longer to happen, showing us that we have to keep doing the things we thought were not possible, and looking around the corners to ensure you are one step ahead of your customers. If you are not on the front end of the change, you will get left behind.”

2. Be an Inflictor!

There has been significant soul searching and data gathering in the enablement community regarding why some programs, or even entire functions, fail to meet expectations. Many indicators point to a basic tenet: empathy for and understanding of the people being enabled. “Of all the ways in which sales enablement leaders can accelerate their own lack of success,” explains Peter Ostrow, VP/research director, Sales Enablement Strategies, SiriusDecisions, “the worst offense is what we call ‘sales inflictment.’ This usually consists of stubbornly adhering to the concept that the mission is to impose initiatives onto the sales force — new product features, off-cycle coursework, or tone-deaf selling scripts — that satisfy short-sighted, ‘ready-fire-aim’ management demands from above. This is common, rather than empowering reps to accumulate best-of-breed skills and knowledge that map directly to buyers’ behavioral cycles.”

What should you do instead? Taking the time to understand the critical interactions selling teams are really having with buyers is a first step to ensuring your enablement efforts are in lockstep with what the sellers actually use. In the best-case scenario, buyer/seller engagements are driven by how the buyer needs to navigate their decision path. How are your best sellers facilitating the buyer’s progress along this journey? How can you replicate and scale the behaviors, content, and conversations that actually work?

3. Take on Way Too Much…and Then Go Dark

Overcommitting, underdelivering, and lack of communication would be a career killer in any job. In enablement, it is all too frequent of a story, especially for organizations just beginning their enablement journey. Why? Sales Enablement Society Board of Directors member Bill Ball (whose day job is enabling sales at DISYS) tells us sales enablement leaders should be wary of “situations in which the role is an army of one and the scope is holistic. Other than a few exceptions, where these opportunities may provide a way into enablement for aspiring practitioners, they do not provide the hierarchical altitude necessary for the meaningful, big-picture change the company might be expecting.” While many sales enablement functions start as an army of one, they often struggle when they do not have the proper executive strategic backing and if they do not (or cannot) scale quickly.

Open and ongoing communication will also make or break an enablement organization, and it needs to happen no matter how fast the organization is moving. According to Irina Soriano, head of enablement, Seismic and WISE NYC chapter leader, “Regular executive communication is now more important than ever with organizations having to respond to rapidly changing business environments. A lack thereof will divert enablement leaders from supporting the organization’s short- and long-term goals as well as its mission, and ultimately dilute key enablement priorities that would propel the growth of the business.”

Learn More: Shifting the Rules of Marketing and Sales in a New Evolving NormalOpens a new window

How do you avoid getting overwhelmed and misunderstood?

Being realistic about what your resources can accomplish starts with setting expectations and scope. You may wonder why so many successful enablement leaders keep chanting the “start with a charter” mantra. It may seem like administrivia overkill when you just need to get things done. However, anyone who has endured scope creeps, a constant barrage of firefighting, and flavor-of-the-month projects will tell you: they sure wished they had gotten executive mindshare and agreement around mission, limits, outcomes, measurements, and audience. Furthermore, it sure would have been handy to use that charter to drive ongoing communications with their stakeholders and executive sponsors.

Here is hoping that far fewer enablers find themselves on the fast track in the wrong direction this year. As we all know, hope is never a strategy. Instead:

• Embrace digital and remote processes and tactics
• Empathize and become a student of what your successful sellers do and know
• Be realistic and strategic about what you can achieve and then plan, document, measure, and communicate.