We fight the same fight for relevance and acceptance in a corporate setting by trying to blend the right message or narrative with the right piece of “engaging” content, wrapping it in a creative execution that entices people to act. An overly complex (by design?) cadre of strategies powered by tactics, bolstered by words and images and measured — for better or worse — by how our actions correlate to revenue.

At the end of the day, we will succeed or fail based on our answers to two simple questions: “Does what you do every day help sales teams close deals?” and  “Can you prove it?”

AN ENABLER BY ANY OTHER NAME
Perhaps, in an effort to not be judged so harshly or more directly tie our roles to $, someone, presumably in marketing, coined the term “sales enablement.” This term, by the way, used to make me feel a little like a bespeckled dweeb (see inset photo) who writes the quarterback’s term paper to avoid getting beat up.

I come from a land and time that was no friend to enablers. They were the parents who replaced discipline with a candy bar to avoid the meltdown in a supermarket. They were the boss who kept  his under-performing nephew on board as a favor to his single-parent sister. They were the spouse who didn’t put his or her foot down after the other spent one too many nights out on the town.

The enablers I know rewarded laziness or just plain bad behavior. This may come across like I’m picking a fight over a word. Maybe I am. But from where I sit as a marketer, words are everything.

Maybe Geoffrey Moore’s power words like Engagement and/or Empowerment are more palatable to me personally, but regardless of the sheen we put on it as marketers, we all need to deliver something that can be directly tied to someone else’s ability to sell something. Or else.

SALES ENABLEMENT/EMPOWERMENT/ENGAGEMENT =  PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE
In the digital age of ubiquitous personal publishing and sharing — as well as the rapid proliferation of devices to consume and distribute this fire hose of knowledge that is always on — my view on enabling, or more specifically, sales enablement has softened a bit. Now it’s less an indictment of a person’s bad habits and more of a realization that helping people find what they need, streamlined by proven processes and fine-tuned by purpose-led technology may be our saving grace.

Whether you are in competitive intelligence, marketing communications, public relations, product or solution marketing or are responsible for driving the global marketing strategy for your company, you need to be a curator and distributor of actionable knowledge. Those who take the role lightly by sending sales reps one-size-fits-all newsletters or alerts, and content not aligned with the buyer’s journey are at risk of being viewed as expendable instead of indispensable.

With modern software applications it is now possible to arm sales and account people with the critical information they need at the point of prospect or customer engagement. Regardless of the type of information or where it lives, be it product information, hyper-relevant web news, customer order details, help desk activity and more can personalized and delivered in the the context of a prospect or customer record. Welcome to the age of automating the Troglodytic manual tasks of hunter, gather and filterer to simply deliver personally relevant knowledge that contributes to revenue.

HOW ATTENSA CAN HELP
A brief commercial, yet completely factual, interlude: For me personally, the Attensa StreamServer simplifies and speeds up my most time-consuming tasks by finding, filtering and delivering immediately valuable information to me that gets more targeted to my preferences, and therefore more immediately actionable, with every use.

For you, the sales enabling marketer, the Attensa StreamServer can do the same by making your marketing department the knowledge epicenter for your organization responsible for connecting people in your own department, in sales and throughout the company with the knowledge that drives business results and better relationships. What’s more, you’ll have the data to prove it.

To see how all of this works, take a look at the Attensa Solution Overview, or download our latest white paper A Framework for Reducing Information Overload in the Enterprise. Reach out to me directly if you want to learn more.

Until I interrupt you again, Viva La Enablement!

Mark

@MarkAEvertz

This post was enhanced from a previous Attensa post on May 23, 2011 ^ME

This Post Inspired By I’ve Seen All Good People — Yes.

You and your sales colleagues call them leads. Some call them prospects. Others suspects. Whatever you call those who you believe absolutely need what you sell—take a breath.

Think for a minute before you go headlong into strategies, tactics and buying cycle position assessments. These are people.

Just like you and me. We all hold the same fears of making bad decisions, losing respect or getting fired. The same needs for validation. Similar desires for adulation.

With that empathy in mind, now take a look at your current sales funnel. Some people are waving a big red flag saying “Help me right now” by phone call, e-mail or Web site visit. Others were kind enough to respond to your BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing) profile questions on a microsite after you reached out to them via direct mail, e-mail or online.

Tire-kicking isn’t a crime
All others who showed interest in your message but didn’t meet your sales teams’ BANT criteria have been relegated to the tire-kicker position—doomed to languish into perpetuity in your CRM database.

This decision just cost your company big money. Research indicates that 80-90 percent of those “tire-kickers” will buy a product similar to yours in the next 12 months. It’s likely that product won’t be yours unless you keep your company top of mind. Turn your info seekers into buyers by becoming a genuine business decision collaborator.

Prospect-to-lead tip: Restraint
But…wait! Back away from the phone or keyboard for a minute. Before offering more brochureware or demos, put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. What would you want? If you are actually having an internal dialogue right now, you’re likely saying “Something relevant. Something actionable. Something that helps me take one step forward—not retreat in fear from a full-frontal marketing assault on my senses.”

Here are four steps.

First: Be relevant
Your marketing materials in all media formats sent out via every communication vehicle at your disposal is not relevance. It’s carpet bombing. Find thought leaders outside your company to talk about solutions to broader industry challenges. A simple, timely, “Did you see this?” with a one-sentence description, a link to the article, and a one-sentence explanation of why this is relevant to previous interactions with your company will suffice.

Second: Be timely but considerate
Again, put yourself in the shoes of the person you are engaging with. How many times would you want to be contacted in this manner or another mode of communication and what makes it less intrusive? Once a week? Once a month? Once a quarter? Don’t know? Ask.

Here’s a great article forwarded to me recently by a colleague that has two industry leaders answering questions on B2B best practices, reading “Digital Body Language” and nurturing prospects to become leads: When Is It Nurturing, When Is It “Big Brother”?

Third: Set expectations
On that first communication with your new acquaintance, set the ground rules for any outreach going forward. Tell them you are contacting them based on their expressed interest in the subject matter and that you intend to send news and information that could help them stay abreast of key issues and solutions in the industry. Set a delivery expectation timeframe and enable them to say “No.”

Fourth: Request feedback
Set up a feedback loop for prospects to either ask questions or update their current interest or buying status related to your products. The key is patience. Help them arrive at decisions based on knowledge.

Lead cultivation resources
Marketing Sherpa has a library of strategic documents on proven approaches that gingerly move people through buying decisions. Lead Nurturing Best Practices: New Data, Charts, Tips to Put More Punch in Your Cultivation Tactics provides great guidance.

Ann Handley from MarketingProfs is another marketing/buying behavior guru worth checking out. She can be followed on Twitter here.

Good luck and stay positive.

Mark