Gaining Your Sales Knowledge Advantage

Gaining Your
Sales Knowledge Advantage

Through Sales Enablement
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

Benjamin Franklin
Gaining Your
Sales Knowledge Advantage
What will you do in 2010? 4
How will you do it? 5
What are your objectives? 6
Fact or Fiction? 7
A Strategic Action Plan 9
Achieve your objectives 10
An Effective Sales Force 11
A Tactical Reality 13
Look Below the Surface 25
What do customer’s want? 26
What’s in it for you? 27
Time Equals Money 28
Win, Win … Win 29
Jeanne Hellman, Sales Enablement Leader 2009

What is driving your company’s
sales agenda in 2010?
“There is no substitute for accurate knowledge.

Know yourself, know your business,
know your men."
Lee Iacocca

What will you do in 2010?
1) Reduce SG&A expenses

2) Reduce headcount
3) Expand your business model
4) Merge with or acquire
another company
5) Revise your return to growth
strategies

How will you do it?
A. Bring in new leaders who can better motivate and

make needed changes
B. Replace poor performers with better performers
C. Restructure your sales organization
D. Change your sales process and add more training
E. Bring in new technology (CRM, SKM)
F. All of the above
G. None of the above
What are your objectives?
The table below shows the top 14 objectives for over 1,800 companies in
2009. How do these compare to your plans? How many separate projects
will you start to achieve your goals?
Top Sales 14 Objectives (remains constant from 2008 to 2009)

1. Increase Revenues - 62.4% 8. Increase channel sales – 13.8%
2. Increase sales effectiveness - 51.4% 9. Improve team selling – 11.5%

3. Increase market share – 38.4% 10. Reduce cost of sales – 9.2%
4. Optimize lead generation – 30.9% 11. Reduce administrative burden – 7.5%
5. Improve customer loyalty– 26.0% 12. Improve communication – 7.3%
6. Improve margins – 20.9% 13. Decrease discounting – 3.9%
7. Reduce sell cycle time – 19.1% 14. Other – 2.9%

Fact or Fiction?
Fact:
Turnover is very costly to a company. It has been estimated to cost 2x total annual
compensation for a mid level salaried employee, and 3.5x for Sr. Management level. In
addition, it demoralizes those who are left (which contributes to loss of productivity)
and raises doubt and uncertainly with customers (which distracts your sellers and
takes time away from selling)
Fact:
47% of CRM installations fail to deliver the desired results
Fact:
85% of sales training initiatives fail to provide lasting change past 90 days
Fact:
Only 50% of newly hired sellers outperform the person they replaced

There is a better way.
“Knowledge is like money:

to be of value it must circulate,
and in circulating it can increase
in quantity and, hopefully, in value.”
Louis L'Amour
A Strategic Action Plan
Sales Enablement has evolved into its own
discipline, moving beyond the basic appeal of
improving sales efficiency and falling into place
as a more strategic initiative of the entire
organization.
As more companies implement it, more data

validates that it not only helps sales, but
improves the corporate bottom line as well.
Achieve Your Sales Knowledge Advantage by

implementing a plan that addresses the
technology, people, processes and content.
Invest in solid adoption and change
management methodologies to ensure
continued success.
Achieve your objectives
 One Sales Enablement initiative can deliver

each checked item.
Top Sales 14 Objectives (remains constant from 2008 to 2009)
 1. Increase Revenues - 62.4%  8. Increase channel sales – 13.8%
 2. Increase sales effectiveness - 51.4%  9. Improve team selling – 11.5%
3. Increase market share – 38.4%  10. Reduce cost of sales – 9.2%
4. Optimize lead generation – 30.9%  11. Reduce administrative burden – 7.5%
 5. Improve customer loyalty– 26.0%  12. Improve communication – 7.3%
 6. Improve margins – 20.9%  13. Decrease discounting – 3.9%
 7. Reduce sell cycle time – 19.1%  14. Other – 2.9%

An Effective Sales Force
Sales Enablement helps you achieve these 10 initiatives in a meaningful
way through unifying implementations and communications.
Top 10 Sales Effectiveness Initiatives for 2009

#1 Enhancing lead generation programs 36.6%
#2 Improve rep access to SKM to sell effectively 31.8%
#3 More closely align sales & marketing 30.8%
#4 Revise sales process 29.8%
#5 Enhance Sales team communications 28.7%
#6 Analyze customer’s buying process 27.0%
#7 Revise sales team structure 23.0%
#8 Revise Channel strategy 22.2%
#9 Revise sales tools to match buyer needs 20.0%
#10 Evaluate/implement additional CRM tools 19.6%
Percentage of companies who listed these items as their top Sales Effectiveness initiatives in 2009
Here’s How
“Knowledge has to be
improved, challenged, and
increased constantly, or it vanishes.”
Peter Drucker

A Tactical Reality
 Reduce the SG&A portion of your operating expenses

 Optimize sales force processes
 Recover faster from a corporate event
 Onboard/ramp up new sales hires faster
 Improve selling performance & better mine existing accounts
 Improve sales communications
 Reduce voluntary turn over
 Close more deals
 Ignite your account plans
 Gain your "Knowledge Advantage"
Reduce the SG&A portion of your Operating Budget
All of the measurable ROI (Return on Investment) from

Sales Enablement contributed in a measurable reduction
of the SG&A. Savings were realized from improving
productivity (of the selling resources and support staff)
and eliminating waste (unnecessary tasks and content
duplication).
 Focus limited marketing resources on value added

collateral
 Decommission duplicate portals, removing maintenance

and IT support costs
 Eliminate duplicate and redundant documents
 Optimize publishing processes
 Align sales and marketing teams

Optimize Sales Force Processes
The more structured the sales process, the more you will sell. It
has been proven that a stable and predictable process impacts
team performance. But your sales force needs to understand and
follow this process or you are wasting time and money.
 Ease of finding information gives companies a performance

advantage-
▪ Sellers make fewer calls
▪ Sellers brings more relevant, specific and value added information
to the customer discussions = better results
 Selling time keeps decreasing (now down to 37%) – rest of time spent
in admin, training, travel, lead gen and researching. Sales
Enablement initiatives give sellers more productive time and helps
them get more done in that time
 Access to information prepares sellers for the “how to” questions,

which builds better relationships as customers perceive the seller to
be a knowledgeable expert
Recover Faster from a Corporate “Event”
Corporations restructure for many reasons: to prepare for

expansion or acquisition, rearrange a business structure, bring in
new management, prepare for a sale, improve financial structure,
increase operating efficiency, spread risk, recover from financial
difficulties, or respond to other crisis. When undergoing an
“event”, employees need to know what is going on… and so do
customers. Companies need to ensure their sales force can restore
clarity and stability to customer relationships.
 Invest in retraining existing sellers and newly acquired sellers,

not only to understand the new portfolio (expansion or reduction
of offerings) but the consolidation of other assets (contacts &
technology) and process changes
 Be transparent in their communications with real time updates.

This will speed up ramp up time to the new business in order to
address customer concerns (needed to rebuild trust, answer the
tough questions, and help them understand your new portfolio)
Onboard/Ramp Up New Sales Hires Faster
Access to resources, contacts, offering knowledge and

internal processes is the differentiator between
performing companies and non-performing companies
Times to get new reps fully productive are getting longer as

companies get more complex:
▪Less than 3 months=4%
▪3-6 months=24%
▪7-9 months=24%
▪10-12 months=24%
▪More than 1 year=23%
Even when hiring seasoned sales reps, companies reported slow

adoption of training course material and they did not apply that
knowledge real time
Improve Selling Performance
Access to information helps sellers generate more

accurate bids and proposals, resulting in an increased
number of sellers meeting their quotas.
 Cross selling and up selling remains the second lowest rated

ability (45.8%) – tie to CRM to see current sales and create
growth paths for customers
 Technology can fill the mentoring/coaching gap. As

companies downsize, sales managers are expected to
manage more people yet still meet their quota
▪ 42% are managing 7 or more reps
 Investment in sales training is declining, even though it has

proven to be a direct correlation between overall revenue
attainment (10% higher) and reduced turnover (14% less)
Improve Communications
There is decline in the ability for firms to share what they

know across functions and teams as companies get more
complex and expand globally. A state-of-the-art SKM
helps sellers share best practices across the sales force.
 Increase channel mindshare to help them understand your

entire portfolio instead of focusing on those products that are
easiest to sell
 Integrate push communications with customers and channels

with automated newsletters
 Create separate channel portals and customer portals. Share

restricted references/case studies, campaigns, contacts,
content. Up sell and cross sell (customers who bought this
product, also bought that service and upgraded to this
version)
Slow down the revolving door
A predictable sales process helps stabilize a sales force

and reduce voluntary turn over. A common dilemma
companies face every day – Do you add more sales folks
or invest in who you have to improve productivity?
 New hires have ramp up time vs. more tools, cross selling,
lead gen campaigns, etc. needed to assist existing sellers
 Dominant players in the market have lower turnover than

start ups (25% versus 32%), both voluntary and
involuntary
 Down turns in economy cause more turn over with bad

performers (involuntary) as well as good (poaching)

Close More Deals
It is more challenging to keep info current and accessible as

companies experience corporate “events” and grow more
complex, specialized and geographically dispersed. Access to
knowledge improves ROI with hard dollar benefits such as
increased win rates, improved margins, shortened sales cycles
and fewer customer calls.
Problems finding information or contacts causes sellers to make more

customer contacts as they hunt down information they can’t find. This
is not only more costly, but increases the likelihood of losing
momentum and disengaging the customer
Access to information helps sales create customer centric

presentations, which motivates prospects to buy by 41%
Peer experience was cited as a key consideration in a customer

evaluation – an SKM can give sellers easier access to references and
testimonials much earlier in the sales cycle
Ignite Your Account Plans
A Sales Knowledge Management (SKM) Platform can

accelerate learning and get new hires up to speed faster
by providing quick access to product knowledge,
contacts, and company knowledge
 Consolidate sales intelligence information such as news, events,
and needs analysis as well as push marketing lead generation by
automating news letters and email campaigns for prospecting
 Tie in CRM to help with forecasting and developing account

plans by looking at growth paths for customers based on what
other customers have done
 Create customer portals for lead incubation – up sell/cross sell

and highlight growth paths (important for nurturing customer
relationships for those customers not ready to buy today)

Gain Your Sales Knowledge Advantage
This means that you must rely on your sellers to

deliver those messages in a way that resonates with
your customer. To enable the best conversations,
give your sellers access to both corporate and
personal knowledge in one setting and eliminate the
noise.
 Focus marketing on value added collateral: align

marketing deliverables to sales (customer) needs
 Decommission duplicate portals/remove maintenance

and IT support costs
 Eliminate duplicate and redundant documents

Still Not Convinced?
“The effectiveness of preset collateral diminishes in

value after the first or second sales call. After that,
it’s the knowledge of the sales team that will be
needed to close the deal.”
Joe Galvin

Look below the surface
The economic reality of the last 18 months
has helped Sales and Marketing leaders
understand Sales Enablement in a larger
strategic context. As more companies
implement it, more data becomes available
that shows the benefits translate into real
savings:
 Companies are spending as much as

$12.5K/rep per year on enabling sellers
 Increasing enablement efforts would improve

productivity $260K/rep/year

What do customer’s want?
It may seem that customers will sacrifice a perfect fit for something
that is good enough if it is cheaper. But oddly enough, if you can
demonstrate that you offer more than just a “trinket they can get on
any street corner” (with knowledge and insight into their unique
situation) they will commit without extensive discounting.
 The customer’s appetite for knowledge is growing — buyers expect more

details, as well as timely and relevant insights from sales reps
 Customers want knowledge and information they can use (not just product
or company details)
 An SKM customer portal can give customers instant access to needed

content and contacts without waiting for their sales rep (who can monitor
activity) and tie contract details into prospects buying cycle so they can track
their contract instantly
What’s in it for you?
Sales Enablement is the best tactical choice to help your sellers access
your company knowledge and meet your sales objectives and goals for
2010.
 Knowing how to talk to a customer in context to their business needs will lead to
more sales. Sales Enablement will help your sellers weave your 30,000 ft.
message into a 3 ft. conversation to differentiate you
 Most sellers only know how to talk about their company and products (company
centric), and do not know how to converse with a customer about their needs
(customer centric). Your sellers will be able to talk customer value, a definite
advantage in the customer’s mind — Turn company spiel into customer value
 Surveyed companies confirmed the reasons they are winning deals is based on
relationships (55%) as opposed to product superiority (41%)

Time Equals Money
How much time and money is your company loosing by trying to manage your
information in the traditional way (old school)? The major analysts have
proven a direct correlation between the ease of finding information and closing
more deals.
 60% of revenues are generated by 20% of the top performing sellers (a smaller amount
than the 80% previously attributed). Improving performance of the remaining 80% of
your sales force will have a tremendous impact on your bottom line
 Each customer encounter is a new learning environment for each introduction: over
70% surveyed companies said they need to improve hunting process for references, case
studies, and 79% for best practices
 Sellers waste hours hunting and reformatting information. Finding information is 2 to 4
times easier in top performing companies. IDC estimated that companies waste almost
$11,000 per seller per year with unproductive activities like searching and reformatting.
Multiply that by every seller and every engagement, and there is a lot of opportunity to
improve your bottom line

Win, Win … Win!
Sales Enablement will result in:
 Alignment between sales and marketing
 Increased productivity
 Improved performance in the sales
organization
This, in turn, will give you:

 Higher close rates
 Reduced operational costs (headcount
and efficiency gains)
 Increased revenues
 More satisfied customers

“Today, knowledge has power.
It controls access to opportunity
and advancement.”
Peter Drucker
About the Author
Jeanne Hellman is a published subject matter expert on Sales Enablement strategies with her first article, “A Case for Sales
Enablement” http://bit.ly/3yvZQD appearing in Sales and Marketing Management Magazine, June 2009.
For the past three years, she has focused on the implementation and adoption of a Sales Enablement strategy in a Global
$11.2B Telecom Equipment and Professional Services company. You can reach out to her at LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannehellman to get assistance or guidance on implementing your sales enablement strategy.

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Gaining Your

Sales Knowledge Advantage

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

Win, Win … Win 29

Jeanne Hellman, Sales Enablement Leader 2009

“There is no substitute for accurate knowledge.

Jeanne Hellman, Sales Enablement Leader 2009

1) Reduce SG&A expenses

Jeanne Hellman, Sales Enablement Leader 2009

A. Bring in new leaders who can better motivate and

Top Sales 14 Objectives (remains constant from 2008 to 2009)

2. Increase sales effectiveness - 51.4% 9. Improve team selling – 11.5%

Jeanne Hellman, Sales Enablement Leader 2009

Jeanne Hellman, Sales Enablement Leader 2009

“Knowledge is like money:

As more companies implement it, more data

Achieve Your Sales Knowledge Advantage by

 One Sales Enablement initiative can deliver

 2. Increase sales effectiveness - 51.4%  9. Improve team selling – 11.5%

3. Increase market share – 38.4%  10. Reduce cost of sales – 9.2%

4. Optimize lead generation – 30.9%  11. Reduce administrative burden – 7.5%

 5. Improve customer loyalty– 26.0%  12. Improve communication – 7.3%

 6. Improve margins – 20.9%  13. Decrease discounting – 3.9%

 7. Reduce sell cycle time – 19.1%  14. Other – 2.9%

Jeanne Hellman, Sales Enablement Leader 2009

Top 10 Sales Effectiveness Initiatives for 2009

Jeanne Hellman, Sales Enablement Leader 2009

 Reduce the SG&A portion of your operating expenses

All of the measurable ROI (Return on Investment) from

 Focus limited marketing resources on value added

 Decommission duplicate portals, removing maintenance

 Eliminate duplicate and redundant documents

 Optimize publishing processes

 Align sales and marketing teams

 Ease of finding information gives companies a performance

 Access to information prepares sellers for the “how to” questions,

Corporations restructure for many reasons: to prepare for

 Invest in retraining existing sellers and newly acquired sellers,

 Be transparent in their communications with real time updates.

Access to resources, contacts, offering knowledge and

Times to get new reps fully productive are getting longer as

Even when hiring seasoned sales reps, companies reported slow

Access to information helps sellers generate more

 Cross selling and up selling remains the second lowest rated

 Technology can fill the mentoring/coaching gap. As

 Investment in sales training is declining, even though it has

There is decline in the ability for firms to share what they

 Increase channel mindshare to help them understand your

 Integrate push communications with customers and channels

 Create separate channel portals and customer portals. Share

A predictable sales process helps stabilize a sales force

 Dominant players in the market have lower turnover than

 Down turns in economy cause more turn over with bad

Jeanne Hellman, Sales Enablement Leader 2009

It is more challenging to keep info current and accessible as

Problems finding information or contacts causes sellers to make more

Access to information helps sales create customer centric

Peer experience was cited as a key consideration in a customer

A Sales Knowledge Management (SKM) Platform can

 Tie in CRM to help with forecasting and developing account

 Create customer portals for lead incubation – up sell/cross sell

Jeanne Hellman, Sales Enablement Leader 2009

This means that you must rely on your sellers to