How Sales Enablement Drives Revenue Growth: Insights from Crayon‘s Director of Sales
Sales enablement has quickly become one of the hottest topics in the world of sales – and for good reason. According to SiriusDecisions, organizations with a dedicated sales enablement function achieved 18.5% more revenue growth compared to those without one. And the latest research from HubSpot found that 65% of sales leaders who outperformed revenue targets in 2020 had a dedicated sales enablement team or individual.
As the business landscape grows increasingly complex and buyer expectations continue to rise, sales enablement is no longer a nice-to-have. It‘s a must-have for any organization that wants to stay competitive and hit their revenue goals. But what does an effective sales enablement program actually look like? And how can you leverage it drive meaningful revenue growth?
To find out, we sat down with Chris Pope, Director of Sales at Crayon, to get an inside look at how their sales enablement efforts moved the needle on revenue growth in 2021, and what other organizations can learn from their approach.
Delivering Insights from Data
Any successful sales enablement strategy starts with a deep understanding of rep performance and buyer engagement. And that requires leveraging data across the entire sales funnel.
At Crayon, a key part of their sales enablement approach is using "velocity reports". As Pope explained:
"Velocity reports tell us what our reps conversion rates are at every stage of the sales funnel. How many opportunities are turning into discovery calls? How many discovery calls are turning into demos? How many demos are turning into proposals? And how many proposals do we send out that turn into closed business?"
By meticulously tracking this full-funnel data, Crayon‘s sales enablement team is able to pinpoint the exact areas where reps need coaching or content to improve their win rates. For example, if the data shows a rep has a high rate of demos that don‘t convert to proposals, the enablement team knows to prioritize training and resources specifically around giving effective demos and overcoming objections.
Enabling Reps with The Right Content
Once you‘ve used the data to identify skills gaps and training opportunities, the next step is ensuring reps have easy access to the content assets they need to excel. Sales enablement content comes in many forms – from email templates to demo decks to objection handling guides.
Two of the most effective sales enablement content assets Crayon uses are:
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Call recordings: "We love call recordings. We not only have call recordings of what the perfect call sounds like, we also have recordings of ideal discovery calls, effective demos, and successful closing calls. We share these recordings with reps who may need help in those areas, and we share them broadly across the organization so everyone is on the same page."
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Battle cards: "We use our own product to make sure that our individual contributors have the most up to date messaging on how we position against our competition. This knowledge has been crucial not only for our organization, but for our customers as well."
By building an extensive library of call recordings and battle cards that map to each stage of their sales process, Crayon enables reps to quickly find relevant talk tracks and content to prepare for any buyer interaction. According to G2 research, sales reps spend just 34% of their time actually selling. Providing easy access to compelling content helps reps maximize that valuable selling time.
Enabling a Strong Sales Culture
Of course, sales enablement content and training only works if reps are bought in and engaged. That‘s why fostering a strong, collaborative sales culture is a crucial part of any sales enablement strategy.
At Crayon, building team cohesion became particularly important as the team shifted to remote work during the pandemic. As Pope shared:
"We‘ve done our best to create a team atmosphere. We have daily calls where the entire sales team is on together, we have a peer program where our more experienced reps are paired with less experienced reps to offer coaching and mentorship, and we‘re creating cross-functional opportunities for our pipeline generation team to work closer with our closing team."
These efforts to facilitate communication and knowledge sharing are paying off. Reps are more engaged in enablement programs and more proactive about collaborating. Weekly pipeline reviews have gone from an interrogation to a coaching session.
The sales enablement team at Crayon also makes a point to celebrate team wins – both big and small. Whether it‘s a rep crushing their demo or finally closing that big enterprise deal, taking the time to acknowledge success keeps the team motivated. Organizations that tie enablement to a positive culture are 67% more likely to have reps hit quota.
Scaling Enablement as The Team Grows
As sales teams scale, it can be challenging to maintain the same level of personalized coaching and enablement. Managers‘ bandwidth gets stretched thin. Without the proper focus on enablement, rep productivity can plateau or even dip.
To combat this, Crayon takes a proactive approach anytime they add new reps to the team. According to Pope:
"If we know we‘re going to hire a new group of sales reps, we make sure we already have enough managers in place who have the bandwidth to lead. So when those people start we don‘t have a new manager meeting new reps, we have experienced managers working with new reps, and we make sure that team members have the data they need to understand what their path to success will be as an individual contributor."
The sales enablement team at Crayon also focuses heavily on enabling front-line managers, not just reps. This includes:
- Clearly defining and communicating key leading and lagging sales metrics for managers to coach to
- Providing manager-specific training and content on how to coach reps through each stage of the sales cycle
- Investing in technology that allows managers to easily track rep activity and performance
- Encouraging managers to collaborate and share best practices with each other
By setting managers up for success, Crayon ensures sales enablement efforts can effectively scale in lockstep with the team. SiriusDecisions found that organizations that enable their managers see 26% more reps hit quota.
Measuring The Revenue Impact
Sophisticated sales enablement programs don‘t just deliver content and training. They also meticulously measure the impact on pipeline and revenue. Enablement leaders that can tangibly prove how their efforts drive growth are able to get the resources and executive buy-in needed to really move the needle.
At Crayon, sales enablement is a team sport that involves stakeholders across the organization. By fostering tight alignment between sales, marketing, and enablement, Crayon ensures resources are being directed where they can have maximum impact. Sales enablement priorities are derived directly from pipeline reviews and revenue reports.
Pope‘s team relies on leading indicators like rep certification rates, content usage, and time-to-first-deal to gauge if enablement programs are working. But they don‘t stop there. They also track the impact on key sales metrics like win rates, average deal size, and time-to-productivity for new reps. By tying enablement efforts directly back to revenue outcomes, they secure a seat at the executive table and make enablement a company-wide priority.
Key Takeaways
Effective sales enablement is all about providing your sales team with the training, content, tools and insights they need to effectively engage buyers and crush their quota. As Crayon has shown, when done right, sales enablement is an incredibly powerful lever for driving revenue growth in any economic environment.
To recap, here are the key elements of Crayon‘s winning sales enablement formula:
- Use data to pinpoint skills gaps and training opportunities at each stage of the sales cycle
- Arm reps with the content and talk tracks they need to excel (e.g. call recordings, battle cards)
- Facilitate a collaborative culture where reps are engaged in enablement and motivated to succeed
- Set managers up to effectively coach and enable reps at scale
- Tie all enablement efforts directly to revenue outcomes
While these strategies helped Crayon crush their 2021 revenue goals, sales enablement is not a one-and-done initiative. The most effective enablement programs continually iterate based on rep feedback, buyer preferences, and market dynamics. With a strong foundation of content, training and culture in place – and an agile approach to optimization – Crayon is well positioned to drive repeatable, scalable revenue growth for years to come.
The world of sales is always evolving. But organizations that prioritize and invest in sales enablement will have a crucial advantage in engaging modern buyers and edging out the competition. Is your sales team enabled to dominate in 2022 and beyond?
