Sales Enablement: Be in the Room Where It Happens

Last week, the Diagram team made our way to WeWork at Fulton Market to see Stephanie Casstevens, Chicago HUG User Group Leader, perform an encore of her INBOUND 2017 presentation. Stephanie’s talk, 5 Sales Enablement Lessons Marketers Can Take From Hamilton, was all about how marketing and sales departments should work together to closely align their inbound methodology goals.

HubSpot defines sales enablement as the technology, processes and content that empower sales teams to sell efficiently at a higher velocity. Basically, sales enablement equips the sales teams with the right knowledge and content for every interaction with a buyer.

One of my big takeaways from Stephanie’s Hamilton-riddled presentation was to “be in the room where it happens.” As a marketer, it can be easy to assume what a sales team needs to be successful, but in order for true smarketing to happen, you need to know the actual pain points of your sales team and your current processes.

Get in the room with your sales team, sit in on their meetings and listen to their calls (without being creepy). The best sales enablement provides solutions for both sales and marketing teams to make a measurable ROI difference.

Questions to ask the sales team:

• What is your sales team’s day to day?
• Where does sales feel like they are wasting their time?
• Is there something the marketing team could create to help them be more effective at their job?

HubSpot is releasing a sales enablement certification course that will help your team bridge the gap between marketing and sales teams with real-life examples and tips from industry-leaders. Sign up here to be notified when this course is released.

The next Chicago HubSpot User Group meetup will be on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017 at TechNexus. It'll recap the INBOUND 2017 conference and the panel of participants will feature our very own Digital Marketing Director, Allison Casey! Sign up here to reserve your spot.