What strategies help you reinforce your enablement efforts, so Sales fully comprehends and leverages what you are training them on?

You have to be very clear up front around the objectives of the enablement effort itself. That is to say if you're running an enablement session on X product and its for sales that are brand new to the product, then outline within the calendar invite itself that this is a '101 level' training and you should not expect deep dive nor overly technical information to be part of the delivery. This helps level set first and foremost what they're going to get out of the session (and what they aren't!) ...Read More

In smaller settings, asking sales to playback what you've enabled them on helps reinforce enablement. Ask them to practice explaining a new feature to you or giving you an elevator pitch on your product product. To reinforce efforts more broadly, make sure you have measures of success in place for your enablement efforts. For example, asking sales reps to record their sales calls when they are using a new pitch deck. Or, send out a sales survey after a new product launch to follow up on what's w ...Read More

Gamify your enablement trainings, whether during trainings or over chat forums like Slack or Google Meet. Ask questions that reinforce the most important takeaways from an enablement training, and reward those who answer correctly with points. Familiarize yourself with Sales teams' current capabilities - strengths / weaknesses by listening to recent calls with customers. Then, share live examples of ways they could have improved the conversation by using the strategies you are training them on. ...Read More

Jeremy Wood's point about setting expectations upfront is one I use too. I want to add a few reinforcement mechanics that have actually changed behavior, not just attendance. The most underused reinforcement tool is the peer pitch. At Microsoft, we started requiring reps to pitch to each other in small groups within two weeks of any major enablement session. Not to PMM, not to their manager, but to a peer who would ask the hard questions. This did two things. It forced reps to internalize the me ...Read More

Enhance sales enablement effectiveness by focusing on engagement, peer endorsement, and concise content: Secure Early Buy-in: You need an endorsement from the top sales reps and have a reality check, so collaborate with them to review and endorse training materials before broadcasting them, ensuring relevance and credibility. Leverage Peer Influence: No sales want to listen to marketing. So, it's essential to incorporate success stories from sales reps into training sessions to echo key messages ...Read More

As you are seeking solutions to reinforce training materials on a product launch or key initiatives, it is always helpful to initially understand why this is necessary. A brief survey and/or conversation with the sales leads that you are supporting can further direct so you can effectively optimize existing sales enablement efforts. There are different objectives and roles within sales (e.g. account executives, business development managers, and customer relationship managers) that need to be su ...Read More