Great question – let’s tackle it from two angles: the strategic approach and then the content within it.
1) Strategic Approach: For this side of the equation, let’s all pretend we are the sellers for a second, and that the actual account executives are our clients. If we want to “sell” them our enablement program, we need to approach it the same way as they would approach any successful sales cycle: understand the buyer’s motivations and goals, uncover what’s blocking them from achieving them, offer a solution, tie it to value, and then follow-up and measure the success. The problem I see with many sales enablement programs (and many sales cycles for that matter) is they skip right to “offer a solution” and rarely is it the right one. For a sales enablement to follow a proper process and result in a strategically valuable program, you need to start with understanding that salespeople have a constantly looming quota to hit and every minute they spend out of the field in training programs can feel like an unwanted distraction (unless you prove the value). Next, you need to understand what’s blocking them from hitting their targets. This piece requires internal conversations, sales ops, and comp intel. Frame your program against those challenges: “we know that last quarter X% of your deals were against Competitor A with only a Y% win rate. And looking ahead at this quarter, Z% of the pipeline is also against Competitor A. We want to help you win those deals more, and as such, we’ve developed a sales enablement program with insights, collateral, and talking points specifically targeted at Competitor A.” Now you’re speaking a sales language they understand. Next, track the success of this program and use those data points next time around. “The last sales enablement program we ran had an X% attendance rate. Of those X% that attended, they saw a Y% increase in their close rates.” Whatever your metrics are, make sure they come through in your next “pitch” because these are the “case studies” of the sales enablement session you’re selling. If you don’t have easy access to aggregate results, then do a one-off deal deconstruction with an AE on a win that was tied to your program. If you can follow this strategic approach by ensuring your sales enablement has a foundation of market analysis, comp intel, and sales ops data, you’ll find that salespeople will drop everything to come to your programs rather than feel like they’re a distraction.
2) The Content: Whatever sales approach your AEs/SCs use, learn it and master it. This is critical. You need to understand the way they frame their pitches/cycles if you want your enablement content to resonate and get used within it. Do they use ValueSelling? MEDDIC? Demo2Win? Whatever it is, master it. If you can build your enablement program around the framework they are already about, you’ve just up-leveled your program to strategic value in their eyes.