Journal logo

Sales Enablement and Sales Readiness Are Not the Same Things - Let's Explore The Subtle Differences

Sales Readiness Software

By theyouth123Published 4 years ago 5 min read
Like

Selling has become tougher with time. Considering reality, one thing that should be crystal clear to you is that sales readiness and enablement are significant for businesses in the present-day scenario. They have never been as relevant as they are now.

But have you ever wondered why sales enablement and readiness had become the order of the day? Well, businesses are always on a lookout for new ways to impress customers. They wish to beat the market competition so that they can gain an edge. And to achieve this, they view sales enablement as sales readiness with workable solutions.

With no surprise, around 61% of business organizations use sales enablement to boost their overall sales. Precisely, six years ago, the scene was completely different. The percentage today is almost three times what it used to be back then. These statistics only highlight the growing popularity of sales enablement in the field of business. Interestingly, companies these days are more than happy to spend on sales enablement and readiness. This shift could bring about a massive transformation in how sales teams of companies perform.

Since readiness and enablement are buzzwords these days in the sales field, it becomes extremely important that you understand what they mean and how they are different from each other, so that you can capitalize on them entirely. Now, let's get into the details-

Drawing Line Between Sales Enablement and Sales Readiness

Sales enablement entails the responsibilities and activities that determine the success of the sales process. Different business organizations might perceive the meaning of this term differently. But almost all organizations have come to realize that the importance of sales enablement can't be overemphasized.

Now, let's try to understand what sales readiness is? Well, it refers to certifying the readiness of sales representatives to undertake to sell successfully. Meaning, it checks whether they have the knowledge and skills required for effective conversations and interactions with customers during their buying journey. Some important sales readiness activities include coaching, training, and assessment. These are tools that can help sellers be more agile and productive while at work.

Sales readiness helps sales representatives to seal in profitable deals, that too faster. But the onus of better sales is not on sales enablement professionals alone. Even sellers should try their best to achieve buyer engagement. They should aim at making buyers feel that their time spent interacting with sellers didn't go waste. Every kind of communication initiated by sellers, whether physically, over the phone or through email, or video conferencing, should be meaningful from a business perspective. Sellers should aim at what they have at the end of an interaction is a happy and satisfied customer.

So, what is the basic difference? The primary difference is that sales enablement is a broad term, and it involves a lot, including collaboration, internal communication, change management etc. On the other hand, sales readiness is a component of sales enablement which is extremely critical to the success of a company's sales enablement efforts. Sales readiness is about answering the question, "Are sales representatives ready to take on challenges?"

Is Sales training same as Sales readiness?

Sales training is an essential component of the preparation process: the phase wherein sales representatives are prepared to handle their jobs better. It covers a lot of areas chosen according to the needs and demands of sales representatives. Beginning from methodologies and processes to skill development and product details- almost everything is touched.

Training is indeed an integral aspect of ensuring sales readiness, but the training itself is not sales-readiness.

Just imagine a scenario wherein you want to become a doctor, and you think self-teaching won't be a bad idea. Now, you have got all the books available in the market which you think will help you with the required knowledge, and then started reading them and memorizing their content.

Next, the point comes when you have started feeling you know everything. But despite all that you know, will you feel confident enough to treat a patient or operate on someone? We know the answer is a 'no.'

Theoretical knowledge alone is not enough to perform in the field; you will need vigorous practice and testing before actually being able to pick up your surgery tools.

Yes, the sales scenario is not a life and death scenario, but it is equally important and risky for the existence of a company. Just because sales representatives have undergone some training does not necessarily imply that they are ready to handle real-life selling scenarios.

This is where sales-readiness comes. It involves activities like assessments, coaching and practice, which put sales representatives' caliber to test. Once reps have successfully cleared this phase, they are all set to take on life challenges.

So, what can you take home from this discussion? Sales training alone won't suffice when it comes to helping sales reps avoid silly sales-related mistakes. You invariably need to ensure sales-readiness.

The Right Approach to Ensuring Sales Readiness-

So, what needs to be done for proper sales readiness? Well, both sales enablement professionals and the sales team will have to put coordinated efforts for better company sales. But this is easier said than done.

In a scenario where the management of a company is too busy to look into this aspect and sales representatives are too casual in their approach to taking it seriously, sales readiness efforts might fail miserably. This is the only reason why organizational commitment is extremely vital for sales readiness strategies to be successful. If you are the owner of a company and you think you are time-constrained, then you can probably take help of technological tools such as the sales readiness software so that you can achieve your end without having to invest a lot of your time in the process.

business
Like

About the Creator

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.