Would you buy from a company you don’t trust on a personal level? We wouldn’t either.
Every member of your organization that interacts with the customer has the chance to make or break a sale. Recognizing this power can help enable your sales team by removing any pain points along the customer journey.
On this episode of The Sales Engagement podcast, we talk with Vince Maltese, Head of Sales Enablement at Accelya. He joins the show to talk all about:
- Enablement as the ethos of the company
- Company mistakes around enablement & advice on how to improve
- Understanding the Miller Heiman methodology
- The customer journey and post-pandemic changes
- Building out a company’s enablement division
Enablement as the Ethos
Enablement is not a job. It’s not a function. It’s not a department or an organization. It’s not something that can be put on a job description.
Enablement is the ethos of the company.
It’s everybody’s responsibility, enabling Salesforce. It’s all about what people have to do to ensure that Salesforce can do what they do, and do it successfully. Operations, customer service, financing, these are all groups that touch the customer.
And each of these groups can make or break a sale, because they can damage credibility. So again, enablement isn’t just something we do. It’s the lifeblood of any company.
The Miller Heiman Methodology
As we talk about enabling your sales team, one of the things that came up was this particular sales methodology, the Miller Heiman methodology. So what is it?
The Miller Heiman methodology is based around three major roles of the salesperson.
The first is developing and creating opportunities.
This isn’t cold calling. Or cold prospecting. That’s not what we’re talking about when we talk about developing and creating opportunities.
The reality is that 90% of our new opportunities come from existing customers. So when you’re talking to a customer, start digging to see if there are new opportunities to explore.
The second is tracking opportunities.
You’ve got to know what you know, and know what you don’t know. You’ve got to be able to flag what you need to do and have action plans in place to communicate with the customer, and track the whole opportunity from cradle to grave when it closes.
The third and final is managing the relationship.
You’ve created the opportunity, you can track it, now how are you going to manage it and nurture it over the three years? Where do you want to be in three years with this particular customer?
Enablement is so much more than we’ve thought, and we’re just scratching the surface of our conversation with Vince, so make sure you listen to the entire interview for a full breakdown of this fascinating topic.
For more engaging sales conversations, subscribe to The Sales Engagement Podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or on our website.
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