inability to get sales and marketing teams aligned around the right processes and technologies costs upwards of 10 percent of revenue per year

On July 21, 2011, IDC hosted a webinar entitled “Setting Your Sales Enablement Strategy”. In the invite for the webinar IDC revealed a very interesting number that really helps to put the financial impact a proper Sales Enablement strategy can make into perspective:

“Is Sales Enablement a new concept? Certainly not. Marketing and some sales organizations have been attempting for decades to equip their direct and indirect sales channels with the right information, at the right time, in the right format, to assist in moving specific opportunities forward. However, companies’ inability to get their sales and marketing teams aligned around the right processes and technologies (or at least consistent ones) has cost them upwards of 10% or more of revenue per year; or $100 M for a $1B company. [...]“

The following chart (source IDG Connect) was also shared during the webinar:

Job opening – Sales Enablement Marketing Manager at EMC

Sales Enablement Marketing Manager

Company: EMC
Location: Bedford, MA 01731
Job Status/Type: Full Time Employee
Job Category: Marketing/Product
Industry: Computer Hardware
Occupations: General/Other: Marketing/Product
Career Level: Manager (Manager/Supervisor of Staff)
Education: Bachelor’s Degree
Reference Code: 65125BR

Job Description

RSA, The Security Division of EMC, is the premier provider of security solutions for business acceleration, helping the world’s leading organizations succeed by solving their most complex and sensitive security challenges. RSA’s information-centric approach to security guards the integrity and confidentiality of information throughout its lifecycle – no matter where it moves, who accesses it or how it is used.
RSA offers industry-leading solutions in identity assurance & access control, data loss prevention, encryption & key management, compliance & security information management and fraud protection. These solutions bring trust to millions of user identities, the transactions that they perform, and the data that is generated. For more information, please visit www.RSA.com and www.EMC.com

The Sales Enablement Marketing Manager is the primary liaison between Sales and Product Marketing and is responsible for leading the development and delivery of tools and assets that support sales conversations throughout the sales cycle. This position requires a mix of interpersonal, project management and communications skills in addition to an understanding of marketing principles, sales methodology, and content management. The job requires innovation in process, procedure and systems that will continuously improve sales and marketing efficiency and effectiveness.

Responsibilities:
The responsibilities of the Sales Enablement Marketing Manager include (but are not limited to) the following:
o Work with sales and various corporate functions to assess and determine the required enablement support and the necessary tools, and to identify the most effective assets. Manage roadmap for asset development.
o Architect and plan various types of cross-product/cross-solution templates to enable standardized presentations and communications (i.e. playbooks; solutions dialog, product presentations)
o Facilitate content owners to populate templates to be used in client meetings, outbound communications and sales training such as presentations, sales guides, messaging and positioning…etc
o Measure sales enablement activities to quantify impact and success of materials and programs
o Establish processes for consistent communcation with the Field in order to collect input as well as to deliver updates and share knowledge
o Track and report on ForceManagement transformation across all Marketing functions
o Assist in data collection and primary and secondary research to understand and monitor market drivers and customer needs – linking them to business objectives that can be solved by RSA
o Manage and facilitate Value Driver and Value Card updates on an ongoing basis. Work with ForceManagement to understand and implement best practices.

Expected competencies
- Outstanding project management skills
- Excellent interpersonal skills and relationship management skills
- Ability to work effectively across cross-functional organizational teams
- Ability to conduct research and extract key findings to support enablement strategies
- Strategic orientation and excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
- Excellent presentation and communication skills – written and verbal – to interact with senior level colleagues
- Leadership qualities, and the ability to act independently (self-motivated)
- Solid time management and scheduling skills, well organized and detail oriented
- Able to work under pressure, meet deadlines, and be flexible in working on multiple projects simultaneously

Experience/Educational requirements
- A Bachelors Degree – in business, marketing or communications preferred
- Proven track record of successful project management
- Knowledge and experience with marketing and sales principles and tools – social media a plus
- Comfort in a matrixed organization

Job opening – Sales Enablement Manager in Australia

Date: Jul 12, 2011
Applications closed Friday 15th July, 2011 at 5:00pm and the role seems to be filled. Posted on this blog as a record of where in the world there are Sales Enablement jobs.
Requisition #: ESAS38751
Job Title: Sales Enablement Manager
Country: Australia
State: Victoria
City: Melbourne, Mulgrave
Employment Status: Full Time
Division: ES – Asiapac

Qualifications Required (Experience, Skills, Academic):
The successful candidate will need to be highly organised with attention to detail and a ‘can do’ attitude. Demonstrated experience in business analytics and automation tools to drive and generate future business is also key to the success of this role.Experience with project management is essential, along with exposure to various PM tools and methodologies. Candidates will need to have a demonstrable history of successful project management across different areas within an organisation. We’re looking for someone with business experience in a ‘Sales Go to Market’ or ‘Sales Enablement‘  role and  5+ years working in a sales organization (ideally within a finance or technology based organisation).

Our new employee will have solid experience developing, utilising and implementing business intelligence tools paired with the  ability to work concurrently on multiple initiatives, taking direction or creating direction as required. Experience working with budgets as well as strategic operating plans would beneficial.

Tertiary qualifications in commerce or a related discipline will help to secure this outstanding opportunity.

Applications closed Friday 15th July, 2011 at 5:00pm

Education: Bachelors
Job Category: Sales
Area of Interest: Sales Support

Job opening – Business Relationship and Sales Enablement in Toronto Canada

Date: 19-Jul-2011

Requisition #: ESGG36356

Job Title: Business Relationship Executive

Country: Canada

State: Ontario

City: Etobicoke (Toronto)

Employment Status: Full Time

Division: ESG-Group Sales Staff

Job Responsibilities:

ADP (Automatic Data Processing, Inc.) is one of the largest providers of business outsourcing solutions to employers and vehicle dealerships around the world. We bring 60 years of unrivaled industry experience to the marketplace. Over 80% of the FORTUNE 500 companies and over 90% of the FORTUNE 100 companies use at least one of ADP’s services. ADP serves more than 560k organizations in over 60 countries, including nearly 400k small business clients and about approximately 26k vehicle dealerships. www.ADP.com The Sales Advocacy Director will serve as the principle interface between the business unit(s) & ES Sales Operations. This individual is responsible for collaborating with the business unit sales operations liaison (client) to analyze, define, design, evaluate & manage the development of sales enablement, sales automation & sales learning solutions. He/She must work in partnership to convert the business unit sales & marketing strategy into sales enablement, sales automation, sales learning & corporate marketing executables. These include field & national campaigns, sales messaging, sales tools, sales automation solutions & sales learning programs, as well as continuous sales process improvement. Builds strong relationships & collaborate with the business unit client at all levels to analyze sales support & sales performance needs, gaps and causes. They will supervise the creation of enablement, automation & learning solutions and the efforts of cross-functional project teams. Routinely reports back data/findings and progress to the client to ensure designed solutions continue to support and positively drive towards desired outcomes. Focus on project managing and influencing teams of individuals who design, develop and deliver high quality sales support resources. High level of project management expertise required to manage risk and issues with stakeholders across the business unit and ES Sales Operations. He/She must be able to manage multiple large-scale projects simultaneously.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

- Work with business unit leadership to assist in achieving objectives through sales enablement, automation & learning solutions. He/She will be responsible for partnering with an assigned internal client group(s). Anticipate business unit needs and recommends sales support resources to enhance associate and leader performance.

- Design sales enablement,automation & leaning solutions based upon sales & marketing needs and task analysis that include high level approach documentation, recommended campaigns, tools, messaging, automation & learning programs or materials to ensure desired sales objectives are meet. Drive standardization, and continuous process improvements. Establish and analyze metrics to monitor the effectiveness and productivity of the team and communicate status to senior leadership.

- Project-manage teams that create high quality sales enablement, automation & learning solutions. Assist in coordination of resources (Subject Matter Experts) for large programs and unique Business Unit requirements. Analyze results of initiatives to identify areas of weakness and create plans for improvement. High level of project management across Business Unit and coordination of multiple projects. Establish and manage milestone project plans, incorporating milestones from Business Unit and 3rd parties, including DVPs, SVPs, and Sales Leaders.

- Manage issues and risks that need to be resolved at the program level. Act as primary interface with the client on issues regarding program level deliverables. Ensure that client reviews are held with the client user community and that appropriate sign-offs are obtained from Subject Matter Experts and Stakeholders

- Work to align & synchronize sales resources including field & national campaigns, sales messaging, sales tools, sales automation, sales learning solutions or programs & continuous sales process improvement to the common ES sales process framework.

- Specifically for field & national campaigns, this individual will delivers packaged campaign assets back to BU sales operations for field execution.

- Understand business processes re-engineering & recommend changes to improve sales productivity – Work with business unit leadership to prioritize and sequence needs

- Establish schedules & work with business unit leadership to communicate & coordinate intiative launches

- Present best practices establish by other business units & drive standardization & simplification

- Coach & mentor team members

- Performs other related duties as assigned

Qualifications Required (Experience, Skills, Academic):

Education:

- BS degree in Marketing & Business Administration or equivalent education & experience.

- MBA or advanced degree a plus

Experience:

- 5-8 years including proven ability to effectively manage & implement large scale projects & relationships with a variety of constituencies and dependencies Possess a proven proficiency in the implementation of related project management strategies is required.

- Extensive experience in project management & PM certification preferred, however, individual is expected to actively pursue PM certification or advanced degree during their tenure in this role.

- ADP sales experience a plus.

- Knowledge of ADP products & solutions

Generic Skills:

- Excellent work ethic, motivation and leadership skills. Comfortable leadng cross-functional teams, working in changing environment, senior level communication, excellent verbal and written communication skills.

ADP is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer; M/F/D/V. ADP believes that diversity leads to strength.

Education: Bachelors

Job Category: Sales

Area of Interest: Sales

As of today I am counting 52 different Sales Enablement vendors

I (link to about me) keep a work in progress list of vendors in…

• Sales Enablement,
• Marketing Asset Management
• Sales Knowledge Management,
• Sales Content Management, etc…

…and…

• Enterprise 2.0 players,
• consulting firms,
• and design agencies…

…with a focus on improving the intranet of b2b enterprises for all employees touching accounts.

So far two vendors merged into one, many changed owners, two went out of business, and new ones keep on popping up. The current count is 52 vendors (last updated April 25, 2012). Please find the constantly updated list here.

In the February 2010 issue CRM Magazine singled out the relevant vendors in the Sales Enablement software market.

Work in progress list of Sales Enablement vendors

QR code for this blog post's link

Find below a list of Sales Enablement software vendors (Sales Enablement solution, marketing content management, sales knowledge management) and agencies / consulting firms, as of April 25, 2012.

CRM magazine did a good job singling out the relevant vendors in the article Sales Enablement Tools.

When you shortlist vendors be sure to look into the following:

• Will the vendor integrate content from existing repositories or upload copies (of what you have in your repositories) into the cloud?
• Can the solution be installed behind the corporate firewall or not? Single-Sign-On?
• Ask the vendor whether the code, that defines how the search weights results, is shared by all customer companies or whether each customer can highly customize it.
• Do they offer a choice between the cloud and on-premise? Do they support the move from one to the other?
• SaaS vs. Licensing: What is cheaper in the long term, to buy the software as a service or perpetual user license?
• Exit strategy for your content and the meta information when you want to change vendors.
• How does the solution support you to meet the challenges that come with doing business globally? (Which languages are supported for the content and for the user interface?)
• Flexibility for customization / your influence on the road map / number of developers at the vendor?
• Can the vendor help to integrate the solution into existing IT infrastructure/processes?
• Does the solution help to manage how you show your complex portfolio of products, services, and solutions to your sales people and channel partners? How quickly can it be updated for org changes? Is it the vendor making the changes or is there an editor?
• Are there social web 2.0 like features that allow for feedback from sales to marketing (ratings/comments) and uploading/sharing of content?
• Is there an intelligent way to maintain the ‘single source’ of content that is being re-used a lot? Can documents be auto-generated in order to be highly customized for the specific sales situation yet look polished?
• What kind of content intelligence is available? (Where in its life cycle is my content? What gets bad ratings? What needs to be retired? What is not being used? What is missing?)

Alinean alinean.com

Altus Corp. altuscorp.com and altus365.com

AMACUS amacus.net

Attensa attensa.com

AvayaLive Engage (web.alive) web conferencing in virtual 3D environment for meetings, training, sales & support

Avitage avitage.com

Bantam live bantamlive.com

basis06 AG basis06.ch (Switzerland)

BigMachines, Inc. bigmachines.com

BizSphere AG bizsphere.com (Full disclosure: I work with BizSphere AG) Suite of Sales Enablement Software Solutions for global businesses with a complex portfolio

Bloomfire bloomfire.com/how-it-works/sales-training/

Brainshark brainshark.com

Callidus iCentera (Callidus Software Inc. purchased iCentera) icentera.com

changeBEAT changebeat.com

Cloudberry cloudberrycreative.com NYC based interactive design firm helping Fortune 500 companies provide online experiences that drive strategic business outcomes

Compendian compendian.com with a solution named CollaboRate

Direxxis Marketing dmEDGE™ Distributed Marketing Portal direxxismarketing.com

Envisica envisica.com (Canada based. Not a software product. Consulting/services only.)

fision fisiononline.com (Marketing Automation & Sales Enablement Cloud Platform)

Game Plan gameplanhq.com (iPad app; connects to Box.com, DropBox, SharePoint 2010, Amazon S3)

inkonit inkonit.com/sales-enablement/

InQuira (Oracle purchased InQuira) inquira.com

InsideView insideview.com

Jive jivesoftware.com/solutions/sales-enablement

Landslide Technologies landslide.com (The Resource Library for easy sharing, retrieval and managing)

Launch International launchinternational.com The Sales Enablement Content Company

LogicBay logicbay.com

LTP Sales ltpsales.com training video solutions for sales & marketing organizations

Macrosoft Inc NavigateKnowledge.com Sales Enablement Solutions

MING Group minggroup.net Boston, Munich, and Shanghai based User Experience Design agency, Application Development (iOS, Android, etc…), and Portfolio & Marketing Consulting. (Full disclosure: I work with MING Group)

n-tara ntara.com also SalesEnlightenment.com

Perperitus Sales solution perperitus.com

Playboox Playmaker Solution playboox.com

Qvidian (Sant and Kadient merged) qvidian.com

RO|innovation (RO|enablement) roinnovation.com/roenablement/

Salesforce.com salesforce.com/content

SalesKB SalesKB.com

SAVO Group savogroup.com

Scepos scepos.com

Sendside sendside.com

Showpad showpad.com Combination of iPad app & online platform; turns each iPad into a sales enablement tool

SKURA SFX Sales Enablement solution skura.com (talent acquisition by Deloitte)

Solutions for Sales solutionsforsales.com

StreetSmarts streetsmarts.com

TribalKnowledge.tv Thought Action Group thoughtactiongroup.com is developing as a new organization with a portfolio of sales enablement services

UpSync UpSync.com Sales Process Empowerment & Presentation Tool for web, iPhone, and iPad

Vivisimo Inc vivisimo.com/solutions/sales-enablement (acquired by IBM)

VONICAL vonical.com Ottawa, Canada, based full-service agency: Web application development, user experience and interaction design, sales enablement tools and training, gamification and reward platforms, etc…

Woople woople.com Hosted video-based sales enablement platform. Target content to staff & measure its adoption. Woople was developed by the Canadian company Big Bang Technology.

xfi xfi.com/technology/

Yammer yammer.com

zoomstra (zoomstra workbooks) zoomstra.com

2 comma sales 2commasales.com




In its February 2010 issue CRM magazine singled out the relevant Sales Enablement vendors in the article ‘Sales Enablement Tools’:

“[...] Scott Santucci, senior analyst at Forrester Research, says he’s seen an explosion of interest in this area over the past year. As with any technology, however, those rushing to buy the hot newness without first establishing a clear strategy are doomed to fail. It’s not that there’s a lack of information—far from it. Instead, it’s hard to wade through the sheer tonnage of information and determine what’s up-to-date, relevant, and in a form amenable to the particular sales conversation. “It’s a very simple, yet really complicated problem,” Santucci says.

[...] Santucci says each of the relevant vendors—including BizSphere, iCentera, Kadient, and Savo Group—cater to slightly different problems. [...]“

In case you have not seen ‘Is Sales Enablement just lipstick on a Knowledge Management pig?’ It is a must read! I will try to discuss some of the aspects here on this blog later.

Gerhard Gschwandtner (@gerhard20) writes:

“[...] let’s take a look how the sales enablement vendors are selling their solution to you, the sales leader.

Vendor Pitches or Marketing Glitches?

Savo promises, “Never sell alone!” Does that hit a hot button for you? I don’t know many lonely salespeople. On another part of the SAVO site I read, “Clone top performers.” Excuse me! Why not promise, “Clone your Swiss bank account”?

Kadient’s Website [Qvidian.com now] isn’t shy about pitching the exact same theme on their home page: “What if all of your salespeople could sell like your top performers?” The promise continues, “With Kadient’s on-demand sales enablement application, you arm your sales team with the knowledge, messages and strategies they need to win at every stage of the customer’s buying cycle.” If they found the key to winning at every stage, how come Kadient isn’t a hugely successful company?

iCentera [Callidus now] bills itself as a sales enablement company. Their pitch is a model of modesty: “Sales Enablement maximizes your sales organization’s ability to communicate through a central messaging vehicle.” The key benefit: “Close more business through more knowledgeable sales people.”

N-tara.com created a special sales enablement site with this teaser copy: “Ever feel like your salespeople don’t get it?” Here is the pitch: “N-tara’s sales enablement solutions equip your sales force with engaging, customer-ready content that is timely, relevant and in context to your customer’s needs.”

The best part of their site is a “Guide to Enlightened Conversations”. It is engaging, interactive and it makes a lot of sense.

BizSphere AG‘s pitch: “Do you want your sellers to minimize preparation time and maximize quality time with your clients?” The key benefits: close more deals, increase average deal size, shorten your sales cycle. It is a clear and concise pitch.

Another vendor in the space is Salesforce.com/content which offers a competing solution to their AppExchange partners Kadient and SAVO.

Other vendors include Avitage.com (marketing automation and sales enablement) Streetsmarts.com (channel sales) [...]“