Sales enablement manager: what it does and what are the skills involved

In this article we show you what are the skills needed to be a good sales enablement manager and what is the importance of this role to the company.

If your aim is to sell more, having the best product might no longer be enough. No, you did not misread it! The market we face today is highly competitive and, as such, other aspects are as relevant as product quality — content creation and client experience among them. That said, many businesses are each day investing more in sales enablement strategies and in hiring a sales enablement manager to lead and develop such tasks.

The main role of this professional is to help salespeople to not only sell more but also sell with more quality, taking as much advantage of content marketing as possible. 

Do you think it is time to hire such an expert to increase conversion in your team? Keep on reading and get to know more about this role, the benefits it can bring to your business, and the skills expected from this professional.

What does a sales enablement manager do?

Sales enablement is the process of providing salespeople all the information they need in order to make their job more effective. That said, the sales enablement manager is the person who makes this possible. 

Curiously enough, the focus of the job is on the buyers rather than in the sales. What is their need? What content they are more likely to engage with? With these answers in mind, the sales enablement manager is able to develop a killing strategy that combines communication and sales efforts.

Other responsibilities of the role include: 

  • work as an interface between marketing and sales teams;
  • train salespeople about the product;
  • teach the best sales techniques to qualify the team; 
  • identify the best content formats and channels to the audience; 
  • manage different campaigns simultaneously; 
  • define ways to measure sales enablement (set goals and calculate ROI);
  • train the team in using possible tools that can scale the work;
  • structure workflow feedback from salespeople to the communication team (and vice-versa). 

Why is that role so important?

The market is as competitive as it gets and each day more and more businesses are developing different, innovative strategies to attract clients and retain their attention. See how your company can do that by hiring a sales enablement manager. 

Scale the business

Are you running out of ideas on how to make your revenue grow? Sometimes you and your sales representatives have just exhausted all options and some investments are needed to finally scale your business. 

By leading and training the salesforce team as well as managing possible sales enablement tools this professional can coordinate the work to make the team more productive and, as a consequence, increase sales.  

Deal with more qualified leads 

As we will further discuss, a sales enablement manager works as a bridge between marketing and sales. That said, they have the necessary knowledge to place the best content on the right channel and aim it to the appropriate audience. 

All this effort contributes to more qualified leads, increasing the chance for conversion since the sales team comes to action when the potential consumer is nurtured enough to close the deal. This saves precious man-hour and money. 

Increase conversion rates 

Another indication that it is time to hire a sales enablement manager is if your business is dealing with a great number of canceled orders (or a high shopping cart abandonment rate in case you own an e-commerce). 

This happens especially when leads are presented with a shopping option before being properly nurtured. Since the sales enablement manager has a strategic knowledge of the content, it is easier to avoid such errors. 

What skills should a sales enablement manager have?

A great sales enablement manager is someone with a diverse background — and so is the job position. Ideally, this professional should have great knowledge in both sales and marketing as well as at least some understanding of product placement and development. 

Communication skills

Beyond having experience in the marketing industry, a sales enablement manager should be a communicator at the core. This role involves not only communicating with consumers but also with different stakeholders within the organization — from CEOs to sales representatives, for instance.

It goes without saying: a good communicator is also a good listener. This professional should be able to give and receive feedback as well as have the ability to team-work since this person generally leads and supports the sales force and its collaborators. 

Content understanding 

That is where the marketing, strategic background can certainly make a difference. The role demands involvement in all sale steps, which means following the customer journey from lead generation to the building of brand loyalty. 

This professional is also key to making content more palatable for leads and possible clients. This means they know how to take advantage of the content produced, what to highlight in each of them, and in which formats they should be presented

Time management 

Yes, time is money! Especially when you are trying to sell a product — which cannot be offered to soon in the funnel — as well as scale a business. A certain level of project management mentality is needed as well as the ability to deal with them simultaneously. 

This professional should know how to prioritize tasks and campaigns and delegate when needed. Being familiar with different technology is also something this professional should also bear in mind since sales enablement tools can be very helpful in time management, increasing productivity, and business scaling.

A huge volume of content on different platforms makes it harder and harder to retain consumers’ attention. However, it does get easier when marketing and sales teams work together. That way, counting on a sales enablement manager in your team is a way to create, use, and distribute content in a more productive way as a strategy to seal more deals and increase conversion rates.   

To keep on reading about ways to drive sales, check how creating interactive content experiences can be a part of it. 

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Rod P. Curi Rock author vector
Strategic Account Manager

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