We get the feeling that sales enablement is something that popped up recently in the office of many AR professionals. How is that possible, you might ask yourself. Well, the people that pay your salary are just being informed about what AR does and how it can contribute even more to the company.
Our apologies for that “extra” work (not really).
We like to look at it in a different way; We just saved your job. Informing the analyst firms is only fifty percent of your job today. Please make sure you do understand that things change, also in the world of marketing and influencer relations. I spoke many times about shifting budgets. It happens too often that people wake up when it is already too late. Make preparations. Move to the front before your budget holder does. Make sure you provide them with ideas that other parts of the organisation can benefit from.
Just a quick suggestion from Kea Company: make twenty questions. Of course, those questions should be AR -related. Ask people if they know companies like Gartner or Bloor Research. Also ask them if they are aware of your company showing up in research, written by X firms and if they would use it for selling to new clients. Now start to push every week a one-page sheet to the sales force with the information they can do something with. Try this for about ten weeks. Evaluate and ask the same twenty questions again. I bet you they can all answer them by now. The real creative part I’ll leave to you, but if you need help you know of course where to find us.
The point being awareness. This will not be accomplished by hiding behind doing vendor briefings or making powerpoint slides nobody cares about. They won’t see the benefit that the senior management team will see. But that other fifty percent of your time you can show the value to the man and women of the salesforce. Make fans and position AR as a true added value to your total organisation, not only your shareholders.
Kea, out!
