Sales Enablement Trends To Accelerate Sales In 2024
![Stevee Daneille]()
Stevee Daneille
Mar 15, 2024
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19 min read
Sales
Stay ahead of the curve with this informative blog post on the latest sales enablement trends. Gain insights into emerging practices and technologies that are transforming sales processes and fostering increased efficiency within organizations.
Key takeaways:
- The growing significance of data-driven decision-making
- Harnessing AI and machine learning to improve sales outcomes
- Importance of personalized and targeted content
- The role of social selling in a modern sales strategy
- Emphasis on continuous learning and development for sales teams
Table of Contents
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- Top Challenges in Sales
- Must Know Sales Enablement Trends For 2024
- Sales Enablement Trends 2024 - Summarized
- Frequently Asked Questions.
As a business owner or sales manager, your main aim is usually to sell, make more money, make it faster, and do it as productively as possible. Sounds simple, right? While simple in concept, executing a sales strategy that ticks these boxes is a different story.
Various aspects make up sales enablement, but in short, it makes sales easy – from the techniques you use to connect the right people to your products and services. It's a process of constant refinement, creativity, developing systems and analysis to serve your customers better, finding new ones, and retaining the existing ones.
However, doing all this is hard. The sales landscape is ever-changing, with rapidly developing technology and emerging trends that constantly change how consumers interact with and buy your services. While sales are going nowhere, success requires adapting to rapidly changing trends and new methods and serving your customers in a way they want to buy, not vice versa. Achieving this on top of running the other aspects of business, running a team, and enjoying your personal life is a tricky balancing act.
But don't stress. Many of the emerging sales enablement trends look promising for freeing up your time, streamlining processes, automating mundane tasks, and creating a better customer experience without you and your team sacrificing precious time. It's an exciting period in the sales world, and no one knows how these new technologies and trends will shape consumer buying. But we know that if you want to stay ahead of the curve and do everything you can to sell this year, you must follow these trends.
Here’s a list of the most noteworthy trends looking to shape how we sell in 2024, which we hope will result in more time selling and less time finding the best way to do it. Before we dive into the latest sales enablement trends, let's revisit some basics, from the definition and the challenges involved to some of the most striking statistics.
In this article, you will learn:
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Challenges of sales enablement
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Statistics on sales enablement
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The most critical sales enablement trends for 2024.
We have a lot to get through, so let’s dive in.
What is Sales Enablement?
Sales enablement is anything you can do to sell more and increase sales efficiency. A successful sales strategy involves many factors, including;
With these aspects and many more making up the larger sales enablement pie, it’s easy to get lost in endless platforms, tools, and data. This means looking for streamlining options leaves you more confused than before. Before we narrow things down to only the most crucial sales enablement trends for 2024, what do the statistics say about sales enablement?
Sales Enablement - What do The Numbers Say?
We scoured the net to uncover what sales enablement did for business. It turns out there's a whole lot; here are the most striking statistics we found:
These stats highlight how vital a great customer experience is to sales. But while the importance is evident, tapping into the fruits of successful sales enablement isn't.
Top Challenges in Sales
Whether you’ve been selling for decades or are a new start-up, it’s tricky. Sales habits are constantly changing; as consumers interact with your brand and consume your content differently. Therefore it is your job as a sales leader to meet the trends and overcome these challenges. Some of the biggest obstacles to overcome in sales include:
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Differentiating from the competition
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Battling low-cost alternatives
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Value to customer conversations
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Maintaining profits
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Building trust
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Consistency in sales team and customer meetings.
If you’ve experienced these issues before, you don’t need us to remind you how painstaking they are; many of them are likely your biggest hurdles, preventing you from reaching your dream sales figures. So how do you overcome these issues?
Sales Enablement Trends for 2024
Here are the latest sales enablement trends for 2024.
Value-Based Selling
Did you know that 87% of high-growth businesses take a value-based approach to sales? Gone are the days of cold calling and hard sales. Now the foundation of any great sales strategy is value. This is great; your sales team doesn’t waste precious time finding and failing to convert cold, uninterested leads. Instead, you can focus on creating valuable content and information to help those who care about your services. When people receive immense value before you make your sales pitch, the value has already evoked the feeling of reciprocity, the urge to give back after receiving something free, e.g., a helpful blog post or entertaining video.
Value in the form of content combined with highlighting why your products can provide even more value is a potent combination for sales. Before making that sales pitch, the two must be well-established through every step of your https://www.fivecrm.com/blog/blog-5-steps-to-create-the-perfect-product-marketing-strategy/marketing funnel.
Thankfully, there are countless methods to achieve this through excellent social media channels, content creation, top-level customer interaction, and giving away valuable, transformative information for free. Customers no longer want deals shoved in their faces. Instead, they want to learn about topics in your niche, solve problems and achieve goals through learning; buying your services when and how they wish. So focus on giving value and nurturing prospects through helpful content and information before selling; this paves the way for an infinitely more qualified prospect.
Artificial Intelligence
You can’t talk about marketing and sales in 2024 without mentioning AI; it's just that relevant now. While the extent to which it will shape sales remains to be seen, Artificial intelligence will help streamline your sales operations. AI allows you to collect super valuable data on your audience and most valuable customers, helping create super personalized user experiences from which you can up-sell and cross-sell.
Did you know 40% of sales tasks can already be automated? Think of all that time your sales team wastes on admin and mundane tasks, which could be better used in customer-facing sales situations. Tasks such as scheduling, responding to emails, handling basic questions, and making updates can now be delegated to AI software–freeing up your sales team and getting them in front of customers frequently and consistently.
In addition, AI can significantly enhance customer experience through AI chatbots and be used to suggest other products they may like during checkout and online shopping. Throw in excellent customer service and valuable content; you have a wonderful recipe for sales! There is an abundance of AI and automation software to free up this time and handle mundane tasks. Some of the best options include HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Flash sales.
Utilize Sales Enablement Tools
A sales enablement tool is a digital tool that connects your content marketing to your sales cycle. In one dashboard, these tools make it easy to keep track of and measure the performance of your sales process. Essentially, it helps you learn what’s working and what isn’t. Pretty handy, right? Here are some of the best sales enablement tools:
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Boomerang
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Cloze
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HubSpot
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Fission
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Salesforce
These sales enablement tools integrate with your CRM, are mobile-friendly, have analytical insights, and are super easy to use.
Customer Experience
In 2024, providing a great customer experience along all stages of the buyer’s journey and anytime they interact with you must be excellent, and nothing less. With many of the largest enterprises focusing on their online presence, content creation, and omnichannel content, creating a fantastic customer experience is vital.
But creating such a great customer experience goes beyond informative well-resonating content and excellent customer service. While these are two essential components, more must be done. For example, AI-generated recommendations and real-time sales team interaction to solve problems, address complaints, and answer queries is the next level. You want to combine high-value content, great design, and interaction with a hyper-personalized purchasing/content experience. That is a potent recipe for driving sales and customer retention.
Social Selling
Social selling will become a considerable aspect of sales in 2024, as if it isn’t already. The benefits of using social media as a growth channel are clear; substantial user bases and ease of publishing content make it easy to connect with an almost infinite audience. According to a survey by OptinMonster, 31% of B2B sales businesses said that social media helped improve their customer relationships.
Popular social platforms, such as LinkedIn and Twitter, make providing high-value information easy while helping to keep your company front of mind for your audience. In addition, you filter out people who aren’t interested in what you offer, and if you get to the good side of the algorithms, you are in a formidable position to grow your audience. Your followers are there for a reason; because they love and interact with your content.
These people are already interested in your products and niche-related topics and, therefore, significantly easier to sell to. Furthermore, social media is a great way to answer customer questions, solve problems, squash pricing objections, and send follow-up messages.
Sales Team Training
Onboarding and nurturing a great sales team through training are crucial to becoming a formidable sales force. But did you know most sales training is forgotten within the first three months? Secondly, 26% of sales reps say the sales training they received was inefficient. But training, when done right, the ROI can be significant. While HR software can help you find and onboard new talent, new salespeople still need rigorous training.
Training is the stepping stone to developing a productive, highly effective, long-term sales team member. That will make you lots of money over the months and years. On average, new sales reps need a minimum of 10 weeks of training. Whatsmore, fresh, eager talent can help you see things from a new perspective, highlighting areas for improvement and new processes.
This long-term nurturing approach not only means creating a great, productive salesforce but also reduces mistakes and increases confidence during in-person sales situations. Training paves the way for a long-term business asset in your army of effective salespeople.
Outsourcing Your Sales Team
Outsourcing to a team of dedicated sales experts can be a highly lucrative method of streamlining your sales processes. You turn the sales team into a hyper-focused sales machine, a group dedicated solely to sales. Nothing else. No mundane, energy-sapping duties taking away their energy which could be better focused on improving sales processes. A dedicated sales team typically spends time finding the right leads, making sales, audience segmentation, and conversion optimization.
CRM - Centralized & Accessible Data
A lack of accurate data is no problem in 2024. There’s too much data. The issue surrounding data is less about how we collect it and more about storing, managing and utilizing it as effectively as possible. Enter your CRM. A CRM or Customer Relationship Management software helps you use data to enhance your sales processes. They allow you to store and collect all the lovely insightful data on your existing customers and prospects in one interface.
You can centralize your data and make marketing and sales decisions from a CRM dashboard. This is super effective. Your CRM lets you create better, more personalized experiences based on individual characteristics and preferences. You can target individuals and specific audience groups with your marketing strategy and sales messaging.
This easy access to data will also help streamline your workflows and continuously develop your customer personas. This will empower you to target all your marketing as if you are talking to one person. Super-specific focus allows you to resonate with that person on a deep, personal level, the knowledge you can use to create relevant content and products based on this persona’s hopes, dreams, goals, and pain points.
Focus on Existing Customers
When growing a company, the focus has traditionally been on finding new customers. More leads, more conversions, and getting your marketing in front of as many people who may be interested as possible. But as you increase reach, conversion rates drop. You just put your service in front of more but less interested people.
But what if this could be different? What if you could redirect that energy into your existing customers, serving them better and looking for upsell and cross-sell opportunities? It is also likely the 80/20 rule or Pareto Principle is prevalent in your organization. Meaning 20% of your customers are responsible for 80% of your revenue. In addition, building relationships and making further sales to existing customers is significantly easier than finding and nurturing new ones.
Omni-Channel Sales
How people interact with and consume your content is developing as new technologies emerge and consumer buying habits change. Therefore having a solid presence across multiple channels means you suit the preferences of the individuals within your large audience. Allowing them to choose how they consume content and purchase your products.
While you may have a significant overall audience, many people within that group may have drastically different channel preferences. For example, Group A may love reading your blog and information snippets on Twitter. Group B, on the other hand, is a younger portion of your audience and may prefer video content and social platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
Businesses that offer omnichannel experiences retain as customers prefer to use multiple channels when shopping online. By serving this, you create a superior buying experience. Whatsmore, 55% of vendors don’t have an omnichannel strategy, giving you a huge opportunity to level up and beat your competition in 2024.
Forward Thinking Analytics
One significant sales enablement trend in 2024 is the shift in how sales teams use analytics. Traditionally, sales and marketing teams have refined their processes based on historical data and metrics.
But here in 2024, it’s significantly more effective to look ahead through analytics tools and AI. Enter forward-thinking analytics. Forward-thinking analytics forecasts up-and-coming trends and what your customers will likely do in the future. Using a combination of AI and predictive analytic tools, this advanced, forward-thinking analytics and innovative use of data is a massive opportunity to revolutionize how you approach sales.
Touch Points
Selling in 2024 requires numerous touch points, meaning your nurture customer relationships via Omni channel content and outstanding personalized customer experiences over time. If you're serious about improving sales, hard selling has become a thing of the past. The more meaningful interactions you can have before sending a sales message, the warmer that prospect becomes, the more trust you have, and ultimately, the more likely they will take your offer.
With so many ways to nurture prospects across various channels, it’s straightforward to do in 2024. That said, it will require a documented content strategy, an omnichannel presence combined with AI, and excellent customer service. Oh, and not to mention next-level value across all of these areas.
Freemium Focus
Many successful B2B businesses offer a free trial of their apps or software. Most notably, in the SaaS industry, this is extremely common. Allowing new users to test and sample the service before committing hard-earned cash. This teaser lets users feel and experience the with features allowing insights into what life would be like post-purchase.
Once a user has tasted what the service can do, they are infinitely more likely to buy. Once you give prospects a chance to experience the benefits, they are already hooked, and in some cases, it’s easier to start paying than go back to not having it.
Better collaboration and communication
Communication is critical for teams, and the same is true for any company. Sales reps should be able to collaborate seamlessly with each other, as well as marketing and management teams within the company. It is essential to ensure several lines of communication between all to exchange data and tasks without confusion or delay. Using such internal communication channels will allow reps to gain feedback while continuously increasing productivity and sales performance.
Hybrid Workspaces
While on the topic of collaboration and communication, the pandemic has shifted the way we work permanently, which means hybrid working is here to stay whether you like it or not. With many employees enjoying the freedoms and flexibilities of remote work, the flip side, there has also been an increase in productivity. According to McKinsey research, 58% of employees state that hybrid work has increased productivity. Secondly, 32% of those surveyed stated they never want to work in the office again.
Sales Team Creativity
While creativity as a whole may sound like a vague thing to implement into your sales strategy, it is one of the most important aspects of sales success in 2024. Your company may have internal processes and methods of doing things that have been the same for the past few years, but in a world of constant change, you must look outside of these processes. Look at your competitors and think outside of the box; how can you and your sales force connect your services with customers?
Be open to exploring new methodology, perhaps a small change in your sales strategy, giving your sales team more of a say in how things should be carried out, or even a shake-up in your marketing strategies.
Video as a Sales Enablement Tool
It’s no secret the importance of video content in 2024. As one of the most effective types of content out there, video is an essential component of any marketing strategy. When potential customers see and interact with your videos, you are giving them an insight into the faces behind your company, providing information and entertaining them at the same time. You can pack a ton of information into videos, and similar to creating a great blog and social media content is a way to resonate with your audience and promote your products simultaneously.
Roll With The Changes
The only thing that’s constant in our life is change, and when it comes to sales trends, things are no different. As new technologies come to the market and customers interact with companies differently, change is going anywhere, and so you must roll with these ongoing changes.
It means your sales team cannot lean back on old sales strategies and marketing campaigns that worked a decade to even a few years ago; instead, they will have to look to the future and ensure any strategy is adaptable and flexible to move with the times.
Sales Enablement Trends 2024 - Summarized
It’s an exciting time; new technologies and consumer buying habits are changing, and sales will always be there. But to be effective and reach your dream sales figures, you must change and adapt to the times. Considering all these trends, you put yourself in a formidable position to revolutionize your approach to sales in 2024 and the coming years.
To recap, here are the primary considerations again:
If you need help streamlining your sales process, then please get in touch with FiveCRM today. We are your one-stop shop for managing your sales and customer relationships; With lead generation, email marketing, and analytics/reporting, we have everything you need to take your sales game to the next level. Book your demo and discover our products here.
Sales Enablement Trends - Related & Frequently Asked Questions.
What are sales enablement strategies?
A sales enablement strategy is a documented process in which you streamline your sales efforts. It’s the approach to making sales easy, from providing your sales force with the necessary tech stack training and tools to making more sales and increasing productivity.
What is the fastest-growing sales trend today?
While no exact aspect is considered the fastest-growing sales trend, a considerable portion of time and resources in sales enablement will create outstanding customer experiences in 2024. So customer experience and putting the buyer first remains one of the most significant and noteworthy trends from now and for years.
What are the characteristics of a good salesperson?
There are numerous exciting traits that all the best salespeople own and exude through their work. Some of these sales-worthy characteristics include; confidence, resilience, listening skills, multi-tasking, and above all being highly ambitious and driven in what they do. These are some of the top traits we look for in our sales team at FiveCRM.
What are the four latest sales enablement trends to follow in 2024?
With significantly more trends than four that will shape sales in 2024, it isn’t easy to pick the most important. However, a significant focus will remain on a customer-centric buying experience, hyper-personalization, forward-thinking analytics, and omnichannel presence.
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