Overview of the 5 key components to consider in a buyer enablement platform and benefits to sellers, buyers, marketers, and GTM teams.
Gaining a true understanding of Buyer Enablement can be daunting. Not just for those unfamiliar with its increasing value and positive impact on global sales, but also because of how committed B2B platforms are to providing a comprehensive experience for both buyers and sellers alike.
Accomplishing this level of harmony in business to business transactions requires huge amounts of time and research. With complex products and services, it’s virtually impossible to distill an effective value proposition for individual, specific customers into the classic “elevator pitch” most of us are used to hearing.
Before diving into the how and why of these key components, we recommend skimming our December 1st post, Buyer Enablement: Helping Buyers Navigate the B2B Purchasing Process, where we walk you through the basics of B2B purchasing.
“Buyer Enablement is data-driven purchasing power that grants organizational buyers access to desired services.” - Enable Us Team
Buyer Enablement providers often have content that varies from one platform to the next, but 5 main components and offerings tend to be featured consistently throughout. Think of these as the beating heart of your B2B buying journey, without them you cannot thrive. So let’s take a closer look at each component to better understand its unique function as it pertains to the larger umbrella of B2B purchasing.
This is arguably the most important element to get right. Your sales content is a key part of the foundation your business is built on. Demonstrating that your platform manages content as professionally and efficiently as possible is the best way to attract new engagement.
This means providing state-of-the-art Sales Content Management Software (CMS):
Ensure that your flow of information remains organized and well-targeted, including access management, an evergreen link for sharing, and seamless content import/sync capabilities.
Recommended blog: 5 key features to consider when evaluating sales content management software.
With any B2B transaction there are a number of people involved. These include the buyer, sales reps, marketing, sales engineers, buyer’s supervisor, budget decision makers (frequently a VP or C-level Executive), implementation teams, and other parties who have some level of involvement with the completed purchase, who must be kept informed accordingly.
Think of onboarding and training as your primary loss prevention strategy. In this mindset, LOSS, instead of a product being damaged or stolen, is time wasted or, worse, an unsatisfied customer at risk of abandoning the platform.
The better informed and trained each individual involved in the transaction is, the greater the chances are for:
This component is as straightforward as it sounds. However you structure your virtual sales room, you want users to feel comfortable navigating their way through a space they feel represents their brand with an aesthetic they have a hand in creating.
If the learning curve on running the digital sales room is too steep, user adoption will be slow and your customer drop-off rate will likely increase.
Stay on-track and ensure you never miss closing dates with plans created through buyer-seller collaboration.
Mutual action plans, a key component of a Buyer Enablement Platform, can improve forecasting accuracy, accelerate B2B transactions, and close deals faster.
Reducing customer reference fatigue is as important as providing the testimonials themselves. Finding the balance when it comes to delivering quality referrals can be challenging. Providing on-demand resources, like a pre-recorded library of customer testimonials, and knowing how to personalize your customer reference management can help significantly.
Effective customer reference management software will provide valuable insights into buyer engagement. Why use a different tool to capture and manage customer testimonials? Make it easy for customers to share their thoughts with an efficient and user-friendly customer reference management solution.
With each successful B2B transaction, your library of testimonials, that can be used when a customer is unavailable in person, grows.
The goal of a Buyer Enablement Platform is to enable the convenient sharing of proven expertise, improving the efficiency of B2B transactions by quickly and painlessly guiding buyers through their problem identification and solution options. It is data-driven purchasing power, engineered to simply and thoroughly provide all parties involved with the data they need.
Empower buyers on their journey with tools that engage and educate rather than simply sell. Instead of being sold on a product from the seller, the buyer makes an informed, data-driven decision to seek out the software provider tailored to their business, therefore increasing the likelihood of reaching a quick purchasing decision.
While some might argue the Buyer Enablement Ecosystem favors the buyer, it’s important to remember that success for the buyer equals success for the seller. It’s important to remember seller success alone does not guarantee a satisfied buyer or a long-term relationship.
Actual analytics are vastly superior to using anecdotal reports on the use and effectiveness of content/materials to better understand what collateral is engaging buyers and sellers. Analytics on buyer trends are important tools that marketing teams are beginning to master due to the evolution of the B2B buyer experience and its recent shift to conducting transaction-specific interactions through digital sales rooms.
“Product marketing professionals are the folks that understand the story of your product and how it should be presented to prospects and customers.” - Cyndi Brandt
These game-changing analytics on actions, such as total uses and number of times each individual piece of content is accessed/shared, help ensure consistent branding and relevant messaging that accelerates transaction completion.
No longer will a buyer have to search through an inbox to find the one email to share with her buying committee. Rather, a digital sales room, accessible via an evergreen link, becomes the single place for all the materials and conversations she can easily share with others, as well as containing the next steps she needs to champion the solution internally.
With fast, informed purchasing decisions that are fueled by proven solutions catered specifically to individual client needs, buyers will recognize the support they receive in their personalized digital sales rooms.
Go To Market (GTM) teams are designated sales and marketing groups responsible for delivering products into the market. This is different from traditional marketing departments whose job it is to promote a product already in circulation to potential buyers.
Delivering a single source of information (also known as ‘truth’ in the B2B context), and supplying clients with the resources to streamline the B2B purchasing process, contribute to the creation of “evergreen rooms.”
Evergreen Rooms are digital sales rooms laden with an abundance of resources, not just for customers, but also for implementation teams, trainers, success teams, and other key B2B transaction players. This delivers boosts in user adoption, real-time updates to contracts and renewals, on-going tasks, and other pertinent information that aids in the overall renewal and upsell efforts for future transactions.
Each component within a Buyer Enablement Platform provides a slightly different, and improved interaction for sellers and buyers alike. B2B transactions work best when a digital sales space acts as a fully collaborative ecosystem in which its different components work collectively to maximize the value of quality content, sharing relevant information, and on-going communication between all parties involved in the process.
At Enable Us, our all-in-one seller and buyer enablement platform brings together all the key sales and marketing tools into a single platform. Instead of juggling multiple software tools and platforms, you can create evergreen digital rooms, track content effectiveness, evaluate sales performance, and accelerate B2B transactions.
We understand that Time-to-First-Deal-Closed is a key metric that sales organizations track when onboarding new sellers. That’s why we provide our customers with top-notch support and services to quickly implement, onboard and adopt our platform.
Enable Us is ranked number 1 by G2 Crowd in getting SMB customers live in just days. We typically take less than 20 days to launch sales enablement and digital sales room initiatives for our mid-market and enterprise customers. This has earned us additional G2 Crowd badges for Fastest Implementation and Easiest to do Business With for Small Business for the past two quarters.
Enable Us has also been ranked a leader in the Digital Sales Room category for three consecutive quarters by G2 Crowd. This is due to our continued product innovation to:
Our mission is to deliver a buying experience that is truly more efficient, transparent and personal for sellers and buyers alike.
Schedule a demo to learn more about how Enable Us can address your sales and buyer enablement needs.
