Don’t be intimidated about implementing buyer enablement efforts at your organization. We won’t lie, it’s a big undertaking, but you know the old saying, “How do you eat a whale? One bite at a time!” The same is true for buyer enablement.
Just like you have to build the frame before you build the house, we’ve put together a quick starter guide to get buyer enablement established at your organization. Take these small steps to introduce your program, then iterate as you go. You can’t finish a project you don’t start!
Quick Start Guide to Buyer Enablement
There are three main phases to getting your own buyer enablement effort off the ground.
Phase 1: Assemble the Team
- Designate the buyer enablement project lead
- Select the focus for the program. Choose one product, target segment, and sales team to act as the pilot program
- Define metrics to track
- Train the team on buyer enablement fundamentals, specifically equipping internal champions
Phase 2: Map Your Typical Buying Group
- Analyze the buying groups for won deals by persona, buying stages they were involved in, champion profile, FAQs, and common objections
- Make a one-sheet for each persona that details their common role at the organization, tasks required to complete the purchase, and content for the champion to engage with these personas
- Map out the steps in a typical buying process
Phase 3: Implement as You go
- Review existing content that matches the personas and buying stages outlined in Phase 2
- Determine content gaps and plan how to fill those gaps
- Start building and using the content right away
- Use software designed to enable buyers such as interactive demos
- Iterate and revise content as you find new gaps
As you develop your buyer enablement framework, you will want to expand the program to enable your buyers fully. We’ve highlighted a buyer enablement strategy we call the DEEP-C Buyer Enablement Framework.
This framework breaks down how to enable buyers at every stage. You can find the full guide to DEEP-C here.
Prioritize Content that Enables Champions
The goal of buyer enablement is to give your champions the assets they need before they know they need them. You don’t need to be a mind reader to do it, but you do need to pay careful attention to your typical buyer groups as you map them out. Remember, you are the expert at how to buy your product. You know which content assets best illustrate, explain, and demonstrate your product for people who are interested in solving the problems you solve.
Buyers don’t want an encyclopedic amount of information on your solution. They’ll start with some basic questions that deepen as you progress through the sale. Instead of opening the floodgates of every case study, white paper, and demo, create content that mirrors the buyer’s curiosity as they progress.
If you feel like you’re the one drowning in content, you can create a system similar to the one Gartner uses for organizing content. Content is organized around three activity streams: Explore (Why?), Evaluate (What?), and Engage (How?).
As with every part of this process, you’ll want to refine as you go. Confirm these assets align with the buyer’s journey so you can make changes as content goes stale.
Technology Capabilities
There is no “one-software-enables-all” technology that exists right now. There are three categories that come close which are interactive demo software, ROI analysis software, and social proof software.
While we wait for someone to develop that, we suggest you look for a combination of solutions that have all these capabilities.
- Automated lead qualification and perform basic discovery
- Multiple content sharing methods
- Organic stakeholder discovery tracking
- Allows deep personalization for each buyer
- Collects data – find a better explanation
- Notifications and dashboards for sales teams and internal champions
- Works seamlessly with existing software
- Encourages communication between sales team and champion
Don’t Wait, Get Started Now
A buyer enablement focused selling style won’t happen overnight, but don’t let that discourage you. Start small and take it one step at a time.
We’ll be covering more buyer enablement implementation “how to’s” in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more! Or take some time to review our content library or personalized demos!
