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Calculating Sales Enablement’s Impact on Profitable Revenue GenerationA Framework to Measure the Impact of Enablement and Collaboration on Sales Effectiveness & Efficiency Across the Enterprise

During the most recent economic bubble, the goal of most sales and marketing organiza-

tions was simply to drive revenue at any cost and by any means. However, operating in

today’s precision-based business climate, executives are not only charged with driving

top-line growth, they are also expected to grow sales profitably and responsibly.

In the ThinkForward 2010 report, Denis Pombriant, Managing Director at Beagle

Research Group, pointed to today’s market leaders as those companies “that provide

solutions that foster business process innovation, cost containment and fully engage cus-

tomers as partners.” Pombriant added that the new realities of the market have shifted

priorities of today’s chief executives. “In the face of financial crisis, recession, market

maturity and skyrocketing energy costs today’s businesses are being summoned again to

think about the future. Many front office solution providers have already begun the pro-

cess. They have devised business solutions that build profitability into front office business

processes by making them more sustainable.”

These changing priorities are complicated by the lingering effects of the recent recession

– marketing and sales teams are being asked to grow revenue even while their budgets

are being reduced. With banks, venture capitalists and boards operating in a risk-averse

mode, the old tactics of adding headcount or lowering margins to inflate near-term

top-line performance are no longer cutting it. Now instead of expanding staffs, many

midsized to large enterprises are looking to consolidate the number of salespeople calling

on key accounts and expanding the solutions and products salespeople present.

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2 • A DemandGen Repor t

Another new dynamic re-writing the rules of sales and marketing is that buyers have also

become more risk-averse and are looking for efficiencies at every turn. “There is a lot of

strain on the buyer/seller relationship right now in the BtoB sector, mostly from the buyer

side,” said Scott Santucci, Senior Analyst, Sales Enablement at Forrester Research. “The

number of options available to buyers has grown in order of magnitude greater than it

was just 10 years ago, thanks to globalization and advances in technology.”

As the number of options has increased, Santucci pointed out that the bar has been raised

significantly for solution providers competing for the time and attention of buyers. “The

amount of time available to deal with salespeople has dried up,” he noted. “Executives

want to deal with anyone who is going to help them solve their problems, but they have

zero time left over for product demonstrations.”

“Most vendors recognize the need to elevate their messaging and improve how their

salespeople communicate and sell, because if their salespeople aren’t adding value they

are not going to be relevant, and they are not going to get access to the right people,”

Santucci continued. “This scenario forces them into a transactional selling model, which

you obviously want to avoid because there are no margins in a commodity market.”

These new market dynamics have created something of a perfect storm for marketing ex-

ecutives. How do they help their sales team add value and communicate more effectively,

when at the same time most of their sales team is being asked to handle a wider array of

products and solutions?

The answer for many midsized to enterprise-level businesses has been the deployment of

Sales Enablement solutions. While Sales Enablement has been a hot topic for the last few

years, the reality is most companies have really only taken a toe-in-the-water approach to

Sales Enablement to date. Some organizations have dabbled with enablement by building

out web-based access to collateral, but breakdowns in usability and inability to measure

effectiveness have diluted the ability to track real returns on these initiatives.

The tide has shifted quickly over the past year however, as progressive companies have

shown dramatic top-line revenue gains and bottom-line cost savings results by deploying

SaaS-based Sales Enablement solutions that foster increased collaboration, drive a consis-

tent message and enable measurement across sales, marketing and other customer-facing

areas of the enterprise.

This white paper will explore the benefits mid-sized firms and large enterprises have

realized by deploying out of the box Sales Enablement solutions. Through a series of case

study examples and insights from leading analysts, the paper will demonstrate the impact

on productivity, as well as revenue generation and the cost savings of a SaaS-based Sales

Enablement platform.

Enablement Increases Efficiency For Both Sales

& Marketing

Sales Enablement tools have shown

dramatic impact for both sales and

marketing departments. Some of

the short-term wins achieved by

both “sides of the house”

have included:

Sales Benefits

• Increased Average Deal Size

• Improved Win Rate

• Reduced Sales Cycle Length

• Increased Quota Attainment

• Increased Number of Opportunities

Marketing Benefits

• Content Workflow Improvements

• Self-Service Efficiency for

Document Retrieval

• Reduction in Printed Documents

and Unused Files

• Increased Collaboration Between

Marketing and the Sales Channels

• Detailed Analytics to Understand

What Content is Used


As companies look to replace static sales, partner and customer portals with a full

featured, single Sales Enablement platform they must take into consideration what’s

needed today and in the future. A hosted solution that targets Sales Enablement means

“out of the box” functionality while receiving the quickest time to value.

The ROI of Increased Sales & Marketing Efficiency

Driving growth in this profit-focused, yet capital-constrained market has shifted Sales En-

ablement from the “nice to have” list to an imperative for organizations with distributed

sales forces and complex marketing messages.

“When we look at the technology hierarchy, and the value that each category provides to

sales and marketing, Sales Enablement and knowledge management have now become

required components,” said Joe Galvin, VP & Research Director with SiriusDecisions, a

leading research consultancy in the sales and marketing space.

“When we look at the

technology hierarchy, and

the value that each category

provides to sales and

marketing, sales enablement

and knowledge management

have now become

required components.”

Joe Galvin, SiriusDecisions

Maturation Of Sales Enablement

Degree of Enablement Value

Shortening Time To Value

FunctionalityHome-Grown

SharePoint/Framework Technology

SFA Vendor

Hosted Sales Enablement Solution

Source: SiriusDecisions


Rollouts of Sales Enablement solutions have also accelerated due to the increased ability

to measure and track the ROI impact of hosted enablement solutions. Early adopters of

hosted enablement platforms have consistently experienced the following payoffs across

their direct and indirect sales teams:

Based on the success of customers and work done with analysts over the years, iCentera

has developed a Sales Enablement ROI Calculator, which helps organizations forecast

the projected productivity gains they can realize through the deployment of a hosted

Sales Enablement platform. Using a conservative productivity gain of .05%, the formula

demonstrates that a large enterprise could drive six figures in additional revenue within

the first year. “We have seen the majority of our clients increase revenue while decreas-

ing costs in year one,” said Craig Nelson, President of iCentera, a pioneer in the Sales

Enablement space and owner of www.salesenablement.com.

While the most obvious payoffs of Sales Enablement are in revenue generation, other

immediate beneficiaries of these tools and processes are the product management and

marketing departments. Some of the core benefits realized from hosted sales

“Creating a strategic sales

enablement program allows

marketers and salespeople to

drive significant cost savings

in the short term while

improving their companies’

competitiveness to thrive in

the new growth cycle.”

Scott Santucci,

Forrester Research

Productivity Gains Before After

Current Company Revenue $300,000,000 $315,109,012

Total Revenue Increase with iCentera (Projected) $15,109,012

Annual Revenue Gain For Each Sales Rep $36,094

Sales Productivity ROI 497%

Total Marketing Productivity Improvements $286,800

Total Productivity Gains $15,395,812

Sales & Marketing Productivityfor a Company with $300 M in annual revenue; 1k employees, 400 reps

Numbers based on customer feedback and industry analyst research

Numbers based on customer feedback and industry analyst research

Before Enablement

After Enablement

Percentage Increase

Revenue Increase

What is your average deal size? $50,000 $52,500 5.00% $15,395,812

What is your average deal win rate? 25% 26% 5.00% Gain Per Rep

What is your average sales cycle length (in months)? 6 5.70 5.00% $36,094

What is your average percentage of quota attainment? 60% 63% 5.00%

What is the average number of opportunities you typically have open? 50 53 5.00%

Sales Enablement Productivity ROI Inputs and Assumptions

• Increased Average Deal Size

• Improved Win Rate

• Reduced Sales Cycle Length

• Increased Quota Attainment

• Increased Number of Opportunities


enablement solutions include: content workflow improvements with content published in

minutes not days, fewer printed documents and unused files, greater self-service efficiency

across all sales channels in accessing relevant sales information and increased collaboration

to better align marketing and sales.

In addition to driving revenue, Sales Enablement solutions with measurement capabilities

have had a positive impact on the bottom line for many companies, driving six figure cost

savings in numerous cases by addressing many of the inefficiencies that exist in the sales

and marketing process. For example:

• 10% of documents are either lost or misfiled at a cost of $360 each, according to

research from Coopers & Lybrand, Immersion Technologies Inc.

• 50-80% of the materials marketing creates for sales never see the light of day,

according to the American Marketing Association

• The typical cost for document creation, publication and maintenance is $2,500 per

item, according to IDC research

• Increased collaboration between marketing and the sales channels

• Detailed Analytics to understand what content is used

The recent Forrester Research report titled, “Engineering Valuable Sales Conversations,”

found technology vendors are spending, on average, 19% of their SG&A costs – or

$135,262 per salesperson – on support-related activities. In that report, Santucci pointed

out that “corralling” the “random acts of sales support” that take place throughout

different parts of an organization presents a golden opportunity. “Creating a strategic

Sales Enablement program allows marketers and salespeople to drive significant cost

savings in the short term while improving their companies’ competitiveness to thrive in

the new growth cycle,” he stated. Business owners and stock holders today demand

profits, thus the need to rethink the way enablement is implemented and measured.

Cost Savings

Total Automated CMS Cost Savings $491,313

Annual SaaS Buy vs Build Savings $728,927

$1,220,240 Total Cost Savings for Year 1

Total Cost Savings for Hosted Sales Enablement Solutionfor a Company with $300 M in annual revenue; 1k employees, 400 reps

Total Automated CMS Cost Savings = Cost savings from lost documents, unused files, going green savings and headcount reduction for systems maintenance.

Annual SaaS Buy vs Build Savings = Total cost of building and maintaining home grown applications less the annual investment in iCentera.


Redefining Roles Around Enablement

Sales Enablement has been labeled and categorized several different ways over the past

two decades, but the progressive organizations who have seen the greatest impact from

a focus on enablement have realized these tools and processes are as vital to marketing

as they are to the front-line sales team. In order to be truly impactful in driving profitable

revenue growth, the enablement process is not something that marketing can simply

relegate to training, sales or the IT department.

Given the changing dynamics of the marketplace, Sales Enablement is now centered on

knowledge transfer making the right knowledge assets, tools, subject matter experts and

other resources available to the sales channels to improve the conversation with buyers to

advance each sale.

When marketing and sales collaborate effectively on the right content and delivery plat-

forms, the vendor is able to bring the weight of the organization’s market and product

knowledge to every sales call and drive more profitable revenue growth.

By leveraging hosted enablement platforms, progressive marketing departments now

have the ability to deliver relevant, up-to-date information on an hourly basis, foster

online collaboration, and adjust the Sales Enablement effort based on real-time usage

analytics that show the behavior of sales, partners and the customers.

As a result, the direct or channel sales rep becomes the “trusted advisor” that Forrester’s

Santucci stressed is now required, adding value to the buying process in today’s

risk-averse market.

The 5th P: Productivity

According to IDC data, the average rep spends two hours per week looking for marketing

collateral and another five hours per week creating and recreating presentations/docu-

ments for customers and prospects. The IDC 2009 data also found that 50% of compa-

nies are still distributing information to their sales team via email. The report found only

30% of the IDC respondents were distributing information via a sales portal environment,

and of those, less than 20% indicated they were able to measure usage.

It’s important to keep in mind these are not just sales productivity issues. With a growing

number of marketing executives now incentivized on reaching revenue goals, non-produc-

tive reps are costing everyone in the company money. In addition, it has been estimated


that marketing and product marketing teams in some companies spend up to 75% of

their day explaining and reviewing issues such as pricing, positioning and sharing competi-

tive data. Making this information readily available in a self-service platform to sales and

partners greatly increases the efficiency of marketing teams.

In addition to maximizing the efficiency of sales executives, industry analysts are also recom-

mending marketing departments focus more on Sales Enablement to drive lead acceleration

to help unclog those deals that are getting clogged later in the pipeline. Once viewed simply

as cost centers, marketing departments at many of the fastest growing companies are now

viewed as essential partners in the revenue generation process. By helping to move deals

from pipeline to closed, marketing departments are gaining recognition in the board room.

Marketing executives have traditionally been trained to focus on the four P’s – product, price,

place and promotion. However, SiriusDecisions recently suggested marketers should add the

“fifth P” of sales: “productivity.” At SiriusDecisions’ 2010 Summit, the research consultancy

added a new perspective on its Demand Creation Waterfall, aimed at helping sales and mar-

keting improve collaboration throughout the different stages of prospect engagement.

Tony Jaros, VP of Research at SiriusDecisions, pointed out that the role of marketing contin-

ues to evolve. “We have witnessed the charter of marketing – and thus its relationship with

sales – change twice in a decade,” Jaros said. While the first wave of change had marketing

expanding its role in demand creation, Jaros said that has resulted in an over-emphasis on

generating leads at the top of the waterfall, and not enough work on lead nurturing and

lead acceleration in the later stages of the waterfall. “The over-hype on the ‘create’ task has

devalued the other tasks that sales and marketing should be working on together.”

As part of the second sea change Jaros also pointed out that some progressive organiza-

tions are establishing competitive differentiation by giving prospects an advanced view of

what it is like to be a customer. By creating content portals which directly address where

the prospect is in the buying cycle, it allows the vendor to provide targeted information and

allows the prospect to be self-sufficient in their research.

SiriusDecisions’ Galvin added that a collaborative focus on Sales Enablement ultimately

drives core revenue metrics. “Selling is an art,” he noted. “Productivity is a science. It’s the

ability to add a new opportunity at the top of the pipeline and increase the number of

active opportunities a rep can manage. The right collaboration and solutions can help drive

the number of new opportunities, the number of active opportunities and lead to shorter

sales cycles by improving the conversion rates from phase to phase inside the buying cycle.”

“Selling is an art. Productivity

is a science. It’s the ability

to add a new opportunity at

the top of the pipeline and

increase the number of active

opportunities a rep

can manage.”



Improved Access To Key Information Leads To Pipeline Improvements

While Sales Force Automation (SFA) Systems helped to manage sales cycles, pipelines and

forecasts, Sales Enablement solutions help to manage buying cycles by making the appro-

priate content available and enabling the collaboration that matches the customer’s needs.

The need for greater efficiency in providing relevant collateral to sales representatives was

underscored in the 2009 Sales Performance Optimization Survey from CSO Insights. That

report found reps experienced “some effort required” or “significant effort required” to

access even basic knowledge, as indicated:

Some Effort Required

Significant Effort Required

Best Practices 43.8% 27.2%

Customer References/ Case Studies

43.2% 21.8%

Proposal Templates/ Business Case Samples

37.6% 15.2%

The CSO Insights Survey also showed that providing easier access to competitive analysis

and past marketing/sales information was emerging as a significant competitive differ-

entiator. According to the report, companies providing easy access to information were

seeing near double digit performance advantages over competitors in key areas:

Easy to Access Significant Effort

Overall Revenue Plan Attainment 87% 79%

Reps Meeting/Exceeding Quota 64% 52%

In Forrester’s “Engineering Valuable Sales Conversations” report, Santucci emphasized

that the right mix of tools and process improvements is vital to Sales Enablement success.

“Engineering these successful sales conversations demands a strategic and systematic

process that provides all client-facing employees with the content and tools to consis-

tently and empathetically engage with and deliver value to the right set of customer

stakeholders at each stage of the customer’s problem-solving life cycle.”

“We have seen the majority

of our clients increase

revenue while decreasing

costs in year one,”

Craig Nelson, iCentera


Enabling Efficiency: Cost Savings Via Enablement

Top line revenue gains are not the only performance benefit companies are seeing

through the deployment of Sales Enablement solutions. “Combining the cost savings

from improved distribution of documents and a reduction in printed documents and

unused files together with headcount reduction for systems maintenance, means many of

our clients have seen six figure cost savings,” Nelson said.

In one prime example of the efficiency realized by enablement, a leading global enter-

prise software company with more than 70,000 customers and 116 different offices,

reduced its printing costs by nearly 90%. By shifting to an iCentera web-based portal to

manage its marketing collateral, the software giant reduced printing costs from $130,000

per quarter to less than $15,000 per quarter.

At the same time, the software company has made it easier for its marketing and sales

support teams to find the most up-to-date collateral, managing more than 5,500 sepa-

rate pieces of collateral with the iCentera service, including more than 1,200 data sheets

and brochures, more than 400 case studies and approximately 250 white papers that can

be used by its marketing and sales teams.

Based on the company’s positive impact on sustainability initiatives, iCentera recently

received a “ThinkForward,” award from Beagle Research Group, a leading analyst firm

in the CRM space. The ThinkForward award for sustainability highlights front office

software companies that provide solutions that foster business process innovation, cost

containment and fully engage customers as partners.

The TCO Comparison: Build Vs. Buy

Over the past few years, Sales Enablement has gained mindshare although economic

woes have slowed widespread adoption. During this period, budget constraints led com-

panies to opt for basic in-house solutions with the idea that it would save them money.

Some organizations dabbled with enablement by providing web-based access to collat-

eral through home-grown systems or framework development tools, such as SharePoint

or Interwoven, but the inability to quickly provide functionality that targets enabling sales

and measuring the effectiveness of the content and tool usage has prohibited them from

tracking real returns on these initiatives and in many cases spending more money over

time as they attempt to “get it right” rather than buying a Sales Enablement solution

delivered quickly as a service.


While defining what is required to enable sales there are capabilities that are fundamen-

tal to the success of such a solution. Industry experts suggest a Sales Enablement solution

should provide the five following key features for successful knowledge transfer:

1) Targeted Messaging

2) Guided Search

3) Real-Time Coaching & Collaboration

4) Content Delivery & Tracking

5) Usage Pattern Analysis

Many of these companies opted for what appeared to be the quick fix of providing

web-based access to collateral through tools such as SharePoint or Interwoven, but the

inability to quickly provide functionality that targets enabling and measuring the effec-

tiveness of the content and tool usage has prohibited them from tackling real returns on

these initiatives.

Key Capabilities of a Sales Enablement Solution

Targeted Messaging

Guided Search

Real-Time Coaching & Collaboration

Content Delivery & Tracking

Usage Pattern Analysis

• Delegated Content Publishing

• Content Workflow Support

• Targeting Specific Roles

• Accurate Information Available

• Personalized Portals to Meet Specific Needs

• Customized To User Preferences

• Discussion Forums

• Subject Matter Portals

• On Boarding Portals

• Automatically Assemble Acrobat or PowerPoint files

• Integration with Salesforce.com

• Ability to Create Customized Portals

• Understand Buyer Behavior

• Help Marketing See Which Content Is Being Used


The key differentiators between IT-developed versus hosted solutions, according to indus-

try analysts, are the level of analytics offered, the breadth of enablement features to drive

more effective selling, and delivery of targeted selling and buying environments, which

can be specific to verticals or even individual accounts.

Most home grown solutions in use today typically only push out mass messaging via

email, provide flat pages and links for content. They usually have no real-time sales

coaching capabilities, and they require users to first download content prior to emailing

the file attachment. Perhaps the biggest drawback of home grown solutions has been

the inability to provide analytics around usage of the system. Analytics provide market-

ing with critical feedback on the content that is most valuable to the sales team and

provide the executive team with support that the right information is being distributed

throughout the enterprise.

“As we have learned over the past 20 years, sales will quickly adapt to the use of solu-

tions that add value to their day,” said Nelson. The famous saying “it’s easier to be a

critic than a creator” certainly applies to sales and channel sales staff. Given their hectic

schedules, sales executives prefer to refine something that has already been created and

proven rather than to create it from scratch. However, they must first be able to easily

locate and understand the enablement material prior to refining it.

While home grown systems built from scratch or on framework portals and content

management technology provide flat HTML environments where sales representatives

can search for relevant documents, users and analysts have reported that documents

are often hard to locate with no support for real-time sales guidance or collaboration

and other functionality (see diagram above) and therefore adoption has suffered. These

systems are also dependent on support and maintenance from over-burdened IT staff,

which often hinder their effectiveness.

The biggest limitation with SharePoint and most home grown Sales Enablement systems

has been the inability to add value to a salesperson’s day and to measure usage and

compliance, or to analyze the effectiveness of different collateral. “When you think

about Sales Enablement, and many companies are today, it has to begin with how you

are going to deliver value then in turn measure the impact,” said Galvin. “If you can’t

measure it in terms of simple activity – what gets used, how often, who is using what

– you are really only amplifying old problems. One of the critical truths of Sales Enable-

“When you think about sales

enablement, and many

companies are today, it has to

begin with how you are going

to deliver value then in turn

measure the impact.”



ment is the requirement to measure. In order to be successful you have to generate and

embed feedback from sales into the system.”

The most immediate business driver for hosted systems versus an internal build-out is

time to value. Building out a system can take anywhere from six to 18 months to get

right, compared to the two to four weeks it typically takes to deploy a hosted solution.

For many companies new initiatives only gain “green light” status if they provide value to

the bottom line within six months.

However, after tabulating the total costs of developing and maintaining a home-grown

system, many have realized the annual investment in a hosted solution actually has a

substantially better total cost of ownership (TCO). “We’ve seen mid to large enterprises

invest $200,000 to well over $1 million trying to build a first generation Sales Enable-

ment system and they are typically disappointed with the functionality and the ongoing

headcount needed for maintenance,” Nelson said.

While the initial development of code to deliver web-based access to content may seem

attractive, many companies have realized that is only the “tip of the iceberg,” as the real

costs for an on-premise system start to pile up once companies take a longer-term view.

Nelson said the company’s ROI/TCO calculator tool has helped companies realize the true

costs associated with factors such as:

Ongoing Resource Costs: These costs should include the IT staff required to build

and support the system, which has been conservatively estimated at $100,000 per

year, per resource for most mid-sized organizations. This variable alone can quickly rise

to close to $1M.

Hardware Acquisition & Maintenance Costs: Conservatively, the cost of the serv-

ers and other hardware required to run a robust Sales Enablement system, which is

accessible to a distributed sales force, is in the $200,000 - $1M range.

Software Acquisition Costs Including CMS, Document Generation, Analytics

& Reporting Engines, and Other Component Costs: In order to realize the

functionality offered by most hosted systems, IT organizations are required to acquire

and deploy several different software applications. The integration costs alone to patch

these tools together can approach the licensing fee for a hosted application.

Training & Support Costs: The initial training across an enterprise can represent a full-

time job, even before the ongoing support costs for IT are factored in to the equation.


Comparing the current state of Sales Enablement deployments to the early days of the

CRM category, SiriusDecisions’ Galvin pointed out that many companies tried to build

in-house systems and ultimately migrated to packaged solutions. “I think we learned that

very few of our organizations are set up for application development,” he said. “It is not a

core skill set for most IT departments, which are often over-burdened and understaffed.”

When is the last time your intranet/extranet was down? In addition to measurement

and tracking capabilities, up-time availability has emerged as another core differentiator

between in-house and hosted solutions.“We have invested a substantial amount in infra-

structure and provide a 99.99% uptime assurance for our enterprise customers,” Mark

Tasseel, VP of Engineering at iCentera, pointed out. “Sales and marketing teams cannot

afford to have a server crash or their in-house support to be unavailable when they need

a key document or a proposal.”

In today’s highly competitive markets many companies are moving to solutions that

enable all customer facing roles as well as the customer. Key benefits derived in taking

this more holistic approach include:

Three Degrees of Enablement

As organizations migrate from focus-

ing exclusively on enabling their sales

teams, three types of engagement

platforms are emerging:

Customer Communication Enablement:

In order to keep pace with the fast

break speed of its high powered

marketing partners, the NBA recent-

ly worked with iCentera to set up a

portal site for its marketing and busi-

ness development teams to share

“pitch books” and large multimedia

files on new advertising and sponsor-

ship programs with partners. Based

on the measurement and increased

collaboration with its partners, the

league has expanded the portals to

more than 200 marketing and sales

reps around the world, and to be-

tween 300 and 400 external partners.

Sales Channel Enablement:

A best practices example of optimiz-

ing sales enablement across a com-

plex sales network is NetApp, a lead-

ing supplier of innovative storage and

data management solutions that ac-

celerate business breakthroughs and

deliver outstanding cost efficiency.

Known for its industry-leading chan-

nel program initiatives, NetApp has

made investments in infrastructure

and enablement tools to make it easi-

er for partners to do business with the

• Increased productivity of both direct and indirect sales channels

• Reduced marketing costs for distributing materials across complex and disparate networks

Sales ChannelEnablement

• Enabled entire staff and supply chain with single source of truth, access to current information

• Better customer retention and profitable revenue growth

• Improved relationships with prospects and customers

• Enabled cross-selling and up-selling

CustomerCommunication

EnterpriseEnablement

(cont’d on next page) 13 • A DemandGen Repor t


The ROI of 360 Degree Enablement

One common mistake executives make when mapping out their Sales Enablement

strategy is that they consider only the needs of their internal sales and marketing teams

when other staff must also be considered. A Sales Enablement system should ideally arm

an entire organization with the ability to enable sales and access the insight, experts and

information to drive all revenue generation initiatives. There is no doubt, companies that

“bring the weight” of the entire organization to every deal have an edge over

the competition.

A second common mistake is the idea that direct sales and indirect sales need to have

separate Sales Enablement solutions. A Sales Enablement strategy should be built to

facilitate the information needs of both direct and indirect sales channels using a role-

based approach that puts the right news, messaging, content and tools in front of the

right sales audience.

A third common mistake is leaving out the customer. A Sales Enablement solution must

reach and provide custom portals with built-in analytics for the buyer/customer to fully

realize the value that 360° Sales Enablement® brings. In the end a custom portal that

can be used to collaborate with the buyer will differentiate vendors from their competi-

tors by providing a high level of service. In addition, similar to the benefits that solutions

from companies like Omniture provide in tracking website behavior, the same level of

tracking should now be in place for intranets/extranets and private customer portals.

company. Using the iCentera for Sales

Channel Enablement solution, NetApp

now supports a sales team of 25,000

direct and indirect representatives,

with 65% of communications now

driven through portals.

Enterprise Enablement:

Aviat Networks, Inc., a leading wire-

less expert in advanced IP network

migration, came together though

a merger between two companies

each with their own very different

communication methods in place.

Following the merger, the company

needed a simple way for marketing

to share information and to enable

sales in a more timely and effective

manner. To help present more than

1,400 documents across a distributed

organization in an organized, easy

to access format, Aviat Networks

utilized iCentera’s hosted platform.

With the documents now stored in

one central place, critical informa-

tion is easily accessed enterprise-

wide, with audience specific portals

created and managed entirely by

the business user. Prior to using the

portals, Aviat’s marketing team was

spending 48 hours per week updat-

ing content on an intranet. After de-

ploying the portals, the marketing

team now gets information into the

hands of sales in just a few minutes

as opposed to days.



CONCLUSION

In her new book, “SNAP Selling: Speed Up Sales & Win More Business with Today’s

Frazzled Customers,” author Jill Konrath said busy prospects now evaluate a selling com-

pany based on relevancy, urgency and value. “If the seller adequately addresses these

concerns, the conversation continues and the sale advances. If not, they get deleted and

opportunities get derailed.”

Operating in this climate of time-starved prospects, the bar has been raised for sales

and marketing organizations to improve productivity and information. Salespeople can’t

afford to waste time searching for information or recreating basic information. Marketing

departments that focus on productivity, the 5th P, make it easy for dispersed sales teams

to access vital information and put their organizations in a favorable position by:

• Speeding up ramp time for new reps

• Improving the flow of content turnaround times from days to hours

• Shortening the sales cycle

Industry leaders who have made Sales Enablement a priority have increased profitable

revenue generation by optimizing the flow of information to sales as well as customers.

By providing reps more time to understand the needs of customers, salespeople increase

their value and ultimately drive more revenue.

At the same time, marketing departments are seeing the payoffs of Sales Enablement

solutions – spending less time distributing information and instead spending more qual-

ity time creating meaningful content that provides real value to the revenue generation

process. Adopting a Sales Enablement solution ensures that a company’s resources are

equipped with the appropriate news, messaging, content and tools to help them focus

on their jobs and gain a head-start with the 5th P.

Today there are numerous success stories that illuminate how marketing has impacted

the 5th P which leads to immediate gains in the profitable revenue growth. In the end

360° Sales Enablement® is about knowledge transfer — making the right knowledge

assets, tools, subject matter experts, product and company news, and other resources

available to the sales channels and customers. If done right with targeted portals users

are no longer required to seek and find Sales Enablement content and resources, the

resources find them.

iCentera’s patented approach provides Intelligence Centers for a new era of sales and

marketing, available as a service today. In the new era of marketing the right expertise,

tools, and content finds the sellers and buyers. This leads to better sales conversations

while making it easier for the customer to buy your solution over the competition’s. The

iCentera sales enablement platform replaces static sales, partner, and customer portals

with a single sales enablement platform that adapts to the needs of each user with

functionality that increases win rates and deal size while reducing the cost of sales – this

is what iCentera calls 360° Sales Enablement®. Visit us at www.salesenablement.com

or www.iCentera.com.

DemandGen Report is a targeted e-media publication spotlighting the strategies

and solutions that help companies better align their sales and marketing organizations,

and ultimately, drive growth. A key component of our coverage focuses on the sales

and marketing automation tools that enable companies to better measure and

manage their multi-channel demand generation efforts. For more information, visit

www.demandgenreport.com.

Presented By

http://www.demandgenreport.com/

http://www.demandgenreport.com

http://www.iCentera.com