“We don’t need a Sales Enablement platform, we already have a CRM.” We hear this a lot but they are not the same. If you’ve had a similar thought before, this article might help you.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has been used by enterprises for decades. Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM like many other hundreds of similar CRM softwares capture information for the sales funnel. However, a CRM is unlikely to improve how the sales rep interacts with the customers.
On the other hand, Sales Enablement platforms have become popular in the last 5 years, and there are only a handful of products available in the market. These are meant to provide the required to help the sales reps (agents, advisors or executives) sell more effectively and improve conversion.
Here are three key differences between CRM and Sales Enablement platforms.
1. CRM is for record-keeping, Sales Enablement is for customer conversations.
A CRM helps record contact details of the leads, move them through different stages, create workflows, suggest next action on given dates, hold customer files/conversations etc. The data helps managers get insights on the pipelines and the sales reps.
In contrast, a Sales Enablement platform helps the reps with effective product pitches and sales battlecards, latest marketing content at their fingertips with various sharing options, FAQs about the products, product comparisons etc. enabling sales reps become product experts.
2. CRM is used before and after customer calls, Sales Enablement is used during the calls.
Sales reps use the CRM to input contact details of the leads, update comments based on the interactions and put the next action date for follow-ups. On the next action date, the said activity is performed by the rep and the details are updated in the CRM. The actual conversation between the rep and the customer happens without the use of a CRM.
Sales Enablement platforms are used mostly during the customer conversation. They are the differentiator between a sales rep and an expert sales rep. Using the platform, reps are able to make compelling presentations, handle objections effectively, and share collateral in less than a minute.
3. CRM helps managers with sales process insights, Sales Enablement helps sales reps with tools to convert.
Although the data inputs come from the sales team, the CRM mostly helps managers by sharing insights and analytics. Managers get an oversight on the sales pipeline as well as individual contribution of each. However, since the amount of time spent by the sales reps for data entry is considerably high, CRM adoption is typically low.
Reps need something which can help them convert faster. Sales Enablement does the job by providing just-in-time help to the reps. With Sales Enablement, reps can provide all information or collateral required by the customer instantly. There is no need for “I will get back to you.”
With all the above differences highlighted, it is important to note that CRM and Sales Enablement are complementary to one another, not substitutes. CRM softwares are powerful tools which help the sales teams organize data in the sales process. Sales Enablement makes the reps more effective by helping them close deals faster.
Using Sales Enablement along with CRM helps you in multiple ways.
- CRM helps record customer information while Sales Enablement can personalize marketing content for each customer basis this information
- Many CRMs provide content management while Sales Enablement can help get insights on the usage of the content
- CRM can help the sales reps be organized while Sales Enablement can help improve the quality of customer conversations
- Further, Sales Enablement can offer training and coaching features to help reduce the ramp-up time of new sales reps and increasing reps’ effectiveness over time
sharpsell equips sales reps with personalized content to engage with customers and customized presentations to share with customers as per their needs. All the content is accessible through a single source - the sharpsell platform. Companies using sharpsell have seen an increase in sales productivity with higher number of products sold, higher ticket size, increased visibility on prospecting, reduced content creation cost, reduced time to first sale, reduced costs of training, and uncovering insights on product feedback.
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