When it comes to sales enablement and growth enablement, the two often go hand in hand. But what are they?  

Sales enablement is more of a term that falls under the growth enablement umbrella. Together, growth enablement can better position the sales team for success.  

But how does this happen? It all comes down to the very foundation of growth enablement: prioritizing PPT – People, Process, and Technology. PPT creates a solid foundation upon which your business can grow and flourish, so by making it a priority your company is better positioned for success.  

People  

People sits atop the PPT pyramid, and rightly so. Without the people and organizations they form, you have no service, no creativity, no innovation. In an increasingly automated world, this can sometimes get lost in many industries, namely technology, as robots and AI take center stage. But at the end of the day, the most important thing in the business world is the people who run it.  

When it comes to running a business, it’s important to choose the best people to work with who will support and contribute to your entrepreneurial mindset. Right body, right seat. Make smart hires because without the right people, nothing can happen. Look for people who have the experience, qualifications, and attitude your team needs, as well as the ability to adapt and learn as they go. I like to call my team “intrapreneurs” because we encourage everyone to treat their role within BrainSell like it’s their own company, and not be afraid to try something new and realize that mistakes are part of innovation.  

This leads us to growth enablement. I think one of the reasons that we have found success is because I’ve always understood that businesses ultimately come down to people. Whether you’re selling to a small business or an enterprise, when you break it down, that prospective entity is made up of humans, and it’s up to the people running it to make decisions about where the company is headed and how they will get there. After all, it will be up to their teams to ultimately run the processes and use the technologies.  

But here is where it can get nuanced, because business people are crafty. If they can find a creative alternative that could work just as well for a cheaper price, they will. That’s why you must demonstrate the meaning behind the service or product you are trying to sell. When you’re making a sales pitch, consider that these people want to invest in a project, technology, or change that will improve their work lives. Connect with them, understand their needs, and recognize that if you can offer them something different that will make their lives better, less stressful, and perhaps easier, then you might have just won the sale. Understand your prospective client, and you can understand what matters to them, and not what you can sell them, but why doing business with you will make them better.  

So always remember, people first!  

Process  

What is it that your people do in order to deliver the expected value to our customers? This is the process.  

Take salespeople, for example. Yes, their job is to sell a product. But how they go about doing that might differ depending on the company or individual. Whether their process relies heavily on outbound campaigns, referrals, prospecting, paid advertising, going door to door, or any other lead generation, it will differ depending on the salesperson.  

Processes are, by definition, repeatable. They will produce the same result every time, regardless of who is carrying them out. By implementing a process, you can offer some structure to your salespeople. Sure, their way about sourcing leads can vary depending on their personality, experience, or habits, but after they source those leads, there should be a process in place to guide them down the sales funnel so that there are little to no surprises at the end of the quarter.  

Part of BrainSell’s business consists of redesigning and reimagining processes for our clients. If something isn’t working, or they’re not getting the results they wanted, we can break down their process and figure out what is broken, and how we can fix it. You can’t see the forest through the trees, and that outside perspective provides an objective view.  

While many companies might simply look for a technology that can fix or improve their process, remember that applying technology to a broken process simply makes a bad process go faster, it doesn’t rectify the situation.  

Technology  

Once you have your people thinking about growth and have better processes in place for your employees, you can apply technology. However, many companies make the mistake of selecting technologies and then building a process and team around them. But as I said, applying technology to a broken process just makes that bad process go faster, that’s often referred to as paving a cow path.  

I like to think of technology as the force multiplier, where once we’ve considered each individual or person’s challenges and looked at each process to determine how to optimize success, we can now apply technology to specific areas of people and process, to allow for exponential growth and scale.  

The great thing about technology is that once you’re ready to invest in it, it will work tirelessly for you. Technology will never take a vacation or call out sick. . I’m not saying that it will replace your employees, technology will never be that creative or unique. But it’s a useful way to fix aspects of your business that can afford to be automated and then moving humans to more creative roles or positions that need reasoning. 

Whether it be CRM, marketing automation, finance, sales, or RPA, the right technology can fix pain points and automate simple tasks so that employees can continue to look ahead and drive growth.  

The technology tipping point  

With technology there will come a tipping point, where you will no longer need to add human capital in order to maintain growth. Simply put, you’ll be able to do more with the same number of people, and you will no longer have to expend disproportionately on human capital in order to grow. Your employees will be able focus their energies on more meaningful and impactful growth and leave the menial tasks to be automated by technology. This is where your profits will exponentially grow, and you’ll be able to scale and reinvest.   Rinse and repeat. 

So how does this relate to sales enablement?  

Well, businesses need revenue to survive. And revenue means sales. By leveraging your company for growth and resolving the pain points in your business, your company will be in a better position to meet or exceed its sales quotas and help the company thrive. Sales enablement is growth enablement, and growth enablement is sales enablement. But while Sales enablement only focuses on the revenue aspect of the business, growth enablement considers all departments and ensures that all its employees have what they need to succeed and that the company can scale as it grows.  

All of this, in an ideal situation, starts with a plan. Here at BrainSell we offer vision planning, blueprint designs, and discovery analysis for our clients. Whether you’re looking 5 years ahead with vision planning, or need a complete process redesign, we can offer our insights and services to help your business grow. Taking that first step will allow you to build a roadmap and thus take the guessing out of growth.  

Ready to take that first step? Contact us and begin your growth enablement journey!