Sales Enablement Perspectives: A conversation with Craig Nelson, Founder & Principal at Sales Enablement Group

John Follett

By Jerry Rackley

Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series of interviews with sponsors and speakers at the upcoming Demand Metric Sales Enablement Virtual Summit, which will take place on April 3, 2014.

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Craig Nelson, Founder & Principal at Sales Enablement Group, is on the agenda to present “Building a Sales Enablement System” at the upcoming Sales Enablement Virtual Summit. We asked Craig to share his thoughts on Sales Enablement:

Why is Sales Enablement so important?

To some, and for many years, it has been a core component to their sales success and viewed as a strategic asset. For most BtoB companies, Sales Enablement has become critical in response to empowered buyers that simply expect more from BtoB sellers.

Our research shows that only half of organizations have a Sales Enablement function, and many that do have it aren't doing it well. Why do you think this is?

I would argue that every company has some degree of sales enablement (with or without a formal function and title).  The question is, how mature Is the organization with the four key elements of sales enablement: People, Process, Content and Technology? On a scale of 0-5, with 0 being unstructured, random acts of Sales Enablement and 5 being optimized Sales Enablement, most are somewhere between 0 and 2. This is rapidly changing as organizations better align departments to driving profitable revenue and respond to today's empowered buyers. Those not doing well typically resist organization alignment, don't believe that sales people need to advise on solutions or simply believe that evolving to a repeatable and measured approach is NOT important to sustaining revenue growth.

You'll be presenting during the Virtual Summit - what will attendees learn during your session?

My session on building a sales enablement system will cover:

  • Responding to today's empowered buyer
  • The importance of building deeper sales relationships with empowered buyers
  • What skills are need to become a sales advisor
  • The four elements of a holistic Sales Enablement system
  • How the four elements align the empowered buyers journey - Sales Enablement Blueprint
  • How to assess Sales Enablement maturity and plan to evolve

About Craig Nelson

Craig Nelson

Craig has 25 years of experience in the software industry. In 1998, he registered http://www.salesenablement.com and subsequently co-founded iCentera in 2003 with the mission to help companies generate profitable revenue. Today the iCentera solution, delivered as a service over the internet, provides a Sales Enablement platform to the commercial market. iCentera has over 250,000 subscribers and in 2011 became part of CallidusCloud, a public software company focused on a broad range of sales performance and effectiveness solutions with a global presence in over 132 countries.

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