Teach a man to fish….
My friend David Scott of World Wide Rave fame alerted me to this new ebook, The New Rules of Sales Enablement, from Jeff Ernst, the VP of Marketing for Kadient. The ebook describes the disconnect between sales tools and the people who use them. It challenges conventional wisdom of what marketers and execs think sales people need. If you’re responsible for sales tools, you should definitely read this.
What’s needed is the right (and most current) information in the sales people’s hands just when they need them. But just poking new tools out to the intranet doesn’t seem to be working. Sales people are using old, out-dated material that they’ve developed on their own. In fact, the typical sales rep spends almost a full day every week creating their own sales tools. (How much does that scare you? It freaks me out!!) And 90% of what marketing produces is not used by sales people! (Yikes!!)
Two notes: What will you do differently for your sales people based on this information? And could you do a similar ebook for your customers? Notice that Kadient is in the sales-enablement business but the ebook didn’t try to sell anything. The ebook gives concrete ideas for improving the relationships without shouting “come buy stuff!” Of course, if you want more, I’m sure they can help you out.
