Sales Enablement vs. CRM: What’s the Difference

When it comes to managing and growing customer relationships, you’ll often hear the terms CRM and sales enablement is thrown around. And although they sound similar, the two terms have markedly different meanings.

So what’s the difference between them? Why does it matter and how can you get started managing customer relationships the right way? Let’s jump right in.

What is Sales Enablement?

Sales enablement is the process by which your sales team is provided with the tools and content they need to sell better. Using the existing marketing data and information you’ve collected, content can be created that helps your sales team do their job more effectively.

Some examples of sales enablement include:

• Analytics Dashboards — So that the sales team can see at a glance which marketing initiatives are working well and which types of posts, ads and other publications are resonating with customers.
• Ongoing Training — Sales staff can benefit from ongoing training, business coaching and specific skill-set growth across a number of areas to help boost their productivity and help them stay on top of marketing trends while addressing key challenges.
• Marketing Documentation — At times certain terminology or directions can be confusing to prospects who are outside of your field. Marketing documentation that helps illustrate or define this terminology can be helpful as salespeople explain the process, technique or troubleshoot the issue with the customer.
• A Dedicated Onboarding Process — This lets your sales staff hit the ground running when it comes to understanding your product or service so that they can better explain its features and benefits to potential customers.

What is a CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, and a CRM is a type of database or platform where information on a company’s prospects and customers is stored. In a CRM, sales staff can not only keep data about their leads and clients but can also set up recurring automation to contact them at different intervals as they make their way through the sales funnel.

CRMs are often intertwined with sales enablement materials to not only understand where clients are along the customer journey but be able to supplement their decision-making process with the right kind of materials at the right time. And when you have the sales staff with the right kind of training to be able to analyze the information in a CRM and act on it, you can be sure of higher conversions and more sales.

What is the difference?

In short, sales enablement is all about providing the right tools and training, whereas a CRM is a platform that lets you store information about your customers so that you can use the training and tools to sell. Both the product and the process add tremendous value to your sales process and are a worthwhile investment for any business, large or small.

The question then becomes, “Do you need both?” And our answer would be a definite “yes”. When you’re just starting out, it can seem like a significant cost to have both CRM and sales enablement processes developed. But it can pay off big time as you’re able to scale your business more efficiently and create better business relationships with your clients as a result.

How can a CRM and sales enablement help my sales reps?

Sales enablement gives your representatives the training, data, and tools they need to do what they do best: selling. A CRM helps them more efficiently manage the information of every user and prospect that shows interest in your product. Having this kind of information helps them provide a better customer experience overall by sending the right messages to the right people at the right time.

What are my next steps?

If you’re interested in learning more about sales enablement or you need help choosing the right CRM for your business, reach out to the marketing experts at Workdom. Our extensive experience in the world of sales and marketing can help ensure the perfect fit for your business, both now and in the future. Contact us today to learn more!

Originally published at https://www.workdom.io on September 17, 2021.