What is sales readiness vs. sales enablement? | Unboxed Training & Technology

As you consider how to get your sales team ready for real-world sales experiences, you may hear the terms sales readiness and sales enablement training thrown around interchangeably. Although it can be easy to confuse the two, we want to make it clear that they’re not the same thing. Understanding what makes them different will help you know which skills to train your team on and when!

Interested in learning about how to make sure your sales team is sales-ready?

In this blog, we’re covering everything you need to know about sales readiness vs. sales enablement, including:

• Sales enablement and sales readiness definitions
• Upskilling for continued professional development
• Sales readiness assessment checklist
• Sales training vs. enablement
• Choosing a sales readiness platform
  
  

We’re here to help you and your team feel confident going into the world and making the sales your company needs to thrive. Let’s get started.

Sales Readiness vs. Sales Enablement

Getting clear on the differences between sales-readiness vs. sales enablement is essential in establishing an effective sales training program.

Here’s a more in-depth look at the sales enablement and sales readiness definitions.

What is sales enablement?

In short, sales enablement is the process of giving your sales reps easy-to-use resources and tools to engage their target customers successfully.

Two key elements of sales enablement are:

• Content: Sales enablement content includes all the training materials, essential documents, pitch decks, sell sheets, and demos your sales team must reference or provide clients during the sales process.
• Tools: These tools include the software or systems that house all the information and knowledge your sales reps would need to access. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems, content management systems (CMS), learning management platforms (LMS), analytics tools, and company social media platforms are all part of your team’s sales enablement tool belt.
  
  

Proper sales enablement training provides your sales team with the right tools and resources to succeed. However, sales enablement is only one piece of the sales readiness puzzle.

What is sales readiness?

Now that you know what sales enablement is, let’s look at the sales readiness definition.

Sales readiness is the process of getting your sales team prepared for real-world interactions. A sales-ready team takes what they learn in sales enablement training (including the tools and resources) and puts it into action with their sales skills and behaviors. Being sales-ready means your team members can support customers through all stages of the selling process, whether their interactions take place in-person or online.

Put another way, sales readiness is the ability to use sales skills and enablement tools to make a sale. So, before your team can become “sales-ready” they’ll need proper training and access to sales enablement tools.

Use this sales readiness assessment checklist to ensure your team has the knowledge and tools they need to get results:

• An onboarding program
• A clear sales strategy and process
• A company lead generation strategy
• Clearly-defined sales goals and success metrics
• Sales tools and content
• Access to ongoing training and upskilling
  
  

There’s no readiness training vs enablement debate. For team members to be sales-ready, your company must provide sales reps with good training and powerful enablement resources.

However, sales readiness also doesn’t come from a one-time training program.

Continually upskilling your workforce

A key piece of sales readiness is the ability to upskill your sales reps regularly.

Upskilling, or Skill Agility®, is the continual preparation and training your sales team needs to change, grow, adapt, and stay present with changes in the market and within your industry.

But upskilling is more than simply giving your reps more content. Rather, it’s about creating tailored, up-to-date videos, infographics, sales tips, etc., to ensure your team is always relevant.

Companies that invest in upskilling often experience:

1. Enhanced productivity
2. Increased morale
3. Strengthened company reputation
4. Heightened employee engagement
5. Improves your company’s bottom line
   
   

You can’t run one training and hope your team is sales-ready. Instead, continuous training and upskilling are key to truly creating a sales-ready team.

Training topics for a sales-ready workforce

We’ve talked about sales readiness vs. sales enablement and the importance of upskilling (Skill Agility). But what are the practical topics to include when it comes to sales training and enablement that lead to sales readiness?

Here are a few sales training topics to consider:

• Product and service knowledge
• The demo process for products
• Customer insights
• Objections and negotiations
• Sales methodology
• Social selling
• Remote (virtual) selling
  
  

Additionally, one of the best sales enablement tools to provide your team with is an online technology platform. These online platforms provide you with a place to house all your training content and sales resources. Instead of reps having to look in multiple places, they have everything they need in one, convenient, easy-to-access location.

If you invest in a learning platform, it’s important that you make sure your team knows how to use it. Otherwise, the money you spend on your platform will be wasted.

Once your sales team has practical sales training and knows how to use your enablement tools, they can put everything together—they’re sales-ready.

Get your team sales-ready with Unboxed

When it comes to understanding sales readiness vs. sales enablement, the two go hand-in-hand. Sales enablement and effective upskilling lead to strategic sales-readiness.

To be truly sales-ready, your organization must have:

• An onboarding program
• A clear sales strategy and process
• A company lead generation strategy
• Clearly-defined sales goals and success metrics
• Sales tools and content
• Access to ongoing training and upskilling
  
  

Your team will be most successful when they have the right tools, platforms, and knowledge to support their sales journey.

But we know that creating a sales-ready sales team can be a lot of work for you to do on your own. If you want some help, reach out to us at Unboxed Training & Technology.

At Unboxed, we have all the solutions your company needs to supercharge its sales team:

• Custom training content tailored to your company and industry? Check.
• A powerful technology platform that makes training and selling easy? Yep.
• Ongoing solutions to ensure that your company promotes Skill Agility? You bet.
  
  

Whether you need a new training program, a sales enablement, or both, we’ve got everything you and your team need.

Connect with us today to see how we can help make your team sales-ready!