Imagine launching a huge project in Q3 and Q4 of 2008 when the world was in financial crisis. Aspect Software made this commitment to its sales team by investing in SAVO last year. Tom Chamberlain, director of Sales Readiness at Aspect, delivered a great presentation this afternoon on the lessons learned from launching a sales enablement solution during one of the most difficult sales climates in our recent history.
The sales team, formed over time by various acquisitions, was challenged with a mixture of processes and unshared tribal knowledge. SAVO offered a single source for sellers, marketers, product management, and other teams to collaborate.
Some of his top lessons learned:
Lesson 1: Balance your time between fixing immediate problems and delivering on long-term solutions. What has a bigger impact for sales?
Lesson 2: Sales teams tell you what they want. But they may not tell you what they need.
Lesson 3: Standardizing sales processes brings success.
Lesson 4: Always assess & continue to reassess your focus. Ask yourself, “is my effort making a large enough impact?”
With these four tenets, a Sales Enablement champion can stay focused on success.
