ABOUT the author Paul Krajewski

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German citizen. Permanent Resident in Canada & Australia. Based in Sydney, Australia. Sr. Product Manager (SaaS Software PM / Product Management). Master of Media Management from Curtin University of Technology, Australia.

Paul Krajewski spent 2007-2009 at Nortel Networks in Toronto in Global Marketing looking after the implementation of the BizSphere Sales Enablement application for Nortel Networks’ 4000 sales people worldwide. At the same time – as part of a Leadership Development program sponsored by Nortel’s CMO – rotated into different marketing roles for 4G wireless technology, Unified Communications (UC), virtual 3D environments for web conferencing with 3D spatial audio, etc…

After working as Head of Training & Senior Sales Enablement Consultant at BizSphere, Senior Product Manager at Pivotal Labs from Jan-2015 to Jul-2019.

Co-Director Founder Institute Australia & New Zealand, Entrepreneur in Residence at INCUBATE at University of Sydney, Australia and angel investor in Questmate: Available on iOS, Android, & web. With 100% feature parity across all platforms.

This blog is about

• Sales Enablement Platforms (SEP) / Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Marketing resource management (MRM)
• B2B Marketing/Brand Digital Asset Management (DAM)
• B2B Sales Knowledge Management (KM)
• Sales asset management (SAM)
• B2B Sales Content Management Systems (CMS) / Sales Content Management platforms
• Digital Content Management for Sales (DCMS)
• Learning Management Systems (LMS) for Sales/Marketing

Definitions of Sales Enablement

Blog post “Definition of Sales Enablement & Partner Enablement” by Paul Krajewski

SALES ENABLEMENT & PARTNER ENABLEMENT can be defined as:

“Delivering the right knowledge (= information provided in context) that is verifiably the most up-to-date and takes into account what a customer has already bought and in which sales step they are now

in the right format (video, audio, text, Chat Bot / AI assistant, calculator / tool, sheet, slides, etc)

and with the right questions to ask to the right person (internal/external with contact details) or Chat Bot / AI assistant,

at the right time (appropriate to sales step, pipeline, reminders, etc)

and in the right place (mobile-first, location aware, appropriate for region and regional availability of offering/solution)

in local currency (correct pricing for the given place)

on any device

in the right language (content & user interface)

with industry-vertical & geography appropriate case studies (customer success stories)

and aware of what can be combined as a solution

with the right processes

necessary to move a specific b2b sales conversation forward

for anyone touching accounts (salespeople / partners / channels).”

Michael Gerard’s definition of Sales Enablement:

“The delivery of the right information to the right person at the right time in the right format and in the right place to assist in moving a specific sales opportunity forward”

John Neeson also has an excellent definition:

“Channel and Sales Enablement. Provide sales (direct and channel) the tools that will give them access to the knowledge assets that support in-process sales pursuits. Foster sharing of information on a two-way basis as information learned in the field can be used to tune, refresh, and continuously improve the knowledge base. […] focusing on “searchability and findability” of information.”

Last but not least a definition of Sales Enablement by Forrester Research:

“Sales enablement is a strategic, ongoing process that equips all client-facing employees with the ability to consistently and systematically have a valuable conversation with the right set of customer stakeholders at each stage of the customer’s problem-solving life cycle to optimize the return of investment of the selling system.”

Definition of Buyer Enablement

Building on Michael Gerard’s definition of Sales Enablement, Buyer Enablement can be defined as:

Delivery of the right knowledge(=information provided in context) & integrated resources
to a potential buyer, at the right time, in the right place, in the right format &
with the right questions (to get their internal approval / buy-in)
necessary to simplify/progress their specific buying cycle.

Definition of sales & marketing alignment

This blog follows Christine Crandell’s definition of sales & marketing alignment:

“Sales and marketing collaboratively working toward the common goal of profitably increasing revenue and customer excellence through shared processes, resources and metrics.”

SES sesociety.org The Sales Enablement Society defines…

“Sales Enablement ensures buyers are engaged at the right time and place, and with the right assets by well-trained client-facing staff to provide a world-class experience along the customer’s journey. While utilizing the right sales and performance management technologies, in addition to synergizing cross-organization collaboration, Sales Enablement optimizes the selling motion in order to increase pipeline, move opportunities forward and win bigger deals more efficiently to drive profitable growth.”