In financial services, client-facing teams must build trust and foster long-term relationships, all while keeping pace with the evolving needs of their clients and ever-changing compliance requirements. As firms look for new ways to grow AUM/Revenue, increase productivity and personalize client experiences, compliantly, enablement technology is quickly becoming necessary for firms looking to achieve their top business outcomes.  

Given that the role of enablement, and enablement tech is becoming more important across the industry, Seismic commissioned a research report to better understand how leading firms are integrating enablement as part of their business strategy.   

Our new study, “Revenue Enablement in Financial Services: 2024 Global Findings & Insights,” explores how industry leaders are investing in enablement, driving business results, and integrating AI into their enablement strategies to better support the needs of sales, marketing, compliance and leadership teams. Nearly all respondents (94%) say they are using some form of enablement technology at work and predict (93%) that their team’s reliance on enablement technology will continue to increase over the next year. 

In this post, we’ll cover the results of the study and focus on the importance of organizational and strategic alignment and the critical role that enablement plays within financial services. 

What is enablement technology?  

Enablement technology encompasses multiple capabilities and solutions, including sales content management and automation, training and coaching, buyer engagement, strategy and planning, and analytics and intelligence. 

Serving as a critical component in a modern tech stack, enablement technology makes it possible for firms to manage rapid change, keep up with changing customer expectations, improve offerings and services, and close skill gaps. 

The role of enablement in financial services  

Enablement tech plays an important role in unifying sales, marketing, service, enablement, sales learning and coaching, product, compliance and leadership teams to achieve the firm’s top strategic priorities.  Seismic’s own Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Hayden Stafford, underscored the importance of alignment in a recent presentation, stating, “Aligned teams are efficient teams. Aligned teams are productive teams, and aligned teams are winning teams.” 

Enablement helps drive alignment by providing the necessary tools, training, and resources to help teams maximize every client interaction, and drive business growth and stability. Leaders featured in our study also agree with that sentiment, knowing that there is a lot needed to make client facing teams more impactful. They define enablement, a function generally shared across teams, as a mix of content creation and production (36%), sales tech (27%), and sales and training coaching (26%).  

Enablement technology makes it possible for marketing teams to create accurate and compliant content at scale, while solving the challenge of making it discoverable for client-facing teams. When client-facing professionals can quickly access up-to-date content and relevant client information, they’re able to deliver the hyper-personalized experiences that are both memorable and impactful.  

Organizational placement of enablement teams  

Although there’s no single blueprint for the ideal enablement structure, one essential quality they must share is alignment. Supporting sales teams effectively requires a coordinated effort across multiple departments. Successful firms understand that aligning marketing, product, sales coaching and training, data, and technology teams is essential for driving growth and maximizing impact. 

Firms are choosing a number of different ways to support sales enablement – having components of the function sit across various teams, with cross-functional committees coming together to align on priorities, measurements, and outcomes. Others are looking to centralize more of these functions within one team. While giving careful thought to organization structures is important, it is more important to keep teams aligned on a shared vision for enablement. 

According to Stafford, “Enablement drives measurable results — not just efficiency adoption, but concrete outcomes that matter, such as pipeline, sales velocity, value coverage, win rates, close rates, uplift rates, renewal rates, and more.” 

Enablement leaders and their responsibilities  

When industry leaders were asked about the primary responsibilities of the person leading enablement, responses varied across different focus areas. The largest portion (39%) indicated that their enablement leaders spend the most time on long-term projects, such as business transformation and operations that require a more holistic approach.  

Another 31% said these leaders focus primarily on execution, working to deliver on plans and projects they or others in the organization have requested. Meanwhile, 16% noted an equal division of time across all responsibilities, while 12% described their leaders’ roles as handling ad-hoc tasks that arise unexpectedly. 

The impact of AI-powered enablement 

Firms view AI as a powerful productivity booster for client-facing, marketing, and training teams, especially for streamlining content creation and improving efficiency of meeting preparation, delivery, and follow-up.  

Over 50% of respondents say their companies are using AI-powered tools in their enablement processes, and 90% report being satisfied or extremely satisfied with these tools. 

Use of AI in enablement efforts is expected to become more widespread in the near term. Respondents predict that AI will be indispensable in providing personalized customer experiences (92%) and maintaining competitive advantage (86%) in the next five years. 

Recommendations for driving strategic change and transformation 

To make the most impact and drive strategic change, we recommend that enablement leaders follow a six-faceted model: 
 

1. Align with business outcomes for strategic initiatives: Choose the business outcomes that you can address. 

2. Correlate client-facing professionals’ behavior to outcomes: Determine what they need to do and say differently, and what else they need to know. 

3. Develop the program: Create the program structure with playbooks, content, lessons, and practice. 

4. Monitor progress: Observe whether the program is working. Did the client-facing professionals engage with the enablement materials? Did they apply it with the right skills and behaviors? 

5. Implement modifications: Coach teams, improve materials, promote best practices, and fill gaps.  

6. Review results: Assess whether the program met the outcomes determined at the start (i.e. pipeline, revenue, time-to-close, or win rate). 

The power of alignment in driving strategic change  

Alignment is key to making enablement truly effective in financial services, helping teams drive strategic change and create a lasting impact. Our study reveals that industry leaders prioritize alignment across sales, marketing, and training teams as a means to boost productivity, personalize client interactions, and support growth. By ensuring all teams work toward shared goals and outcomes, enablement becomes more than a function—it becomes a strategic force for transformation. Firms that focus on alignment in their enablement efforts are better positioned to grow and set new standards in operational excellence and client satisfaction. 

To review the full findings, download the report: “Revenue Enablement in Financial Services: 2024 Global Findings & Insights.” 

The post How Financial Services Firms Align for Growth appeared first on Seismic.

Seismic’s recent study, “Revenue Enablement in Financial Services: 2024 Global Findings & Insights,” highlights how financial services leaders are integrating enablement and AI to stay ahead. With 91% of respondents pushing for innovative technologies and 97% doing so because of advancements in AI, the report sheds light on the growing investment in AI to accelerate productivity, meet evolving client needs, and drive revenue.  

Read on to understand how firms are using AI in enablement, what challenges and opportunities they face, and what’s next.  

The role of AI-enabled sales in financial services  

Firms are increasingly relying on AI-powered tools to boost productivity across client-facing, marketing, and training teams. More than half of the respondents are already using AI-powered tools specifically for enablement, while 25% use AI for other non-enablement tasks and 19% leverage AI for both enablement and non-enablement activities.  

Our research shows that financial services professionals are 12% more likely to use AI with enablement efforts in comparison to counterparts from other industries, demonstrating a broader acceptance of emerging technology.  

Key drivers for investing in enablement technologies and new technologies include: 

• Managing rapid changes within organizations: 60%  

• Keeping up with changing customer expectations: 57%  

• Reflecting customer offerings/products/services: 46%  

• Closing the skills gap through coaching and training: 38%  

• Decreasing sales time in the buyer journey: 28%  

AI-powered enablement: Tangible benefits  

Among respondents whose firms already use AI-powered tools in their enablement processes, 90% report being satisfied or extremely satisfied with the performance of these tools. Firms are streamlining several tasks with AI. These include:  

• Content creation and management: AI simplifies the creation and organization of content by automating processes like tagging and content assembly, while making content discoverable to client-facing professionals in the moment of need.  

• Training and coaching: Firms can use AI to deliver personalized learning modules, accelerating skill development and reducing time to proficiency. AI can also provide real-time coaching and feedback, helping client-facing professionals refine their techniques and improve performance.  

• Client engagement: AI tools analyze client data to help client-facing professionals tailor their communications and present relevant information during meetings. By organizing client information, suggesting talking points, and generating follow-up tasks, AI ensures personalized and productive client engagements that boost satisfaction and loyalty. 

Challenges and opportunities  

 
Even with AI’s potential, 66% of respondents report facing barriers to implementing AI in their enablement processes, most notably financial resource constraints (42%), security concerns (40%), and HR constraints (35%). 

To overcome these challenges, industry leaders are focusing on training and cross-functional collaboration between sales, marketing, service, tech, data science, and business operations teams. An overwhelming majority of respondents (85%) agree that AI literacy has become an essential skill for client-facing teams, and more than 90% work for firms that have launched AI-focused training programs for employees. By identifying and empowering champions for AI, firms can build adoption across teams.  

What’s next  

Rapid advances in AI will continue to evolve across the financial services industry, redefining everything from operations to client interactions. In fact, 90% of respondents predict that AI will completely transform their industry in the next 5 years, and that the fusion of AI with go-to-market strategies will result in a 40% increase in revenue growth.  

Respondents believe that over time AI has the potential to optimize functions across sales (61%), marketing (61%), strategy and operations (49%), risk and compliance (43%), coaching and training (39%), and legal and audit (33%) teams. It’s clear that embracing AI in your enablement strategies will strengthen your competitive advantage today and prepare your firm for tomorrow.  

Transforming financial services with AI-powered enablement tech  

  AI-powered enablement plays a critical role in helping firms increase AUM/revenue, drive operational efficiency, and deliver more memorable experiences. Our study shows just how much AI can boost productivity and drive revenue, making it a game-changer for firms looking to stay competitive.  Firms that invest in AI-powered enablement are not only preparing for the future; they are setting new industry standards in client satisfaction and operational efficiency. 

For nearly a decade, Seismic has continuously invested in AI to enhance our platform’s capabilities, establishing us as the global leader in enablement. Seismic is proud to partner with more than 400 financial services institutions around the world to support their vision for growth. 

Contact your Seismic representative for more information. 

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As organisations increasingly rely on enablement technology to streamline processes and align cross-functional teams, having a clear, actionable strategy has become mission-critical.  

An enablement roadmap offers a structured framework to evaluate current practices and scale new initiatives for optimal impact, ensuring that enablement efforts not only thrive but evolve with changing business needs. A roadmap paves the way for organisations to harness the full potential of enablement, driving revenue growth and operational efficiencies along the way. 

There are several benefits to developing a prescriptive roadmap to govern the growth of your enablement programme. By taking a well-defined, strategic approach, your organisation can increase revenue and operational efficiencies, save time, align cross-functional teams, and even save money in the process. 
 

The Sales Enablement Roadmap: A strategy for action 

Seismic offers customers a Sales Enablement Roadmap to evaluate their current use of Seismic. The roadmap can be used to uncover new projects for enablement and determine the best way to scale these initiatives for optimal impact.  

The roadmap is more than a conceptual guide: it’s a customised pathway designed by strategic experts and customers to ensure enablement efforts thrive and evolve with changing business needs.  

Evolve existing use cases to increase impact 

The first step is a phased discovery of your Seismic instance, examining the effectiveness of current strategies and identifying opportunities for enhancement. 

• Baseline current state: Tap into Seismic’s analytics, LiveInsights, for a real-time snapshot of existing content and strategy performance. With insights into content usage and user behaviour trends, you can pinpoint specific areas that are ripe for improvement. 

• Engage stakeholders across the organisation: Enablement thrives on cross-functional partnerships. Gather feedback from sales, marketing, and product as you explore Seismic’s potential. Their buy-in and participation will be critical when it comes to refining and expanding your use cases. 

• Monitor and adjust: Routinely check to ensure that new strategies are adopted, and your platform is running smoothly. Cultivate a mindset of innovation and incorporate Seismic’s dynamic capabilities in your strategic plan. 

Identify future projects and enablement use cases 

After enhancing your current Seismic use cases, the next step is to look ahead. It’s time to identify future projects and use cases that can further elevate your enablement strategies. Shift your focus to discovering and ranking upcoming projects that will drive the most significant impact on your enablement initiatives. 

• Start with outcomes in mind: Define desired business outcomes like improving sales efficiency or enhancing customer experiences. Work backward to develop targeted projects. 

• Establish a governance committee: Form a cross-functional team to ensure projects align with your organisational goals. This committee is vital in assessing project feasibility and ensuring seamless implementation. 

• Adopt an iterative approach: Start with small, manageable initiatives. Use insights from iterative cycles to refine your approach and broaden impact across your organisation. 

Next, consider how enablement use cases can be scaled across your organisation, ensuring consistency and effectiveness for your entire sales team. This is where Seismic is invaluable. 

 
Use Seismic to grow and scale your enablement programmes 

Scaling involves increasing the size and improving the quality and reach of your enablement efforts. 

Create dedicated enablement roles: Invest in dedicated roles (e.g., sales enablement manager, sales content manager, operations analyst) focused solely on driving enablement initiatives and amplifying their effectiveness. 

Use Seismic to enable: Harness Seismic as a catalyst for organisation-wide strategic initiatives like new sales methodologies and market entries, and as a central hub for learning, training, and executing. 

Conclusion: A Vehicle for Transformation 

Seismic is more than just a tool in your enablement arsenal: it’s the driving force behind a transformative journey. By understanding where you are and where you aim to be on your own journey, Seismic is the vehicle that propels your enablement efforts forward. It’s not just about using Seismic – it’s about letting the technology, people, and a carefully crafted roadmap guide your organisation to unprecedented growth and efficiency in your sales and marketing endeavours.  

If you’d like to continue the conversation about the Sales Enablement Roadmap, reach out to our award-winning Professional Services team and set yourself on an immediate path to success. 

You can also download the Generation Enablement Report: Driving Strategic Change with the Power of AI here!

The post How to create a comprehensive sales enablement roadmap  appeared first on Seismic.

The answer to this question is important because, when done right, enablement can reap long-term benefits. In fact, research shows a direct correlation between sales enablement and revenue. The Aberdeen Strategy and Research Group found that companies focused on investing in a sales enablement tool achieved a 32% higher team sales quota, with 24% more individual sales reps achieving quota.  

When applied correctly, an effective enablement strategy (EN) results in meaningful revenue, increased buyer and employee engagement, and enhanced buyer experience. If you don’t have a strategy to scale and optimise your efforts, you’re already falling behind your competition. 

When scaling your enablement efforts, here are some best practices to keep in mind: 

Decide how you’re going to measure the progress of your key initiatives

No matter where you are in your enablement maturity journey, you need to understand your baseline and how to track progress. This can be done through stakeholder surveys, goal setting, and KPI evaluation.  

When done right, enablement can drive long-term, strategic business change. As indicated in our report, Generation Enablement Report: Driving Strategic Change with the Power of AI, 87% of respondents stated that their enablement leaders prioritised defining a long-term enablement strategy. 

Consistent stewardship of their strategy is typical of high-performing organisations. According to our research, 43% of GTM professionals noted that their enablement teams have monthly strategy and planning sessions.  

Identify stakeholders and get sponsorship

Make sure you have a key influencer at the executive level who can sponsor and articulate the value of enablement. More and more practitioners are collaborating with their leadership, as 43% of enablement practitioners routinely meet with their go-to-market leadership, while another 35% have monthly meetings with their C-Suite. This level of visibility ensures that enablement leaders can build consensus at the highest levels of the business for their initiatives. 

This level of stakeholder alignment can help mitigate unexpected blockers and clearly define ownership and responsibilities. For example, one of my clients scheduled quarterly leadership meetings with stakeholders in sales, marketing, revenue ops, and enablement to outline their progress on initiatives and shared regular reporting and recommendations. 

Identify technology that enables transformation and solves a variety of needs  

As you begin to scale your enablement programme, it’s critical to build around a key technology that’s highly valued by sales and marketing teams. Your tech stack is more important than you know – especially to the sales and customer-facing roles your team supports.  

In another report, 59% of GTM professionals stated that they wouldn’t work for a company that doesn’t invest in enablement tools. That’s why it’s important to proactively review your tech stack (EN) to ensure sellers have access to the right tools. One of our customers recommended involving procurement earlier in the vetting process. Getting their input at this phase helps identify any similar technology under review or potential blockers to implementation before going too far. 

Plan to expand your sales enablement budget  

Gartner predicts sales enablement budgets will increase 50% by 2027, and the proliferation of AI enablement tools will only bolster this acceleration. In fact, 92% of GTM professionals say that advancements in AI are influencing their company’s increasing investment in enablement tech going into 2025. 

Cost, however, is a major factor in selecting and maintaining a successful sales enablement programme. Continued and thoughtful investment in these systems and processes will be paramount in maintaining their effectiveness.  

Ensure dedicated support or build a bigger team 

It helps to have dedicated departmental resources aligned exclusively to supporting enablement. Organising the function in this manner treats enablement as a mission-critical priority and helps customers achieve their goals. 

Here are additional best practices for teams of all sizes and varying levels of resources: 

Team of One 

• Know your limits and set clear expectations. 

• Evaluate end-to-end enablement processes and prioritise use cases that are most impactful for your delivery teams. 

• Look around the organisation for shared resources you can leverage. 

• Define your scope and the technologies you have the capacity to own. 

• Limited enablement resources bring added workload and the need to deliver for many people. Try to be flexible to change.   

• Document your capacity and build a case for expanding your team! 

Team of Few  

• Establish a clear intake request process to become more proactive to emerging needs. 

• Meet regularly with your team to delegate tasks and check progress on initiatives. 

• Shine a light on the impact of enablement efforts with company leadership.  

• Track the success of business outcomes through meaningful KPIs and report regularly to leaders about why they matter.  

• Build a business case to show growth and expansion of the team designed around how you see the future, strategically — not how others tell you it should look. 

Team of Many

• Use your size to get involved in multiple areas of the business. A large enablement team can initiate cross-departmental transformation. 

• Connect your team’s work to specific revenue initiatives.  

• Stay organised and use a detailed project planning process to keep everyone efficient. Break tasks into clear workstreams. 

• Develop levels of specialisation within your team and create subject matter experts.  

• Never lose a startup mindset. Stay open to innovative ideas on how to improve, and don’t get bogged down with antiquated processes just because “it’s the way we’ve always done things.”  

Scaling your sales enablement programme (EN) doesn’t just benefit you by delivering more enablement. When applied correctly, scaling will allow you to target more use cases to improve how your company delivers products and services to market.   

As we conclude, keep in mind these words of wisdom from a Seismic customer: 

• Enablement is a journey, not a destination. You will need to iterate and change your plans as you grow and scale.  

• Select your business outcomes and use cases for sales enablement wisely and always cater to the seller’s experience. They will become your best advocates – or worst opponents – when it comes to adoption. 

• Be accountable to measure what matters for your business. Report on those metrics early and often, and make informed, data-driven recommendations based on those insights. 

If your organisation needs recommendations on how to scale your enablement efforts, reach out to your account team at Seismic today – our Strategic Advisory consultants are here to help. 

You can also download the Generation Enablement Report: Driving Strategic Change with the Power of AI here! 

The post How to scale your enablement programme appeared first on Seismic.

This guide will walk you through creating a comprehensive 3-month onboarding plan broken down into clear phases: 

• First 30 days: Focus on orientation, mastering sales tools, and learning company culture. 

• Next 30 days: Reps start prospecting and shadowing. Begin setting performance goals. 

• Final 30 days: Reps sell more independently, receive feedback, and set long-term goals.  

What is a sales onboarding plan? 

A sales onboarding plan is the roadmap to your reps’ success. It helps speed up ramp times and avoid costly mistakes. It includes everything from basic admin tasks to practicing sales with hands-on mentorship. Bute most importantly, an effective onboarding plan lays the foundation for long-term productivity. 

Organisations that provide new sellers with an effective onboarding programme experience: 

• Decreased time to productivity: New sellers ramp seven weeks faster than the industry average of 6-9 months.  

• Improved employee satisfaction: Employees are 2-6 times more likely to be extremely satisfied with their workplace.  

• Lower turnover: Nearly 58% of employees are likely to stay with a company for an average of three years. 

Sales onboarding helps new reps  learn your sales process, connect with prospects, and understand your products. Without it, they can feel lost or overwhelmed. This can lead to longer ramp times, poor performance, and even early turnover. 

How to create a sales onboarding plan  

An effective onboarding plan needs to be meticulously structured. Here’s how to structure sales onboarding so it getsnew hires up to speed quickly and efficiently. 

1. Pre-boarding: before the first day 

Pre-boarding sets the stage for early success, getting reps ready to engage with clients from day one. 

• Welcome email: Get them excited before they start. Send an email welcoming them and introducing key team members. Give them an overview of what their first week will look like. 
   

• New employee checklist: Provide a list of essential tools and resources they’ll have from day one. This could be sales scripts, CRM access, and product materials. This helps them get familiar early and reduces downtime. 
   

• Set up the workspace and tools: Whether they’re working remotely or on-site, ensure their workspace is set up. Set up computers, CRM access, email, and other tools they’ll need. This helps them transition into training and prospecting without any delays.  

2. The first day: setting the tone for success  

The first day sets the tone for your new hire. It should create excitement, set clear expectations, and make them feel like a valued member of the team.  

• Introduce the team and culture: Schedule time for new hires to meet the team and key players in other departments. Help them connect with the high-performance culture by sharing success stories and competitive wins. 
   

• Clarify role expectations: Explainthe role and responsibilities, short-term goals, and how their performance will be measured so they know what’s expected of them from day one. 
   

• Company mission and values: Have leadership or HR introduce the company’s mission and values andexplain how they’re linked to the sales team’s goals. This shows new hires how their role directly contributes to the company’s success. 

3. The first week: building a strong foundation 

The first week is about giving your new hires the knowledge and confidence to start contributing right away. Here’s what to focus on: 

• Training and tools: Start with in-depth CRM and sales tools training, sales enablement tools, and email. Pair this with product training through demos and role playing so reps can confidently pitch the product.  
   

• Set clear goals and assign a mentor: Define specific objectives like completing training modules or shadowing top reps to build early momentum. Assign a mentor to guide them through the learning process.  

4. The first month: gaining momentum 

By the end of the first month, your rep should be comfortable with the basics and building momentum toward achieving their goals.  

• Ongoing training: Use the first month to help them understand your sales approach, product knowledge, and customer base better. Offer self-paced learning through recorded sessions and resources but keep the focus on ramping up.  
   

• Regular check-ins: Schedule weekly one-on-ones to review their progress, provide feedback, and address any challenges. These touchpoints keep them on track and ensure ongoing improvement. 
   

• Social integration: Encourage relationship-building with the team. Strong peer connections increase engagement, motivation, and job satisfaction. 

5. The first three months: reviewing progress and setting long-term goals 

By 90 days, your rep should have a clear understanding of their strengths, areas for improvement, and have a plan for continued growth. 

• Performance reviews and feedback: Evaluate their understanding of the sales process, goal achievement, and areas for improvement. Provide feedback they can act on to keep improving. 
   

• Set long-term goals: Set goals for the next quarter that align with team objectives. Focus on improving their sales skills for ongoing development. 
   

• Maintain engagement: Keep your reps engaged with ongoing training and team activities. When reps feel supported and connected, they’re more likely to stay motivated, perform better, and stick around for the long haul. 

Common onboarding challenges and how to overcome them 

While a well-designed onboarding experience sets reps up for success, there are often challenges along the way. Here’s how to navigate some of the most common issues: 

• Information overload: Break training into small, manageable modules with time for questions. 
   

• Lack of engagement: Use team building activities to keep reps motivated and connected. 
   

• Unclear expectations: Make sure to set clear performance goals and review them regularly during the first 90 days. 

Additional tools and templates 

Now that you understand the value of a strong onboarding process, let’s discuss the tools you’ll need to bring your plan to life: 

• Onboarding plan template: A good onboarding template helps you smoothly guide new hires through their first months. It covers key milestones, from pre-boarding to ongoing training. Using this template improves ramp-up time, and provides consistent support for new reps. 
   

• Onboarding checklist: A detailed checklist ensures you cover all important tasks, from setting up tools to scheduling performance reviews. Customise it to fit your team’s specific needs for the greatest efficiency. 

The key to long-term sales success: invest in effective onboarding 

A strong onboarding plan is essential. Without it, you risk losing valuable time, resources, and even top talent. With the right approach, you can speed up new hires’ productivity, reduce ramp  times, and increase retention. Investing in a solid onboarding plan now will set your sales team—and your business—up for long-term success. 

Ready to streamline your onboarding process? Now’s the time to take action—contact us to help set your new hires up for success from day one. 

The post Free onboarding plan for new sales reps   appeared first on Seismic.

What is a sales enablement plan? 

A sales enablement plan outlines the strategies, resources, and tools that help sales teams perform at their best. It’s a structured approach that empowers sales reps to access the right content, leverage sales enablement tools, and enhance their skills through continuous and personalised learning. An effective plan focuses on collaboration between sales and marketing, ensuring that sales reps are always prepared to address customer needs with relevant, tailored content. 

Five key components of a successful sales enablement plan 

When building a sales enablement plan, it’s essential to keep several core elements in mind: 

1.Clear objectives and metrics 

Define the goals of your sales enablement efforts. Are you looking to increase win rates, reduce sales cycle times, or improve onboarding? Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with these goals to measure the effectiveness of your enablement strategy. 

2. Sales enablement content 

The backbone of any sales enablement plan is high-quality content. This includes everything from product information to customer case studies, competitor analysis, and marketing collateral. Remember, sales enablement content should be tailored to each stage of the buyer’s journey to support more meaningful customer conversations. 

3. Sales enablement tools and technology

Equip your sales teams with the right sales enablement tools that effectively streamline their processes. This might include CRM systems, content management platforms, or communication tools that allow sales reps to access and share relevant content quickly. A solid sales enablement template can help you standardise how sales teams approach different situations. 

4. Collaboration between sales and marketing 

Sales and marketing alignment is critical to your sales enablement efforts. When both teams work in unison, it ensures that marketing materials are used effectively, and feedback from the sales team helps improve future campaigns. Regular check-ins and shared objectives can help foster this essential collaboration. 

5. Ongoing training and coaching 

A strong sales enablement plan includes continuous learning and coaching. It’s important to provide regular training sessions, not just during onboarding. Use real-time feedback and data from your sales enablement process to inform these coaching sessions and ensure reps stay ahead of industry trends and buyer behavior. 

Common challenges in sales enablement 

Building and executing a sales enablement plan isn’t without its challenges. Sales and marketing teams often struggle to align, and sales reps may resist new processes or tools. Here’s how to tackle some of these common obstacles: 

• Resistance to change: Boost rep confidence aroundnew processes by emphasising the benefits and providing thorough training on your sales enablement plan. 

• Lack of content: Sales teams need the right content at their fingertips to close deals effectively. Work closely with marketing to ensure a steady flow of new, relevant content. 

• Measuring success: Without the right metrics in place, it can be difficult to gauge the success of your sales enablement efforts. Set clear KPIs from the beginning and adjust based on data. 

Four steps to building a sales enablement plan 

1. Audit your existing process

Before creating a new plan, evaluate your current sales processes and tools. Identify gaps in content, knowledge, or technology that are holding your sales teams back. Understanding what’s missing will help you build a more tailored sales enablement project plan. 

2. Create a sales enablement template 

Develop a standardised sales enablement template that outlines the sales process and how to access various resources. This template serves as a go-to guide for sales reps, so they know exactly where to find the materials they need at any stage of the deal cycle. 

3. Implement the best sales enablement plan 

Once your audit and planning phases are complete, it’s time to roll out the plan. Provide hands-on training to ensure your team understands the new processes, tools, and content. By implementing the best sales enablement plan, you’ll give your reps everything they need to succeed. 

4. Track and optimise performance 

Like any strategic initiative, tracking the performance of your sales enablement project plan is crucial. Monitor your KPIs and adjust your approach as needed. Collect feedback from sales reps to ensure they have the right tools and content to be successful. 

What’s next?  

Creating a strong sales enablement plan is a critical step in boosting the productivity and success of your sales team. By focusing on the right tools, content, and collaboration between sales and marketing, you can create a robust strategy that drives revenue growth and enhances customer relationships.  

Whether you’re refining an existing plan or starting from scratch, Seismic’s strategy and planning capabilities will help set your teams up for success. Ready to learn more and get started on your enablement journey? Get in touch today.  

The post How to Build a Sales Enablement Plan That Drives Results appeared first on Seismic.

Sales enablement technology is all about gaining insights and establishing best practices that improve critical business goals, such as greater customer retention, faster upskilling, accelerated revenue growth, and more. 

As such, reliance on and enthusiasm for sales enablement software is only getting stronger. According to our latest research, which samples more than 1,600 sales, enablement, and customer success leaders in the US, Europe, and Australia: 

• 90% said they use enablement technology at work 

• 87% said their company plans to increase investments in enablement tech going into 2025 

• The average increase in investment going into 2025 is a generous 23%. 

AI is the main driver of sales enablement software investment 

When asked specifically what was driving this increased investment, respondents said: 

• The ability to gain new insights throughout the enablement lifecycle (88%) 

• The increased ability to ensure consistency between leadership’s strategy and activity in the field (84%) 

• The ability to adjust ongoing initiatives on the fly (82%) 

• The increased ability to show clear ROI from enablement initiatives (88%) 

• The increased ability to demonstrate enablement impact (87%) 

However, the greatest driver—according to 92% of respondents—is advancements in AI, particularly in terms of how those advancements can bolster enablement tools. 

Why? Because according to 88% of respondents, the fusion of AI and go-to-market (GTM) strategy could boost revenue growth by 27% over the next five years. 

But what enablement efforts is this technology being used for? According to our respondents, there’s a fairly even spread across the following use cases: 

• Learning (e.g., onboarding, training, and coaching): 63% 

• Content management (i.e., content storage and findability): 52%  

• Content creation and editing (i.e., automation tools for content collaboration and personalisation): 62%  

• Content distribution (e.g., email and social media tools, etc.): 54%  

• Content analytics (i.e., measuring content performance): 49% 

AI-powered enablement tech boosts business outcomes 

Of those who use AI for enablement, respondents said they implemented it to achieve the following four outcomes, again in relatively even proportions: 

9. GTM efficiency: 52% 

10. Enhanced buyer experience: 61% 

11. Operational optimisation: 59% 

12. Improved agility and speed to market: 44% 

So, how did it go? Let’s take a look. 

1. GTM efficiency 

94% of respondents said they were able to ramp reps faster, increase quota attainment, and spend more time on high-value activities by implementing AI-powered enablement tools into their enablement processes. 

What does AI-integrated enablement look like? It allows for: 

• Individualised learning paths and simulated real-life coaching scenarios with immediate feedback 

• Auto-tagged content and context-driven search results for faster, more relevant content discovery 

• Automated content production and personalisation so more resonant assets can be created more quickly 

• On-demand answers to virtually any question, crowd-sourced and verified by subject matter experts across the business. 

2. Enhanced buyer experience 

93% of respondents said implementing AI-powered enablement tools resulted in enhancing their buyers’ experiences, leading to increased deal size, better win/renewal rates, and decreased sales cycle times. That’s because AI provides: 

• Custom feeds of shareable content based on reps’ preferences and derived from thousands of trustworthy third-party publications 

• Automated social media post generation 

• Automated note taking during meetings, meeting summaries, and follow-up recommendations. 

3. Operational optimisation 

88% of respondents said they were able to achieve higher enablement efficiency and ROI, improved content usage, and tech stack consolidation due to AI implementation, which provides: 

• Analytics about what marketing content is resonating with customers and what training material is being retained by reps 

• Visual data derived from hundreds of tables in just a few clicks for faster, smarter strategizing 

• Auto-generated tasks for virtually any project by simply telling the system what to do in plain language. 

• A single, unified enablement platform for all GTM-related activities, eliminating redundant software and shadow IT. 

4. Improved agility and speed to market 

Finally, 90% of respondents say AI helped them become more flexible and responsive to their changing business needs and launch new products and services quicker. AI can do this by: 

• Providing in-flight campaign insights so GTM teams can quickly align and pivot their tactics in response to sudden market shifts 

• Facilitating greater communication and alignment via shared, user-friendly dashboards so GTM teams can better translate leadership’s ideas into field-level actions. 

To learn more about why businesses around the world are investing in AI-powered sales enablement software, check out our latest research report, Generation Enablement Report: Driving Strategic Change with the Power of AI.  

Ready to get started with AI-powered enablement tools at your business? Bear in mind that evaluating sales enablement software is often easier said than done. Book a demo with our team today and learn why Seismic is the global leader in enablement. 

The post 4 Reasons Why Organisations Are Investing in Enablement Tech  appeared first on Seismic.

Meetings are so high-stakes that it becomes easy for sellers to focus on the meeting itself, leaving prep and follow-up as afterthoughts. But, in reality, effective preparation and rigorous follow-up are the foundations upon which great buyer experiences are built.

If you’re wondering how you or your team can better prepare for meetings, you’re in luck. In this post, we’ll share how you can make the most of your time and craft a memorable experience for your buyers and customers.

Understand the buyer and their needs

First things first: a sales meeting isn’t primarily about making a sale. It’s about developing a relationship with your buyer. It’s important to centre your sales meetings around your customers and their needs. While this isn’t always possible in an introductory meeting, there are small things you can do to tailor your meetings to your audience. And, over time, you can continue to personalise what you share and when, based on your customer’s unique needs.

For an introductory meeting, it’s important to do your research. By searching the buyer’s website, recent news, and pulling relevant insights about their industry, you can demonstrate a high business acumen. For example, if you’re meeting with a prospect from a manufacturing firm, you can start by reviewing their latest earnings report, researching their recent projects, and getting a feel for their competitive landscape.

Conducting this pre-work ensures that you can create a hypothesis for how the meeting will flow. Gathering information on what’s worked for similar customers and prospects can help you prepare effectively. Researching your customer’s pain points, interests, and objectives will enable you to create a personalised agenda that is relevant to your customer and what they hope to achieve.

Get tools to help you prepare, present, and follow-up effectively.

Prepare the right content and knowledge

The pitch deck is the bread and butter of any sales call. Sellers depend on PowerPoint presentations to create a narrative that will guide their meetings. Once you’ve developed an understanding of your customer and their unique needs, begin by gathering the right content. Identify and personalise the most relevant content to help guide the conversation based on your customer’s specific scenario.

Just as content is important to the meeting experience, so, too, is the knowledge your sellers possess. This is where pre-meeting activities like just-in-time learning and virtual practice help ensure sellers have the skills and knowledge necessary to master your talk track and address any questions, objections, and topics that might come up during the meeting. This can also include topics like competitor insights, product features, and your product or service’s value proposition.

Align and collaborate with your sales team

Before any customer-facing meeting – especially high-stakes meetings with executives – it’s important to ensure that every member of your sales team is aligned. Connect with these members to rehearse your pitch, as well as any other scenarios you foresee unfolding during your call.

Use these pre-meeting exercises to fine-tune your approach. Through peer-to-peer dry runs, you may identify opportunities to refine before you’re in front of a buyer. Tools like Seismic Learning enable sellers through just-in-time coaching so they can prepare more intentionally, and with their specific customer needs in mind. And Seismic for Meetings helps sellers collaborate with their deal team and ensure everyone is aligned and well-rehearsed on the agenda and content.

Trust Seismic to prepare for make-or-break meetings

Meeting prep can be a hassle when content and learning exist in multiple different systems, but it doesn’t have to be. The Seismic Enablement CloudÔ provides a single, unified platform for all the tools and content your sales teams need to prepare efficiently.

Effectively prepare for meetings with Seismic’s features such as Meetings, Content, Knowledge, Learning, and more that can help sellers connect the dots on everything they need for the meeting.

Ready to make the most out of every meeting? Download our buyer engagement kit to access tools that will help you prepare, engage, and follow up with your customers. If you’d like to see Seismic in action, please request a demo today.

The post The importance of meeting prep appeared first on Seismic.

Whether they happen digitally or in person, meetings are the most important touchpoints sellers have with buyers. Everything else—emails, social posts, blogs, eBooks, infographics, and research reports—is about securing that all-important meeting. When meetings go well, deals close; when they don’t, deals die—or stall if you’re lucky.

But despite how critical they are to the buyer experience, meetings remain shrouded in mystery because, unless they’re recorded and shared, only those who attend them have an idea how they went. And even anecdotal accounts could be biased or skewed. Sure, recordings shed more light, but they’re not often referenced. Accessing them can be difficult, and reviewing them takes too much time. Let’s face it: after a full day of meetings, the last thing anyone wants to do is listen to another meeting they didn’t attend. Even the most in-tune sales leaders can’t scale this activity. It might be manageable if you only have a few direct reports, but not when you have a bigger team.

These roadblocks make it hard to evaluate how sellers are conducting their meetings, let alone implement best practices for improvement. And improvement is much needed because buyers generally say that sellers don’t sufficiently understand them. According to Salesforce, while 66% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs, only 34% of companies actually do. Furthermore, today’s buyer is more informed than ever, spending only 5% of the sales cycle with a seller right at the cusp of making a purchasing decision. So, meetings really are “make-or-break” scenarios. Add the fact that only 53% of sellers say the tech they use improves their productivity and results, and it’s safe to assume that “break” is too often the outcome.

So, given how important meetings are and how they represent a historically small window of opportunity, the question is, why aren’t sellers upping their game?

The answer is they’re not being enabled to.

Meetings are hard to get right

Meetings put a lot of pressure on sellers, not just because they’re inherently important, but because they require so much work—before, during, and after. Preparing for a meeting takes too long because relevant content is scattered across different repositories, and tailoring it to a specific conversation is time-consuming; presenting a meeting is strenuous because taking notes, answering unexpected questions, detecting buyer sentiment, and avoiding ratholes make for one heck of a juggling act; and following up to retain buyer engagement requires either a lengthy recording or a perfect memory to ensure all outstanding questions and concerns are addressed in a timely manner.

And it’s not just sellers who could benefit from a better approach to meetings. Imagine if those who never attend them could still derive truly objective insights from every recorded meeting at scale. The potential to replicate meeting success across an entire salesforce would be limitless, influencing strategies throughout the go-to-market org, from training and coaching to content effectiveness and buyer experience.

Enablement technology modernises meetings for the needs of today’s sellers

To streamline meeting preparation, enablement technology not only allows sellers to surface the most relevant content they need from a single library, but they can also automatically schedule a meeting, generate its agenda, and personalise content in minutes via dynamic layouts that are populated based on that agenda and the buyer’s account or opportunity in a CRM. Furthermore, sellers can curate all their content into a playlist so it’s ready to go with the click of a mouse. They can even practise their pitch via virtual dry runs that leverage artificial intelligence (AI)-powered sentiment analysis to measure their clarity, confidence, and credibility.

During a meeting, a seller’s presentation can unfold more seamlessly because they can quickly switch between presenters or toggle content, discreetly view speaker notes and other references, and quickly respond to any random question by typing it into an extension on their internet browser or in Slack, eliciting a bot that provides an immediate answer that’s been crowd-sourced and validated by subject-matter experts across their organisation.

Conversational intelligence captures buyer sentiment

Using AI, conversational intelligence software analyses speech and text to capture action items and insights that are then delivered via an automatically generated summary and transcript. Sellers can then use that information to quickly follow up after the meeting, addressing every outstanding concern and sharing supplemental content to sustain interest via a digital sales room or automatic, AI-generated email.

And as touched on above, this conversational intelligence technology can do wonders for more than just those who attended the meeting. Sales managers and those on the enablement team will get detailed visibility into what topics came up that required more support and who spoke about what, shedding light on whether training information is being retained and how coaching sessions can be adjusted to promote better behaviours.

Seismic is the only solution combining content, learning, conversational intelligence, and generative AI for a complete meeting workflow

Different from revenue intelligence companies that use conversational intelligence for pipeline forecasting and related deal trends data, Seismic, the global leader in enablement, recognised the potential for how this software could streamline the end-to-end meeting workflow. This includes all the external aspects that go into supporting a meeting, such as training and coaching, content effectiveness based on what assets are working, in-the-moment responsiveness, and ongoing relationship management, all of which deepen buyer engagement and keep deals moving forward. We call this solution Seismic for Meetings.

Interested in learning more? Request a demo today.

The post Conversational Intelligence: What sales meetings have been missing appeared first on Seismic.

Refocusing Priorities

One important aspect of generative AI is that it requires companies to refocus and rethink their priorities. Leaders need to move away from a hyper growth mindset and start thinking about ways in which they can grow strategically, at scale and need solutions that will be able to grow with them. These solutions need not be complex. On the contrary, they should be as simple as possible for them to deploy, as well as compatible with any existing systems in use (CRM, etc.).

In addition, companies are learning about and adopting technologies at a much faster pace – what previously took months or weeks to learn, now takes mere weeks. For example, according to OpenAI, ChatGPT acquired 1 million users within just 5 days after launching in November 2022, whereas it took Instagram over 2 months and Netflix even over 3 years. This proves how important it is for companies (and their employees) to be able to stay on top of these developments and trends.

Your Personal (AI) Assistant

Luckily, generative AI is there to help get the job done. According to a recent study by McKinsey, current generative AI and other technologies have the potential to automate work activities that absorb 60 to 70 percent of employees’ time today. What this means is that once the new technological models have been adopted, generative AI has the possibility of taking over mundane tasks and enhancing productivity. Monotonous and tedious tasks are completed by AI, allowing teams to work more strategically and efficiently – almost like giving each individual employee a dedicated personal assistant.

Now, imagine what that could mean in the long-term. Let’s take sales representatives – who will most likely argue never to have enough hours in the day to adhere to all the tasks on their to-do lists. If they had their very own personal assistant, that takes meeting minutes, generates emails, analyses calls and also reminds them when to follow up on a previous communication. When all these aspects of the job are being done automatically, the sales representatives will be able to spend more time focusing on building the relationship with existing customers, building relationships with new ones, as well as on things that truly make an impact. 

If you still aren’t convinced of the power of AI – consider this: AI leads to better business outcomes by reducing costs and increasing revenue. 44% of businesses that have incorporated AI tools into their processes reported reduced costs, and 63% have experienced an increase in revenue.

How Seismic can Help

Here at Seismic, we are able to help you do all of the above. In the Seismic Enablement Cloud^TM, users can find, create, edit and share content all in one place, as well as make sure that what is available, is always up to date. Furthermore, the solution integrates with other programmes, such as Salesforce, Dynamics, Outlook, Powerpoint and even your internet browser, making Seismic available wherever, whenever. The best thing being that it is scalable to businesses of any size and can grow at the same time the business does.

Furthermore, over the past couple of years, Seismic has made a strategic commitment to investing in AI/ML capabilities. As a part of this, we have introduced Seismic Knowledge, a just-in-time enablement solution that provides teams with faster access to answers, documentation, and assets right within the flow of work and tools they already use. By leveraging Knowledge, users can connect various systems to create one searchable source of truth so reps are confident they have the right information.

Seismic Knowledge extends and optimises the capabilities of your enablement function by providing teammates with fast, accurate support when they need it. This frees up valuable resources that enablement teams can use on large initiatives rather than answering questions and pointing reps to relevant documents. As a result, organisations reduce knowledge silos, boost productivity, improve the employee experience, deliver better support to customers, and close deals faster. 
If you’d like to learn more about Seismic Knowledge or other intelligent features of the Seismic Enablement Cloud^TM, get a demo today.

The post A new kind of Productivity: Generative AI in Sales Enablement appeared first on Seismic.