Sales enablement means getting the entire company to support the sales process, and celebrate wins by the entire company, not just the sales team.

Building trust is the foundational step to creating a plan for sales team motivation to maximize revenue. In my last article I shared ideas on changes in B2B selling and how sales leaders must understand individual motivations to successfully coach salespeople. With rapport and trust, sales leaders can motivate salespeople and improve sales results.

Owners of companies often ask me, ‘We have the best equipment and workflow, why can’t my sales team sell more?’

There are no easy answers to this question. Investing in an effective approach to motivate your sales team and create a company culture to support sales enablement can drive revenue growth.

Successful commercial printers and print/mail service providers take the time to conduct regular planning meetings with their largest clients. These meetings may be called quarterly business reviews, account reviews, executive business reviews, or planning meetings. At these meetings, senior level people from the client and the vendor attend. There is a structured agenda with a focus on the services, value, and metrics for print/mail services.

As a consultant I am often engaged when decision makers want to improve their sales results. I regularly hear “we want the sales team to be more effective,” and “we want them to sell more.” These appear to be universal goals in the print and mailing industry.

Sales effectiveness is the combined result of four disciplines: sales leadership, sales methodology, sales execution, and sales culture.

Let’s focus first on sales leadership. Great sales leaders see their role in helping their team to achieve desired results.

Many sales teams are challenged in the current business environment to connect with customers and prospects. New sales are harder to find and harder to close. When I ask sales teams about who they plan to contact for referrals [always ask for referrals], often they speak about customers who buy specific types of print jobs.

Many sales cycles are stalled. Whether your team is selling print, services, direct mail, software, equipment, or products, the current situation has many sales cycles stuck and delayed. Your sales team may be hearing from customers that decisions are on hold or postponed. Or they may be hearing nothing as prospects do not respond to emails and phone calls.