9 Sales Enablement Tips to Share with Your Team

Learn nine different sales enablement strategies that will grow your business and set your insurance sales team up for success.

When managing a sales team, part of your job is to set your team up for success. Sales enablement is all about providing the tools and resources to your sales team to best engage with their target customers. Whether you are a new sales manager or a seasoned veteran, leaning into a sales enablement style of managing will boost your sales team’s success rate. Here are nine tips and strategies to implement a sales enablement mindset.

1. Identify your target customers/personas

This is a great exercise to do with your sales team. Brainstorm the different types of customers your insurance agents typically target. If you’re in the auto insurance industry this could include personas like the DIY shopper (who is fully autonomous in their shopping), first-time single buyer, insurance switcher (unhappy with their current insurance), young family, insurance add-on buyer. Use your existing sales data to guide you in determining persona types. The sales enablement approach here is that while your team can’t prepare for every individual insurance deal, they can prepare for different types of deals and learn what strategies and content work best for each type.

2. Focus on the customer experience

Along with identifying customer personas, analyzing the customer experience is also a critical element in sales enablement practices. Map out the “buyer journey” for each type of customer. What websites do they visit? What types of communication do they receive? How many touchpoints do they typically have before making a decision? Imagine you are the customer. What are the different steps you must take before buying insurance? Through this exercise, you may identify some inefficiencies in your sales process, or realize some of your content is missing the mark.

3. Collect data and be specific with what you are measuring

A great sales enablement strategy is to let your data do the talking. Make sure your sales team is collecting and recording data that will allow you to analyze different data points. Data points can include: time to revenue, win rates, time spent closing, individual quotas, average policy amount purchased. As with most data analyses, the longer you track your data, the more helpful it will become. You’ll be able to identify trends and patterns that will inform your team on areas for improvement as well as team strengths.

4. Let data drive your decisions

Use good data to drive your management decisions. As a manager, relying on data is the most effective way to manage a sales team. From a sales enablement perspective, using data as evidence is an excellent motivator.

5. Create good content (and keep it up to date!)

Create different types of content based on your target customer personas. Consider how tone shifts and content format will work for different types of customers. Are there more visual ways of sharing your insurance content? Don’t forget that nearly half of all web traffic takes place on mobile devices these days, so be sure your content is mobile-friendly. Once you’ve created great content, track how your sales team is using it. This is a great sales enablement tool for learning what content works best for each type of customer as well as each type of salesperson.  Don’t forget to review content regularly to make sure it’s still accurate and up to date.

6. Branch out for feedback

A major sales enablement strategy is to seek out feedback on your sales process. Don’t just ask your sales team for feedback. Ask new customers and old customers to weigh in on their experiences. Surveys are great for this type of feedback. Ask marketing teams and third-party consultants to review your sales process and materials to offer unbiased opinions and advice. Your sales team will grow and develop more strongly if there is a multi-faceted approach to assessment and feedback.

7. Use tools and software that fit your insurance sale industry needs.

Meet your customers where they are but prepare for evolving technologies too! Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is critical for data collection and cross-agency consistency. Find the right software that works for your needs and choose one that has the ability to grow with your business. Leverage content libraries and your website blog to drive traffic to your agency. Seek out experts in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) who can help get your posts and articles seen. Take advantage of drip marketing email campaigns, and software that seamlessly integrates into your CRM solutions. And don’t forget about webinar and video content sharing. With so much business taking place from home these days, it’s important for your agency to have dependable tools to connect with your customers.

8. Make tools easy to use

This tip could easily be lumped into the one before it, but it’s so important it needed to be on its own! The tools and software you choose for your sales team are only as good as how easy they are to use. Build software training and review into your team’s schedule. This is especially helpful when software updates take place or new features are released. Build partnerships with your software vendors and lean on their expertise to help your team transition from one technology to another.

9. Offer continual training and development

You may know the sales cliché “Always Be Closing,” but when it comes to sales enablement the phrase should be “Always Be Learning.” Find ways for your team to connect with each other while continuing their sales training. Paring new insurance salespeople with veteran team members is an excellent way to encourage mentorship. Check with professional networks and organizations for periodic training and seminars in your insurance field. Send a delegation from your team to learn new ideas and concepts then have them come back to the agency and report back to your team.

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