According to IDC, sales enablement is the strategy that ensures each member in an organization’s sales team gets the right information at the right time and place, in a format that is more relevant to the person so that he or she is able to move the sales forward. It is a strategy that involves members from various teams within an organization including marketing, product development and sales, to deliver what the customer is looking for.

CRM, on the other hand, is part of a sales management strategy. Zoho is a solution provider that has developed what it calls the operating system for business. Zoho is a single cloud platform which enables businesses to acquire and manage

Vibhav Vankayala, Product Marketing Manager, Zoho CRM, spoke to DigitalCMO Digest about the company’s solution and how it is an important tool to drive the sales enablement strategy of an organisation.

Interviewed by Priyanka Bhattacharya

// What is your perception of sales enablement?

Empowering the salesperson - this is what we have always believed in. The ultimate aim of sales enablement should be to make the process of selling as simple as possible by providing salespeople with whatever tools and material they need to help them sell better and close more deals faster.

// What are the various components within this that are relevant for organisations that are looking to develop a dynamic sales force?

An outstanding CRM can create an outstanding sales team. Today, sales people spend a lot of time on meta-work like searching for data sheets, co-ordinating with their team, entering data into CRM and the like. A good CRM should be able to minimise these tasks and give more time to salespeople to do what they should be doing - selling.

So the most important requirement is a good CRM, and it should have capabilities like artificial intelligence and automation. It should be simple and easy to use, and enable the team to work on the move. The tool should enable collaboration, document storage and sharing. Finally, it should help in integrating information and sharing the insights in a contextual manner across touch points that are also outside sales like marketing and support.

// How prepared are organisations today to adopt a sales enablement strategy?

Organisations are quite well prepared to adopt, provided the benefits of sales enablement are articulated well to them. It is natural for any organisation to be cautious of making any changes to their sales strategy. But if the benefits of moving to a good sales enablement platform are not communicated well enough, it becomes a no-brainier to adopt.

// Sales enablement is not CRM, but many confuse the two. Can you throw some light on the major differences between the two?

While sales enablement is an overall goal, CRM is a tool, and one of the ways which can help an organisation reach that goal.

// Do you think CRM can be part of an organisation's sales enablement initiatives? If yes, how can the two be implemented together for better sales and marketing impact?

Of course, yes. CRM should be an integral part of any organisation's sales enablement strategy. A good sales enablement strategy should have capabilities that enable collaboration across teams. It should be able to garner data and generate insights that help across all business units. The teams should be able to share relevant and timely content and data to make the deal. And in all this, a good CRM can help make it happen through its features.

// Does Zoho itself have any sales enablement strategy in place for its sales and marketing team? How does that benefit your organization?

We have always believed in 'eating your own dog food'; which means we practice what we preach. Our sales enablement strategy has evolved over time, making our sales teams more and more effective. In fact, the learnings from this go into the development of our CRM as well.

// How do you plan to modify the strategy, if any, to meet a dynamic customer scenario and demand?

No effective strategy can be static. It has to evolve and change as per a dynamic customer and market scenario. Our sales enablement strategy is agile enough to react swiftly to an ever-changing customer and market scenario.

// Do share some crucial points about Zoho's CRM suite and its benefits for an organisation.

Zoho CRM Suite offers multichannel capability. It can bring contextual information across all customer touch points in real-time, like social media, live-chat, telephone, and in-person. Blueprints in Zoho CRM help organisations build customized sales processes that are repeatable and scalable. The newly added intelligent sales assistant Zia, which is powered by artificial intelligence, helps salespeople by identifying anomalies, predicting the best time to contact a prospect, and suggesting the best macros. It has SalesSignals that gives real-time contextual information across all touch-points. Its GameScope helps sales teams stay motivated and energised throughout the sales cycle. Finally, the mobile app enables salespeople find contacts around them, check-in at customer locations and share documents on the move, making the travelling salesperson's job much easier.