Sales Enablement vs Sales Ops
What’s the difference between sales enablement & sales ops?
In true business cyclic fashion, what’s old is new again. As organizations are dealing with ever-shifting uncertainties (inflation, war, supply chain), I’ve been having more conversations about sales, specifically retooling or setting up sales enablement. Frequently I’m asked what’s difference between enablement and sales ops. Aren’t they one and the same? Nope. But they are related.
What’s in a Name?
An easy place to start is with some definitions. Sales ops is involved with everything related to supporting and facilitating sales teams. Sales ops can be both strategic and tactical. In my opinion ops’ role is to reduce friction in the sales process, figuring out where sales activities drag, get stuck, or go off the rails. Sales ops is involved in territory planning and account assignment. They often manage a deal desk, routing and governing proposals and contracts. Hopefully they also ensure accurate reporting and forecasting as well as maintain systems (like CRMs, CPQs, SPM) and keep data clean.
Similarly, sales enablement is focused on improving sales, with the view of overall efficiency through process (within sales and handoffs between departments), tools, training and performance analysis. Their POV is from a customer perspective, following their journey. Sales enablement looks for leaks, bottlenecks, and opportunities across the journey through the entire organization. Beyond sales training, enablement analyzes journey mapping, the performance of content, opportunities for automation, and sales communication. In simple terms, enablement follows the money. It follows revenue as it flows through the organization to reduce obstacles and increase its velocity. In even simpler terms sales enablement orchestrates success for everyone.
Why, Who & How
Why: A robust and well-thought out sales enablement program can be a game-changer for an organization and its performance. According to G2, 84% of sales executives cite content search and utilization as the top productivity improvement area. Organizations who utilize enablement achieve a 49% win rate on forecasted deals, compared to 42.5% without.
Who: For obvious reasons, who’s involved in enablement is broader than sales ops. Other areas need representation in a sales enablement initiative. Remember, you’re tracking customers across their journey between departments, looking at handoffs and analyzing revenue flow. Namely, tap any departments that touch the sales funnel (before, during, and after):
Marketing -- responsible for brand guidelines, lead gen, and content development
Sales Ops -- ultimately tasked with maintaining the sales process and training people
Customer Success -- handle customers once deals are signed/ready for implementation
Finance -- need accurate reporting and forecasting
How: It all starts with goal setting and then follows project management best practices. My sales enablement projects typically involve 1) reporting and analysis, 2) optimizing sales content 3) sales enablement tools, and 4) training a sales enablement manager. For more details, check out my guide on Sales Enablement: The Art of Effective Selling.
A Better Way
One of the many reasons why my RevOps work is so gratifying is that it sparks better conversations and raises the bar for individuals, teams, and organizations. Improvements are customer-centric and are based on accountability, accurate data, alignment. Intrigued? I invite you to start a conversation with me.