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You may have already heard of sales operations vs sales enablement, but what is the difference between these two departments?
Sales enablement is rising in popularity when it comes to the sales process, but operations are equally vital. Understanding the difference between these two departments and successfully implementing both will help your business to grow.
Let’s look at how you can incorporate both sales enablement and sales operations into your sales team with this detailed breakdown.
Sales Enablement vs. Sales Operations: How to Define the Terms
Understanding the difference between sales enablement and sales operations is the crucial first step to implementing both for your business. Here’s an explanation of just what these terms mean:
Sales Operations
Sales operations teams are focused on the daily efforts that your team must make to facilitate sales. They can include routine tasks such as monitoring your CRM system, the sales tech stack, and other data points that indicate sales productivity.
For example, you might measure some of the following:
- How many leads are received
- How many leads convert to sales
- The average size of the sale
Many business owners and sales leaders are noticing just how effective this branch can be. According to recent studies, 89 percent of sales professionals say that sales operations are critical to growing their business.
From the operations side of things, your employees will be actively working with the sales team to handle leads and manage your CRM. They are down in the weeds of your daily operations in every possible way.
Team members who are interested in sales data will want to consult with the sales operations side of things to get the hard numbers.
Sales operations focus on the facts and figures that can’t be ignored in a business setting. They have their finger on the pulse of what is driving the business forward and what areas could use improvement. This department is focused on how to better enable your sales staff to make more sales and larger sales.
Sales Enablement
Sales enablement teams function with a strategy that will help them make more sales and improve their marketing efforts. The goal of the sales enablement team is to close more deals by reducing the barriers to a sale, including educating sales staff.
Comparing sales enablement and sales operations is a bit different. Instead of looking at the hard facts, sales enablement focuses on the bigger picture:
- Works with both the sales and marketing teams at your business.
- Equip its sales representatives with all of the tools and training they need to accurately sell their products, goods, or services.
- Makes it easier for your team to increase the number of leads that come through the door.
Sales enablement team members are responsible for content creation and actual communication with your customers. While reporting is not their strong suit, it does play a small role in their overall business dealings.
This sales content is primarily created and distributed through a modern learning platform, like Continu. Sales leaders and instructors can house all of their training materials in a single, centralized location to maximize the efficiency and productivity of the sales team.
