Analogue enablement - building a winning office environment
I’m working with. client at the moment and we’ve been discussing the importance of analogue enablement for their sales teams.
In this post I’ll explain what analogue enablement is, why it is becoming ever more important today, and provide some suggestions to think about in your own business.
What is analogue enablement?
I started my sales career back in 1999 - well before the days of digital sales enablement tools like Highspot and Seismic.
We got trained in a training room and were left with a physical booklet with the topics we’d covered.
Back in our sales room we had posters on the wall covering a new product release or a target persona.
On our desks we had branded pads with key questions or objection handling ideas.
All around us were physical reminders and aids that supported our work.
You could call this subliminal enablement - we didn’t spend every morning staring at a poster, but while you were on a call or grabbing a coffee you’d see it, and it would remind you of the messaging.
Why did analogue enablement disappear?
In many companies you’ve seen a reduction or total removal of analogue enablement.
The pandemic put everyone at home, and so what use is a poster in an empty office going to be? As people returned and with a changeover of staff - the habit was forgotten.
Secondly, the rise of sales enablement tools made it far easier for the person creating the content to load up a page and tick the box - far easier than figuring out the logistics of design, printing and shipping.
What’s wrong with digital enablement?
Digital enablement through platforms like Highspot, Seismic and Showpad are fantastic at being able to create much larger and more dynamic pieces of content - with video, call recordings, and are easily updated.
But they rely on the seller seeking out the content they want (or it being appropriately targeted at them in CRM).
Seller screen real estate is a premium - most often sellers will have email, CRM, Sales Navigator, and maybe a sales engagement platform open. These are the tools of their trade, and other platforms get sought out more rarely.
So if you have a new focus on a particular persona, or a new product launch - then beyond the mandatory training you provide sellers, they will drift back to doing what they know, and using the tools that help them get there.
Ideas for analogue enablement
So here are some ideas that you can use.
I’m aware that not everyone works in a physical office so consider which of these would be easy to convert for your home based sellers.
Posters - these are easy, go for large posters in company branding and bright bold text. Posters could cover a key persona, objection handling, or industry use cases. Depending on the size of your office have a number of them on the walls to sit in the line of sight of each team member.
Roll-up banners - the pop up banners are larger and can contain more content. These are ideal for personas as you have have a full size image of the person on the side, with some of their key responsibilities, challenges and triggers for your product. Create a bunch of these and change them over each month - consider personas, industries, products or customer stories.
Desk top folders - A4 binders that sit on sellers’ desks can have dividing sections into which you can put the details of your key personas, sales plays, industry use cases, products and customer stories. Yes all this content is in your enablement platform, but in the prep for a call, and during that call, having the page open next to you is a welcome support for the seller. As new customer stories or plays get launched send out updated pages to be added in.
Custom playing cards - Niche printing companies will create you your own branded pack of professional playing cards in a beautiful box, even with your own instructions. Think of 52 topics or questions covering your key industries, personas, products, objections and competitors and then suggested answers or talk tracks for the other side. These make a great team game, but are just as valuable for a buddy session or individual game before a call block.
Desk top calendar - this only really works if sellers have a designated desk - but if they do, you can get desk top calendars that have custom content on the side - it could be a persona of the week, or an objection of the day. These make a fun way to start the day and remind sellers of a specific topic.
I’m sure you can think of some other creative ways of putting your messaging in front of sellers and having them engage with it in an informal and inspiring way.
Think of how to enhance the office experience
In the “office versus remote” discussion one of the lines for Team Remote is “I don’t get anything in the office that I can’t get at home”.
I don’t agree with that personally, but I also think as leaders we need to do a better job of making the office a more valuable tool for sellers.
If everything we provide them to support them in their role comes through a screen, then does it matter where that screen is?
I encourage you to walk through your office, to consider the layout and the visual cues you provide to your sellers.
At 9am, as a seller thinks about picking up the phone, are they going to feel empowered and inspired to have that first call because of the analogue enablement you’ve provided them?
If you’d like help discussing what types of analogue enablement would be valuable for your teams get in touch - I’d love to help.
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