Empowering Your Sales Team: Best Practices for Event-Based Sales Enablement

Events provide unparalleled opportunities for your sales team to connect with prospects, present products, and make sales. However, just showing up is not enough! You are expected to prepare to be successful, and getting your sales team prepared with the tools, training, and support they need to maximize their impact at the event is the key to success. And this is where sales enablement really matters.  

By aligning preparation, technology, and strategy together you can prepare your sales team to turn any interaction into meaningful engagement opportunity. To help you with your successful sales enablement at the event, this ultimate guide has everything you need to prepare your team for success. 

Why Sales Enablement is Key to Event Success

Sales enablement is more than just training, it’s about preparing your team with the tools and strategies to be successful. When your team is at events, where possibilities to take customers from ideas to a sale are limited in time and conclusive thought sales enablement becomes essential. It ensures your sales team is:  

Informed: Familiar with everything product-related, what your competitors are doing, and what other trends are appearing in the marketplace.  

Prepared: Provided with the tools, content, and strategy to handle whatever your customers attempted on their current experience.  

Aligned: All your sales team members are on the same page regarding your event goal and what will or will not work for your business.  

The result is a team that is confident and agile enough to capitalize on every customer conversation and opportunity at an event. 

Key Strategies for Event-Based Sales Enablement

1. Pre-Event Preparation

Preparation is the foundation of sales success. Equipping your team before the event ensures they arrive ready to deliver.

Sales Training

• Product Knowledge: Ensure your team understands the product or service inside out. This includes features, benefits, and unique selling points.
• Sales Techniques: Train your team on effective sales approaches tailored to the event audience. Role-playing common scenarios can be a valuable exercise.
• Competitive Intelligence: Provide insights into competitors’ offerings and strategies, enabling your team to handle objections confidently.

Content Development

• Sales Collateral: Create brochures, one-pagers, and case studies that sales reps can share with prospects. These materials should be visually appealing and easy to digest.
• Personalized Pitch Decks: Develop customizable pitch decks that allow sales reps to tailor their presentations to specific prospects.

Technology Tools

• Event Apps and CRM Access: Provide access to platforms that facilitate lead capture and follow-up.
• Hardware Support: Equip your team with tablets or laptops for real-time data entry, presentations, and lead management.

2. On-Site Support

Events can be chaotic, but with proper on-site support, your sales team can remain focused and effective.

Dedicated Event Support

• Assign experienced team members to oversee on-site sales enablement.
• Provide guidance on handling leads, managing schedules, and optimizing interactions.

Real-Time Coaching

• Utilize mobile apps or messaging platforms to provide on-demand feedback or advice.
• You can keep your sales team energized, motivated, updated, and encouraged all day long with tips and updates! 

Event App Integration

• Utilize event apps to facilitate lead capture, schedule meetings, and route sales materials.
• These apps will also enable you to track conversations and ensure opportunities are not missed! 

3. Post-Event Follow-Up

The event has not concluded when the doors close, what happens following it is equally significant. Effective follow-up moves the relationships built during the event into actual sales. 

Prompt Follow-Up

• Contact leads within 24 hours of the event while you are still top of mind for your brand.
• Customize the follow-up emails and calls by using what your leads mentioned or were interested in during the event. 

CRM Integration

• Document detailed information about each lead in your CRM, including needs, preferences, and next steps.
• Leverage that information to prioritize leads and plan follow up actions for each lead. 

Sales Enablement Tools

• Provide your sales team with email follow up templates, proposals, and templates for other communications to save time and be consistent. 

Best Practices for Successful Sales Enablement

1. Set Clear Goals and Expectations

Define what success looks like for your sales team at the event.

• Sales Objectives: Set realistic yet ambitious goals, such as a target number of leads or deals closed.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Establish metrics to track progress, like the number of qualified leads captured or follow-up calls scheduled.

2. Measure and Analyze

Evaluate your team’s performance and the overall impact of the event.

• Track Sales Metrics: Monitor metrics like conversion rates, average deal size, and time-to-close.
• Assess Event ROI: Compare the cost of participation to the revenue generated to determine the event’s success.

3. Continuous Improvement

Gather feedback from your sales team and attendees to identify areas for improvement.

• Sales Team Insights: Ask your team about their experiences—what worked, what didn’t, and what could be improved.
• Attendee Feedback: Use post-event surveys to understand attendee perceptions and expectations.

4. Foster a Culture of Collaboration

Encourage your sales team to work together and share insights.

• Host post-event debriefs to discuss successes and challenges.
• Use these sessions to refine strategies for future events.

Empowering Your Team with Samaaro

Sales enablement doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Tools like Samaaro, an event marketing platform, simplify the process by providing centralized resources and seamless integration with your sales workflow. From pre-event preparation to post-event follow-up, Samaaro empowers your sales team to succeed.

Conclusion

Event-based sales enablement is about more than just preparing your team; it is important to give your team everything it needs to be performing at its best at every opportunity.  By putting a priority on training, tools and ongoing support, you will build a sales team that produces high-quality and quantity of performance.  

When equipped with the right strategies and resources, your sales team can foster long-term relationships, create high-quality leads and drive successful event results.  

Are you ready to rethink sales enablement?  The solutions from Samaaro are designed to help elevate both event marketing as well as invest into sales teams. Play around with the demos or simply request a free trial to see how Samaaro can help with your event strategy.