As a sales or marketing professional in the medical device industry, you’ve probably heard the term “sales enablement”. But what exactly is medical sales enablement? Can it really help maximize your sales process and yield a higher ROI for your company?

The short answer is yes, but we are going to dive deeper into what sales enablement is, what it looks like for medical device companies, and how it can help your sales team effectively engage with prospects and close more deals. Let’s get started!

Medical Sales Enablement Defined

Sales enablement at its core is designed to increase productivity and streamline the sales process. This includes providing your sales team with the right training, tools, and compliant content needed to efficiently move prospects through a personalized buying journey. Sales reps are no longer selling to one or two decision-makers, but rather multiple key stakeholders. Sales enablement puts more focus on the buyers, tailoring the sales pitch to fit the needs and wants of each dynamic group.

Who Manages Sales Enablement?

The way sales enablement is managed varies from company to company. Some companies have a team that’s dedicated to sales enablement, while others may just have one or two people who are responsible for facilitating the strategy for the entire company. Typically it sits under the head of sales, but it can also be managed by sales operations, marketing, or even executive management.

Their priorities and responsibilities vary depending on the company, sales team size, and needs. Their responsibilities may include: sales onboarding and training, content creation of sales assets, cross-functional communication, vetting the best tools and practices, setting and tracking KPIs of the sales enablement programs success, and continuous training programs.

No matter who is overseeing strategy, the main goal is the same – empowering the sales team to stand out against competitors and win deals. In fact, according to Aberdeen, organizations with a sales enablement solution experience a 13.7% annual increase in deal size.

Benefits of a Medical Sales Enablement Platform

It’s no secret that the medical industry is complex and sales teams have to stay on their game to keep up with the ever-changing rules and regulations. Now that we’ve defined sales enablement within the medical device industry, here are some of the benefits of implementing a sales enablement platform within your company.

• Sales & Marketing Alignment

In a perfect world, your sales and marketing teams work hand-in-hand. But are they really? When your sales and marketing teams aren’t on the same page, it can be problematic for everyone involved, including your buyers. Sales reps start blaming marketing for not having the content they need, and marketing doesn’t even know how their content is being used. When you incorporate a sales enablement strategy into your company, you help facilitate regular communication and collaboration between the two. As they work together, they become a strong force to help elevate your bottom line.

• Sales Team Onboarding & Training

When onboarding a new group of sales reps, it can be tempting to get them out into the field as quickly as possible. However, if you don’t take the time to properly onboard and train them, it could cost you qualified prospects or closed deals in the future. We understand that this a lot easier said than done and this is where your sales enablement strategy comes into play. Your teams can work together to create an onboarding program that covers everything new hires need to understand your products, processes, and tools.

All the training materials can be housed within the sales enablement tool and even include hands-on learning like VR and AR training. As they practice their pitches in these situations, they can make sure their phrasing is compliant with the regulations within the medical device industry. Your sales reps can refer back to any of the training content as needed, whether they are sitting in the airport or just about to walk into their next meeting.

• Easy to Find Compliant Content

Companies within the medical device industry stand to benefit the most from sales enablement as it’s a heavily-regulated environment. Compliance is arguably the most important thing within the medical device industry and is a critical factor of sales enablement. It’s vital that your teams stay up to date with new regulations. If a rep shares a non-compliant piece of content that could cost them (and your company) the deal. Not to mention they could be putting patients at risk, as well as your reputation.

Thanks to a sales enablement tool, your content is stored in a central location. Your reps no longer have to worry about carrying around stacks of brochures, sharing out-dated content, or creating their own content which may not be compliant. Your marketing team can upload and update content as needed and you can be confident that your sales force is always sharing compliant content. A sales enablement solution acts as a single source of truth for all your content and helps you adhere to strict FDA requirements!

• Personalized Sales Conversations

As we briefly mentioned earlier, the number of people your sales reps interact with is evolving. But they way buyers want to be sold to is as well. No longer does the one size fit all approach work. Buyers don’t want to be presented with generic content that they can find on your site because more than likely they’ve already seen it. Your reps need to be able to tailor each sales pitch to different buyer personas, whether they are presenting to hospital executives, doctors, or key stakeholders. A medical sale enablement tool allows reps to quickly find and share content that they know will speak to their audience.

Insightful Content Analytics

Once your marketing team delivers content to your sales team, they usually don’t know how it’s being used or if it’s even effective. And the same goes for your sales reps. When they share content with prospects, it’s hard for them to know what pieces are engaging. A sales enablement tool gives your teams insights into what content reps are using, and what assets are driving the best results. With user-generated analytics, your teams can work together to create and share optimized content.

Selecting Sales Enablement Technology

A big piece of the sales enablement puzzle is providing your team with the right sales technology. When you deploy the right tools to your team, you empower them to make the most out of their resources and time. 55% of the executives in the C-Suite say that sales enablement solutions are the top technology investment necessary to boost sales productivity (Forbes).

When it comes to selecting the sales enablement tool for your company, you’ll find that there are various options out there. Finding the right fit depends on your company’s unique needs, pain points, and overall sales enablement strategy. A good sales enablement tool should do everything we mentioned above, and more, as we just scratched the surface.

We know that finding your sales enablement tool can seem like an overwhelming process but it doesn’t need to be! Here at Infuse Medical, we are here to help. We are able to create a completely customizable mobile sales enablement app, powered by SoloFire. SoloFire is a powerful sales enablement platform that integrates with your CRM and other sales technology within your company. As we learn what your perfect medical sales enablement solution looks like, and how it should function, we can create a tool made specifically for your needs. Improve your sales with a custom sales enablement tool loaded with seamless functionality, robust security, and other useful features. Contact us today for a demo!