Sales enablement is nothing new, but it is gaining traction within businesses. They are realizing that cooperation between the sales and marketing departments could help them convert more leads.

What is sales enablement copy?
Sales enablement copy is anything written that helps to move prospects along the sales pipeline. It could be anything from emails, to battle cards, to white papers.

Why is sales enablement important?
Sales teams are great at selling but not always so good at creating written material to convert prospects. While copywriters know the psychological principles behind what makes people buy, the sales team are experts on their audience. When the sales and marketing teams are aligned, prospects are 67% more likely to become customers, and can result in up to a 36% increase in customer retention rates.

Why specialize in sales enablement?
Sales teams have been using written material to convert customers for decades. But, it has recently gained popularity because more of this is now done online. The search term ‘sales enablement’ has increased by 51.2% year over the past year on Google.

Businesses with a misaligned sales and marketing department lose £1 trillion each year in decreased sales, productivity, and wasted marketing efforts, making it highly important that businesses focus their efforts on sales enablement.

Businesses tend to value the work of sales enablement copywriters as it can be easier to measure the effectiveness of the sales enablement copy. When the sales team uses the content, they close more sales.

How to get into the sales enablement niche?
Just like any other niche, study the industry, and build up your portfolio of sales enablement work. You can find clients on freelance sites, job sites, on LinkedIn, or other social media channels.

What is the difference between copywriting and sales enablement copywriting?
Copywriting is all about getting the reader to take an action. Sales enablement copywriting is about nurturing leads. Alan Sharpe, a sales enablement copywriter, says, “The main difference is that it is designed to move a buyer along to the next step in a sales pipeline rather than to make a sale. It’s also more focused, speaking to the specific needs and challenges of particular buyer personas and their stage in the buyer journey.”

What are examples of sales enablement copy?
You have probably seen examples of sales enablement copy, but did not realize that’s  what it is. Sales enablement can be anything from blog posts, case studies, email campaigns, and sales scripts that are sent to people who have already seen the initial ad copy. Around 92% of first-time visitors to a website won’t make a purchase, so you need a way of capturing their information to be able to re-market to them. This is why email campaigns are important in nurturing leads.

This is known as the mere-exposure effect. The more we see something, the more we prefer them because we feel familiar with them. In other words, we are more likely to buy from brands we are familiar with. Sales scripts use several psychological principles, too. For example, answering any objections a prospect may have, making it a risk-free investment by giving a free trial, or not having to enter credit card details.

Scarcity can also be used to entice a prospect into buying in case they miss out. Showing them the consequences of what happens if they miss out is just as effective as showing the benefits they will get with the product or service. In this age of FOMO (fear of missing out), this is a helpful sales enablement tactic to use in sales enablement content.

Sales enablement training
While you don’t need to have any official qualifications to become a sales enablement specialist, it might be helpful to do some sales enablement training. There are a variety of sales enablement courses to choose from. Hubspot offers a sales enablement certification and LinkedIn offer a course on sales enablement, too.

Rebecca Boyle is a qualified journalist and copywriter based in Northern Ireland. She writes for businesses all over the world. She specializes in marketing, SaaS, SEO, beverages, and travel. When she’s not writing, she enjoys day trips with her husband and mischievous German Shepherd.