Product enablement

Why is product enablement important?

Product enablement helps improve a company’s bottom line by boosting team performance and customer satisfaction. It plays a crucial role in product adoption, helping ensure users can effectively understand and utilize new solutions.

When teams have good product knowledge, they can meet customer needs more quickly and close deals more effectively.

Recent research shows why this is so important: Gartner reports that 77% of sellers struggle with completing tasks efficiently, even with major investments in sales initiatives.

Furthermore, the 2024 Seller Skills Survey finds that 70% of B2B sellers feel overwhelmed by the technology they use, and 72% by the variety of skills they need.

Effective product enablement solves these issues by making it easier to share knowledge, reducing communication errors, and ensuring smooth product launches with consistent messaging.

These figures highlight the need for effective product enablement to streamline processes and boost performance.

What are the goals of product enablement?

Product enablement is designed to ensure that every department within an organization is equipped with the knowledge and resources to understand, promote, and support the product effectively. 

Let’s examine the goals of product enablement in more detail:

Improving team performance and productivity

• Equips employees with the tools and knowledge they need to complete their tasks efficiently.
• Reduces the time spent searching for product information or troubleshooting issues.
• Enables sales and support teams to handle customer queries and close deals with confidence.
• Streamlines internal processes to eliminate bottlenecks and improve overall efficiency.

Ensuring consistent messaging across the organization

• Develops clear, standardized product documentation and training materials.
• Ensures that all teams have access to the same information, reducing confusion and miscommunication.
• Aligns marketing, sales, and support teams around the product’s key selling points and benefits.
• Maintains a unified brand voice across all customer-facing touchpoints.

Supporting product launches and updates

• Provides training and resources to prepare teams for upcoming product changes or new features.
• Creates clear product launch plans to ensure smooth rollouts across departments.
• Updates documentation and materials regularly to reflect new product updates or revisions.
• Trains employees on how to communicate product changes effectively to customers.

Who is involved in product enablement?

Product enablement involves many people, both inside and outside the company. Each person plays a key role in making sure teams have the right information to sell, support, and promote the product.

Let’s investigate these stakeholders more fully.

Internal stakeholders

• Product teams: Provide details about the product’s features and benefits.
• Sales teams: Use product information to sell better and connect with customers.
• Customer support teams: Help customers by using product knowledge to solve problems.
• Marketing teams: Ensure messaging is clear and support product launches.
• Training teams: Create and teach training materials for other teams.
• Managers: Support product enablement and make sure it fits with business goals.

External stakeholders

• Vendors: Provide tools or services that help with product enablement.
• Consultants: Offer advice on how to set up product training.
• Customers: Share feedback to improve product information and training.
• Partners and resellers: Use product knowledge to sell the product to others.

What is required for product enablement success?

To achieve product enablement success, focus on three key areas that help teams across the company get the right knowledge and resources to do their jobs well:

Provide clear and up-to-date product information

Ensure all teams have easy access to clear and current product information. Share regular updates on new features or changes to keep everyone informed. Make sure everyone speaks with one voice, especially when interacting with customers or other teams. Keep the product knowledge centralized and easily accessible to avoid misunderstandings.

Offer training tailored to each team’s needs

Deliver training that meets the specific needs of each department, starting with effective user onboarding processes that set the foundation for long-term success. Equip sales teams with a deep understanding of key benefits and selling points. Provide customer support teams with technical details and troubleshooting resources. Help marketing teams grasp how to highlight the product’s features effectively. Tailor the training to ensure every team is prepared to perform their role at the highest level. Make sure everyone has the knowledge they need to succeed in their specific function.

Encourage collaboration across departments

Foster teamwork between departments to share important product insights and updates. Promote open communication between teams so they can help each other with useful knowledge. Ensure sales teams inform customer support about common customer questions. Make sure support teams share feedback about product issues that arise. Encourage cross-department collaboration to improve operations and keep everyone on the same page. Strengthen the company’s performance by aligning teams with clear, shared goals.

Why do product enablement projects fail?

Product enablement projects often face several challenges that can prevent them from being successful. These challenges can come from poor planning, lack of resources, or not having the right alignment within the organization. 

Identifying these issues early can help organizations avoid problems and make product enablement processes more effective, so let’s take a closer look:

Lack of clear strategy or goals

A major reason for product enablement failure is not having a clear strategy or set goals. Without a well-planned approach, it’s hard to know what the project is trying to achieve. This makes it difficult to measure progress or ensure that all teams are working toward the same objectives. When the strategy is unclear, efforts can become disorganized, leading to wasted time and resources, and ultimately reducing the impact of the enablement process.

Insufficient training and support

Even with the right information, product enablement can fail if employees are not given proper training and support. Organizations need robust training evaluation models to measure effectiveness and ensure learning objectives are met. If the training programs are too general or not specific to each team’s role, it can lead to confusion and poor understanding. Moreover, if teams don’t receive ongoing support after the training, they may struggle to apply what they’ve learned, which can weaken the overall success of the product enablement process.

Poor cross-department collaboration

Effective product enablement requires good communication and cooperation between different departments. When teams work in silos and do not regularly share information or updates, it can cause confusion and misalignment. A lack of teamwork can lead to inconsistent messaging, mistakes, and missed opportunities to improve processes. Without strong collaboration, teams are less likely to work together to solve problems, which can limit the success of product enablement efforts.

Product enablement use cases

Product enablement helps ensure all teams in a company have the right knowledge and tools to sell, support, and promote a product effectively. It can look different in various industries, depending on the company’s needs and goals. 

Here are three examples of how product enablement works in different business scenarios.

Retail 

Scenario: A retail company launches a new online shopping platform.

Method: The product enablement team creates easy-to-understand training materials for the sales and customer service teams. These materials explain how the platform works, its benefits for customers, and how to fix common problems. The training also includes product demos and a list of frequently asked questions.

Outcome: With clear training, the sales team can confidently talk to customers, and the customer service team can solve problems quickly. This leads to happy customers, fewer issues, and more sales.

Software

Scenario: A software company adds a new feature to its product.

Method: The product enablement team works with the marketing and customer support teams to create helpful guides, webinars, and videos. These resources are designed for each team’s role, so marketing can promote the new feature, and support staff can help users with any questions.

Outcome: Both the marketing and customer support teams are well-prepared to help customers. As a result, the new feature launches smoothly, with lots of customer interest and fewer questions or problems.

Healthcare

Scenario: A company introduces a new medical device for use in hospitals.

Method: The product enablement team creates detailed training sessions for healthcare professionals, focusing on how to use the device safely, maintain it, and troubleshoot problems. They also provide manuals and online tutorials for easy reference.

Outcome: Medical staff can use the device confidently and correctly, leading to fewer mistakes, better care for patients, and quicker adoption of the new device in hospitals.