Sales intelligence and sales enablement are often used interchangeably, but they represent distinct yet complementary approaches within the sales process. While sales intelligence centers on providing actionable information, sales enablement focuses on tools and training that help teams convert more leads into closed deals.
Think of sales intelligence and sales enablement like building a professional sports team -- or any sports team. Sales intelligence is the sports equivalent of data about athletes, their opponents, weather and field conditions, and even their fan bases. It's historical data that makes the team who they are, and it empowers coaches and managers to build game strategies. Sales enablement is the sports equivalent to the coaching staff, training facilities, equipment, and even the owners' investments in the development of their teams. Today's professional sports teams, and even some college teams, have sophisticated technology and models that marry intelligence with enablement.
In the complex, data-heavy, and fast-moving commercial real estate industry, both sale intelligence and sales enablement are necessary for sales development representatives (SDRs) to be successful.
What is Sales Intelligence?
Sales intelligence refers to the process of collecting and analyzing data with the goal of helping sales teams become more efficient, effective, and successful. This includes sales intelligence solutions that streamline the sales cycle and help SDRs connect the dots between data and prospects. By using these tools, SDRs can more effectively prioritize leads and make better decisions on how to approach them.
Sales intelligence examples include:
Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms
Competitor intelligence and analysis
Market and industry analyses
Sales forecasting
Lead scoring
Demographic data
What is the Definition of Sales Enablement?
Sales enablement refers to the work that goes into training and empowering sales teams so they can be more successful. This includes ensuring that sales professionals are well-trained on the company’s offerings and well-versed on competitors and the industry in general.
Sales enablement examples include:
Coaching
Product/service cheat sheets
White papers and case studies
Sales playbooks
Testimonials
Customer personas
Sales Intelligence Meets Sales Enablement in One CRE Platform
The right sales prospecting tool marries sales intelligence with sales enablement, so you spend less time sifting through huge datasets. Typically, CRE business development teams might use multiple sources of data to identify decision-makers, which may or may not be accurate or outdated. They manually cross-check the information by comparing it to social media profiles, company websites, Who's Who lists, public records, etc.
The time it takes to research and connect the dots among the various data points makes prospecting an expensive endeavor.
The solution is to have a single system that alleviates the need for manual processes and multiple data sources. Many sales intelligence software platforms and sales enablement technologies have a narrow focus, providing contact info with no industry or business insights to tie it all together. For organizations to be successful, SDRs need accurate people-level data and industry-level data to be successful, especially in the world of CRE.