Product Enablement

Note: Some people may use this term (or just "enablement") as a catch-all description of any resource that people can use to learn about the product or send to customers — one pagers, training videos, etc.

What is Product Enablement?

Product enablement is a strategic process designed to make sure that people within an organization, particularly those in sales and customer service roles, have the knowledge, tools, and resources they need to effectively communicate the value of a product to customers. This process involves a comprehensive approach that includes training, support materials, ongoing education, and feedback mechanisms, all aimed at optimizing the effectiveness of the teams involved in promoting and selling the product.

Product Enablement is about making sure everyone in the company knows everything they need to know about the product. This includes teams like sales, marketing, and customer support. The goal is to ensure that everyone understands how the product works, why it’s useful, and how it can solve customer problems.

Key Areas of Product Enablement

1. Training and Education: Regular training sessions help teammates stay up-to-date on product features, updates, and best practices. This can include workshops, online courses, and hands-on practice through role plays.

2. Sales and Customer Team Support: Providing the sales team with materials like product demos, case studies, product videos, and slides. These tools help them explain the product’s value clearly to customers.

3. Internal Communication: Creating easy ways for teams to share information about the product. This could be through newsletters, regular updates, or internal wikis.

4. Cross-Functional Alignment: Encouraging teams like product management, sales, and marketing to work together. This helps make sure everyone is on the same page, and expectations are properly set.

To customers, product content isn't "enablement"

Enablement is typically an insider term. You would not expect to say “Let me send you enablement” when sharing product resources with a customer.

What's the difference between product enablement and sales enablement?

Product enablement is about making sure everyone in the company knows the product inside and out, while sales enablement is about giving the sales team what they need to sell the product effectively. Both are important, but they serve different purposes and involve different strategies. Product enablement is broader and involves multiple teams, while sales enablement is more focused on the sales team and their needs.

In many organizations, the way they use product enablement is basically synonymous with sales enablement. In these cases, you might see “Customer Education” describe what is effectively enablement material that’s used in customer-facing resources such as support documentation or customer training webinars.