What are your best tips for ensuring reps and managers utilize the tools and resources that sales enablement provides?
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First, learn to embrace, and whenever possible take full advantage of, the fact that engagement of the sales team (leaders and reps) has been, and always will be, a moving target so focus more on being on the board as compared to hitting a bullseye.
Consider using proficiency assessments to discover the strengths (knowledge, skills, and abilities) of the collective team, and everyone within it. Doing so could identify potential early adopters and executive champions for said enablement tools. The critical step often missed by commercial operations teams is to give the sales team a seat at the table BEFORE the decision is made.
Lastly, design a marketing plan targeting the reps and leaders -use testimonials of early adopters and executive champions- in the same way you launch new products to your target market. The sales team, like customers, need to be sold on the value they will gain in order to motivate them to buy in.
From my perspective and experience, what works best for them to use the tools is to show the "with/without".
They will only use the tools if they see a real value (gain or savings) with them.
Example: using a platform to enrich CRM and record/transcribe meetings, reps will have less work with manual inputs (and are less susceptible to errors), they will be able to focus on tasks with greater added value (contacts with potential customers) and managers will be able to In minutes, know the content of hundreds of meetings, their patterns and their results.
In short, they need to understand that it will make their lives easier.
The most important tip that I can offer is constant and open communication with your team. Also, vetting and getting feedback on the tools and resources that you are providing. Talk to peers that use similar tools and discuss best practices.
Also, review reports from tools such as CRM's and share the reports with your team. This will help keep them motivated to utilize the tools and resources to their best ability.
Get involvement/feedback early and often prior to roll-out, vet tools/resources by doing small beta tests with end-users, share use cases that are practical and relatable, overshare success stories, create adoption plans and set trackable goals, and finally make sure the tools/resources can be seamlessly integrated into workflows.
One thing that has consistently worked well is getting our top reps to record quick videos of them using the tools, showing their best practices and commenting on how they're getting maximum value on the tools. When the opportunity presents we incorporate live demonstrations at in-person sales meetings presented as a tag team between sales enablement and these super users.