So the first step that sales enablement professionals should take is to carry out a detailed analysis of the customer base and recognize what has shifted for them and where do they need your help. They need to identify,

• If the customers’ business priorities have changed
• If their business strategy has changes
• How are they carrying out their business activities in this virtual work environment?
• How did their engagement approach change? 
• How are they engaging with their staff and customers?
• What technology are they using to connect with each other? 
• Where do they need your help and how can you help them be better professionals?

So, it’s important that the sales enablement team develops crisp and useful content that maps to various stages of the customer’s journey. The sales and marketing employees can then use this content to effectively educate and engage the customers at various stages of the buying cycle. This way when the customers are empowered with the right information at the right time it becomes easy for them to buy from you.

Therefore, it is important for sales enablement professionals to realize this issue and educate salespeople about it and ways to work around it. They should,

• Enable the sales reps with the knowledge of customers’ pain points
• Train and encourage them to practice empathy in their selling
• Encourage them to be flexible with timings and channels of communication

Sales reps should be prepared and encouraged to always be ready to get to know their customers at a deeper level. Here are some tips that we suggest to connect with the customers on a deep level:

• Keep It Real with authentic communication.
• Stay Relevant by making your company more human, by giving it a persona, and connecting customers with other departments within the company.
• Be Responsive by answering questions quickly or providing customers with updates about current company news and events.
This helps in establishing the sales reps as the trusted advisors of the customers

We have explained two such meaningful community ideas here to help you understand this concept better:

• Online customer collaboration community: If you think about it, customers probably have the same challenges, issues, and victories — so they can relate to each other. Moreover, customers that have found a way to overcome certain issues can help other customers going through the same.

  This sharing of ideas creates a sense of community and belonging. But this doesn’t mean you create a forum or community and just let it ride on its own. Quite the opposite. It is important you are attentive to what is being said in the community and offer your assistance whenever it makes sense to do so.

  Also, use this customer community to celebrate your company (and customers’) milestones, and to share important information such as product updates, new courses or certifications available on your training program, and other relevant content.

  Fostering an active customer community is an amazing way to drive engagement, inspire loyalty, recognize the human effort behind their success and yours, and get the sense of how your customers feel, and what needs to be improved or reviewed.

• Online education community: Customer education is key to success in customer relations. Firstly, most — if not all —your customers need training for one reason or another. The main and obvious reason is product training. However, there are other types of training that will help your customers understand your product in-depth, value it more and, ultimately helps them be better at their jobs. These include skills training, certifications, more advanced ways to use your product, and more. Sometimes it’s as simple as your customers actually knowing all your product can do.

  Secondly, it is important for your customers to have a place where they can access information and materials to get their job done effectively at any time.

  An online video training academy will allow you to be available to your customers 24/7, with the information and skills they may need, consistent communication, global reach, and the ability to monitor training in an efficient way. This is perfect for both customer onboarding and continuous engagement.

  If nothing else, you should include user guide type content and a how-to section with the answers to the top questions your customers ask your customer support team (FAQs). This will help your customers feel confident that, regardless of their location, and timezone, they have a place they can refer to if they need help.

• Number of customers who are satisfied and happy with your services
• Number of customers who actively engage with your customer-facing teams and have a friendly relation with them
• Number of customers who are loyal towards your company and advocate it

A smart way to do this is to conduct customer surveys to accurately understand if your customers are getting the help that they want and need. Aside from asking about their overall satisfaction levels, make sure to ask questions regarding their engagement preferences, for example: