Designing Sales Tools with the End User in Mind

Often there is a gap between flashy sales tools and their usability in the field by the sales reps who use them. Setting out with a prioritization of user experience in sales enablement tools leads to better adoption, performance and customer outcomes.

At Luonto Furniture, our product catalog is the first tool sales reps and customers alike use to identify critical product information to drive product confidence, and therefore strong sales. Earlier, I thought the catalog should be sexy and streamlined, but what I thought was clean and neat, under delivered on the very resources the target user sought for in the booklet. This was uncovered not in catalog release trainings, but after months of the users facing frustration, trying to locate product data to support sales in their retail store.

Understanding the Real End User

Undoubtedly the most crucial step in drafting content of any kind; define the end-user. Sales Enablement is no exception. Who is the tool intended for? A sales person? Retail partner? Or the consumer even if indirectly?

No matter the content, identifying the end user is a prerequisite for any solution to manifest. A catalog, sales sheet, product information card, retailer locator, landing page, video content, social media posts, webinar, etc. All forms of content are useless without a clearly defined target user.

Merging UX Principles into Enablement Tools

User Experience (UX) is not merely for product interfaces and websites–it’s critical for any content production. Even a 48 character SMS message, UX is crucial. Every output from a business is the product of design choices; clarity, speed, usability.

When I design tools I analyze the current offerings, collect feedback about any current issues, shortcomings, and opportunities. Then I draft revisions or altogether new concepts to deliver optimized solutions to the target user. Before sending the final output, multiple stakeholders are involved in the proofreading process, as many rounds as it take to iterate the design to reach an approval. I have learned that more perspectives create an optimal output.