Sales enabling tools have been the hottest go-to-market topic this year, and with good reason. Today's sales and marketing personnel are shifting gears and taking on a much more consultative role with the audience they're trying to win. This role shift also changes the dynamic of a company's sales and marketing team, with what was once a much more competitive-focused endeavor has now become a team sport. And to understand the running score, or in other words to prove ROI, that's where inbound sales enabling tools come into play.Related Blog: Lessons from #INBOUND15: Six Inbound Sales Tips

Start with the brightest star: the lead-to-customer conversion rate

One of the biggest goals for marketers using sales enabling tools is to help the sales team close more deals and sign more customers. The best way to measure how well that's occurring is to start with the most obvious ratio: the rate from lead to customer. While there are certainly other variables that influence this, the lead-to-customer rate will help indicate trends over time and determine what type of campaigns work, and what don't. This information will also help marketing prove ROI by giving the CMO or VP of sales the hard numbers to back it all up.

Measure and compare win/loss rates with your key competitors

Your sales team is going to need the most help when it comes the hard deals that pits your group against the leading competitor. Using sales enabling tools to lock your win vs. loss rate will better inform the sales team of what they're up against and what methods they should try. These numbers will additionally give marketing a more nuanced performance metric that will help the company determine where and how best to invest energy, time, and money.

To learn more about sales enabling tools and how they can help your marketing team organize sales campaigns and prove ROI for those campaigns, check out our cheat sheets and ebooks here!