Sales enablement budgets will increase by 50% within the next five years as a way to address shifting buyer preferences, boost seller effectiveness, and drive revenue growth, according to new research from Gartner.
“Sales enablement is the most critical function for navigating sales teams through the constant change that surrounds them – from economic headwinds to evolving seller roles,” says Shayne Jackson, senior director analyst in theGartner for Sales Leader Practice. “However, budget increases will bring heightened expectations of sales enablement results. The onus is on chief sales officers (CSOs) to prioritise demonstrating its ROI, particularly when faced with ongoing macroeconomic pressures.”
Sales enablement impacts seller performance, experience and ultimately, the commercial gains for an organisation. Yet this becomes increasingly difficult when the seller role continues to change.
Enablement leaders can support the changing role of sellers by:
- Redesigning toolsto create collaborative resources that sellers and customers can use together to improve the buying experience.
- Optimising workflowfor sellers by focusing on drag reduction to improve quota attainment, engagement and retention.
- Updating talent profilesto emphasise digital engagements, buying stakeholders, buying jobs, and situational awareness
- Downsizing training by implementing more effective and efficient learning methods aligned to seller learning habits like microlearning, nudges, and practical learning experiences
“By investing in sales enablement as a way to maximise sellers’ engagement and productivity, enablement leaders can change the learning experience of sellers, improve retention, and keep pace with the dynamic buying environment,” says Jackson.
Currently, many sales enablement functions use metrics that fail to show its true impact and are often influenced by factors beyond the function’s control such as pipeline conversion rates.
To effectively demonstrate sales enablement ROI and, in turn, protect associated budget increases, CSOs should instead focus on:
- Drawing a stronger connection between revenue goals and enablement activities by consulting with sales leaders on the seller behaviours needed to hit their most important sales goals (eg. better articulating competitive differentiation to win more deals).
- Building and implementing a variety of enablement activities, such as coaching, training, and creating tools to achieve the desired behaviours.
- Measuring those behaviours and gauge enablement impactby comparing changed sales behaviours and enablement activity to the baseline.
- Promoting a complete view of enablement’s impact by building a compelling narrative of the behaviour change driven by enablement that ties back to the sales goals.
“Sales enablement drives change in organisations,” says Jackson. “When done well, a sales enablement function is part of the team that influences sales strategy, justifying increased investment.
“Enablement will evolve and expand its scope to revenue enablement, aligning deliverables to ensure consistency among all roles that interact with customers to directly impact commercial outcomes and further drive sales productivity,” says Jackson.