Sales enablement is giving businesses the competitive edge they need. As illustrated in this year’s State of Sales Enablement Report, critical performance advantages have emerged at companies investing in this high-growth category.
Fundamental sales enablement strategies and tactics are now in place among a broad cross-section of companies. From smaller sales teams just getting started to larger and more complex organizations, sales enablement has become a strategic commitment with significant upside. For example:
- Over 75% of respondents from companies using sales enablement tools indicated their sales increased over the past 12 months, with nearly 40% reporting growth of more than 25%.
- Of respondents using sales enablement tools, 23% reported conversion rate increases of at least 20%. Among respondents from large sales teams, 27% noted conversion rate increases of greater than 30%.
As promising as the data is, there’s work to be done. Also illustrated in the report:
- Increasingly complex sales processes are straining resources and extending sales cycles.
- Sales processes could be much more tightly aligned with the buyer’s journey.
- Marketing and sales remain on different pages with respect to content management and effectiveness. In addition, persistent gaps in content performance metrics, best practices, and training are leaving too many sales teams underprepared.
In addition, the report highlights how the advantages of sales enablement have split the market between those executing on a strategy and everyone else. It also showcases performance imbalances most critical to sales enablement, sales, and marketing leaders. For example:
- Respondents from businesses with a commitment to sales enablement rated their company’s performance significantly higher on every key driver of sales success.
- Among all respondents, the widest disparity between importance and performance ratings among sales enablement activities is in training and onboarding (with a 22 percent gap), followed closely by refining the sales process (21 percent) and ensuring the sales team can efficiently find the content they need (19 percent).
Download and Register
A copy of the report is now available for download at Highspot.com.
We also recommend registering for our upcoming State of Sales Enablement webinars, including:
- A Preview of the 2017 State of Sales Enablement. Date/Time: Thursday, February 16 / 10am(PT)
- State of Sales Enablement 2017: What It Means for Marketers. Date/Time: Thursday, February 23 / 10am(PT)
- State of Sales Enablement 2017: What It Means for Sales Executives. Date/Time: Thursday, March 2 / 10am(PT)
We hope you find the report a useful reference and look forward to joining you at the webinars.
