It’s a cliché to say, but sales enablement is a rapidly changing industry and with the recent boom in artificial intelligence this has never been more true.
Our latest edition of the Sales Enablement Landscape Report once again took a look behind the curtain and highlighted the most fascinating stats and facts about enablement.
You can get the free, 55-page report containing every data point here - but if you’re short on time we’re running through some of the most eye-catching numbers below. 👀
- Sales enablement job titles are lying to you
- The key to being valued in enablement? Reporting to C-suite
- You and your leadership team are probably not on the same page
- Enablement professionals are embracing artificial intelligence
- Enablers could improve their relationship with… everyone
Sales enablement job titles are lying to you
Does your official job title say sales enablement, yet you find yourself enabling more than just the sales team on a day-to-day basis?
You’re not alone.
While 60% of our survey respondents said that sales enablement best described their job title, only 37% believe that term best encompasses their actual day-to-day role.
Enablement’s purview has expanded massively in recent years, with teams all over beginning to enable marketing, customer success, and beyond - evolving into revenue enablement or a similar, expanded term.
Among our respondents, 50% described their role as being a revenue or GTM enablement role, while only 33% had those terms in their actual job title.
That’s a stark contrast, and begs the question: Are enablement job titles inaccurate?
Do organizations need to stop advertising for sales enablement roles, if a successful hire will in fact be a revenue or GTM enabler instead?
The key to being valued in enablement? Reporting to C-suite
It can be difficult to get a seat at the table as an enablement team. Being seen as a cost center, not having buy-in from stakeholders - these are common complaints that echo around the community.
We asked our survey respondents to rate how valued enablement was within their organization on a scale of 1-10, and organized the results based on two primary factors:
- Reporting structure
- Use of an enablement charter
The group which had the highest average answer for value placed on enablement? Those whose enablement team reported directly to a member of the C-suite, with an average score of 6.85 out of 10.
This was higher than that of our respondents who reported to their sales or RevOps departments.
The other key differentiator? The use (or lack thereof) of enablement charters.
Only 42% of respondents told us they believed charters to be effective, but respondents with a charter had a noticeably higher average answer for the value placed on enablement compared to those who didn’t (6.72 vs 6.33).
This seems to indicate that there are two ways to positively influence stakeholders’ opinion on enablement’s value:
- Have a direct line of communication to the C-suite
- Overcommunicate your purpose internally using a charter or similar tool
The overall average score came in at 6.56, but enablement is often a game of fine margins, and small changes to processes can have big effects on your perceived value.
You and your leadership team are probably not on the same page
It goes without saying that metrics are a big part of enablement. How do you measure the right things in order to prove that you positively influenced the audience’s work?
As a team, you might be keen to improve something like employee NPS - a metric which doesn’t drive revenue (at least directly), and your leadership team wants to see revenue-related metrics like win rate improve.
Among our respondents, only about half (51%) said that they were in agreement and alignment with their leadership teams on the types of metrics that enablement should be assessed on.
That means the other half feel that their leadership team is interested in the wrong metrics when it comes to analyzing enablement results.
Diving a little deeper, we can see that enablement teams are using different metrics to measure their own performance as a team, and to highlight enablement’s ROI to leadership.
52% of our respondents use content adoption metrics to measure their own performance, but only 37% think it’s worth using to highlight ROI to leadership.
Similarly, 31% use employee NPS to measure enablement’s performance, but only 23% use this metric to prove ROI higher up the chain.
We can see the same thing in reverse in some cases. 48% of survey respondents use revenue generated as a metric to measure enablement’s own performance, but 57% take this metric to leadership to reflect their team’s ROI.
There’s no easy answer, but one thing is clear - enablement is still growing and earning its seat at the table, and we’re seeing the growing pains reflected in these statistics.
Enablement professionals are embracing artificial intelligence
When AI leaped into public consciousness, it brought with it a lot of nervousness and tension, with many feeling their jobs were at risk. Now, sometime later, it appears that enablement professionals are largely past that fear.
85% of respondents are at least somewhat optimistic about AI in the sales and enablement space, up 7% from our 2023 figures.
That’s reflected in the number of respondents hesitant or unsure about AI, down from 19% in 2023 to only 13% in 2024.
Enablement is a multifaceted role, and it’s often left to enablement to pick up the many time-consuming tasks around the business. It’s easy to see why the potential to speed up repetitive tasks using AI and free up more time to make an impact on the sales team has enablers optimistic for the future of this technology.
Enablers could improve their relationship with… everyone
Enablement is a deeply cross-collaborative function, often being a key driver in breaking down silos and reaching across departmental divides.
With that said, enablement also relies on buy-in and alignment from a host of different stakeholders, and sometimes that necessary buy-in never comes.
We asked our respondents which department they most wished they had a better relationship with, and there was far from a consensus!
21% wished to have a better relationship with sales management, with 5% more saying they most wanted to improve their dynamic with the sales teams.
A further 14% chose product, followed by C-suite and marketing at 13% each, and product marketing at 10%.
In short? It’s not one department that enablers struggle to reach across the divide to. It’s a wide variety, differing between organizations based on the unique dynamics in place.
And while a relationship that could be improved isn’t always enablement’s fault, it’s clear that teams could make big strides in efficiency if these gaps could be bridged.
Get even more enablement stats and facts
Hopefully, you found this data as fascinating and insightful as we did!
SEC’s Sales Enablement Landscape Report 2024 is packed with dozens more statistics like these, allowing you to take a peek behind the curtain of your peers’ organizations and situations and weigh up how your team compares to theirs. 👇
Daniel O’Dowd
Sales enablement insider
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