There are Limits to What Sales Enablement Can Fix
Senior sales leaders and C-suite execs, this one’s for you. Pay attention. This is free consulting.
Background & Context
Enablement is Booming
In an expanding number of vertical industries (but not yet everywhere), the concept of “enabling the sales force” has exploded.
- According to Paul Krajewski’s blog, where he tracks the profession, there were 15,000 LinkedIn users with “sales enablement” in their job title, as of June 17, 2022.
- The function names are many: we have sales enablement, revenue enablement, sales effectiveness, commercial excellence, sales or revenue operations (which have other responsibilities but take on tasks that are typically now included under the enablement umbrella), buyer enablement, buying enablement, and more. Way back in 2003, I worked in a department called Performance Development and led the Sales Performance Development team. And today, even functions entitled sales training are doing some enablement work.
- Associations exist now, such as the Sales Enablement Society (with their annual conference and chapters) and ATD’s Sales Enablement Community (with a track at their annual talent development conference and the dedicated ATD SELL conference).
- Online communities have emerged, such as Sales Enablement PRO, Sales Enablement Collective, Trust Enablement, WiSE – Women in Sales Enablement, The Enablement Squad, Sales Enablement Brasil, and others, some of which now have their own conferences and events.
- Analyst coverage of the market is strong, with Gartner, Forrester, IDC, Aragon and others.
- And, there is at least recruiting firm, Enablematch, solely dedicated to serving sales enablement.
Many have worked to codify and influence what sales enablement is and does. There are maturity models, enablement models, frameworks, blueprints, and playbooks, with at least six books that I’ve read (and I published my own, The Building Blocks of Sales Enablement).
How I Define Sales Enablement
So, what is sales enablement? It’s a function or department, a practice, a profession, a title, and a growing body of knowledge about how to support sales forces (sellers and managers) to achieve the highest-possible level of sales effectiveness. The goal of enablement is to support sellers in supporting their buyers and customers, to help them facilitate buying decisions, improve the buying experience, and as a result, improve sales performance.
At a high level, the current state of sales enablement commonly includes:
- Sales messaging
- Sales content to:
- Attract, interest, and engage buyers
- Answer their questions throughout their buying process
- Sales training and supporting materials and elements
- Sales technology and tools
- Supporting effective sales coaching and sales management
My building blocks framework, with its dozen blocks, systems thinking, communication, cross-functional collaboration, and optional sales support services, is one of the more inclusive models today (which also does make it overwhelming to some). It includes but goes beyond messaging, content, training, tools, coaching, and basic sales management practices to also include buyer acumen, hiring, process, methodology, analytics, and compensation, as well as the aforementioned systems thinking, communication, cross-functional collaboration, and optional sales support services. Aligning these elements creates a well-honed machine, and is how I have helped sales leaders move the needle on the metrics that matter most, delivering outstanding sales lift and ROI.
[click the images to see larger versions in a separate tab]
That’s my approach, though, which I’ve honed over 27 years of applying extensive reading and research, trial and error, failure and adjustments, measurement and evaluation, and occasionally, swimming upstream against the current of those who didn’t quite see the whole picture. Sometimes I worked behind the scenes and still delivered good results, but there is no doubt that the times I’ve enjoyed top-down leadership support, alignment, and budgetary commitment, were the times with the greatest impact and returns.
Concerning Trends in Enablement (or That Affect It)
Yet, despite my successes, the successes of others, the progress in the profession, and the general growth and acceptance of enablement in the marketplace, I’m still seeing several trends and issues that concern me.
- The Definition of Enablement: There is still a wide variance of what different companies, leaders, and even enablement practitioners consider “sales enablement” to be. (To a degree, I understand that it may be contextual, but I don’t always see alignment even inside one company.)
- Naming Conventions/Identity Crisis: The introduction of a bevy of new function names, while “sales enablement” is still taking root. (How confusing can we make it?)
- Lack of Manager Enablement: The lack of focus on front-line sales manager enablement (It’s growing but is still not common and is so critical to reach maximum performance potential.)
- Taking on the Managers’ Role: The use of sales enablement to “cover” aspects of the front-line sales managers’ role. (Such as coaching reps directly, for example, instead of helping managers become great coaches).
- Ignoring the Rich History of Performance Improvement: A propensity for recreating the wheel, as if enablers are the first to ever tackle organization performance improvement, as opposed to building on the large body of work in Organization Development, Organization Effectiveness, Performance Consulting, Human Performance Technology, Lean and Six Sigma, Total Quality Management, Business Process Management, Change Management, and other disciplines.
- Old-School / Poor Leadership: Dysfunctional senior leadership behavior, including:
- A penchant for “Harder, Faster, Longer, Louder” as a sales leadership philosophy.
- Bright Shiny Objection Syndrome, in favor of data-driven, disciplined, focused execution.
- The growth strategy of just adding more warm bodies to increase sales production, versus improving sales force effectiveness.
- A seeming inability to 1) diagnose root causes, 2) wait for the development of solutions that will truly improve results, and 3) implement those solutions with discipline, focus, and staying power.
- And… the one I want to detail a bit more…
Expecting sales enablement to fix problems that it can’t
Unrealistic Expectations for Enablement
As the title of this post and the above statement suggest, there are limits to what sales enablement can fix. In a smaller but similar subset, the training profession has faced this issue for years.
Leaders and inexperienced practitioners often throw training as a solution at a problem it can’t solve. Training is the right solution when someone doesn’t know what, why, and how to do something, and if this nuance matters, perhaps when and where to do it. If a rep knows these things already, and just needs to improve their skill level and do it better, training more is not going to help. They need practice, feedback loops, and coaching. Or, if they know what to do but something else is holding them back, such as they think their way is better or your way won’t work, training further is a waste of time. It’s not going to resolve the root cause problem, which is a mindset or belief. Tools like this Solution Chart (adapted from Ferdinand F. Fournies) from my Sales Coaching Excellence course and Mager and Pipe’s Performance Analysis Flowchart are very helpful for diagnosing performance problems and determining an appropriate solution.
This same issue also occurs in sales enablement. As a prime example, if you follow my work, you have probably seen this chart before.
We could debate the top-to-bottom flow in this chart, and I wouldn’t even do it vigorously. Certainly, there are a few dependencies in the top-to-bottom flow, but some of the tasks and activities are interrelated and can be done concurrently or in another order, without creating an issue. It’s contextual.
The left-to-right flow matters much more. Strategy and the supporting elements must come first, then tactical planning to achieve the strategy and related objectives, then the engagement, management, and development of your talent to prepare and support them in executing the plans. As you look at the tasks in the three columns, most of the enablement-supported tasks occur in the GTM tactical planning (although not all executives or sales leaders involve enablement leaders in the planning itself – many are a recipient of the outputs and plans) and the execution.
Disclaimer: For brevity, I have only detailed the Sales portion of the Tactical GTM Planning in the chart, although with the inclusion of Marketing and Service (or Customer Success), I did intend to indicate that similar plans are required for them, as well.
Because of the integrated nature of the elements in this chart, and the dependencies in the left-to-right flow:
There are limits to what sales enablement can achieve or overcome
Think about buyer acumen, for example. So many other things cascade out from this foundation. Some examples include:
- Product-market fit
- The buying process
- Exit criteria per decision-maker per stage
- Buyer engagement content
- The sales model itself
- Sales organization structure
- Sales process alignment (to the buying process)
- Sales methodology
- Sales content and collateral
- Sales messaging
Domino Effects
Now, imagine either not developing Buyer Acumen from an outside-in, research-based perspective (having an expert third-party interview your buyers/customers and others like them in an organized, purposeful way), or just getting it flat-out wrong. Then imagine having how that might result in a poor product-market fit. Add to that a sales process that ignores the buying preferences and processes of your target personas.
From this point forward, can enablement still improve your sales force effectiveness? Yes, of course it can. In the current environment, without changing or aligning everything, there is always some level of improvement that can be made. You can improve discovery, implement and manage an effective qualification methodology, introduce better sales call planning and meeting management, teach buying process exit criteria management, or shift messaging to be more buyer centric. If you can get them to stick – learned, adopted, and mastered – these things will have a positive impact. There is some truth in the old sayings that:
- “Focused attention beats brilliance”
- “A fair strategy that’s executed well will beat a great strategy that’s bumbled.”
At the same time…
Even the best sales enablement plans won’t produce world-class results in a subpar environment
Perhaps this is also career advice for enablers (meaning: be selective about where you choose to practice your craft) as well as a caution to C-suite executives and senior sales leaders. But my intention today is focused on leaders. Organizations are ecosystems. There are performance levers at the company, department, role, and person levels.
I talk with quite a few enablement practitioners over the course of a year. I know that many out there could stand to step up their game, and that’s normal. Life is a bell curve. We can all get better. (And I see many enablers sincerely trying.) After 37 years in the sales profession and 27 leading sales performance initiatives, there are things that I still work on, to get better. And, if we’re being authentic, we could say the same about sellers, sales managers, sales leaders, executive leaders, or any other profession or position. (If you live in a glass house, you shouldn’t throw stones.)
Unfortunately, though, many enablers are hamstrung by their own leadership teams. They talk about it in quiet circles and hushed voices, sometimes over a drink or private meal for fear of damaging their career, but the conversations do happen. They seek advice about how to handle their situation, manage up, or sell their ideas to leaders who are unfamiliar with all of the (not always well-defined) moving parts of enablement or other evidenced-based performance improvement practices.
Here are just a few issues I’ve seen frequently:
- The stuff on the left side of my three-column chart in the Strategic Planning column? It’s often neglected or done poorly – and especially because it’s typically scheduled to be done in Q4 for the upcoming year, when the sales force is barreling toward a year-end close, interspersed with seasonal holidays.
- The Tactical Planning in the middle column? It’s often rushed or glossed over, sometimes completed by people with too little time for the important tasks because they are overwhelmed by the urgent ones, or who have some experience in the task, but not a deep expertise. (I’m often okay with a purposeful decision to live with something that is GEFN, or “Good Enough For Now,” if it’s not a critical piece of the puzzle or there is a plan for continuous improvement. That’s not always the case.)
- The stuff in the far-right Execution column? Budgets are lacking, enablers are expected to do things on a shoestring, pressure is high to perform without full top-down support, while “super-seller” or over-burdened front-line sales managers are “too busy” to truly engage with their teams for reinforcement and coaching. These managers take over deals or simply fire-off feedback and commands (sometimes well-intended, but that doesn’t change the low level of effectiveness).
What Misalignment Looks Like
There are just a few examples:
| Leaders expect to see results from enablement efforts.
|
They hire one person, often promoting from sales or another function (without sales enablement experience), don’t provide a reasonable budget, nor offer top-down support for initiatives. |
| Leaders expect to see onboarding improve with new hires ramping faster.
|
They won’t enforce front-line manager engagement to support new hires, nor hire coaching staff to support new hires until they’re ramped. |
| Leaders expect that business development improves, with more new opportunities opened.
|
They won’t invest in buyer persona research or building buyer acumen or encourage alignment between sales, enablement, and marketing on the needed buyer engagement content that would support new business development. |
| Leaders expect improvements in quota attainment, revenue plan attainment, and win-rates.
|
They won’t support enablement requests for manager training, coaching, or tools that will improve process and methodology adoption (which needs to be north of 75% to impact those metrics). |
| Leaders expect continuous performance improvement.
|
They won’t work the above chart to ensure alignment between strategy (especially buyer acumen, product-market fits, sales model, and org structure) and GTM tactical plans, so enablement’s efforts can be maximized (if they help the sales force execute well enough). |
TWO IMPORTANT NOTES
Culture
Culture is a management issue. I have it on the far right on the 3-column chart, because at its core, culture is “the way we do things around here,” which means it’s an outcome of how we operate or execute on a daily basis. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be purposefully decided by senior leaders, though, because the behaviors that are encouraged, fostered, tolerated, or accepted, will determine the culture. Culture change starts with a purposeful decision about what you want it to be, but then it’s created through the behaviors and actions of your employees and their leaders. This is tied closely to…
Adoption & Behavior Change
Adoption and behavior change are also management and leadership issues. Sales enablement pros can develop and lead an initiative that is designed to change behavior and produce better results. They can incorporate content and training that matters and will work, if used. They can create reinforcement plans, processes, and materials and have plans that, if well executed, will guide change. But their reach and accountability only extend so far. In most cases, they have influence, without authority. The reps, managers, and sales leaders they serve, do not report to them.
Allow me to juxtapose two data points for you, that should all make us sit up and take notice.
- In the 2019 State of Sales Training report from the Association for Talent Development (ATD), 59% of sales enablement and sales training respondents reported that the single largest barrier to training success is the inability to get sales reps to use what they were taught.
- Knowing that, now consider the CSO Insights research that showed that the greatest impacts to revenue plan attainment, quota achievement, and improved win rates occur after achieving sales process and methodology adoptions rates of 75% or more.
Stop for moment and think about how these two statements clash.
♦ 59% of sales enablement and sales training respondents reported that the single largest barrier to training success is the inability to get sales reps to use what they were taught.
♦ The greatest impacts to revenue plan attainment, quota achievement, and improved win rates occur after process and methodology adoption rates of 75% or more.
Training transfer, behavior change, and adoption do not happen without top-down support, front-line manager engagement, systems, processes, and tools that embed the behaviors into workflow, and reward, recognition, and accountability systems to support the change. (All of which is part of the The Sales Training System.)
The Sales Training System
Enablers certainly can put much of this in place and put it all in motion. At some point, however, front-line sales managers, sales leaders, and executives need to own the change and hold people accountable. And, even if all of this is well designed and managed, if the training content you’ve taught won’t produce results in the real world when used, none of the work done will matter. This is how things dovetail and why the entire Strategy > Tactics > Execution chart matters so much for sales enablement.
Now What?
C-suite executives and sales leaders, it’s time for a mirror moment and self-reflection.
- How are you doing with everything I shared here today?
- How have you done with Strategy and Tactical GTM Planning? Is your work rock solid, GEFN, or riddled with gaps?
- Have you placed your buyers and customers at the center of everything you do?
- Have you done the right things to set up your enablement function for success?
- Are you setting the stage for and following up to ensure alignment and cross-functional collaboration?
- Have you removed barriers to front-line manager engagement to support their teams and coach them to mastery?
- Have you supported your enablement team in providing the right training and support for those managers to do so?
- Have you provided the budget and FTE support to allow your enablement team to deliver significant results for you?
- Are your expectations about what sales enablement alone can do, and what requires other organizational change management support?
I hope I’ve given you things to think about in this post. More importantly, I hope you find some things to act on and change to get the most from your enablement teams, and the best results for your sales force. If you need support or want to talk, I’m easy to find. Reach out here (scroll down to the contact form), on LinkedIn, or through SPARXiQ.
Thanks for reading, be safe out there, and by all means… let’s continue to elevate our sales profession.
Mike
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About Mike
Mike Kunkle is a recognized expert on sales training, sales effectiveness, and sales enablement. He’s spent over 27 years helping companies drive dramatic revenue growth through best-in-class training strategies and proven-effective sales transformation systems – and he’s delivered impressive results for both employers and clients. Mike is the founder of Transforming Sales Results, LLC and works as the Vice President of Sales Effectiveness Services for SPARXiQ, where he designs sales training, delivers workshops, and helps clients improve sales results through a variety of sales effectiveness services. Mike collaborated with Doug Wyatt to develop SPARXiQ’s Modern Sales Foundations™ curriculum and also authored the SPARXiQ’s Sales Coaching Excellence™ course. His book, The Building Blocks of Sales Enablement, is available on Amazon.
