New research shows massive gap between importance and effectiveness of sales enablement

0
78

Share on LinkedIn

This morning we released the results of a very interesting survey conducted with Highspot, highlighting strengths, weaknesses and opportunities related to sales enablement in many B2B organizations nationwide.

The findings are sobering, perhaps even a bit disturbing.

Despite increasing access to tools, processes and technology, B2B companies are struggling to execute effective sales support activities such as training, onboarding, content development & usage.

According to results from more than 400 B2B respondents, the largest gap between importance and effectiveness was related to measuring sales content effectiveness.  Respondents rated it an 8 out of 10 in importance, but just a 5.6 in effectiveness.

Sixty percent of respondents reported that their company’s sales enablement efforts were ineffective.

Which sales activities are most important?

Other key sales activities suffering from a lack of effectiveness despite highly-rated importance include:

  • Training/onboarding sales teams
  • Producing content for sales
  • Identifying best practices in sales
  • Making sure the sales team can find content
  • Managing sales team communications
  • Choosing technology solutions for sales

Is sales enablement a priority?

Companies that indicated the highest effectiveness scores for these and other sales activities more often than not had a formal sales enablement function and/or team in their organization.  Yet the majority of respondents (53 percent) said they did not have a sales enablement team in place, and 10 percent of respondents didn’t know.

Sixty-two percent of respondents said – despite the gaps between importance & effectiveness of sales support activities – they have no plans to implement a formal sales enablement team.

The gap between content production & measurement

Content strategy dominated the findings relative to importance – with a focus on creating, distributing and measuring sales content effectiveness.

Producing and measuring content effectiveness were consistently rated among the most important sales related activities, but access and distribution continues to be a problem.

A full 72 percent of respondents reported that email is a primary distribution channel of new sales content, and only 34 percent of respondents are even measuring sales content for effectiveness and impact.

Get a full copy of the research report here.

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Matt Heinz
Prolific author and nationally recognized, award-winning blogger, Matt Heinz is President and Founder of Heinz Marketing with 20 years of marketing, business development and sales experience from a variety of organizations and industries. He is a dynamic speaker, memorable not only for his keen insight and humor, but his actionable and motivating takeaways.Matt’s career focuses on consistently delivering measurable results with greater sales, revenue growth, product success and customer loyalty.

ADD YOUR COMMENT

Please use comments to add value to the discussion. Maximum one link to an educational blog post or article. We will NOT PUBLISH brief comments like "good post," comments that mainly promote links, or comments with links to companies, products, or services.

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here