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Sales Enablement in 2023: the key to unlocking your sales force’s potential and driving growth
In 2023, Sales Enablement will become an essential strategic lever for organisations seeking to maximise the performance of their sales force and generate sustainable growth. By integrating the right tools, processes and training, this global approach gives sales teams the resources and information they need to approach every customer interaction with confidence and relevance. The emergence of an informed and autonomous buyer, the growing complexity of companies’ offerings and the pressure on the sales talent pool have all served to accentuate the penetration rate of Sales Enablement.
The first and perhaps most telling finding of the survey is that 42% of salespeople feel they don’t have enough information before they start a call. Sales Enablement helps to fill this gap by providing them with contextualised content, actionable information and targeted customer knowledge to help them shine.
What’s more, companies that have adopted this approach report a significant impact on their sales performance. They report a 49% success rate on planned sales, compared with 42.5% for sales organisations that do not use Sales Enablement. What’s more, 76% of them report an increase in revenue of between 6% and 20%.
On a completely different note, Sales Enablement is logically experiencing rapid growth, rising from an estimated value of 2.4 billion dollars to a forecast of 11 billion dollars by 2032. Massive investment in sales technologies is proof of this, with over a billion dollars invested in SalesTech companies in the last two years.
More demanding customers, an increasingly complex sales process
Sales Enablement is essential for boosting a company’s overall performance”. At least, that’s what 68% of the professionals questioned by Seismic and LXA think, compared with 16% who “strongly disagree” with this statement. The study also documents the lengthening and increasing complexity of the sales cycle. Nearly one in two professionals (47%) believes that it now takes more than 10 interactions with the average customer before a sale is concluded. In addition, 65% of those surveyed recognise that customer journeys have become more complex and that new sales methods are needed to prosper, or even to survive, when the competitive intensity is high.
How do you align sales and marketing?
The elusive alignment issue persists, and the deployment of a Sales Enablement solution does not magically eliminate the silos and dichotomy between sales and marketing. Quite often, Sales Enablement is placed in the hands of Sales, leaving marketing little room for manoeuvre. But alignment is a tempting proposition:
- Sales teams that work closely with marketing are achieving a 41% increase in quota attainment;
- Aligning sales and marketing can improve a company’s ability to close deals by 67%.
Between “galloping” technology and a shortage of talent
In 2023, the increasing adoption of Sales Enablement technologies becomes a key factor in enhancing sales force productivity and improving quota and revenue outcomes. However, despite 28% of organizations using 10 or more tools, they still actively seek solutions to meet their objectives.
Similarly, sales tracking and pipeline intelligence tools have seen a 54% increase in adoption over two years, now used by 43% of sales professionals. Another notable point: decision-makers view Sales Enablement tools as the most crucial technological investment to boost sales productivity (55% of senior executives), especially in a context where salespeople’s time is increasingly valuable
Furthermore, 72% of respondents believe there is a shortage of Sales Enablement professionals with the necessary skills in technology, data, sales content, and sales operations.