Sales Enablement Priorities in 2023: How to Invest Your Resources Wisely

As a sales enablement professional, you know that your role is critical in driving sales success. However, with so many priorities and limited resources, it can be difficult to know where to invest your efforts.

Stephanie Benavidez, a head of sales enablement at Loadsmart, shares her thoughts on the current market climate: “In this market climate, we need to really look at what is the most important and where to invest our resources. Is it conversational intelligence? Guided learning? Content management? Gamifying sales processes? These are all very important, but which one should come first and why?”

Maria White, VP of GTM enablement at Twilio, agrees that prioritization is crucial. “The nasty habit of enablement pros is to meet with sales pros and say yes to many things, so they become very reactive. We need to prioritize and make sure we do strategic initiatives, not saying yes to every request from our stakeholders because we want them to keep happy.”

One effective way to prioritize and invest in the right areas is through regular collaboration and training. Michelle Campanella, another enablement director, emphasizes the importance of collaboration: “At Azul, we run weekly power hours where we invite people from sales and marketing to exchange best practices, strategize on emerging trends, and use that time for training.”

Customer-facing roles are tough to engage in traditional training. That’s why we’re investing in gamification tools for training because it increases interactivity, offers real-time feedback, and creates a sense of competition that motivates learners, adds Shelby Lynne Barlow from Ingram.

Maria White takes it a step further with her approach to enablement: “We built a peer-to-peer crowdsourced enablement platform (TwikTok) where sellers create ‘Tiktok-like videos’ on their best sales practices.” This approach creates a sense of community and helps to facilitate learning and knowledge-sharing across the team.

While investing in technology and platforms is important, Nicholas Gregory, the global head of enablement at Qlik, highlights the importance of investing in people, particularly sales leadership. “By a large in B2B sales organization, we just do not invest in our sales leaders’ skills. On Friday, they are top reps, and on Monday, they are a sales leader with a team and territory. Good luck! You became a sales leader for a reason; you know what to do. Sixty percent of organizations admit they leave coaching up to the individual manager and how they would like to coach.”

Maria White echoes this sentiment, adding that sales leadership training is an area where sales enablement professionals say they want to invest but often don’t because they are too focused on revenue.

In summary, investing resources in the right areas is crucial for sales enablement success. Prioritizing strategic initiatives, collaborating with sales and marketing teams, building effective enablement platforms, and investing in sales leadership training can all contribute to achieving your sales enablement goals.