Enterprise Learning: What it is and Why it Should Matter to You

Elisha Zhang on July 9, 2024

“Knowledge is power.” It may be cliche, but it’s true.

Sure, every organization aims to hire the most qualified candidates. However, enterprise learning ensures employees can easily access learning and development opportunities to grow their skills and knowledge.

Organizations that embrace it reap some significant benefits.

Employees are better equipped to do their jobs and grow their skills by implementing enterprise learning. This increases employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention – not to mention the organization’s overall performance.

But what exactly is it?

In this post, we’ll explore the basics of enterprise learning to help you understand:

What it and why it’s important
Some of the top benefits
Some of the key challenges
The importance of choosing the right solution

What is enterprise learning?

You’re certainly not alone if you’re unsure what enterprise learning is. Let’s examine it and why it matters.

Enterprise learning, defined

Traditional professional learning often involves training built around a specific topic. For example, reps may attend a live rep sales training to get up to speed on a new product offering. Or, employees may be required to attend cybersecurity training within a certain window of time.

It goes beyond traditional training.

Enterprise learning is a set of practices and principles focused on providing employees with easy access to ongoing learning and development opportunities – whenever and wherever they need them. With this type of learning, employees are empowered to sharpen their existing skills and develop new ones that will help take their careers to the next level.

Enterprise learning isn’t a one-time training or event. Instead, it involves providing continuous opportunities across the organizations. In addition, it’s on-demand. Employees can access the resources they need whenever and wherever they need them.

Traditional training may be one component of an enterprise learning program. However, it’s is a holistic practice that may include many other components, like:

Live and on-demand webinars
Bite-sized learning
Text-based resources
Practice opportunities, like assessments and role-plays
Sales coaching
Mentorship
Knowledge sharing
Social learning opportunities
Professional certifications

Why is enterprise learning important?

So, why is it management so important?

Traditional training has a role to play. But on its own, it’s not enough to bolster knowledge and skills. After all, according to Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve, employees forget 50% of all new information within a day and 90% within a week.

Employees forget

of all new info in a day

0 %

of all new info in a week

0 %

Organizations must build a culture of ongoing learning if they expect to grow and develop their employees effectively – and reap the benefits of doing so. That’s where enterprise learning comes in.

We’ll take a closer look at some of the key benefits next.

6 key benefits of enterprise learning

Increasingly, organizations are shifting from traditional training to an enterprise learning approach. This makes sense, as both organizations and employees benefit significantly.

While this learning offers numerous benefits, let’s examine six that top the list.

On-demand learning opportunities

In the past, employee training was offered only at a specific time. For example, a sales rep might be required to attend a half-day training session on a new sales methodology.

Of course, real-time training still has a role. However, with enterprise learning, employees can also access learning opportunities on demand.

For example, they can watch an on-demand webinar during their lunch break or squeeze in a bite-sized learning session in the 15 minutes between two meetings.

In other words, employees can seek out upskilling opportunities whenever it work for their schedule. And if it works for their schedule, employees are more likely to do it.

A single source of truth for everything related to learning

Employees might want learning opportunities. But they’re not exactly sure where to find them. That means they waste time hunting for the right materials, which takes away time they could learn.

Organizations that are most successful provide their employees with a single source of truth for everything related to learning. Employees can find everything – from written content to video training to opportunities for social learning – all in one location.

The right management system makes learning materials well-organized and easy to search. Furthermore, employees can always be sure they’re accessing the most up-to-date versions of materials.

That way, employees can spend less time hunting for learning materials and more time learning and bolstering skills.

Improved job and organizational performance

Improved job performance is perhaps one of the most obvious benefits of an enterprise learning approach.

When employees have opportunities to learn and develop new skills, they’re better equipped to do their jobs well. When all employees have these opportunities, job performance across the entire organization will be boosted.

Higher employee satisfaction and retention

Employees who feel supported with ongoing learning opportunities are more satisfied in their roles. Research tells us 68% of employees feel learning opportunities are key to job satisfaction.

of employees say learning opps are key to job satisfaction

0 %

Satisfied employees are more likely to stick around long-term. That means you won’t have to deal with the inconvenience and costs of backfilling vacant roles – or the stress of figuring out how to accomplish the same amount of work with a smaller headcount.

A competitive edge

In today’s world, change is inevitable. Your employees may be equipped to tackle their jobs today. However, an enterprise learning approach provides employees with ongoing learning opportunities that’ll help them adapt to continuous change – and excel in their roles. Your organization’s ability to adapt to change will give you a competitive edge.

Powerful insights to optimize learning initiatives

In the past, the HR, training, or enterprise sales enablement team would develop training, distribute it widely, and hope for the best. Though teams would spend plenty of time developing programs, they had little insight into whether their efforts had an impact.

A strong enterprise learning strategy – coupled with the right enterprise software – enables you to measure the impact of your initiatives. For starters, you can see which resources are used. For example, you can see what portion of sellers are accessing specific sales onboarding modules.

You can also understand how the consumption of different learning materials impacts outcomes. For example, you can see whether sellers who complete certain sales training are more likely to reach quota. Or, you can see if other materials are correlated with promotions.

These powerful insights can optimize existing enterprise learning resources, create new ones, and eliminate those that aren’t being used or have the intended impact.

Top challenges of enterprise learning

Organizations that adopt an enterprise learning mindset experience several key benefits. However, it also presents some unique challenges.

Let’s examine some of the top challenges.

#1 Creating engaging content

Different employees have different learning styles. While some prefer video, others are better able to retain written materials. Enterprise learning teams must be able to provide a large volume of assets that’ll resonate with different employees.

Of course, creating these materials takes time. Yet, time is a limited resource.

The good news is that the right tools can help teams develop materials more quickly and easily. One way these tools expedite learning creation is by offering templates as a starting point.

A recent analysis of Mindtickle users found that, on average, it takes between three and four weeks to launch a new enterprise sales enablement program from scratch. However, a program template can dramatically shorten this time to seven days.

Time to launch a program

without a template

0 days

with a template

0 days

Then, you can leverage analytics in your enterprise earning platform to determine which types of resources employees use and whether they impact outcomes. You can use this intel to invest in the resources being used and make an impact.

#2 Delivering personalized learning at scale

Learning isn’t one-size-fits-all. Instead, it’s important to offer personalized learning and development opportunities that meet the needs and interests of each employee.

This can be hard to do – especially at large organizations with many different departments.

A platform makes it easier to understand each employee’s unique strengths and weaknesses – and then deliver learning suggestions that meet their needs.

#3 Measuring enterprise learning impact

Many organizations measure the completion of initiatives. For example, they can see what percentage of sales reps completed a specific enterprise sales enablement program.

However, it’s critical also to measure the impact of your initiative. In other words, how is your practice improving outcomes?

This can be tough to understand – especially if you’re using a traditional learning management system (LMS).

However, you can measure consumption and impact with an enterprise learning or revenue enablement platform.

For example, you can see that a specific piece of content is used often – and it’s tied to many closed won deals. You can use these insights to optimize the content further.

#4 Choosing the right enterprise learning technology

Technology is a key component of any strategy. But there are many options, from traditional enterprise LMSs to enterprise revenue enablement platforms and everything in between.

Determining which option is the right fit for your organization’s needs can be challenging.

There’s no right answer. It’s important to consider your needs and find the platform that addresses them.

#5 Increasing adoption

Your initiative won’t impact if no one engages with the resources you offer. But getting employees to take advantage of learning materials can be hard when they already have busy schedules.

Building a learning culture within your organization is the key to combating this challenge. Help employees understand that enterprise learning is beneficial to them. Set aside a day every month when your employees are encouraged to engage with different learning initiatives. Also, provide recognition for those who are leveraging your materials.

Another key way to increase adoption is to rethink the format of your learning materials. Traditional employee training is often dull and lengthy, and employees must set aside a significant chunk of time to complete it.

Instead, consider creating bite-sized learning that employees can engage with when they have a few moments to spare. Be sure to communicate that learning doesn’t have to be a huge investment in time!

Transform enterprise learning with Mindtickle

The right enterprise learning software is foundational to the success of your strategy. But, as mentioned earlier, knowing which solution is the best for your needs can be challenging.

Today, some organizations leverage a traditional learning management system (LMS) to power their enterprise learning programs. However, many enterprise LMSs simply aren’t built for the needs of today’s learners.

Increasingly, organizations are searching for a solution that enables them to develop and deliver personalized learning programs for each employee. Many are opting for an integrated revenue enablement platform like Mindtickle.

With Mindtickle, teams can develop and deliver training and other learning opportunities quickly and easily. That means employees can easily find everything related to enterprise learning – including rep training, content, and coaching – whenever and wherever they need it.

Finally, Mindtickle offers robust data and analytics to help you understand who is engaging with what resources and how that engagement is (or isn’t) impacting performance and outcomes. Then, you can use these insights to optimize your strategy.

Enterprise Learning with Mindtickle

Ready to see firsthand how Mindtickle can help you take your enterprise learning initiative to the next level?

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What is Sales Training?

Helen Waite on July 9, 2024

Hiring strong sales reps with the right mix of skills and experience is important. But sales training is key to ensuring all sales reps (even your top performers) are properly equipped to close more deals, faster.

In fact, sales training is an essential component of any winning sales enablement strategy. When it’s done well, training can have a big impact on sales outcomes.

But what exactly is it?

In this guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know about sales training, including:

What it is and why it matters
How it can benefit your revenue organization
How you can build and deliver the best program
Key pitfalls to avoid when building your program

Sales training: What it is and why it matters

First things first, what exactly is sales training?

Sales training ensures your sellers have the knowledge, skills, and competencies they need to be ready for every step of the sales journey – from prospecting to closing the deal.

Going beyond sales onboarding

At most organizations, the training journey starts with onboarding. Sales onboarding is an important way to get new reps up to speed with your organization, products, and goals – as well as their role in achieving those goals. It makes sense why organizations invest in sales onboarding. When it’s effective, onboarding can greatly impact key business outcomes.

But all too often, it ends at onboarding. Per an analysis of Mindtickle users, onboarding took 21-22 days in 2023, compared to 58 days the year prior.

Days it took to onboard sellers

in 2022

in 2023

However, sales training shouldn’t stop at onboarding. Why? There are a few important reasons.

For starters, sellers are thrown a lot of information during sales onboarding. Even if you’ve built a great, engaging sales onboarding program, new reps are going to forget some of what they’ve learned. In fact, they’re going to forget most of it. Per Gartner, sellers forget 70% of the information they learn within just one week of training. Ongoing training (what we at Mindtickle refer to as “everboarding”) ensures learning sticks – and that sales reps are actually applying what they’ve learned to drive sales.

In addition, it’s important to remember that change is the only constant – both in life and in sales. Products, markets, competitors, and priorities are constantly changing. All reps – from the newest to the most seasoned – need ongoing training to ensure they’re up to speed on these changes and ready for whatever comes at them in the field.

The key benefits of sales training

There are many benefits of sales training. Here are two of the most important.

1. It positively impacts sales growth

Today, many sales leaders buy into the 80/20 rule, which is the outdated notion that 80% of sales will be driven by 20% of your reps. That means the vast majority of your reps will miss their sales quotas quarter after quarter.

But there’s a way to make sure all your sellers are meeting and beating their quotas.

With a strong program, you can create an entire team of sellers that are equipped to close deals and meet quota. Of course, when more sellers are closing more deals, that’s going to lead to more revenue growth.

2. It improves seller engagement and retention

When a great rep decides to leave, it’s costly to your company. For starters, you’re losing revenue the rep would have generated. Plus, you have to factor in the costs of recruiting, hiring, and training a new rep to replace them. It adds up! In fact, according to research from DePaul University, it costs nearly $115,000 to replace a sales rep.

Cost of replacing a sales rep

$ 0

Either way, the message is clear: when you find great reps, it’s important to do what you can to retain them.

Research tells us you can lose upwards of 60% of your entire workforce within four years if your sales reps don’t feel like they’re learning and growing at your organization. Providing ongoing sales training is a great way to engage your sales reps and give them opportunities to learn and grow. This will boost job satisfaction, which will increase retention. Higher retention will save you the headache and costs of filling vacant roles – or the pressure of meeting your sales goals with a leaner team.

Six tips for more effective sales training

The potential benefits are clear. However, claiming to deliver training isn’t enough to see the benefits. In fact, according to ES Research, between 85% and 90% of training has no lasting impact.

What is it that sets great training apart from the rest?

Here are six tips to improve the effectiveness of your program.

Tip #1: Don’t stop at onboarding

We’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: training should extend beyond sales onboarding.

Sellers forget the vast majority of what they learned during onboarding. What’s more, products, markets, and selling landscapes are constantly changing and evolving.

Ongoing training is a key component to ensuring all of your reps are ready to sell. Training should be delivered regularly for maximum impact. According to a Heinz Marketing and Mindtickle report, among respondents who hit 75% or more of their quota, 90% participate in monthly training.

Tip #2: Define excellence

Sales training aims to create more, great sellers. But first, you have to determine what a great seller looks like.

Chances are, you have an ideal customer profile (ICP), which outlines what a good fit customer looks like for your business. But it’s just as important to define your ideal rep profile (IRP), which is the skills and competencies a seller needs to succeed in your organization.

Then, you can plan courses and programs that map to each key area. That way, you can be sure your training is helping sellers boost the skills and competencies they need.

Tip #3: Make it personal

Imagine you have two sellers in the same room. One is a veteran seller, and has been with your company for a few years. The other is a recent college grad with big potential – but only a year of sales experience. Does delivering the same training to those two sales reps make sense?

Absolutely not. The newer seller likely needs more training on being a great seller. But if you deliver that same training to the veteran seller, they’ll get bored and disengaged.

Of course, there will be certain training all sellers need to complete. But as a general rule, it shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. Instead, sales leaders must work to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each seller. The best way to do this is to measure each rep against your ideal rep profile. By doing so, you’ll see where they’re shining and where there are gaps. Then, personalized training can be delivered to each rep to close gaps – and improve sales performance.

Tip #4: Reinforce training

It’s disappointing, but it’s true: sellers will quickly forget what they learned in training. If you want that learning to stick (who doesn’t?), you’ve got to reinforce it.

Be sure to incorporate reinforcement exercises into your strategy. For example, after a training session, assign your sellers a quiz. If they earn a low score, assign them bite-sized video modules reinforcing the concepts presented during the training session.

It’s a best practice to house all materials within a single sales training platform. That way, reps have a one-stop-shop for everything they need.

Tip #5: Mix up the format

The phrase “sales training” might conjure images of an instructor standing at the front of a room filled with sales reps. Sure, real-time training sessions – in-person or via video – are an important part of it. However, it also makes sense to incorporate other types of training.

For example, you might assign bite–sized training modules for sales reps to complete on their own time. You might also assign a quiz to test knowledge. Another idea is to assign role-plays to allow reps to practice their new skills and get feedback from either their manager or peers (or both).

Again, it’s important to ensure all training material is housed within a single platform so reps can easily find what they need.

Tip #6: Measure the impact

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. And without regular measurement, it’s impossible to determine what (if any) impact your training has on reps’ performance.

Many organizations measure completion rates. While this is important, it doesn’t tell the whole story. A seller may fly through their assigned training but fail to perform when interacting with buyers.

As such, it’s key to measure how your training impacts key business outcomes, such as quota attainment and win rates. In addition, be sure to continuously measure your reps against your ideal rep profile. That way, you can understand how training is positively impacting skills and in-field behaviors.

Sales training vs. sales coaching: What is the difference?

Training and coaching are key components of a sales enablement strategy. Often, these phrases are used interchangeably. Training and coaching are two pieces of the same puzzle, but they’re not the same.

At each organization, there are a certain set of skills and competencies a seller needs to be successful throughout the sales cycle. Training is focused on delivering knowledge to help reps learn those skills and competencies. Classes and modules can be focused on any number of things, including (but not limited to):

Product knowledge
Sales methodology
Ideal customer profiles
Pitch delivery
Objection handling
Use of tools, including CRM

Sales coaching is aimed at improving sales performance. However, the delivery methods and tactics are different. The goal of sales coaching is to improve sales performance through strategies including:

Relationship-building
Knowing and analyzing what’s happening in the field
Delivering individualized plans to improve deal outcomes and build key skills for each sales rep

When it’s done well, sales coaching can extend the impact of training and have a big impact on sales results. In fact, effective sales coaching can boost win rates by as much as 29%.

What exactly does sales coaching look like?

The most effective managers work closely with each sales rep to understand their unique strengths and weaknesses. In addition, they leverage meeting intelligence to see firsthand how reps are performing in the field. Armed with these insights, sales managers can deliver sales coaching that helps reps capitalize on strengths and improve weaker skills and competencies.

Often, sales coaching is limited to deal coaching. In other words, a rep and manager regularly review in-flight deals and determine how to move them forward. However, it’s also important to provide skills coaching. Skill coaching drives long-term behavior change and helps reps hone the skills they need to close deals.

Training and coaching shouldn’t be viewed as an either/or choice. Instead, both are key to ensuring reps are ready to move deals through the funnel and eventually close them.

Sales training mistakes to avoid

Many organizations invest time and resources into developing sales training programs. However, the harsh reality is that these programs often fail.

If you’re looking to increase the effectiveness of training at your organization, be sure to avoid these four common sales training mistakes.

Mistake #1: Taking a “one and done” approach

It’s not realistic to deliver training one time and expect the entire team to retain what they learned and apply it in the field. Instead, it’s important to deliver training on an ongoing basis and provide reinforcement exercises and practice opportunities.

Average companies

Winning companies

role-plays a year

Role-plays are one popular way to allow sales reps to practice their new skills, and they’re correlated with sales success. A recent analysis found that the average company has sellers complete 13 role-plays in a year. However, top companies have sellers do an average of 80 role-plays per year.

Mistake #2: Requiring every seller to complete every training

It’s not effective to create a generic sales training that requires every member of the revenue team to complete. If a sales training is focused on a skill a seller has already mastered, they’ll be disengaged. Plus, they’ll be wasting time that could be better spent engaging with buyers and closing deals.

Instead, measure each sellers’ mastery of the skills and behaviors that matter most. Then, assign relevant training that helps each seller strengthen their weaker skills.

Mistake #3: Only measuring success with completion metrics

Ongoing measurement is a key component of any sales training program. However, many organizations focus on completion metrics. In other words, they measure what percentage of sales reps complete a specific training.

Revenue organizations must go beyond completion metrics to understand the actual impact. Be sure to track sales training completion and how it is (or isn’t) impacting sales productivity.

Mistake #4: Depending on an outdated LMS to power your sales training program

A learning management system (LMS) can be a great solution for more general training, such as that that HR and IT teams deliver. However, an LMS isn’t built for the unique needs of the sales team.

A better approach is to invest in an integrated revenue enablement solution that incorporates all the key elements of revenue enablement, including sales training, sales coaching, sales content, and conversation intelligence. That way, sellers can access everything they need in one location. This is great news, as Salesforce research found that 66% of sales reps are overwhelmed with the number of tools they’re expected to use.

Salesforce research found that

of reps are overwhelmed with sales tools

0 %

Furthermore, an integrated revenue enablement platform allows enablement teams to create and deploy personalized programs that meet the needs of every seller – at scale. Enablement teams can also holistically measure the impact of all their initiatives on sales productivity and performance.

Supercharge your sales training program with Mindtickle’s integrated revenue enablement platform

Hiring experienced sellers is one piece of the puzzle. But even the most seasoned sales reps need ongoing training to ensure they’re ready to conquer any deal.

Generic sales training simply won’t do. Instead, revenue enablement teams must work to define what excellence looks like – and then deliver personalized sales training and sales enablement to ensure every seller has what it takes to succeed.

Today, some revenue organizations continue to leverage a learning management system (LMS) to deliver sales training. However, a growing portion are trading in their LMS for an integrated revenue enablement platform.

With an integrated revenue enablement platform like Mindtickle, revenue organizations can power their entire revenue enablement program – including sales training – all from one central location. That means revenue enablement leaders can build, deliver, and measure the impact of sales training and sales enablement initiatives – all in one platform. Furthermore, sellers can easily access the sales training, coaching, content, conversation insights, and other information and resources they need to close more deals, faster.

Sales training in Mindtickle

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This post was originally published in November 2022 and updated in July 2024.

What is Sales Enablement?

Kevin Atkinson on July 9, 2024

Sales enablement is the process of providing the sales organization with the information, content, and tools that help sellers sell more effectively. The foundation of sales enablement is to provide sellers with what they need to successfully engage the buyer throughout the buying process.

The concept of sales enablement originated in 2013 and caught on quickly when companies realized the impact it can have on business outcomes. Consider the following from research from Heinz Marketing and Mindtickle:

78%

of companies with effective sales training programs meet 100% of their quotas

Sales enablement is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. This guide will explore everything you need to know about sales enablement, including:

The benefits of sales enablement
How to measure sales enablement
How sales enablement drives revenue
Who owns sales enablement
How are sales enablement and revenue enablement related?
What’s the difference between sales enablement and sales productivity?

The benefits of sales enablement

Sales and marketing have traditionally been siloed, with little interaction or collaboration between the two departments. Considering that companies are better at closing deals when their sales and marketing departments are aligned, any chasm between them poses a significant problem.

Although organizations have known about this siloing for many years, bridging the gap has always been easier said than done. Until now.

Sales enablement is the solution for marketing-sales alignment. It paves the way to wider communication channels and frequent collaboration. Adopting an advanced data-driven sales enablement platform and following some best practices makes alignment possible at your organization.

Here are some of the most prominent benefits of sales enablement.

Improved communication and teamwork

Many organizations face challenges communicating between sales and marketing teams. Sales enablement helps address this challenge by providing a better system for managing sales content. This content management system (CMS) is a centralized database that houses sales resources for all departments and promotes marketing and sales collaboration while creating sales content.

Further, when both departments share the same sales enablement tools, CRM data, and business processes, marketing and sales teams can operate with combined insights into the target market and the sales funnel. The two teams collaborate to better define buyer personas and improve lead-scoring processes.

Optimized content

With open collaboration, content can be fine-tuned using the sales team’s knowledge of buyers and marketing’s knowledge of leads. This highly optimized content moves prospects through the buyer journey faster.

Marketing and sales can also work together to create customizable content that reps can tailor to match the needs of any prospect. The result is highly relevant content created for any circumstance “on the fly.”

Also, with both departments sharing the same content management system, marketing can purge outdated versions of a piece of content to make sure a sales rep doesn’t accidentally present it to a buyer. Reps and marketers can also make small adjustments to keep the content up to date for continued use.

Marketing and sales transparency

Sales enablement provides visibility into the effectiveness of sales and marketing processes. Transparency ensures that both marketing and sales can see which tactics and content are working and which ones aren’t. Both departments can, therefore, pinpoint inefficiencies and correct them quickly.

For example, with the right sales enablement technology, marketing and sales can access a dashboard that reveals how buyers engage with sales materials. Both departments can see which materials are being ignored and which content brings prospects closer to buying decisions.

Increased revenue

Bottom-line performance is obviously the most important benefit of sales enablement. With optimized and customizable content, better customer insight, and full visibility into sales processes, reps close more deals and generate more revenue.

How sales enablement technology transforms the selling process

Sales enablement technology does more than create marketing-sales alignment and boost content effectiveness. It enhances the entire sales process by improving efficiency, providing detailed analytics on sales activities, and improving training and development processes.

Enhanced onboarding

Efficient, simplified onboarding leads to faster quota attainment. The most advanced sales enablement technology helps sales trainers identify their reps’ knowledge gaps and adjust training accordingly. Trainers can automatically assign learning paths based on their sales reps’ roles and monitor their progress with milestones and certifications.

Continuous growth and skill development

Training is only effective when ongoing—in fact, 80% of what is learned in sales training is forgotten within 3 months. You can develop a more structured and interactive approach to ongoing training with the right sales enablement tool. Sales enablement tools provide virtual role-playing exercises, simulated selling scenarios, and personalized feedback for growth and improvement to help sales reps continually sharpen their skills.

Micro-learning capabilities: Micro-learning presents sales training information in short, engaging training modules to promote knowledge retention. Highly specific learning objectives, interactive gamification elements, and spaced reinforcements help reps fill their knowledge gaps right from their computers or smartphones.
Coaching: With sales enablement technology, coaching can be designed around the unique needs of each sales rep. Sales coaches can create personalized learning paths based on competency maps. Coaches can also assign the exact micro-learning modules a rep needs to reinforce specific concepts.
Analytics: Sales enablement gives you visibility into your reps’ understanding of their training. Analytics dashboards help sales coaches track, measure, and improve their teams’ capabilities.

Getting started with sales enablement

Wondering where to begin your sales enablement journey?

Many companies worldwide turn to Mindtickle for marketing-sales alignment and a more competitive salesforce. With innovative training capabilities, advanced micro-learning, analytics, and the ability to integrate a wide range of sales tools, Mindtickle offers a 360-degree solution for sales organizations.

Who is responsible for sales enablement

Ownership of sales enablement varies by organization. According to CSO Insights, just under half (49.2%) of sales enablement teams report to sales leadership, and just over one in five (22.6%) report to another C-level function, such as the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, or Chief Growth Officer, among others.

According to CSO Insights,

of enablement reports to sales

0 %

of enablement reports to the C-Suite

0 %

The remaining sales enablement teams report to sales operations, marketing, customer, experience, or another team.

Sometimes, sales enablement teams work in silos without additional engagement or external guidance. However, the most successful programs are those that include cross-functional collaboration across key teams including:

Sales leadership
Sales or revenue operations
Marketing
Dedicated sales enablement team
Customer success

Cross-functional collaboration ensures each area of the organization is in agreement and working toward the same goals.

How to measure sales enablement

Continuous measurement is essential to determining the success of sales enablement – and pinpointing opportunities for improvement. Yet, per CSO Insights, less than a quarter of organizations consistently measure the impact of their sales enablement efforts with productivity metrics, milestones, or leading and lagging indicators.

Of course, measuring revenue and number of units sold is important. However, measuring sales enablement also involves correlating sales activities with tangible business outcomes to determine what works and what doesn’t.

There are many many metrics to track to gauge the impact of sales enablement initiatives. Here are 13 of the most common.

Ways to measure	What to measure
Lead-to-opportunity conversion rate	% of leads that are converted to opportunities
Win rate	% of opportunities that end up as signed deals
Competitive win rate	measures the rate of closed deals where prospects are also considering a competitor
Average deal size	average amount a customer spends on your product or service
Quota attainment	measure of how your reps are meeting their quotas
Adherence to sales process	tracks how well your reps follow established sales processes
Ramp-up time	measure of how quickly it takes a new rep to hit full productivity
Time-to-quota	amount of time it takes new reps to meet their quota for the first time
Seller turnover rate	measures how often reps voluntarily leave the company
Rep NPS	measures rep satisfaction with your company
Knowledge retention	measures post-training assessments, role-plays, and listening to conversations between reps and customers
Content use and adoption	tracks how both sellers and buyers use content
Calls to action	tracks how often a prospect or customer takes action on content

1. Lead-to-opportunity conversion rate

As the name suggests, this metric tracks the percentage of leads that are converted to opportunities. This metric is calculated by dividing the number of opportunities by the total number of leads.

A high lead-to-opportunity conversion rate indicates sellers have the skills and knowledge to convince buyers to learn more and consider purchasing.

2. Win rate

The win rate is the percentage of opportunities that end up as signed deals. Win rate is calculated by dividing the number of closed won deals by the total number of opportunities.

A high win rate indicates sellers have what it takes to carry opportunities across the finish line.

3. Competitive win rate

Competitive win rate specifically measures the rate of closed deals where prospects are also considering one of your competitors. The competitive win rate is calculated by dividing the total number of wins over a competitor by the total number of opportunities who considered a competitor.

Competitive win rate can be more challenging to track than win rate. That’s because accurate calculation depends on whether or not prospects inform you that they’re considering a competitor.

4. Average deal size

This metric is the average amount a customer spends on your product or service. It’s calculated by dividing the total amount of money from all customer orders in a specific time frame by the number of deals in that same time frame.

5. Quota attainment

Quota attainment is a measure of how your sales reps are (or aren’t) achieving their goals during each sales cycle. To calculate the quota for a seller, divide their sales during a set time period by their quota for the same period.

If a seller consistently misses quota, additional training and coaching may be available.

6. Adherence to sales process

This metric tracks how well your sales reps follow your established sales process. Establishing a standard way for sellers to follow and document the sales process is important for tracking this metric.

If a seller isn’t adhering to the sales process and isn’t meeting quota, additional training or coaching may be needed.

7. Ramp-up time

Ramp-up time, also called time to productivity, measures how quickly it takes a new sales rep to reach full productivity. To calculate ramp-up time, divide the total amount of time to productivity for all reps who ramped up in a given quarter by the number of reps.

It’s important to determine how your organization defines productivity. For example, an organization might define it as reaching a certain percentage of quota or making a certain number of daily calls.

8. Time to quota

This is how long it takes new reps to meet their quota for the first time. It’s measured by adding the number of sales cycles it takes each new rep to meet their quota and dividing that sum by the number of reps being measured.

9. Seller turnover rate

Turnover rate measures how often sales reps voluntarily leave the company. It’s calculated by dividing the number of reps voluntarily leaving the company within a certain period by the total number of reps.

A high rep turnover rate suggests a problem. One way to determine the cause is to ask reps for feedback about the effectiveness of the sales enablement program.

10. Rep net promoter score

This measures your reps’ satisfaction with your company. Employees are typically asked to complete a survey with questions about their experience. A high net promoter score indicates an employee is satisfied and likely to stay with the company. A low net promoter score indicates the employee is dissatisfied and unlikely to recommend the company to others.

You can calculate NPS by subtracting the number of detractors from the number of promoters, dividing it by the total number of respondents, and multiplying it by 100.

11. Knowledge retention

Reps must learn certain things to be successful. But more importantly, they must retain this knowledge to apply it in the field. Organizations can measure knowledge retention in a number of ways, including post-training assessments, role-plays, and listening to conversations between sales reps and customers.

12. Content use and adoption

Most sales enablements invest time and resources to create internal and external content. Yet, 65% of B2B content is never used.

It’s important to track how both sellers and buyers are using this content – if they’re using it at all. Key content-related metrics include number of views, time spent on a piece, and how often a piece of content is opened, used, or shared. These insights can help you refine your content strategy.

13. Calls-to-action

This metric tracks how often a prospective customer takes action on content, which might include ads, blogs, or emails. The most effective content generates the highest number of clicks.

How sales enablement drives revenue

Today, a mere 43% of sellers meet their quotas. Sales enablement, when done right, can have a dramatic impact on a seller’s ability to close deals – and an organization’s ability to drive revenue. Here are some of the key reasons why.

1. Sales enablement provides sellers with a single source of truth

Sellers need on-demand access to information to move deals forward. For example, sellers often leverage:

Talk tracks
Training modules
Customer content

The information a seller needs is often housed in different locations, such as the CRM, multiple drives, and a company wiki. In those circumstances, it’s challenging for sellers to find what they need when they need it.

However, a solid sales enablement program provides sellers with one single knowledge base. That way, they can always access the knowledge they need whenever needed. That means they can more easily move deals through the funnel – and across the finish line.

2. Sales enablement provides ongoing training

Sales training is a key component of sales enablement. Of course, it all starts with sales onboarding. But that’s not enough.

In the world of sales, change is inevitable. New products are released, and existing products are updated. New tools are introduced. New competitors enter the market. Sales enablement teams provide sellers with the ongoing training to build their skills and knowledge to overcome challenges and close more deals.

3. Sales enablement can help create a culture of coaching

Continuous coaching is essential to sales success. Research tells us that 8 out of 10 teams with effective coaching practices hit greater than 75% of their sales quotas.

A successful sales enablement strategy includes a strong coaching component. Deal coaching is the most common type of coaching. However, sales managers must also incorporate skill coaching to drive behavior change.

4. Sales enablement can improve sales and marketing collaboration

Oftentimes, marketing and sales teams work in silos, with each focused on different goals. This negatively affects overall productivity. However, sales enablement can remove these silos and encourage better collaboration between the two teams. When sales and marketing are working toward the same goals, companies can attract and close leads better.

5. Sales enablement can speed up onboarding

Onboarding is an important way to orient new sellers and help them understand the company, its goals, and their role. Sales enablement can help accelerate onboarding – without sacrificing quality.

Per our 2023 State of Revenue Enablement Report, sellers at winning organizations take just 21-22 days to complete the onboarding program. That’s significantly less than the industry average. With streamlined onboarding time, reps can achieve their revenue targets more quickly.

6. Sales enablement can improve rep retention

Sales enablement can increase seller engagement – which can in turn increase satisfaction. Engaged, satisfied reps are more likely to stick around and be productive.

7. Sales enablement leads to informed, engaged buyers

Sales enablement helps ensure reps are always prepared for any interaction with a potential buyer. When reps have the knowledge and content they need to keep buyers informed and engaged, those buyers are more likely to end up as customers.

Who ownssales enablement?
Ownership of sales enablement varies by organization. But typically, sales enablement is owned by a dedicated sales enablement team. As mentioned earlier, most organizations now invest in a sales enablement team.

The size of the sales enablement team varies and may include functions like:

Sales enablement director
Sales enablement manager
Sales enablement specialist

Most commonly, the sales enablement team reports to the chief revenue officer or another revenue leader.

Sometimes, sales enablement teams work in silos without additional engagement or external guidance. However, the most successful sales enablement programs are those that include cross-functional collaboration across key teams, including:

Sales leadership
Sales or revenue operations
Marketing
Dedicated sales enablement team
Customer success

Cross-functional collaboration ensures each area of the organization is aligned on goals and the role they play in achieving those goals.

How are sales enablement and revenue enablement related?

Sales enablement and revenue enablement are closely intertwined and interdependent concepts, with several key connections:

Sales enablement equips the sales team with tools, resources, and support to enhance their selling effectiveness.
Revenue enablement takes a broader perspective, aligning departments such as marketing, customer success, and operations to optimize revenue generation.
Sales enablement is a critical component of revenue enablement, directly impacting sales productivity and contributing to revenue outcomes.
Both enablement strategies foster collaboration, alignment, and data-driven decision-making.
Sales enablement focuses on equipping sales reps with the right content, training, and technology to engage buyers and close deals successfully.
Revenue enablement encompasses various functions and aims to maximize revenue growth, enhance customer experiences, and drive overall business performance.

Together, sales enablement and revenue enablement create a cohesive and efficient revenue generation ecosystem.

What is the difference between sales enablement and sales productivity?

Sales productivity and sales enablement are two distinct concepts that play crucial roles in a sales team’s success. Sales productivity focuses on maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of individual sales representatives. It involves providing them with the tools, resources, and training necessary to close deals and achieve their targets.

On the other hand, sales enablement takes a broader approach, aiming to empower the entire sales organization. It focuses on aligning processes, strategies, and technologies to optimize the sales ecosystem. Sales enablement ensures that the sales team has the right knowledge, content, and support to engage buyers effectively throughout their journey.

Ultimately, sales productivity enhances individual performance, while sales enablement drives overall sales effectiveness and revenue growth.

Drive sales enablement success with Mindtickle

A growing number of organizations are investing in sales enablement teams and programs. That’s not surprising, as sales enablement is proven to impact outcomes. But only when it’s done well.

The right sales enablement technology is crucial to any sales enablement program.

Today, some organizations continue to use point solutions that address a specific sales enablement component. However, the most successful organizations are choosing to streamline their sales enablement tech stacks by investing in an integrated revenue productivity platform like Mindtickle.

Mindtickle incorporates all the key components of a holistic sales enablement program – including sales training, content, coaching, digital sales rooms, and AI role plays – all in one platform. That means sellers have a single source of truth for everything they need to master key skills and behaviors and close more deals faster.

Sales enablement teams depend on Mindtickle to quickly build and deploy personalized, effective enablement programs that drive business results. Mindtickle also includes robust analytics to help revenue leaders understand how sales enablement impacts the metrics that matter most. Teams can use these insights to optimize their programs and drive greater impact.

Sales Enablement in Mindtickle

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This post was originally published in January 2020 and updated in September 2022 and again in July 2024.

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