Enablement is _____.

Over a decade and a half into the evolution of sales enablement as a distinct field, we find ourselves entangled in a web of ambiguity. The term 'sales enablement' has been a chameleon, adapting in color and texture to the environment it finds itself in. It’s become a buzz-function, ubiquitous yet ephemeral within organizations.

An Enigma

I recently had a conversation with Scott Santucci, one of the founders of the Sales Enablement Society (parts of it were public, others were not). The dialogue struck a chord that resonates deeply with my views on the field. Sales enablement, as I see it, isn't a discipline, a business process, a job title, a technology category, or a capability — and it’s not primarily a function either. Sales enablement is first and foremost a shared responsibility that requires conscious effort from every area of the business — this is especially true for modern, fast-growing, B2B SaaS companies.

My belief is that there are profound misconceptions about what this space is and could—or should—be. Scott believes, and I agree, that Sales Enablement is in the "slope of disillusionment" phase of the Gartner hype cycle. But like Scott, I’m more interested in understanding the cause rather than jumping to a solution. And that's where the real conversation begins.

Committing A Cardinal Sin

Sales enablement has committed the cardinal sin of a ‘business within a business’: over-promising and under-delivering. The profession has matured into what seems like little more than L&D for sales, with little ability to demonstrate an ROI. This is why you see orgs churning through enablement programs, teams, and outside consultants every few years.

It’s not all snake oil though. The principles of orchestration, curation, and acceleration — as have been popularized in this space recently — hold merit, but lose potency when divorced from their practical applications and when faced with the challenge of scalability.

Scott, the founder of the Sales Enablement Society, shared how he’s reconsidering his own relationship with the field after recounting how a client and CEO of a large PE firm described sales enablement professionals as "knuckle draggers." The critique not only highlights the perception issues we face but also underscores the dire need for unambiguous clarity and tangible execution, two components that are essential but frequently absent in our field.

Over-complicated

As we navigate through the current disillusionment with sales enablement, it’s imperative to reassess what has been overly complicated. Corey Bray's assertion that "over-complicating sales enablement is worse than under-complicating it," holds a mirror to our field — and it should prompt us to strip down to the essentials.

"Over-complicating sales enablement is worse than under-complicating it"

In this light, and in my view, the true spirit of sales enablement emerges not from the myriad of training programs or the performance metrics. Rather, it's found in the synergy created between business strategy, organizational dynamics, and navigation of market trends all aimed at enhancing customer satisfaction and driving revenue (those should each be unpacked on their own, I know).

Executive teams are right to deploy people and teams to help them create this synergy, that’s ‘enablement’ at its best. The training aspect, which has become so synonymous with enablement (and so unnecessarily over-engineered), is merely an implementation detail of creating that synergy.

So where do we go from here?

The path forward, as I see it, is straightforward(-ish). Those of us who are leaders of the function within an organization must cultivate robust relationships with our executive teams, deeply care about the mission of the company, and relentlessly pursue achieving it through nimble, creative, and iterative problem-solving. That’s it — that simple. It isn't about reinventing the wheel with new terms for old practices. It isn’t about manufacturing impact metrics. It isn’t about us. It’s about being pragmatic, having a point of view on what success looks like in your unique context, and fostering alignment and excellence across the entire business. That’s the real work.

Yes, foundational elements like onboarding, product training, and sales methodologies are essential. However, they are merely the starting point, they’re the low hanging fruit. Set all that up as fast as possible — don’t worry about what frameworks you use, just pick one and do a decent job implementing it, but know that it’ll be bumpy — perfection is the enemy of progress. Then put all your time and effort into understanding the business as deeply as you can, and doing everything you can to support its success. Lean into that for a bit and you’ll soon develop that oh so critical point of view on what success will look like in your context.

In short, just care. And get shit done. Don’t forget to take the bumps in stride either. We all make mistakes, the important bit is how we learn from them. Iterating to greatness.

Here’s to challenging the status quo.