Despite sales organizations investing in sales enablement initiatives, 77% of sellers report that they struggle to complete their assigned tasks efficiently, according to Gartner, Inc.

Gartner surveyed 501 sellers in March and April 2023 to understand sellers’ sentiment and emotional reactions toward technology, and its impact across key levers of seller productivity.

“When sales leaders spend on sales technologies, training and development, and sales enablement, they expect enablement to use them to drive seller effectiveness and productivity,” said Shayne Jackson, Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner Sales Practice. “However, those responsible for enablement are falling short of expectations in capitalizing on these resources and efforts.”

In a survey of 213 chief sales offices and senior sales executives, conducted in November and December of 2022, 82% of sales leaders said that sales enablement content or delivery must significantly change to meet revenue goals in five years. CSOs must move away from treating enablement as simply a learning and training provider and instead focus enablement teams on seller behavior change. This results in better:

• Alignment: Enablement activities that drive the behaviors necessary to execute the sales strategy.
• Attribution: Focusing on triggering concrete behaviors allows sales organizations to influence specific behavioral changes with enablement initiatives.
• Accountability: The ability to attribute behavior changes (and ultimately commercial performance) to specific enablement initiatives ensures accountability.

To do this, CSOs must not only bring enablement leaders into their strategic planning process, but also align with them on the behaviors needed to make their sales strategy a success. In addition, they must require enablement leaders to develop robust measurement approaches that allow them to attribute specific behavioral changes to enablement initiatives and then tie these back to sales goals and KPIs.

“Two key examples of triggers are behavioral nudges and just-in-time learning; Organizations that have used just-in-time learning and behavioral nudges in their enablement approach have seen substantial commercial results compared with those that have not used them,” said Jackson.

Gartner clients can read more in “Quick Answer: How Can CSOs Drive Seller Behavior Change?” 

About Gartner for Sales Leaders

Gartner for Sales Leaders provides heads of sales and their teams with the insights, advice and tools they need to address mission-critical priorities amid mounting pressures to drive growth through new and existing customers. With extensive qualitative and quantitative research, Gartner for Sales Leaders helps sales teams combat commoditization and price-based purchasing, develop critical manager and seller skills, elevate the value of sales interactions, unlock existing growth potential, and optimize sales force enablement. Follow news and update from the Gartner Sales practice on X and LinkedIn using #GartnerSales. Members of the media can find additional information and insights in the Gartner Sales Newsroom.