Early this year, I began studying revenue-enablement trends to learn more about current priorities, challenges and best practices.

What I’ve learned in just a few months has been both eye-opening and deeply concerning.

More than one in four revenue enablers reported a job loss during the study period. Such deep cuts often have a cascading effect throughout organizations. Fewer people supporting the sales force disrupts the continuity of support and can create an environment of fear and anxiety.

The cuts are not only for entry-level enablement roles. They extend to management and even to celebrated industry giants, who suddenly find themselves looking for new opportunities.

In focus groups and questionnaires, enablement leaders shared what they were most concerned about in 2024.

The top of mind concern is retention, and this extends beyond their own jobs.

Not only have enablement positions been cut, but also there is a revolving door for sales leadership and sellers. When new sales leaders join an organization, they have new initiatives, metrics and expectations, and enablement leaders find themselves constantly shifting priorities, making it difficult to launch and carry out programs with enough time to collect metrics to understand what works.

The second largest concern is resource management. Given budget cuts for training dollars and thinning of staff in the enablement function, even at the highest levels, enablement teams find they need to do more with less.

They are struggling to keep up with advances in AI, new technology and trends, while taking on more responsibilities in their current role. Enablement professionals are stretched thin across a multitude of responsibilities, reminiscent of a scenario where a single marketer is tasked with managing an entire company’s marketing strategy single-handedly. This unsustainable situation is further aggravated by a volatile job market, making enablers feel pressured to do whatever they are asked instead of defining their role, setting realistic expectations and working with sales leaders to prioritize activities.

Other concerns include not having a seat at the table or a voice in decision making, developing the salesforce through training, motivating and engaging sellers, and challenges with metrics, including not having control over data, constant changes in metrics and unrealistic metrics.

It is very likely that AI will become an ally for sales enablement to help address some of these challenges, because the future is AI-enabled.

 

How AI empowers enablers:

 

Personalized Training: AI can tailor training content to match the unique strengths and weaknesses of each seller, ensuring more effective learning outcomes.

Automated Role Play: Through AI-driven simulations, sales teams can engage in realistic sales scenarios, receiving instant feedback on their performance. This not only scales training efforts but also significantly improves sales competencies across the board.

Data-Driven Insights: AI can analyze large amounts of data to identify trends, predict outcomes, and offer actionable insights, enabling enablement professionals to make informed decisions and strategize effectively.

Engagement: AI tools can facilitate more engaging and interactive training experiences with adaptive game mechanics, ensuring that sales teams remain motivated and committed to their learning journey.

Consistency and Scalability: With AI, delivery of training and support becomes more consistent and scalable, addressing the challenge of resource constraints and enabling revenue enablement to support a growing salesforce efficiently. Automated solutions can accommodate the training needs of an entire salesforce, regardless of size or geographic dispersion and the number of practice conversations that are required to adequately prepare sellers.
When it comes to automated AI role plays specifically, AI can support in the following ways:

• Scalability: Automated solutions can accommodate the individualized training needs of each seller in an entire salesforce, regardless of size or geographic dispersion and the number of practice conversations that are required to adequately prepare sellers, outlined in The Rule of 30.
• Consistency: It ensures a uniform training experience, delivering consistent scenarios, intended buyer behavior, and feedback aligned with the organizational goals, that are crucial for developing effective sales conversation competency.
• Efficiency: AI-driven role play facilitates rapid learning and improvement, allowing sales professionals to practice multiple scenarios at their own pace and in a fraction of the time required for traditional training methods.
• Data-Driven Insights: Automated systems can track progress, highlight areas of improvement, and provide actionable insights, enabling targeted coaching that addresses specific weaknesses immediately rather than waiting for an appointment with a busy manager to get feedback. As AI continues to evolve as a strategic ally of revenue enablement professionals, its ability to create a more efficient and effective team of enablers will help sales teams reach unprecedented revenue growth and success.

There are many opportunities to use AI in sales – account prioritization, research, messaging, automation of emails and social media messages, data management, data consolidation and insights.
All of these resources help to ensure sellers show up to customer meetings well prepared to have meaningful and productive conversations. Otherwise all of the capital invested and the time spent learning new systems are wasted.