12 Stats About Sales Enablement That Might Surprise You

Sales enablement is the driving force that gives reps the content, tools, and training they need to gain more traction with buyers. Various reports from industry-leading organizations over the past few years provide evidence for the value of sales enablement programs. Discover some of them here: 

1. “The New Industrial: Future-Proofing European Manufacturing Sales in the 21st Century” by Miller Heiman Group found that just 32% of buyers feeling like sellers exceed their expectations.
2. In the “State of the Connected Customer 2018,” Salesforce reported that 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. It also found that 67% of customers are willing to pay more for a great experience. 
3. In the same Salesforce report, 67% of customers in North America say their standard for good experiences are higher than ever. 
4. According to the 2018 “Sales Enablement Report” by CSO Insights, the percentage of salespeople achieving quota improved by 10.6%, which is an improvement of 22.7%.
5. In CSO Insights’ “The Growing Buyer-Seller Gap,” 65.2% of study respondents said that they found value in B2B discussions with salespeople; 2.6% said they can’t wait until they can buy online and not work with sellers; and 32.2% reported mixed feelings about their discussions with sellers. 
6. The same report also stated that buyers were more than twice as likely (61.8%) to say that salespeople meet their expectations, whereas 31.8% said salespeople exceed them.
7. In “Identifying and Developing the Sales Manager Profile that Drives Performance” by Gartner, 66% of sales reps report they expect most learning and development to occur outside the classroom, while 58% report they develop new skills through their colleagues.  
8. Kapost noted that B2B firms spend over $5.2 billion a year on the content creation process. 
9. “The New Sales Imperative” from CEB via HBR revealed that 86% of sales professionals agree helping the customer consider all possible options and alternatives is important. 
10. Spotio found that 65% of employees believe the quality of training and learning opportunities positively influences their engagement. It additionally discovered that it takes 10 months or more for a new sales rep to be fully productive. 
11. According to the 2018 Sales Talent Study, the top 20% of reps account for 53.6% of total company revenue.
12. That study went on to show that 22.6% of organizations claimed hiring as an organizational strength, and that organizations with strong onboarding programs helped new hires reach full productivity 17.9% (two months) faster than those with weaker practices. 

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