Enablement is defined uniquely at every organization. While that flexibility of scope is helpful in meeting a company's specific needs, it makes it challenging to build brand recognition as an industry. Although most public definitions are geared towards sales enablement, the industry as a whole is growing to include all customer-facing roles.
Whenever I tell someone my title, I'm prepared to explain what it means because there's a high probability their organization doesn't have an enablement team or they aren't completely clear on what the team does.
Here are 10 definitions of the enablement function.
1. CSO Insights
Sales enablement is a strategic, collaborative discipline designed to increase predictable sales results by providing consistent, scalable enablement services that allow customer-facing professionals and their managers to add value in every customer interaction.
2. Dictionary (well, Google)
3. Forrester
Sales enablement is a strategic, ongoing process that equips all client-facing employees with the ability to consistently and systematically have a valuable conversation with the right set of customer stakeholders at each stage of the customer’s problem-solving life cycle to optimize the return on investment of the selling system.”
4. Gartner
The activities, systems, processes, and information that support and promote knowledge-based sales interactions with client and prospects.
5. Hubspot
Sales enablement is the iterative process of providing your business's sales team with the resources they need to close more deals. These resources may include content, tools, knowledge, and information to effectively sell your product or service to customers.
6. IDC
The delivery of the right information to the right person at the right time in the right format and in the right place to assist in moving a specific sales opportunity forward.
7. Sales Enablement Society
Sales enablement ensures buyers are engaged at the right time and place, and with the right assets, by well-trained client-facing staff to provide a world-class experience along the customer’s journey, while utilizing the right sales and performance management technologies in addition to synergizing cross-organizational collaboration. Sales enablement optimizes the selling motion in order to increase pipeline, move opportunities forward, and win bigger deals more efficiently to drive profitable growth.
8. Seismic
Sales enablement is the strategic use of people, processes, and technology to improve sales productivity and increase revenue.
9. Sirius Decisions
The delivery of the right information to the right person at the right time in the right format and in the right place to assist in moving a specific sales opportunity forward.
10. TOPO
Sales enablement is the process of providing the sales organization with the information, content, and tools that help sales people sell more effectively. The foundation of sales enablement is to provide sales people with what they need to successfully engage the buyer throughout the buying process.