Sales Enablement

Sales success — and, by extension, organizational success — rests in large part on sales reps having the skills and knowledge required to execute on sales strategy. Read our sales enablement insights to equip your sales team to achieve and exceed objectives.

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Insights

Blog

Three Key Findings From The Forrester Wave™: Revenue Enablement Platforms, Q3 2024

Eric Zines 3 days ago
For the first time, Forrester has published an evaluation of the combined space comprising sales content management and sales readiness capabilities.
Blog

Revenue Enablement And Change Management: Two Sides Of The Same Coin

Eric Zines September 11, 2024
To launch and sustain successful sales initiatives, revenue enablement teams should embrace all three phases of the Change Management Model as a guide for managing initiatives: set the stage, put the plan in motion, and make the “new” seem like business as usual.
Blog

Revenue Enablement Is Not In The Tool Business

Peter Ostrow August 20, 2024
No sales force can function without technology, but enablement leaders must emphasize and communicate revenue-centric outcomes, treating tools as supporting actors rather than spotlighted vanity projects. Never forget that revenue enablement is not in the tool business — it’s in the empowerment business.
Blog

First-Line Sales Managers: Promote Or Hire?

Peter Ostrow June 10, 2024
Today Forrester is publishing new research revealing that, all else being equal, B2B sales leaders achieve better revenue results when they hire first-line sales managers (FLSMs) externally, rather than promoting individual contributors (ICs). This runs counter to standard practice and tradition, but the data is clear: Externally hired managers and their teams perform better. Our advice […]
Blog

The Chief Sales Officer And Cultural Leader: Not A Contradiction In Terms

Peter Ostrow May 30, 2024
My colleagues from our future-of-work research team, Katy Tynan and Angelina Gennis, recently published a wonderful report about leadership and culture. In addition to a key underlying message that great leadership mandates active cultural shaping, they crucially remind us that “Culture does not just happen. It is created, either intentionally or unintentionally, through the actions of […]
Blog

How Quickly Should A Sales Rep Be Onboarded?

Peter Ostrow May 14, 2024
In many professions, education for a new employee’s role incorporates learning with doing. Educators must undergo a full semester of student teaching, surgeons develop by “watching, teaching, doing,” and aspiring electricians must deliver hundreds of hours as apprentices prior to licensure. Even most MLB stars spend years toiling in the minor leagues perfecting their skills. […]
Blog

Focus On Customer Value To Deliver B2B Customer Growth

Steve Silver May 14, 2024
Last week, I presented at my 10th, and final, Forrester B2B Summit North America. I say final not because the event is ending but because I’m retiring from Forrester in June of this year. One of my sessions introduced the Forrester Customer-Led Sales Growth Model, which was a perfect way to summarize my views on […]
Blog

Harness The Power Of Buying Signals At Forrester’s B2B Summit

Jessie Johnson April 30, 2024
B2B organizations must know their buyers, anticipate their needs, and empower them with each interaction — or lose to providers that do. Signals help transform the way we interact with our audiences across functions, disciplines, and interaction types, helping B2B organizations deliver contextual interactions with immediate value throughout the customer lifecycle. Check out these sessions […]
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It’s Time For Sales Leaders To Coach Sellers Like Athletes

Seth Marrs April 15, 2024
Sales managers now have the visibility needed to coach sellers beyond the basics.
Blog

Why Can’t My Sellers Adapt More Quickly?

Peter Ostrow March 6, 2024
How recently did your company leadership issue a directive implying that the sales team must change their behavior? Not long ago, if yours is like most revenue organizations. Whether it’s framed as changing from tactical to strategic selling, focusing on solutions instead of products, or prospecting deeper into buying groups, most institutions habitually move the […]
Blog

Your Predictions Questions Answered: Leveraging GenAI Successfully

Laura Ramos February 22, 2024
During Forrester’s Predictions 2024 webinar, we received a lot of great questions about how generative AI might affect customer-facing functions such as marketing, customer experience, and sales. Check out our answers.
Blog

“32 To 36 Courses” Is Not Revenue Enablement

Peter Ostrow February 16, 2024
Equipping sellers for better performance isn't a matter of course volume. Explore the questions that should guide learning.

Join Us In London To Adapt To B2B Buyer Change

Register for B2B Summit EMEA, coming to London October 7–9. Discover how to adapt your marketing, sales, and product strategies for complex buyer scenarios, longer sales cycles, genAI, and more.

Blog

B2B Summit North America 2024: Your Ticket To Turning Disruption Into Growth

Srividya Sridharan January 23, 2024
Explore the strategies and tools needed to drive customer-obsessed growth at our premier event for B2B marketing, sales, and product teams.
Podcast

How To Use AI To Uplevel Revenue Enablement 

What It Means January 4, 2024
Many revenue enablement leaders are simultaneously intimidated and intrigued by AI, particularly generative AI (genAI). The sooner they embrace it, the sooner they can help make sellers and other customer-facing roles more effective. Vice President and Principal Analyst Peter Ostrow shares advice for getting started with AI this week on What It Means. 
Blog

Shift From Manual To Automated Account Planning To Deliver Results

Steve Silver November 13, 2023
I’ve been involved with account planning programs for over 30 years — first as a sales rep, then as a sales manager, then as a sales operations leader, and, finally, as an analyst and advisor. And in all that time, resistance by sellers to the process of creating and leveraging account plans remains high. Why? […]
Blog

Your Company Just Announced Sales Layoffs. What Should Revenue Enablement Do About It?

Peter Ostrow October 11, 2023
Read five suggestions to simultaneously come to the aid of your internal customers and to up your enablement game for the long term.
Blog

Improv And Playbooks: Navigating The Unscripted World Of Modern Selling

Jennifer Bullock September 28, 2023
I’m from Chicago, which is known for many things, particularly its rich history with improvisational theater. Improv is a form of theater performed unscripted and created spontaneously by the players on stage, often through an audience suggestion. As a theatergoer, I am amazed at how much knowledge the actors must have to create something from […]
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The Top Five Priorities For A New Revenue Enablement Leader

Peter Ostrow August 31, 2023
The sales and revenue enablement space has seen a wildly dynamic 2023, with many casualties of layoffs impacting the profession but also plenty of new opportunities opening up. At the same time, enablement leaders have had to adapt to changing priorities while continuing to deliver tangible, quantifiable value to the C-suite. If you’re a newly […]
Blog

How B2B Companies Will Win The Competition For Growth

John Arnold July 25, 2023
The competition for growth is fiercer than ever for B2B companies. To win, marketing, product, and sales leaders need to build a growth engine based on three fundamentals that are also simple, powerful, challenging, and achievable.
Blog

Revenue Enablement: Why Forrester Has Made The Change

Peter Ostrow June 5, 2023
Forrester is adapting along with the entire B2B sales space, pivoting from “sales enablement” to “revenue enablement” in describing the discipline of ensuring that all customer-facing roles receive consistent enterprise support so that they have the confidence, competence, and content to drive customer value and revenue results.
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