SALES ENABLEMENT
Maturity Model
Sales STAGE 1 - Undefined
Enablement
No defined, evaluated or
Orientation
implemented Sales Enablement
functions or applications
No perceived need for sales enable-
Leadership ment; No funding or dedicated staff
No CRM, Marketing Automation,
Knowledge Management or other
Technology/ Sales Enablement applications in
Infrastructure place; Sales reps use their own
systems and technology to support
their sales efforts
Marketing and sales operate in
distrinct silos with minimal align-
Alignment ment on goals and activities; Typical
‘hand-off’ style working relationship
STAGE 2 - Progressive
Operational in nature, reacting to
requests; Loosely defined function in
place for less than two years
Senior management view Sales
Enablement as one of many success
factors; Funding available for small
pilot projects for testing
CRM and/or Marketing Automation in
place with 80%+ rep adoption;
Exploring Sales Enablement applica-
tions such as playbooks, portals,
CPQ, etc
Some marketing/sales alignment
forming on key processes such as lead
scoring, no shared revenue responsi-
bilities yet; Able to ‘coordinate’ efforts
like follow up on campaigns
STAGE 3 - Mature
Working from a plan, balanced between
strategic and operational; Defined func-
tion in place for 3+ years
Sales Enablement a key corporate
function; Major initiatives funded,
dedicated staff & budget
Marketing Automation & CRM
are highly integrated and Sales
Enablement applications are being
used; Defined process for testing and
integrating new applications in place
Marketing/sales & others ‘collaborate’
on multiple processes to generate
revenues; SLAs and/or standard
definition for SQLs in place; Goals set
for contribution to pipeline
STAGE 4 - World-Class
Highly strategic orientation, docu-
mented plans in place; Defined Sales
Enablement function in place for 5+
years
Sales Enablement a critical success
factor driving revenue and growth;
Fully funded and supported by
senior management
Mature, integrated Sales Enablement
infrastructure in place built on a CRM
platform with multiple applications inte-
grated & adopted; Reporting available
in one interface
Cross-functional SE group formed with
leaders from all departments; Shared
revenue responsibilites; Compensation
may be tied to revenue growth
 SALES ENABLEMENT
Maturity Model
Sales
Enablement STAGE 1 - Undefined
No formal support or tools for asset
management, CPQ, communica-
tion or other tools; No centralized
Sales
portal for collateral (email templates,
Support Tools
proposals, playbooks, etc.); Reps
expected to create their own sales
support material
No formal lead generation or sales
opportunity management process;
Processes
Sales process & buying processes are
not defined
Sales enablement success metrics
unknown and not tracked; Revenue
Metrics tracked but not necessarily tied to
goals; Lead quality and scoring is
unknown and not tracked
New reps hit quota in 9-12 months;
30-50% of new sales hired unsuccessful;
Results
Opportunity win rate is less than 10%;
Revenue growth rate is less than 10%
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STAGE 2 - Progressive
Basic asset management and/or sales
portal with collateral, manual CPQ,
conferencing tools provided; May
have manual sales playbooks, sales
intelligence data sources, competitive
analysis info, formal product training
Sales process defined but not mapped
to buying process; Opportunity
management is ad hoc and unreliable
for forecasting; No sales enablement
processes established yet
Metrics in place to measure effec-
tiveness such as #opportunities,
sales productivity metrics, #leads
generated, CPL in some cases
known; No regular monitoring,
reports pulled ad hoc when results
not desirable
New reps hit quota in 6-9 months;
20-30% of new sales hires unsuc-
cessful; Opportunity win rate is 10-15%;
Revenue growth rate is 10-20%
STAGE 3 - Mature
Extensible platform supports MRM,
asset management with ratings,
feedback and version control, sales
performance/incentive management,
CPQ, conferencing, playbooks integrated
with CRM, field presentation tools for
tablets, etc
Formal lead acquisition process, solid
opportunity management, Sales process
mapped to buying process, defined
process for sales enablement including
strategy planning
Known success metrics for top
performing reps; Cost of acquisition
(CAC) known, #downloads from portals,
CRM adoption rate, cost per opportu-
nity measured; Reports monitored and
reviewed at regular intervals (weekly,
monthly, quarterly, annually)
New reps hit quota in 4-6 months;
10-20% of new sales hires unsuccessful;
Opportunity win rate is 15-20%; Revenue
growth rate is 20-40%
VIEW RESOURCE
STAGE 4 - World-Class
Sales organization fully supported
across entire sales cycle from lead
generation to quoting and contracting;
Reporting and feedback effectively
drive development of sales support
infrastructure; Surveys held regularly to
solicit feedback and ideas
Lead scoring & nurturing, content
mapped to buying and sales process
by persona & journey maps, prioritiza-
tion of sales enablement strategy plan
is done regularly
Marketing ROI, TCO, age of opportu-
nities, customer lifetime value, reten-
tion rate, pipeline velocity, reps have
visibility into team’s productivity &
performance metrics (may be gamified
inside of CRM), closed loop reporting
system for all campaigns and metrics
New reps hit quota in 3-4 months;
Fewer than 10% of new sales hires are
unsuccessful; Opportunity win rate is
20%+; Revenue growth rate is 40%+