15 Sales Enablement Statistics for Sales Content Effectiveness

Many revenue teams have left no stone unturned when applying technology and process to improve the sales cycle and make sellers as effective as possible. The POV for this work is often the sales process or rep efficiency, and the most common outcome is automation = doing more faster. 

There is, however, a different perspective to take, and it starts with sales content - one of the most critical assets fueling each sales cycle and prospect interaction. Revenue teams have a chance to achieve greater effectiveness with content as their locus. In other words, don’t just do more, faster; deliver value and tell your story with your very best content every time.

Let’s dig into 15 stats that help make the case for sales content effectiveness and using a sales content collaboration platform to get there... 

If you’re not using sales technology well, you’ll fall behind.

• 77% of sales leaders say their digital transformation has accelerated since 2019. (LinkedIn,  2020)
• 97% of salespeople say sales technology is “important” or “very important.” (LinkedIn, 2020)
• 79% of successful salespeople were happy with the tools and tech available to them for their sales work, as opposed to 61% of non-successful salespeople. (Salesforce, 2020)
• A majority of high-performing sales organizations (57%) use the technology to improve internal processes and customer experiences. (Salesforce, 2020)
• Sales leaders with high-performing sales teams are 6.7 times more likely to say they’re completely capable of adapting to new technology. (Salesforce, 2020)

Having a solid sales tech stack is table stakes at this point. But, how well is your team using it? How ingrained is it in your process and sales cycle? Does it genuinely work throughout the funnel to drive more effective selling - or does it merely automate steps at the top and bottom?

The data doesn’t lie. When sales teams are set up for success within the tech stack, they perform better. These teams aren’t just using technology to capture data; they’re using it to scale and improve their sales motions.

And it’s a mutually beneficial relationship. With high-performing tech comes high-performing teams and vice versa.

Sales Operations & Sales Enablement functions are becoming larger and more strategic to revenue goals.

• The number of people in Sales Operations roles has more than doubled in the last two years and increased 2.7X faster than the sales function overall. (LinkedIn, 2020)
• In the past 5 years, the sales enablement function has experienced a 343% increase in adoption. (Sales Enablement Pros, 2020)
• 85% of sales professionals agree that sales ops is becoming increasingly strategic. (Salesforce, 2020)
• 65% of sales leaders who outperformed revenue targets have a dedicated sales enablement person or team. (HubSpot, 2020)
• Sales enablement teams that effectively utilize tools for sales content or sales asset management experience win rate improvements of 4 percentage points. (Sales Enablement Pros, 2020)

Read that last stat again. What would a four percentage point increase of win rate mean to your business? 

But, there’s also a keyword in there: effectively. 

If you’re using a collection of point tools instead of deeply understanding your pain points and striving for true content effectiveness, you might just be throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping it’ll stick. 

The keys to true content effectiveness, in this case, are a dedicated resource to ensure the success of the content (like sales ops or enablement) and a solution built with that very goal in mind (like a sales content collaboration platform).

The need for more meaningful customer data and knowledge is growing.

• 63% of reps log more details about customer interactions than they did in 2019. (Salesforce, 2020)
• When seeking customer insights, 64% of reps say “knowing how to access the information” is a challenge. (Salesforce, 2020)
• About half (45%) of reps say they’ve seen a major improvement in personalization for customers after implementing AI to support. (Salesforce, 2020)
• 40% of sales teams are automating content delivery. (HubSpot, 2020)
• 20% of reps identified ineffective sales content as a top 3 sales challenge. (Sales Enablement Pros, 2020)

We have a ton of data at our disposal — and we’re gaining more each day. What separates good sales teams from exceptional sales teams is how that data is used and disseminated. 

If ⅔ of reps are logging more details about interactions and having trouble finding relevant information, there’s a gap in content categorization and searchability. Quick content personalization and automation are starting to pick at the scab of content ineffectiveness, but to truly heal the wound, sales teams need to think more broadly about sales content as a whole —and start treating it as an asset, not just a deliverable. 

Make the case for sales content effectiveness today.

Investing in full-funnel sales content effectiveness will put you above your competitors and help you close more business — the data says so! 

But, often, simple point solutions for pieces of content won’t get you there. 

If you’re evaluating software that can automate SOWs, RFPs, DDQs (or any other sales requests with three-letter acronyms), it’s worth evaluating a Sales Content Collaboration software to automate that content and make it more effective.