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Who Owns Sales Enablement?

The number one goal for any sales enablement program is to empower effective sales. A lot has been spoken about ‘Sales Enablement’ in our previous blogs, and now we have reached a point where the question arises as to ‘who’ is actually responsible for the sales enablement program in an organization.

Every company is different – the company size and its structure, organization goals, internal culture and values, sales process & its goals, and employee skills will all play a role in deciding who owns sales enablement. Many thought leaders are of the opinion that ‘Sales’ should own sales enablement program but on the other hand, old school thought is of the opinion that ‘Marketing’ should be the one owning. That being said, for all intents and purposes, there are 3 main ways to look at answering the question of ‘who owns sales enablement.

  1. Sales enablement owned by Marketing team: Making sales enablement the responsibility of Marketing is the classic approach. Marketers are natural content creators – this can be used as a powerful tool for sales enablement. The more great content generated about the products and services, the more knowledge and sales training can be applied to not only the sales team but the whole organization. Having just-in-time knowledge about the right product at the right time can translate to immediate progress for the salespeople. Allowing Marketing to own a sales enablement initiative is best suited for organizations that are looking to unlock new efficiency with their entire content process, as well as improve sales and marketing alignment.
  2. Sales enablement owned by Sales team: This might seem like an intuitive thing to do – If sales enablement is ultimately about helping boost sales rep’s productivity and their ability to close deals, there stands a reason for sales team to own the sale enablement initiative. After all sales enablement is called ‘sales’ enablement for a reason.There’s a lot of obvious benefits to this choice- when sales enablement is owned by sales, it becomes a mean, lean sales-focused machine but as a cons to this choice, sales enablement is in danger of excluding the rest of your organization and being pigeonholed in the same box as sales. Having said that, in a sales-owned configuration, marketing is still going to be responsible for content creation and management, Sales will set the overall tone for strategy when it comes to the way the Sales and Marketing collaborate moving forward. A sales-owned approach is best for organizations who want to improve on things like sales communication, sales readiness, and collaboration.
  3. Sales enablement owned by Sales enablement: As discussed above both marketing-owned and sales- owned sales enablement strategies comes with its own implicit biases. Creating a standalone sales enablement department to drive sales enablement program acts as a neutral third-party. Sales enablement department can be set of people or a single person’s role depending upon the size of the company and the resources. This approach helps to set expectations high, drive and own the program completely and foster sales and marketing alignment.

To conclude, there is no single right answer to the question ‘Who owns Sales Enablement?’. Sales enablement can live anywhere and be owned by anyone. Sales, marketing, HR, and it can even be a company-wide initiative. It can report to a dedicated sales enablement officer, or the CEO, CMO, or CRO. It’s important to understand that the success of the sales enablement program, whoever owns it, depends on the individuals chosen to lead the project and are responsible for its performance. They have to match the tasks with the top management’s expectations, understanding of goals, priorities, best practices, and company needs.

So, Is your company Sales ‘Enabled’?