Businesses create solutions to solve problems and fulfill the needs of their customers. However, having a good product or solution isn’t enough for a successful business strategy. Organizations must also employ talented sales professionals to sell the products. And these sales professionals need to be supported by an effective sales enablement team.

Drawing on a sample of 262 talent development professionals, this report investigates key questions to provide benchmark data and highlight best practices about sales enablement. ATD Research also took a closer look at sales enablement departments and the tools they use.

Key findings from the report include:

• 90 percent of respondents said sales enablement was very or somewhat important to their organization.

• 65 percent of respondents had an established sales enablement department.

• In the 35 percent of organizations that did not have a dedicated sales enablement function, sales leaders or the marketing department were most likely to take responsibility for sales enablement tasks. However, at 29 percent of these organizations, no one was responsible for sales enablement.

• More than 90 percent of respondents measured the success of their sales enablement efforts; the most common methods of doing so were via sales success statistics, such as wins and conversion rates (53 percent) and sales revenue (42 percent).

• More than 80 percent of respondents used sales enablement tools, whether developed within their organization or purchased from a third-party vendor. Two-thirds rated their sales training tools as good or very good.