Measuring Enablement Success

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Author

Ryan Parker
May 11, 2024 • Estimated Enjoyment Time: 8 minutes

In Today’s Love Letter…

Why measuring the ROI of Sales Enablement will never be possible in its’ current state. How I keep a scorecard for success.

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Measuring ROI of Sales Enablement

If you search “How to measure the ROI of Sales Enablement” online, you will most likely get a list of KPIs in your search results.

Over the last few days, I have seen some of the brightest minds in enablement debate this topic. Some say that we will never be able to prove ROI or measure the success of enablement until sales executives and enablement leaders come together in a dark, smokey room somewhere and determine a universal set of rules, as though we are two mafia families coming together to broker a peace deal, each side giving and taking until a consensus has been agreed upon.

There, all our problems are solved.Here’s the Universe’s Guide To Measuring Sales Enablement Success…

Not so fast.

There are two problems with this (if not more).

  1. No two companies are alike. This mythical guide to measuring success will only partially align with some businesses.

  2. No two power groups in the sales and enablement space would ever come together and agree on what is right.

We can make suggestions as an industry and agree with sales leaders as they share their thoughts on LinkedIn, but nothing widespread will be generally accepted.

We actually shouldn’t be working on a universal solution. We should be tackling this at the company level.

That’s OK.

Yes, we generally accept KPIs we always want to improve in sales.

  • Competitive Win Rate.

  • Average Deal Size.

  • Average Sales Cycle Length

  • Lead To Opportunity Conversion Rate.

And on and on we go…

Assuming there’s some agreement that no two companies or sales teams are alike, let’s get granular.

Have an open and honest conversation

This conversation must occur between sales leaders, executives (sometimes), and enablement.

Your goal is to gain clarity on a general question at the beginning, “How do you perceive success when it comes to sales enablement”? A great question to ask if you are interviewing, by the way! 

What you will probably hear at this point is a regurgitation of the KPI list from your search results. Which is good. At least you now know what numbers are important to them. During this conversation, clarify the current status of their top priorities. You want a baseline you can work from. This open and honest conversation is a powerful tool in your sales enablement arsenal, empowering you to understand and align with their goals.

Then, go deeper.

Discuss their goals for those KPIs for the next 12-18 months. Taking a page from GAP selling, don’t let them be vague in their answers.

Them: “We want to improve our time to productivity.”

You: “What do you mean by improve?

Them: “We want our new reps to close their first deal faster.”

You: “OK, you said faster. Your average time for a rep to close their first deal after hire is 48 days. How many days do you want them to be at?”

Them: “33”

If you are not getting specific here and now. You will never know where to go.

Repeat this with their top 5 KPIs.

This will give you some markers and insight into what they consider essential. You can work from there.

Moving to measure individual initiatives and programs

I preach having high-quality intake forms a lot. Although intake forms seem basic, they help you and sales leadership think through new initiatives in a systematic way. Here, you can ensure specific business metrics will be measured each time you implement a new enablement initiative, whether training, new tooling, new content, or new processes. You will also determine the behavior change driving those business metrics here.

We measure each program against a business initiative using one or two metrics. If a program does not have a specific business metric associated with it, do not start working on it.

How does this help you prove the ROI of Enablement?

You have gone to great lengths to ensure that every single initiative you work on throughout the year has a business metric tied to it. Whether it is closing deals faster, improving win rates, or deal size, the list could go on, but now you are creating a scorecard as you continue implementing new initiatives. Now, you can track these and measure the outcomes. Assuming there are systems in place to track, that is a whole other conversation for another time. As an enablement professional, you can report on these quarterly. This systematic approach instills confidence and provides a secure framework for measuring the ROI of enablement.

Will you have a 100% success rate in improving each metric? No. But I can guarantee the CEO, CFO, and COO do not have a 100% success rate either.

The TL;DR version:

Stop trying to prove ROI for enablement as a whole. Start with proving ROI initiative by initiative. Your job is to get clarity each time an initiative is requested that a business initiative is tied to it, and how that measurement will be made.

Until next time my friends…

❤️, Enablement

When you are ready, here are a few ways I can help you: