In this discussion, the speakers examine the disparity between salespeople receiving deal coaching (80%) versus foundational skills training (24%). They argue that many organizations rely on reactive, last‑minute coaching rather than proactive, competency‑based development, which limits reps’ ability to close deals independently. The conversation highlights the opportunity cost of this approach, noting that companies with a dedicated enablement function see an average 7.5% lift in win rates. For mid‑market deals ($60‑$100k), this translates into roughly $2 million additional revenue for a team handling 50‑100 deals annually. The speakers use a preventative‑medicine analogy to illustrate the value of early, preventive training over crisis‑driven coaching, emphasizing that enablement should focus on building skills before problems arise to drive measurable revenue outcomes.
Chapters
24% of sellers say I'm getting the skills training that I need, whereas 80% are saying I'm getting a deal coaching. Right. You know, that's a huge delta between those two numbers. And it's interesting because we talk to a lot of leaders day to day, we see a lot of leaders on LinkedIn or other platforms talking about how they have this really great coaching culture internally. So from your perspective, when people have been talking about a coaching culture, has it just been like the wrong type of coaching where it's like that just in time, last minute? Sure. If you're in a deal, we're going to coach you, but we're not actually going to provide that skills based, that competency based training at the very, very front end.
Yeah, well, first and foremost I'd say I'm not going to knock any type of coaching. Right. So if somebody's getting coaching within their organization, you're doing it. Right. You know, I think the thing that is maybe an opportunity for improvement is just getting to the problem before it is actually a problem. Right. So when we're in late stage deal coaching, there's probably things there that could have been avoided had we provided foundational skills training to get people further along. Right. And making sure that you're expanding your resources, that you're not needed to be on every single call, late stage or anything like that because your reps can close it on their own, you know, and closing deals is a big thing that enablement's always going to want to equate their work to. Right. So we see companies with enablement have a 7.5% increase in overall win rates compared to companies that don't. It's a big deal. I mean, I know it's a small percentage, 7.5. Like you might not look at that numbering as a like staggering number, but if you're looking at a 60 to 100k deal size, between 50 to 100 deals a year, seven deals a year increase in 7.5%. I mean there's a possibility of a team with enablement to one that doesn't have it of like $2 million in between that. Right. It's a significant number. So I think it's just really shows how important enablement function is with inside of a revenue organization to help drive the outcomes that you're wanting to see from the team.
Yeah. So it, you know, the analogy might be a stretch very similar to medicine. I mean what we're talking about is like preventative medicine versus like oh my God, I already you know, have, you know, skin cancer. Right. So now, now I got to go to the doctor. As opposed to, you know, taking steps well in advance to mitigate that type of risk, basically.
Yeah, yeah. And you know, I think one of the things is it's tough right now, especially in the being a former enablement practitioner myself and having a lot of folks in my network who are in that function. It' tough to see that it's been one that's been hit really hard from a layoffs perspective because it is a multiplying organization within a company. So you know, it's, it's hard to sometimes equate like selling success directly back to a single training initiative. But I think that that's something that enablement practitioners are getting better at every day. But you know, only 40% of businesses with the sales team of 25 sellers or less have enablement in their org. Right. So you were talking smaller companies, 20 drive sellers. It's still a team that needs support. Right. And not somebody's not coming to work every day thinking about how those people can drive revenue. And so you get the opposite end of 80% of organizations with 500 sellers or more have enablement on their team. So like there's an understanding as you go up market of the validity and the necessity to have an enablement team in order to perform at the best. So, you know, I can't, I feel like sometimes it's seen as like a luxury for like small to mid sized teams, which is tough because it is really a multiplying factor within the organization.
