Why sales enablement is becoming revenue enablement

Before we get into it, let's agree on some loose definitions, because the exact meaning of "sales enablement" versus "revenue enablement" versus "go-to-market enablement" is going to vary depending on your company size, your industry, and who you're selling to.

For the purposes of this conversation, think of sales enablement as primarily serving your traditional field sellers.

Generally non-technical roles. The people closing deals. Revenue enablement, on the other hand, broadens that scope to include the pre- and post-sales functions: demand gen, professional services, customer success, customer marketing.

Why the shape of selling has changed

You've probably heard it a hundred times: modern selling is more complex. More stakeholders, more decision makers, less linearity, more stages. It's hard. We know.

But let's actually look at what that means in practice.

If you're familiar with the bowtie model, you know the basic shape. You land a customer, you celebrate, and then you work to expand that relationship over time. What the bowtie really captures, though, is how many different roles come in and out of the spotlight throughout that journey.

Marketing creates awareness and generates demand. Sales and sales engineers convert that demand into closed deals. Services and customer success implement the product and keep the customer happy. Customer marketing and advocacy come in at the end to deepen the relationship and start the cycle again.

Each of those roles steps to the front of the stage at a different point in the process. And here's where it gets interesting. Your customers know that. They expect different people to be involved at different times. What they don't expect, and what they genuinely don't want, is to have to repeat themselves at every handoff, or to feel like they're getting a different story from every person they talk to.

Think of it like a game of telephone. If the first player whispers something to the BDR, and it passes through the AE, the solutions consultant, the implementation team, and customer success before reaching the customer, the odds of the message arriving intact are basically zero.

That's the risk. And it's a real one.

What happens when you keep the blinders on

When I joined Prophecy, my original remit was sales enablement. We were a small startup, and honestly, I was just glad they were thinking about enablement at all.

So I played along. I focused on my sellers. I onboarded them, ramped them, ran pitch certifications, cleaned up the tech stack. Things were going well. Reps were hitting productivity milestones. Messaging was tight. Everything looked great.

And then we launched a major product release.

Things got bad, quickly.

My sellers were prepared. Their messaging was on point. But the BDRs were saying something different to the same buyers. Internal teams were disconnected. There was no consistent understanding of who was supposed to be doing what, and when. The buyer experience was fragmented, and it showed.

It became obvious pretty fast that something needed to change. And since I had good relationships with other functional leaders, I proposed something that, in hindsight, was basically volunteering myself for more work. I suggested that part of the solution was a shift toward revenue enablement, a broader scope that covered more of the go-to-market team.

For expert advice like this straight to your inbox, sign up for Pro+ membership.

You'll also get access to 100+ hours of exclusive video content, a complimentary Summit ticket, and so much more.

So, what are you waiting for?

Get Pro+

In return, my stakeholders would get a more consistent, connected customer experience. That's the trade-off. And it's a good one.

Building the foundation

So where do you actually start?

The good news is that you're probably more prepared than you think. A lot of the foundation is already there. You just need to build on it intentionally.

Go back to the bowtie. Look at the roles involved at each stage of the customer lifecycle. Marketing, sales, sales engineering, professional services, customer success, customer marketing. Now ask yourself: do you know these people? Are you connected with them? Do you even know their names without having to look them up in a workforce management tool?

Start with the map. Literally put names to roles and figure out where the gaps are.

From there, think about what you're already doing for your sellers and how much of it translates. You're already onboarding reps. Could you adapt that process, maybe 20% differently, to onboard a more technical role like a solutions engineer or a professional services consultant? You probably could.