The numbers around B2B sales can be discouraging.
Average quota attainment for B2B organizations is less than 50%. (Salesforce research stated as much as 84% of sales reps missed their quota in 2024.)
Sales reps spend only about one-third of their time selling. The emergence of AI tools is helping increase reps’ time selling, but they still get bogged down in administrative grind.
The sales cycle remains lengthy. More than a quarter of reps (28%) cite a sales process that takes too long as the No. 1 reason prospects back out, according to Lead Forensics.
B2B sales are increasingly complex, with seven to 10 people having a role in purchase decisions.
Perhaps most daunting is the fact that buyers rarely identify themselves as ready to purchase until they are well beyond 50% complete with their research, and eight in 10 already have a top vendor identified.
Enablement = Increased Efficiency
It’s no wonder B2B selling requires an all-hands-on-deck mindset. Sales enablement, broadly defined as the process of providing sales teams with the proper content, training, technology and coaching to help them be more effective, is vital to today’s sales process. Enablement refers to every aspect of making a sale – from hiring and onboarding to lead generation, lead scoring, development and deployment of marketing content, and skills training in how to have productive, ongoing conversations with prospects.
Everything is enablement, and enablement is everything in today’s highly competitive environment.
Sellers’ inclination is to bring buyers into market on sellers’ timeline, but savvy selling teams understand that buyers call the shots and sellers need to have the right information when the right time strikes for the buyer.
“Today’s B2B buyers are informed, empowered and independent. They conduct the majority of their research on their own, long before speaking to a sales team,” states “The  State of Prospecting 2026” report from Sopro, provider of a B2B multi-channel prospecting and lead generation service.
Too often, salespeople abandon a prospect after reaching out three or four times and not getting a response. Kondo, a company that provides a tool for managing LinkedIn messages, reports that most B2B deals require five to 12 touchpoints, yet a staggering 48% of reps never make a second follow-up attempt.
“Buyers don’t go into market because they get a call from a business development rep, or even because they get a call from an AE. They go into market to buy something when their business has a need that they can put budget behind,” said Kerry Cunningham, head of research and thought leadership at 6Sense, a sales enablement platform provider.
Pillars of Modern Outreach
The old tenets of outreach can’t keep up, the Sopro report on prospecting states. “Modern outreach needs a new foundation – a connected system that joins every part of the process and mirrors how buyers want to engage, not how sellers want to sell.”
Sopro provides three pillars of modern outreach:
Coverage – Most outreach models miss up to 40% of the total addressable market (TAM). Proper coverage requires identifying every relevant company and all the people within them that influence buying decisions, then ensuring your outreach connects with them in the right way.
“Start with clean, accurate data, carefully curated and segmented by ideal customer profile and market,” the report states. Use that to plan outreach, determining who to reach when and with what message.
Relevance – AI tools allow for personalization of every communication. Act on signals that indicate a buyer is ready to engage, and tailor content to their unique business challenges. And address aspects that are pertinent to all members of a buying team. According to the Sopro report, research shows a deal is abandoned in 40%-60% of purchase attempts because the buyer group couldn’t align.
“Automation gets you in the room. A human keeps you there,” said Lynn Lester, senior vice president of events and marketing for The Drum, a global publisher for the marketing and media industries. “The second a brand sounds real, trust starts to build.”
Consistency – This gets back to not getting discouraged if you don’t hear back from a prospect after some initial outreach. It’s not about sending more messages, the Sopro report states. It’s about sending messages with intent and ensuring they are relevant to the recipient, so when they do start evaluating vendors, your name is already top of mind.
“The brands that win are the ones that show up with value over time, not just when they need the sale,” Lester said.
Follow the Buyer’s Journey
Creating and providing content that tracks the buyer’s journey improves the customer experience. Highspot’s “Definitive  Guide to Sales Enablement” identifies five stages of the customer journey to keep in mind:
- Consideration – product information for comparison purposes
- Awareness – Prospects are identifying the problem they need to solve
- Purchase – Addressing informational needs of all members of a buying team
- Retention – Helping maximize product deployment and RoI
- Advocacy – Turning positive customer experiences into case studies
Allow each prospect to dictate what conversation you have with them. Rory Sadler, co-founder and CEO of Trumpet, which provides technology for B2B sales teams, is quoted in the Sopro report stating, “Buyers have never had more control over when conversations start, how they happen, and what they already know. Technology has flipped the dynamic, as buyers arrive informed and opinionated long before sales gets involved. The best vendors now focus less on selling and more on enabling, creating an environment where buyers feel confident, in control, and ready to move forward on their own terms.”
The success of a sales enablement strategy requires continuous measurement and complete alignment of sales goals with business objectives. It’s not just about more reps making quota – or coming closer to doing so. Yes, a high-performing sales enablement strategy will boost revenue, but it also increases reps’ efficiency, improves the customer experience and leads to greater job satisfaction and retention. It’s everybody’s job and it’s to everybody’s benefit.
