Why Your Sales Enablement Plan Isn’t Working—And How to Fix It
Too often companies treat sales enablement as just another training program. They throw content at reps, schedule a few coaching sessions, and hope for the best. But without a well-structured sales enablement plan, efforts fall flat—leaving teams unprepared, misaligned, and missing quota.
I recently joined Paul Nolan on the Sales and Marketing Management podcast to set the record straight. We talked about what sales enablement really is—and what it’s not. It’s not just training. It’s not just technology. It’s a strategic function that connects sales, marketing, and customer success to drive revenue.
The key to making it work? A structured, repeatable sales enablement plan. One that gets reps up to speed faster, keeps them engaged, and helps them close more deals. In this post, I break down exactly how to build one that delivers real results. If you’d like to listen to the interview, tap play below.
The Sales and Marketing Management Podcast: A Closer Look at Sales Enablement
The 5 Essential Steps to Building a High-Impact Sales Enablement Plan
Sales enablement isn’t just sales training and content. It’s about giving reps the tools and support they need to sell more effectively. Yet many companies take a scattered approach—launching training sessions or adding technology without a clear strategy. That’s a mistake. Enablement needs to be structured, repeatable, and tied to business goals. These five steps will help you build a plan that actually drives revenue.
Step 1: Define Your Sales Enablement Goals
Before rolling out a sales enablement plan, you need to answer one critical question: What are you trying to achieve? In many cases, companies launch enablement programs without clear goals. They invest in training, content, and technology—only to struggle with low adoption and unclear ROI.
A strong sales enablement plan starts with measurable, business-driven objectives. What problem are you solving? Are you trying to shorten ramp time for new hires? Improve rep productivity? Increase win rates? Without a clear target, enablement becomes just another initiative that gets lost in the shuffle.
Set goals that tie directly to sales performance. For example:
- Reduce new hire ramp time by 20%—so reps start selling faster.
- Increase win rates by 15%—by improving content access and messaging consistency.
- Boost content adoption by 30%—to ensure reps use the right materials at the right time.
Sales enablement is a direct revenue driver. The job market reflects this shift. In fact, “sales enablement specialist” was recently one of the fastest-growing job titles on LinkedIn. More companies recognize its impact, but to see real results, you need a structured plan with defined outcomes.
Once your goals are set, everything else—training, content, coaching, and technology—falls into place. But before diving in, map out your entire sales process—from awareness to consideration, decision, and expansion. Then connect the objectives, team members, and outcomes to each stage. Start with a complete view of your process, then work on the areas of pain/focus. Don’t try to solve everything at once.
Discover the Latest Trends in Sales Enablement
Want to know how top organizations are approaching sales enablement in 2025? The State of Sales Enablement Report reveals key insights, industry benchmarks, and best practices from leading companies. Get the data you need to refine your sales enablement plan and drive real revenue impact. Download the Report Now
Step 2: Identify the Core Components of Your Sales Enablement Plan
Sales enablement isn’t one thing. It’s a combination of processes that help reps ramp up, engage buyers, and close deals. If you want your sales enablement plan to succeed, you need to focus on the right components.
At Allego, we break sales enablement into five essential areas:
- Onboarding and Training – New hires need to ramp up fast. The sooner they’re confident in their messaging, the sooner they start selling.
- Product and Process Launches – Reps constantly face changes—new products, new markets, new messaging. Enablement helps them keep up.
- Content and Messaging – The right content, at the right time, for the right conversation. No more digging through outdated decks.
- Digital Selling – Buyers expect a seamless, modern experience. Tools like digital sales rooms help reps personalize engagement and accelerate deals.
- Coaching and Continuous Improvement – Training isn’t one-and-done. AI-driven coaching and real-time feedback help reps refine their approach.
Often, companies focus on just one or two of these areas and call it enablement. That’s not enough. Reps need all five to succeed. And they need them delivered in a way that fits into their daily workflow—not as an extra task.
Step 3: Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration
Sales enablement isn’t just a sales function. It’s a revenue function. That means marketing, sales, and customer success all need to be aligned. If these teams aren’t working together, reps get mixed messages, buyers get a disjointed experience, and deals slow down—or worse, disappear.
This is where revenue enablement comes in. The industry is shifting away from siloed sales enablement toward a more holistic approach. Sales, technical sales engineers, marketing, and customer success teams all play a role in driving revenue—so enablement has to support all of them.
Here’s what this looks like in practice:
✅ Marketing creates content that sales actually uses—because it’s easy to find, relevant, and proven to work.
✅ Sales and customer success teams stay on-message—so the buyer’s experience is seamless from first pitch to renewal.
✅ Leaders track what’s working—and use data to improve training, content, and messaging over time.
Enablement efforts often fall apart because these teams aren’t on the same page. Marketing pushes content that sales ignores. Sales struggles to find the right messaging. Customer success gets left out entirely. That’s why enablement needs to be the bridge—ensuring alignment, consistency, and results.
At Allego, we see this every day. The most successful organizations don’t just “do” sales enablement. They enable their entire revenue team. If your plan doesn’t connect these functions, you’re missing a huge opportunity.
Step 4: Leverage Technology to Scale Enablement Efforts
Technology should make enablement easier, not more complicated. But too often, companies start with tools instead of strategy. Tech isn’t the solution—it’s the accelerator. You need a solid sales enablement plan first, with clear processes and objectives. Only then can technology help you scale what’s already working. Otherwise, you’re just adding complexity.
When you do add tools and technology, make sure you add the right ones. Right now, sales teams juggle between 5 and 13 different tech platforms, creating friction, slowing them down, and leading to low adoption. With a strong enablement platform, however, you eliminate that problem.
As you evaluate sales enablement platforms, look for a comprehensive solution that does three key things:
- Deliver training and coaching in the flow of work—so reps don’t waste time searching for answers.
- Make content easy to find and use—so reps always have the right messaging for the right buyer.
- Provide data-driven insights—so managers know what’s working and can continuously improve.
This is exactly why we take a unified approach to enablement. Instead of forcing reps to jump between systems, we bring learning, content, and coaching into one platform. AI surfaces the right materials at the right time. Digital sales rooms make it easier for buyers to engage. And everything is built to fit into a rep’s daily workflow—not add extra steps.
Sales enablement should be a competitive advantage, not a burden. The right technology helps teams scale enablement without adding complexity. If your reps are spending more time managing tools than selling, it’s time to rethink your approach.
Step 5: Measure Success and Optimize Over Time
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. Yet one of the biggest challenges in sales enablement is proving its impact. Companies roll out training, content, and coaching—but then struggle to connect those efforts to real business outcomes.
Here’s the reality: Reps spend only about one-third of their time actually selling. The rest? They’re stuck in meetings, searching for content, or navigating internal processes. A strong sales enablement plan should focus on giving that time back—and you need data to prove it’s working.
Start by tracking key metrics:
✅ Ramp time: How quickly are new hires getting up to speed?
✅ Content adoption: Are reps using the materials provided? If not, why?
✅ Sales productivity: How much time do reps spend selling vs. doing admin work?
✅ Win rates: Are deals closing faster and more consistently?
At Allego, we’ve seen that companies that track these numbers can pinpoint what’s working—and fix what’s not. Enablement isn’t a one-time project. It’s a continuous process of refining, adjusting, and improving based on real data.
If your sales enablement plan doesn’t include measurement and optimization, you’re flying blind. The best teams don’t just enable reps—they fine-tune their approach over time to drive real revenue impact.
A Strong Sales Enablement Plan Is a Competitive Advantage
A sales enablement plan isn’t just about training or content—it’s a strategic function that drives revenue. But to prove its impact, you need to start with a baseline of key metrics. If you don’t know where you are today, you can’t measure improvement.
The smartest approach? Start small. Test your enablement strategy with a pilot group and compare their results to a control group. Track metrics like ramp time, content adoption, and win rates. Once you see what’s working, scale your plan across the organization.
The more you can tie enablement to revenue impact, the more strategic it becomes. When you can show direct results—higher win rates, shorter sales cycles, and improved productivity—executives see enablement not as a support function, but as a key revenue driver.
If your sales enablement plan isn’t delivering real business impact, it’s time to rethink it.
About the author: Deniz Olcay is vice president of marketing at Allego, the market-leading revenue enablement platform. His career has always revolved around sales. Those experiences have given Deniz a deep understanding of the challenges involved in equipping sellers with the knowledge and tools necessary for success in a digital-first world.
Discover the Latest Trends in Sales Enablement
Want to know how top organizations are approaching sales enablement in 2025? The State of Sales Enablement Report reveals key insights, industry benchmarks, and best practices from leading companies. Get the data you need to refine your sales enablement plan and drive real revenue impact. Download the Report Now
