Sales effectiveness isn’t just a buzzword — it’s the difference between hitting quota and missing it. We recently surveyed dozens of sales and marketing leaders to understand what keeps them up at night when it comes to enabling their teams. The answers? They’re revealing, practical, and probably mirror what you’re dealing with right now.
The one superpower leaders wish their teams had
Imagine you could wave a magic wand and give your sales team one capability that would make the biggest difference in their performance. What would you choose?
We asked 60 sales and marketing leaders this exact question. The top responses clustered around three core needs:
- “Always find the right content instantly” – Leaders recognize that content accessibility directly impacts conversion rates
- “Know exactly what works with buyers” – Understanding which materials and approaches actually close deals
- “Personalize every pitch effortlessly” – Tailoring outreach without sacrificing speed or efficiency
One director from a financial services company with 10,000+ employees chose “Always find the right content instantly” and admitted their reps access materials through “Shared drives, email requests, and CRM system” — three disconnected sources creating friction at every step.
The content chaos nobody talks about
Content access is messy. Ask any sales rep where they go to find the latest pitch deck, and you’ll probably get three different answers (none of them correct).
Survey respondents revealed they’re using a patchwork of solutions:
- Shared drives
- Dedicated enablement platforms
- CRM systems
- Email requests
Some organizations use all four simultaneously. One VP at a technology company with 5,000+ employees reported their team accesses content through “Shared drives, CRM system, Dedicated enablement platform, and email requests” — and they’re still “Not confident” that reps use current versions.
Confidence levels tell the real story. When asked “How confident are you that reps are always using the most up-to-date version of content?”, the overwhelming majority answered “Somewhat confident” or “Not confident.” A Global Marketing Director at a pharmaceutical manufacturer with 10,000+ employees was brutally honest, responding, “Not confident” despite having both a dedicated enablement platform and shared drives.
Time spent searching adds up fast. The most common response was “2–5 hours” per week per rep. Multiply that across a 50-person sales team, and you’re losing 100–250 hours of selling time weekly. A Director of Sales Operations at an IT services company reported reps spending “6–10 hours” searching — that’s more than a full workday lost every week.
Takeaway for revenue leaders: Audit your current content infrastructure. If your team uses more than two systems to access materials, you’re creating unnecessary friction. Consider consolidating to a single source of truth that integrates with your existing CRM.
Training that sticks (or doesn’t)
Onboarding new sales hires is expensive. Survey data shows that most organizations report “3–6 months” for new reps to reach full productivity, with many taking “7–12 months” or even “More than a year.”
A Director of Sales Development at a software company with 5,000+ employees was one of the few bright spots, reporting “Less than 3 months” to productivity. Their secret? They rated their onboarding satisfaction as “Very satisfied” — a correlation that’s hard to ignore.
Memory decay is real. When asked “How often do reps forget or lose track of training after initial onboarding?”, the majority answered “Sometimes” or “Frequently.” A CMO at a mental health care organization with 10,000+ employees chose “Frequently” and reported reps taking “7–12 months” to reach productivity — the training isn’t sticking, and it’s costing them.
Satisfaction with onboarding varies wildly. Responses ranged from “Very satisfied” to “Dissatisfied,” with most landing on “Somewhat satisfied” or “Neutral.” A VP at a commercial bank was “Somewhat satisfied” despite reps taking “3–6 months” to productivity and “Sometimes” forgetting their training — there’s clear room for improvement.
Takeaway for revenue leaders: Track time-to-productivity as a key metric and correlate it with your onboarding satisfaction scores. If reps are taking longer than six months to become productive, your onboarding process needs restructuring — not just tweaking.
Coaching gaps nobody has time to fill
Sales managers are stretched thin. Survey responses show most managers spend “2–5 hours” per week on coaching, with some reporting “Less than 2 hours” and a few managing “6–10 hours.”
A Vice President at a pharmaceutical company with 10,000+ employees reported managers spending “6–10 hours” weekly on coaching and rated their methods as “Somewhat effective” in preparing reps for real customer conversations. That’s significant time investment with mediocre returns.
Effectiveness of current coaching methods is another pain point. The majority of leaders rated their coaching as “Somewhat effective,” with very few claiming “Very effective” preparation for customer conversations. A Senior Director at a software company rated coaching “Very effective” but noted managers only spend “2–5 hours” weekly — suggesting quality matters more than quantity.
One Chief Revenue Officer at a sports organization was candid: managers spend “2–5 hours” coaching, methods are “Somewhat effective,” and reps still take “3–6 months” to reach productivity. The coaching time isn’t translating to faster readiness.
Takeaway for revenue leaders: Evaluate coaching effectiveness separately from time spent. If managers are investing hours without seeing results, the methodology needs to change. Consider roleplay tools that let reps practice on their own time, freeing managers to focus on strategic coaching conversations.
What leaders want from AI (and what they don’t)
AI is having its moment, but leaders are surprisingly practical about what they actually need from it. When asked “Which AI-driven capabilities would be most valuable for your sales team?”, three options dominated:
- Roleplay and coaching feedback at scale – The most frequently selected option
- Instant answers to content questions – Reducing search time to zero
- Rapid creation of training materials – Keeping pace with product and market changes
A Director of Product Marketing at a software company selected all three: “roleplay and coaching feedback at scale, Instant answers to content questions, and Rapid creation of training materials.” They understand these capabilities work together — finding content faster, creating training more efficiently, and coaching more consistently.
Analytics that tie enablement to revenue outcomes topped many wish lists. When asked “How valuable would it be to have analytics that can attribute sales training and content use to revenue outcomes?”, the majority answered “Extremely valuable” or “Moderately valuable.”
A Director of Sales Enablement at a software company with 1,000+ employees rated revenue attribution analytics as “Extremely valuable” and selected “roleplay and coaching feedback at scale, Rapid creation of training materials, and Instant answers to content questions” as their top AI needs. They see the connection: better insights lead to better decisions about where to invest enablement resources.
Takeaway for revenue leaders: Don’t implement AI just to say you’re using AI. Focus on capabilities that solve specific problems your team faces today. If reps can’t find content, start there. If coaching is inconsistent, address that first.
The content tracking black hole
Tracking content effectiveness is a mystery for most organizations. When asked “How well does your organization currently track which content is most effective in driving sales?”, responses clustered around “Not well at all” and “Somewhat well.”
A Vice President at a pharmaceutical manufacturing company reported tracking content effectiveness “Somewhat well” and spending “Less than 2 hours” weekly on content search — they’ve found efficiency, but they’re still guessing about what works.
One Director from a technology company was blunt: they track content effectiveness “Not well at all,” reps spend “2–5 hours” searching weekly, and confidence in using current versions is only “Somewhat confident.” Without tracking, they can’t improve any of these metrics.
Even organizations with dedicated enablement platforms struggle. A VP of Sales Operations at a financial services company uses a dedicated platform but still tracks effectiveness only “Somewhat well” and reports “2–5 hours” of weekly search time per rep.
Takeaway for revenue leaders: Implement content analytics before creating more content. If you can’t measure what’s working, you’re wasting resources creating materials that might never get used or might actively hurt conversion rates. See: Content engagement insights CMOs can use to prioritize, plan, align, and prove marketing value.
Marketing and sales alignment starts here
Marketing creates materials. Sales uses them (or doesn’t). The gap between these activities costs revenue.
Survey responses reveal this disconnect clearly. A Senior Director at a baking manufacturing company reported dissatisfaction with onboarding, reps taking “3–6 months” to productivity, and content tracking “Not well at all.” Marketing doesn’t know what sales needs, and sales doesn’t have what buyers want.
One Global Head of Sales Operations at a financial services company selected “Know exactly what works with buyers” as their desired superpower and chose “roleplay and coaching feedback at scale” as their most valuable AI capability. They rated revenue attribution analytics as “Extremely valuable” — they understand that alignment requires data.
Takeaway for revenue leaders: Create a closed feedback loop between marketing and sales. Marketing should see which content sales actually uses and which materials drive deals forward. Sales should communicate content gaps in real time, not during quarterly business reviews. See: 7 quick ways to align sales and marketing for GTM success.
Three actions you can take this week
Survey insights mean nothing without action. Based on what revenue leaders told us, here are three concrete steps you can take immediately:
- Audit your content access points. Map out every place reps currently go to find sales materials. If the number is more than two, you’re creating unnecessary complexity. A Director at an IT services company using four different sources admitted spending “6–10 hours” weekly searching — that’s the cost of fragmentation.
- Calculate your content search tax. Multiply the hours your reps spend searching by your team size and average hourly cost. A team of 30 reps spending three hours weekly at $75/hour costs you $292,500 annually in lost productivity. Now you have a number to justify change.
- Survey your own team. Ask the same questions we posed: How confident are they in content currency? How effective is coaching? How long until new hires are productive? Compare your results to the survey benchmarks. If you’re worse than “Somewhat satisfied” or “Somewhat effective,” you know where to focus.
Your next move
If you’re a sales or marketing leader wrestling with content chaos, inconsistent coaching, long ramp times, or missing analytics, set up a chat with our team of enablement experts. The patterns we’ve seen in survey responses often point to solutions that aren’t immediately obvious.
Schedule a 30-minute conversation to review your specific situation. Come prepared with your honest answers to the survey questions, and we’ll share what similar organizations have done to address comparable challenges. You’ll walk away with at least one actionable insight — and possibly a roadmap for fixing what’s broken in your enablement approach.
