1. https://www.brainshark.com/sites/default/files/cso-insights-sales-enablement-report-2018_0.pdf

2. LinkedIn keyword search

3. Google Trends and Google AdWords

4. https://www.csoinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/09/2018-Sales-Talent-Study-1.pdf

5. https://www.highspot.com/resource/state-of-sales-enablement-2018/

6. https://www.vipunet.com/en/blog/state-of-inbound-2018-summary

7.7. https://www.millerheimangroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2018-Sales-Operations-Optimization-Study.pdf

8. https://chiefmartec.com/2018/04/marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-2018/

9. https://a.sfdcstatic.com/content/dam/www/ocms/assets/pdf/misc/state-of-sales-report-salesforce.pdf

10. https://www.gartner.com/ngw/globalassets/en/information-technology/documents/insights/100-data-and-analytics-predictions.pdf

11. https://aragonresearch.com/the-aragon-research-globe-for-sales-engagement-platforms-2016/

12. https://www.gartner.com/imagesrv/summits/docs/na/customer-360/C360_2011_brochure_FINAL.pdf

13.13. https://www.statista.com/statistics/510333/worldwide-public-cloud-software-as-a-service/

14. https://www.slideshare.net/Salesforce/the-future-of-sales-109140449

61% of companies now have a dedicated sales enablement function (up from 59.2% in 2017), while an additional 8.5% of companies have plans to create one in the coming year.1

Trivia: In 2013, only 19.3% companies had a sales enablement person/ program or function in their structure.1

The % is much higher in case of the most critical and disrupting segments, such as: Telecommunications and Technology (>90.0%) Transportation, logistics and distribution (81.0%) Media and publishing (78.6%), and banking (75.0%)1

Organisations with a dedicated sales enablement function showed an improvement of 22.7% in quota achievement when compared to organisations with no defined sales enablement function.1

14.5% increase in win rates was reported by companies having a proper sales enablement function.1

There are over 200K+ people on LinkedIn with “sales enablement” included within their profile.2

Attrition rates in sales organisations reached a historical low at 16%.4

64.1% of the sales organizations are planning to grow by adding net new salespeople over the next 12 months.4

Oil and gas (22.2%) and manufacturing (33.3%) are the two industries which are still lagging behind in having a dedicated sales enablement program.1

Only 23% buyers ranked salespeople as one of their top 3 preferred resources for solving a business problem.1

55% sales professionals reported that their sales performance was being negatively impacted by the increasing level of sales process complexity.5

Getting response from the prospects and engaging multiple decision makers topped the chart for the tasks which have become tougher in last 2-3 years for salespeople.6

Only 16.4% of sales leaders said that they are confident in the sales talent they have, to succeed in the future.4

Sales organizations are over-reliant on their top talent with the top fifth bringing in almost 60% of revenues.4

70.2% buyers said they prefer to define their business issues, needs and requirements before choosing to engage with a salesperson.1

44.2% buyers said they also defined the solution before talking to salespeople, while 20.2% said they would prefer to engage with salespeople only to lock down the details just before making their buying decision.1

Sales training services (68.1%) followed by sales tools (58.5%) were the top two revenue grossing sales enablement services as per the industry demands.1

38.9% sales enablement teams applied a formal approach to cross-functional collaboration (doubled from 19.4% last year), and in total 69.4% collaborated with other teams instead of working as silo functions.1

93% professionals believe that sales enablement needs maximum focus for improvement in the coming two years.7

By 2020, a triple-digit growth is expected in areas such as predictive intelligence (118%), lead-to-cash process automation (115%), and artificial intelligence (139%) in transforming the sales processes.9

By 2020, 25% of organizations using a sales performance management (SPM) solution will leverage advanced analytics for optimizing their sales compensation plans.10

By 2021, sales engagement platforms market is expected to be worth US$5 bn signalling a booming market for sales tech.11

By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with the sellers without interacting with a human.12

80% of sales and marketing leaders say that they already use chatbots in their CX or plan to do so by 2020.13

78% of brands say they have already implemented or are planning to implement artificial intelligence and virtual reality by 2020 to better serve customers.13

By 2020, AI adoption by sales teams is forecasted to grow 139%.9

MarTech landscape experienced a growth of 27% in comparison to last year.8

Google search for ‘Sales Technology’ was 49% more in comparison to sales enablement.3

55.7% sales organisations have started deploying predictive assessments in the hiring process and another 13.4% are planning to do the same in the next 12 months.4

76% of teams using AI have increased their salespeople staff since 2015 and the hiring trend is expected to increase.14

WoM (through referrals, social media etc.) and customer references topped the chart at 55% and 46% respectively as the major influencers for buyers for a sales software purchase- salespeople ranked lowest at 22% in the chart.6

62.3% of organizations use only lagging indicators to judge the individual sales performance instead of leveraging analytics or quota attainment metrics, offering a view of what has happened, but not how or whether it will happen again.4