Sales enablement leaders are facing an increasingly complex and evolving landscape. The modern buyer’s journey has evolved, proficiency gaps persist, and AI’s role in sales continues to expand. In a recent webinar hosted by SBI in collaboration with Allego, Ray Makela, Managing Director of Talent Development at SBI, and Deniz Olcay, VP of Marketing at Allego, shared data-driven insights from SBI’s 2024 Revenue Enablement Effectives Survey and Allego’s State of Sales Enablement Report 2025. The conversation outlined the challenges of today’s buying environment, sales enablement maturity, and the transformative role of AI in enablement.
Watch the webinar, Unlocking Sales Enablement Success in 2025: Trends, Insights, and Best Practices, to hear the full conversation.
Makela and Olcay kicked off the discussion with a macro-level view of the evolving sales landscape, emphasizing that buying is more complicated now than ever. The State of Sales Enablement Report found that 78% of buyers now prefer self-service and digital-first engagement, and the average deal cycle requires 12 touchpoints, an increase from nine touchpoints last year.
This shift means sales teams must be hyper-personalized in their outreach and enablement teams must equip sales reps with the right tools to stand out. Olcay noted that enablement is required to focus on strategic alignment across multiple channels to meet buyer expectations.
Makela discussed SBI’s recent research, which uncovered three main sources of buyer friction in the sales process: supplier friction (caused by complexity from the seller), buyer friction (caused by internal decision-making roadblocks), and environmental friction (caused by market shifts and changing priorities).
Enablement’s role in reducing friction is critical. Organizations that successfully align enablement’s efforts with the buying journey see improved outcomes. However, planning and strategy in enablement remains a challenge. As Makela noted, while technology adoption and process optimization have improved, many organizations are still struggling with AI integration and aligning training initiatives with business goals.
The webinar featured a live poll asking attendees to identify their biggest enablement challenges. The poll results aligned closely with Allego’s research, where the top five challenges included:
Makela highlighted four things top-performing organizations do differently:
AI is fundamentally reshaping enablement, allowing teams to scale and personalize learning, Olcay explained. According to Allego’s findings:
AI-powered tools can automate repetitive tasks like quiz creation and content curation, freeing up enablement leaders to focus on strategic initiatives. For example, Allego’s AI simulations provide reps with real-time, scenario-based practice, improving skills before live sales interactions. Companies using this approach have seen an up to 15% boost in sales performance.
Enablement’s success ultimately depends on its ability to prove value to leadership. The most effective teams track metrics such as:
Makela explained that top-preforming teams are more likely to track both leading and lagging indicators, enabling them to demonstrate clear ROI.
Makela and Olcay concluded the webinar with a call to action for enablement leaders, emphasizing the need to think like buyers by aligning enablement efforts with how today’s buyers prefer to engage. They also highlighted the importance of leveraging AI strategically to automate low-value tasks, scale coaching, and drive insights. Finally, they stressed the importance of proving value with data by intentionally measuring and communicating enablement’s impact to gain executive buy-in.
Review the webinar, Unlocking Sales Enablement Success in 2025: Trends, Insights, and Best Practices, to hear the full conversation!