When we brought together enablement leaders for SBI's Q3 Enablement Growth Forum, one theme rang loud and clear: the old playbook won’t cut it anymore.
Deal cycles are stretching. Pipelines are leaner. CEOs are scrutinizing every investment with a closer eye on productivity and revenue contribution. In this environment, enablement isn’t a “nice to have” function; it’s in the direct line of sight of the CEO and board.
That’s both the challenge and the opportunity. Our Growth Forum focused on two levers that will make or break enablement’s credibility in 2026: reframing Sales Kickoff (SKO) and putting artificial intelligence (AI) into practice where it delivers measurable outcomes.
SKO: From Pep Rally to Launchpad
The consensus was clear and the message blunt: if SKO is still a string of keynotes and product parades, you’re wasting precious time and budget.
Enablement leaders shared a new vision of SKO as a launchpad for execution:
- Fewer keynotes, more interactive workshops, collaboration, and role-plays.
- Choose-your-own breakouts tailored by role, segment, and skill gap.
- Explicit artifacts like objection handling aids, executive call plans, and account strategies with inspection rubrics to ensure quality.
- A sustainment cadence lasting 90+ days: regional roadshows, weekly clinics, peer certifications, and manager-led reinforcement.
And the “no-regret” content pillars were clear: qualification and forecast discipline (MEDDICC/MEDDPICC), discovery that earns executive access, account planning, and multi-threading. Several leaders stressed that they must shift SKO away from feature-based product pushes toward value messaging modeled through customer panels, ideally with users, VPs, and C-suite executives showing how to land executive conversations.
In short, SKO must solve the commercial reality your reps are facing right now: skill gaps, stalled deals, skeptical executives, and fierce competition for limited budgets.
AI in Enablement: The Force Multiplier
The second major theme of the growth forum was AI. Not as a shiny object, but as a practical enabler.
Leaders shared where AI is already working today:
- Content velocity: enablement and learning and development teams doubling output by moving from traditional content creation to leveraging tools like Mindsmith, Writer, and Claude. They're replacing bloated e-learning with 15-minute AI-driven modules and dynamic skill development.
- Coaching and compliance: Gong AI Playbooks and scorecards tied directly to methodology adoption and dashboards by leader with CRM-linked visibility into deal health.
- Skills practice: AI-powered role-plays embedded into an LMS (like WorkRamp) or using dedicated tools like Second Nature and Yoodli, with Synthesia generating micro-content for just-in-time training and coaching.
- Knowledge access: Tools like Glean unify access to resources on Highspot, SharePoint, and wikis to give representatives answers instantly.
Emerging patterns are also promising, including custom AI agents for research and proposal scaffolds, as well as platform consolidation where vendors like Gong expand from CI into forecasting and coaching.
But the group was also pragmatic: scaling AI comes with a risk. Data quality, CRM hygiene, and privacy guardrails matter. Without clear definitions, governance, and quality gates, AI can become a source of “white noise.” Adoption remains uneven, especially among seasoned representatives who need visible proof that AI will save them time.
From Training to Habit: The Manager’s Role
One of the most provocative debates was around ownership and accountability. Who ensures that the skills introduced at SKO or through AI pilots actually stick?
The answer was clear: Frontline managers.
Leaders agreed that managers must serve as the bridge from training to habit. That means:
- Running weekly 1:1s anchored in AI-augmented templates, reviewing pipeline risk, inspecting AI-generated artifacts, running skill labs, and capturing commitments.
- Turning call coaching into a discipline, guided by rubrics with clear pass bars (e.g. ≥4/5).
- Using scorecards to track not only activity, but also quality, so coaching translates into better execution.
Without manager accountability, SKOs fade and AI initiatives stall. With managers reinforcing consistently, new behaviors become habits that scale.
Measurement and ROI: No More White Noise
The Forum was unanimous on one point: if we can’t measure it, we can’t defend it.
Enablement leaders highlighted the need to track leading indicators like engagement and certification completion, AI artifacts per week, and inspection coverage, as well as business outcomes like ramp time, cycle time, win rates, and pipeline per representative.
The advice was compelling: instrument AI-assisted work in CRM and LMS, run A/B tests or holdouts, and define kill-switches to stop low-quality outputs before they erode credibility.
What You Should Do
Enablement is entering 2026 with a mandate: prove commercial impact or risk irrelevance.
This means you must:
- Reframe SKO as a launchpad for execution, not an event.
- Deploy AI in practice where it delivers measurable time savings and insight, not as a distraction.
- Equip managers to turn training into habit through accountability and inspection.
- Instrument ROI to prove outcomes that CEOs and boards care about.
When you get this right, you’ll not just survive CEO scrutiny, you’ll become an indispensable enablement growth engine.
Join Our Next Enablement Growth Forum
We’ll continue this dialogue at the Q4 Enablement Growth Forum on December 2, 2025, at 12:00 pm ET. This event is exclusively for senior enablement leaders.
Request your seat here
