Frontline sales managers play a critical role in translating corporate strategy into field execution. Yet, despite their widespread impact, these managers often operate without the training, tools, and guidance necessary to succeed. A recent webinar in partnership with the Revenue Enablement Society, in collaboration with SBI, unpacked the latest findings highlighting this training gap.
The conversation was led by Elisabeth Marino, President of the Revenue Enablement Society, alongside Ray Makela, Managing Director of Talent Development, and Dave Lingebach, Senior Research Manager, from SBI. Together, they shared the results of a study focused on frontline manager enablement.
While the sales enablement function continues to mature, the data reveals serious gaps in how organizations prepare frontline leaders to succeed.
The Top-Seller to Frontline Manager Oversight
Although over 70% of companies provide some form of training to individual contributors, only 39% have dedicated enablement programs in place for their frontline managers. Even fewer reported that their training was specifically tailored to the unique responsibilities of this role, including performance coaching, deal inspection, pipeline management, and team development.
Additionally, most organizations admitted that frontline managers are often promoted from high-performing sales roles with minimal guidance or structured onboarding. As Ray points out, this creates a significant risk of leadership failure at the front lines, where coaching and execution are critical levers for performance.
Dave highlights the risks that these promotions bring, emphasizing that the skills required to succeed as a sales rep are entirely different than those necessary to lead or coach a team.
How Can We Measure the Effectiveness of Enablement?
Despite these challenges, the credibility of enablement as a function appears to be growing. More than 80% of organizations now have a formal enablement leader in place, and over half report directly into either the CRO or COO, a sign of increasing strategic influence.
Yet, there’s a clear disconnect between enablement's growing visibility and its measurable impact. Just 38% of organizations said they consistently measure the ROI of enablement programs for frontline managers, and many cited difficulties isolating performance outcomes at the manager level. As a result, Elisabeth explains, enablement often lacks the data needed to secure additional investment or evolve its programming with confidence.
However, top-performing enablement functions measure success by tracking more metrics, like sales rep productivity and quota attainment. Dave highlights the value in measuring both leading and lagging indicators, as it paints a full picture of enablement impact.
The Role of AI in Frontline Manager Enablement
The role of AI in sales management emerged as a timely theme. While AI is often discussed in the context of selling motions and customer engagement, the research shows it has an increasingly relevant role in enabling frontline leaders.
Just 26% of respondents reported actively using AI tools to support frontline managers. However, those who do are deploying AI in ways that enhance coaching efficiency and pipeline visibility. Dave explored a few examples, including tools that flag deals at risk based on rep behavior patterns, and AI-driven coaching prompts that help managers tailor feedback to individual team members.
The biggest obstacle to adoption, as Ray points out, is a lack of confidence in how to incorporate AI into existing workflows. This signals an opportunity for enablement to play a more proactive role in AI education and change management for sales leadership.
AI Can Help the CRM Do More Than Store Data
A recurring pain point for both reps and managers is the CRM. The study showed that while most organizations mandate CRM usage, less than half believe their CRM tools help managers effectively coach or forecast. AI has the potential to change that, but only when paired with well-defined strategies and a solid data foundation.
Commercial leaders today are interested in CRM integration that provides real-time insights, not just data storage. Companies experimenting with AI-driven CRM platforms are beginning to see improvements in forecast accuracy and deal velocity, especially when those systems can provide next-step recommendations or detect coaching gaps in rep activity.
Still, just 22% of organizations rated their CRM-AI integration as mature, with the majority saying they're in early stages of exploration. Dave highlights that this presents an opportunity for enablement and operations teams to shape the roadmap and ensure technology investments are aligned with frontline needs.
The Mandate for Frontline Manager Enablement
Frontline sales managers remain one of the most influential and underserved roles in the sales organization. As sales enablement continues to gain strategic traction, there’s a clear opportunity to expand its impact by prioritizing manager-specific programs, aligning AI and CRM tools with real coaching workflows, and holding these efforts accountable to measurable business outcomes.
Download the research report, Closing the Training Gap for Frontline Sales Managers.
