Sales enablement: conceptualizing and developing a dynamic capability
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ORIGINAL EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
Sales enablement: conceptualizing and developing a dynamic capability Robert M. Peterson 1 & Avinash Malshe 2 & Scott B. Friend 3
&
Howard Dover 4
Received: 7 October 2019 / Accepted: 13 October 2020 # Academy of Marketing Science 2020
Abstract Practitioners have touted sales enablement as a prominent solution to the challenges of the evolving buying and selling environments; however, empirical research on this concept is nonexistent in extant literature. Furthermore, while the pervasiveness of sales domain scholarship suggests that salespeople will continue to influence sales practice through expanded opportunities, firms must also blend the art and science of engaging customers in a profitable and sustainable manner. To address these scholarly demands, the authors designed an empirical study that conceptualizes sales enablement and offers an in-depth perspective on how organizations enable their sales force. The authors employ an ethnographic inquiry comprising various data sources, including 41 depth interviews with professionals responsible for sales enablement architecture and/or execution. Findings offer a multidimensional conceptualization of sales enablement and introduce a process model which explicates how firms develop sales enablement as a dynamic capability. This study expands current knowledge by offering foundational insights and advanced theories of sales enablement, while also providing strategic implications for sales organizations responding to evolving customer demands and selling environments. Keywords Sales enablement . Resource-based view . Dynamic capabilities . Organizational learning . Change management . Technology adoption . Ethnographic Research
Introduction Organizations largely provide a collection of resources and support activities for their salespeople; however, the mere collection of resources directed at salespeople does not automatically transform into a coordinated, cohesive, synergistic, and evolving system needed to work with rapidly evolving customers. Firms are thus increasingly embracing sales
enablement to help their sales organizations align distributed firm resources, optimize customer interactions, and reduce uncoordinated sales support activities that hinder revenue development (Gartner 2019). When firms efficiently connect the sales force and available internal resources, they can profit in the form of enhanced ability to learn via knowledge transfers, desirable customer responses, and improved business performance (Dewsnap and Jobber 2002; Guenzi and Troilo 2006).
Stephanie Noble served as Area Editor for this article. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-020-00754-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Scott B. Friend [email protected]
1
College of Business, Northern Illinois University, 740 Garden Road, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA
2
Opus College of Business, University of St. Thomas, 1000 LaSalle Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403,
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