If you’re a sales leader at a growing company, you’ll eventually get to the point where you need to start thinking about sales enablement to help your team achieve their full potential. When you have a small team, it’s easy to jump around and help 1:1 as needed, but as your sales team scales up, any weak point gets magnified. If you don’t have good hiring practices, processes, onboarding, communication systems, hand-offs, etc.– these problems scale with you and hurt the effectiveness of your team.
Sales enablement is about creating the conditions for your sales team to sell more effectively by continuously improving the processes, training, knowledge, and tools needed to sell more effectively and at the same time removing barriers and friction in your system that slow people down or cause issues.
For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), a robust sales enablement strategy can be the difference between hitting revenue goals and falling behind. Modern buyers value speed, convenience, knowledgeable help, and friendly service, and 80% of customers prioritize these factors – all of which sales enablement can improve. Research shows that companies with strong sales enablement see significantly better outcomes: for example, firms with dedicated enablement achieve ~49% win rates vs 42.5%, and best-in-class organizations enjoy 50% higher quota attainment and 3× greater revenue growth than peers. These benefits are especially critical for SMBs that often have limited resources and need efficient, repeatable sales processes across industries.
We’re digging deeper into the success factors that make a game-changing sales enablement program. If you haven’t already, we’d suggest reading “How to Build a Sales Enablement Program” first so you know what we’re talking about.
The first step of our framework is so important, especially if you’re in charge of growing sales at a SMB or startup where sales enablement is a new concept, we thought we’d make a longer post to get you started.
Achieve Alignment — Win the Internal Sale First
Without internal alignment, even the most talented sales team will struggle to hit their targets consistently.
The harsh reality is that most sales enablement initiatives fail not because of bad salespeople, but because of misaligned internal systems. When marketing creates leads that sales doesn’t want, when product builds features that don’t address real customer pain points, and when executives change priorities every quarter without explanation, your sales team becomes the unfortunate middleman trying to make sense of the chaos.
Alignment means rallying your organization’s executives, departments, and individual contributors around common goals and metrics. It’s about orchestrating, turning chaos into a shared rhythm.
What Alignment Looks Like in Practice
Organizational Readiness: Getting Committed Buy-In and Aligning Interests
Too many companies mistake a casual “sounds good” in a leadership meeting for genuine executive buy-in. Real organizational readiness means leaders are willing to invest time, money, and political capital in making sales enablement succeed.
What it actually looks like:
- Your top sales leader and the CEO should have open and regular communication
- The CEO regularly asks about sales enablement metrics in leadership meetings
- Budget is intentionally allocated to accelerate and amplify the sales team
- Executives participate in sales enablement planning, not just approvals
First steps: Create an “Executive Sponsor Charter” that clearly defines what success looks like, what resources are committed, and how progress will be measured. Have each C-level leader sign it. When priorities compete for attention later (and they will), you’ll have a document that clarifies what was agreed upon.
Another strategy might be to ask for some specific participation from the CEO for the first 6 months to get the program started. Getting the CEO’s commitment to spend some time and attention on your new sales enablement program can be one powerful way to signal to the organization that the initiative matters. This can help increase participation across departments.
Departmental Collaboration: Breaking Down Silos
A common story in growing companies is sales blames marketing for “bad leads,” marketing blames sales for “not following up properly,” and product blames both for “not understanding the roadmap.” Meanwhile, prospects get confused messages and inconsistent experiences.
What real collaboration looks like:
- Shared definitions of qualified leads that both sales and marketing agree to
- Regular cross-functional meetings focused on problem-solving, not shifting blame
- Integrated tech stacks that share data seamlessly
First steps: Implement “Service Level Agreements” (SLAs) between departments or create your own system for shared performance metrics you can work together on transparently. Marketing commits to delivering X qualified leads per month, sales commits to contacting leads within Y hours, and customer success commits to onboarding new clients within Z days. Make these agreements visible to leadership and review them monthly to refine and iterate.
Another idea is to make it easy. Look for simple ways to increase communication and build relationships naturally in your existing systems when possible, for example a client made a shared Slack channel called #revenue-team that included sales, marketing, and customer success. Every week, they shared one win and one challenge. This simple practice improved cross-department empathy and collaboration within 30 days.
Team Dynamics: The Hard Conversations
Building a strong team unit with a high-performance culture is one of the most critical aspects of alignment. Aligning the interest of the people on the team with each other and the organization requires creating processes and systems that create a constant flow of information and feedback. Many sales leaders avoid difficult conversations about underperformance, hoping things will improve on their own. Meanwhile, top performers get frustrated watching colleagues coast without consequences. Hiring practices to find and bring on people who will improve the team’s success, and just as importantly, removing people quickly who are not working out is critical.
What Structured Team Management Looks Like:
- Clear, measurable performance expectations set from day one
- Regular performance reviews based on quantitative data and 360 feedback from others
- Predetermined improvement plans with specific timelines and support
Something to try: Create a “Performance Framework” that defines what “good,” “great,” and “unacceptable” look like for each role. Include both activity metrics (whatever that means for you: calls made, demos given, etc.) and outcome metrics (deals closed, revenue generated). Review this framework with your team quarterly and use it for all hiring and performance discussions. Be consistent in your actions and decision making.
Motivational Systems: Beyond Pizza Parties
One of the hardest things to get right is aligning incentives properly to attract and retain the right sales people for your organization. It’s easy to only pay attention to the short-term, monthly checks and commissions, but it takes more than that to keep high performers pushing forward over time. Most companies over-rely on external motivators (bonuses, trips, contests) without addressing intrinsic motivation factors that drive long-term performance of individuals.
What Balanced Motivation Looks Like:
- Clear career progression paths (mastery)
- Meaningful choice in how work gets done (autonomy)
- Connection between individual work and company mission (purpose)
Something to try: Get to really know your sales teams, what do they say they care about, and observe what they do, what choices they make. Optimize your systems to amplify their work for your context and products. Avoid taking templated approaches or just looking at what your competitors are doing. Ask what energizes them most about their work and what drains their energy. Use these insights to redesign territories, adjust responsibilities, or modify incentive structures.
Change Management: The Make-or-Break Factor for Growing Teams
We’re gonna go a little deeper on this factor because it’s something that growing teams often overlook, but it’s essential to consider for making changes to processes and tools. This matters because small but growing sales teams face unique change management challenges. Your team is already stretched thin, everyone wears multiple hats, and there’s constant pressure to hit numbers while simultaneously improving processes. Add in new hires who need to learn “the way we do things” just as you’re changing how you do things, and change fatigue sneaks up on you quickly and people get burnt out.
The key element most managers miss is that people need to know why they’re doing things. Most change communication focuses on what’s changing without explaining why it’s changing or how it benefits the people affected. Leaders announce new processes, tools, or expectations and wonder why adoption is slow or inconsistent. People naturally resist being told what to do. If you want them to give a shit, they need to see themselves as part of the change, not just recipients of it.
What Effective Change Management Looks Like for Growing Sales Teams:
Groundwork:
- Involve your team in identifying what needs to change before announcing solutions. Talk early and often about changes coming down the pipeline rather than surprising people.
- Build change advocates among your informal leaders (not just managers), peer to peer change is how it really works best. We naturally want to do what our friends and social group is doing.
- Create realistic timelines that account for learning curves and plan together how you will mitigate any performance dips that could happen.
Prepare clear messaging to communicate the change:
For every significant change, create communication that answers these four questions:
- What’s changing? Be specific about new processes, tools, or expectations
- Why is it changing? Connect the change to business results and team benefits
- How does this benefit you personally? Address individual concerns and opportunities
- What support will you receive? Detail training, resources, and ongoing assistance
Here’s a free Change Communication Template you can use to get started.
Next, assess the impact of the change so you know where you might need to focus extra support. Every practical change management methodology has some way to assess which groups will be impacted and how. Create a “Change Impact Assessment” for any process or tool implementation. Map out who will be affected, how their daily work will change, what new skills they’ll need, and what support systems are required. Share this before implementing changes, not after.
A Complete Change Management Process for Sales Teams:
Phase 1: Preparation (Before Announcement)
- Stakeholder Mapping: Identify who will be impacted and how significantly
- Change Champions: Recruit 2-3 team members who are natural influencers and early adopters
- Risk Assessment: Anticipate likely resistance points and prepare responses
- Resource Planning: Ensure adequate training time, support staff, and backup plans
- Training: Train your team before the official launch, have an overlap period, get them confident and ready so you can avoid dips in performance. If you have a bigger team, rollout with a small pilot group of early adopters first.
Phase 2: Launch (Announcement Through Initial Implementation)
- Multi-Channel Communication: Use team meetings, one-on-ones, and written summaries to reinforce key messages
- Quick Wins Strategy: Identify early benefits people can experience within the first week
- Feedback Mechanisms: Create two-way communication and feedback loops, set up ways for people to easily express concerns and suggestions
- Support Systems: Assign mentors, create help channels, make a knowledge hub with FAQs, and schedule check-ins
Phase 3: Adoption (First 30-90 Days)
Share a public “30-60-90 Day Adoption Plan” with clear goals:
- 30 Days: Basic proficiency and comfort with new process/tool
- 60 Days: Consistent usage and initial productivity gains
- 90 Days: Full adoption and measurable performance improvement
Implement your adoption plan consistently:
- Progress Tracking: Monitor adoption rates and identify who needs additional support
- Course Correction: Adjust training, timelines, or processes based on real usage patterns
- Success Celebration: Publicly recognize early adopters and share success stories
- Continuous Support: Maintain help resources beyond the initial training period
Common Change Challenges for Growing Sales Teams (And Solutions):
Red flags to avoid:
- Announcing major changes during high-stress periods (end of quarter, major client implementations)
- Implementing multiple significant changes simultaneously
- Using “compliance” language that creates resistance
- Failing to address the “what’s in it for me” question
- Underestimating the time needed for adoption
As a sales leader, you’re good at handling objections. Here’s some to prepare for:
Challenge: “We don’t have time for training” Solution: Implement “micro-learning” sessions—15-minute focused training blocks that can be scheduled around existing meetings. Use recorded videos for complex topics that people can watch at their own pace.
Challenge: “The new process is slower than the old way” Solution: Acknowledge this upfront and set realistic expectations. Create “transition metrics” that measure progress toward proficiency rather than expecting immediate improvement.
Challenge: “Not everyone is adopting consistently” Solution: Use peer accountability instead of management pressure. Pair resistors with enthusiastic adopters and track team adoption rates rather than individual compliance.
Challenge: “We keep changing things before people master them” Solution: Establish a “change freeze” period after major implementations. No new process changes until adoption reaches 80% and performance metrics stabilize.
Finally, here’s some other tips for managing resistance:
- For Skeptics: Provide data and logic supporting the change
- For Overwhelmed Team Members: Break changes into smaller, manageable steps
- For High Performers: Emphasize how the change will amplify their existing strengths
- For New Hires: Integrate change into onboarding so it becomes “normal” from day one
Remember: In a growing sales team, change management isn’t just about implementing new processes—it’s about building a culture that embraces continuous improvement while maintaining performance momentum. Get this right, and your team will become change-agile. Get it wrong, and even good changes will fail.
Your Next Steps
Alignment isn’t a one-time achievement—it’s an ongoing practice. Start by auditing your current state: Are your executives genuinely committed? Do your departments collaborate or compete? Are your team dynamics healthy or anxiety-inducing?
Pick one area that needs the most attention and implement one specific action step this week. Perfect alignment isn’t the goal; it’s about making consistent improvement. Win the internal sales first, and everything else becomes possible.
Next week, we’ll dive into Step 2: Developing Ability from our framework—how to systematically build capability and confidence in your sales team.
