The 3 Types of Enablement Every Team Needs to Succeed
Enablement often gets typecast as “sales training.” A few onboarding sessions, a couple of PDFs, maybe a lunch-and-learn. But real enablement, the kind that drives consistent revenue performance across your GTM motion, is a whole lot broader. It’s not just for sales, and it’s not just about skills.
If you want to build high-performing GTM teams that can scale with confidence, you need to think about enablement in three distinct layers: skills, tooling, and market awareness. And you need to deliver those layers differently to each function.
Here’s a breakdown of each type of enablement, with real examples of how they should show up for sales, marketing, BDRs, and customer success teams.
1. Skills Enablement: The foundation
This is the most familiar form of enablement, but it’s also where many companies stop. Skills enablement means giving people the playbooks, frameworks, and coaching they need to do their job well.
For sales, this might be:
A consistent discovery methodology (like MEDDPICC)
Roleplay sessions on objection handling
A shared framework for writing follow-up emails
For BDRs:
Talk tracks that align with persona pain points
Cold call breakdowns by senior reps
A certification path before going live on outbound
For marketing:
Training on funnel definitions and lifecycle stages
How to use campaign performance data to adjust creative or channel mix
Clear handoff processes to sales for MQLs and SALs
For CS:
Conflict resolution frameworks for handling escalations
Quarterly training on product updates and how they affect renewal conversations
Scripts for expansion and cross-sell conversations
But skills enablement only works if it’s paired with structure. You can’t expect a one-time training to change behavior. Build a cadence around it. Run certifications. Measure usage in the field. And update the materials as the GTM strategy evolves.
2. Tooling Enablement: The infrastructure
Tooling is where most enablement breaks down. You’ve got a CRM, a sequencing tool, a marketing automation platform, dashboards, Slack, maybe three kinds of internal notes... and people are guessing what to use when.
Tooling enablement means making the systems work for the team, not the other way around. It’s not just about how to click the buttons. It’s about when and why to use each tool in context.
For sales:
When to update deal stages and how that triggers automated workflows
How to log calls and notes so the post-sale team gets context
Which fields are used in forecasting vs. internal coaching
For BDRs:
How to use lead scoring to prioritize daily outreach
Which sequences are approved, which ones are in test, and how to give feedback
How intent data from tools like 6sense informs outbound motion
For marketing:
How attribution rules work and what data is being fed into campaign dashboards
Which form fills or conversion events trigger alerts for sales follow-up
What enrichment tools are doing behind the scenes and how to flag bad data
For CS:
How to log risk factors in the CRM so they show up in weekly reviews
Where to capture upsell signals and trigger deal creation
How to pull key usage data before renewal conversations
You’ll get better adoption and better data when people understand the logic behind the tools. Every ops team should treat tooling enablement as a rolling priority, not a one-time setup.
3. Market Awareness Enablement: The edge
This is the least-discussed but most powerful form of enablement. Market awareness is about context, helping teams understand the competitive landscape, customer mindset, and macro trends that affect how they do their job.
It’s the difference between “here’s how to pitch this product” and “here’s what your buyer is dealing with this quarter.”
For sales:
What competitors are doing in recent deals and how we’re positioning against them
What industry regulations or trends are influencing buyer urgency
Insights from lost deals and why we weren’t chosen
For BDRs:
Why certain messaging is resonating (or falling flat) in a specific segment
What persona pain points are being mentioned in discovery
Which signals suggest account readiness beyond the standard firmographics
For marketing:
What’s driving performance in peer campaigns or channels
Feedback loops from sales on lead quality and buyer expectations
Competitive shifts that should inform messaging or offers
For CS:
Where competitor churn is happening and what tactics are being used
What customer feedback is surfacing during QBRs across segments
What upsell patterns indicate maturity or risk
Market awareness can’t be built in a vacuum. It has to come from conversations, feedback loops, win-loss analysis, and ongoing collaboration between functions. One great way to operationalize it: monthly market briefs from RevOps or enablement leads, informed by cross-team data.
TLDR
Enablement isn't a one-department initiative or a quarterly training program. It’s a continuous loop of skills, tooling, and context — tailored to each team, informed by the funnel, and updated as your GTM motion evolves.
If you're only investing in one layer, you're not really enabling your teams. You're just hoping they'll figure it out.
Give them the infrastructure. Give them the knowledge. And give them the clarity to make smart decisions faster. That’s what real enablement looks like.
