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Stocks are slipping. Budgets are tightening. Every investment is under the microscope.
If you lead enablement today, you feel it. You’re no longer just tasked with building programs, you’re expected to prove the impact, often before the ink even dries.
This urgency set the stage for our recent Spekit webinar, The ROI Dilemma: Unlocking the True Impact of Content Management & Sales Enablement, where Luke Martin, Revenue Enablement Leader at Nutanix, and Seth McGuire, Spekit COO and President, came together to share real-world lessons and new research on how to navigate this evolving landscape.
Drawing from Luke's experience building high-performing enablement tech stacks at three public companies, and Seth's expertise leading revenue teams, this session offered a rare, inside look at what's working (and what's not) when it comes to enablement ROI today.
Let's dive into the story, their conversation, the research surfaced, and the blueprint it offers for moving forward.
The hidden cost of enablement decay
The research report revealed a staggering stat: 60% of enablement professionals believe less than half of their content is actually used.
Even more sobering?
- 90% say 40% of their external-facing content never makes it to buyers.
- 46% estimate that at least 40% of their content needs immediate refreshing.
- More than 50% spend five or more hours each week creating content, much of it destined for underuse.
Luke and Seth broke down how these inefficiencies don't just waste time, they erode trust, momentum, and ultimately, revenue.
Every outdated deck, every buried battle card, every "where do I find this?" moment chips away at seller confidence and seller confidence is currency.
Want to check out the full 2025 Impact of Enablement Research Report? Download it for free here ->
Why features fail, and what to do about it
One of the most striking moments from the webinar was the discussion around feature adoption.
Luke shared firsthand how features enablement leaders get excited about (like Digital Sales Rooms) often become shelfware for sellers if not implemented with the seller experience in mind.
When the audience was asked why features weren’t being adopted, three culprits emerged:
- Time: Teams underestimate the change management lift.
- Complexity: "Bolted-on" solutions feel clunky, not contextual.
- Misalignment: The features solve vendor problems, not seller problems.
The takeaway? As Luke put it: "You can't bolt on trust. You have to earn it through simplicity and relevance."
The quiet killers of adoption
Beyond features, Seth highlighted four silent forces uncovered in the research that are killing enablement ROI:
- Scattered systems: Sellers search an average of three platforms for content before defaulting to "I'll just make it myself."
- Invisible gaps: Identifying content gaps remains difficult and reactive.
- Admin overload: 60% of respondents spend 2–4 hours per week just maintaining their enablement platforms.
- Delayed impact: 80% see under 60% adoption in the first month after launching new content.
Luke added practical color to these challenges, sharing how intentional audits, smarter analytics, and stakeholder partnerships can turn these silent killers into opportunities for differentiation.
A Playbook for the New Era of Enablement
Based on their discussion, here's the distilled playbook from Luke and Seth for building enablement that delivers real ROI:
1. Start with a "Trust Audit"
▪ Run a 30-second find test: Randomly select 10 critical assets. Ask 10 reps to find them, starting only with a prompt (no hyperlinks).
▪ Analyze drop-off points: Where do reps get stuck? Which terms do they search? How many clicks does it take?
▪ Set a baseline: If reps can't find critical content in under 30 seconds, start there before buying another tool.
2. Ruthlessly Prioritize Content Health
▪ Age vs. Usage Matrix: Overlay content age and usage to identify high-risk assets (heavily used but outdated).
▪ Quarterly Content Clinics: Bring product marketing, enablement, and sales managers together every quarter. Review usage data, refresh or retire accordingly.
▪ Intentional "Just-in-Time" Content: Focus on creating situational assets designed to surface at critical moments—not static libraries.
3. Build for Behavior, Not Features
▪ Voice of the Field: Interview a cross-section of sellers quarterly. What slows them down? What shortcuts do they use?
▪ Use "Mini Pilots": Test new features with 5–10 reps before a full rollout. Capture qualitative and quantitative feedback.
▪ Kill "Feature Creep": Every new workflow must map clearly to an existing seller motion. If it doesn't, don't launch it.
4. Prove ROI Through Rep Experience
▪ Tie metrics to outcomes sellers care about: (e.g., "Time to Prep" for calls, "First Call to Close" timeframes.)
▪ Story over Stats: Pair every KPI with a real-world seller story ("Before vs. After") when presenting to leadership.
▪ Connect the dots to revenue: Don't just show dashboard metrics, tie platform usage directly to pipeline lift, deal acceleration, or expansion wins.
5. Protect Focus Like a Revenue Driver
▪ Say "No" to low-impact requests: New translations, edge-case use cases, or "nice-to-haves" must clear a cost-benefit threshold.
▪ Champion Fewer, Better Campaigns: Run fewer initiatives but execute them flawlessly, especially in resource-constrained markets.
▪ Advocate for Systemic Simplification: If sellers are juggling 10+ systems, you're not fixing an enablement problem. You're fighting an ecosystem failure.
The Future Belongs to Contextual Enablement
As Luke and Seth emphasized, in the AI era, content volume isn't the advantage. Context is.
Brands that win won't be the ones who build the biggest libraries. They'll be the ones who deliver the right insight, at the right time, with zero friction.
Enablement isn't an "asset factory." It's a precision instrument for confidence, clarity, and conversion.
And just like trust with customers, trust with sellers is earned, not assumed.
When you build platforms that sellers want to use (not have to use), you do more than drive adoption.
You drive belief.
And belief, more than anything else, will be the ultimate growth lever in the years ahead.
Let's build for that.
