Last week saw the release of The Forrester Wave ™: Sales Enablement Automation Platforms, Q3 2018 report. The report is a comprehensive view of the sales enablement industry and maps out the performance of both organizations and solutions. The report is a great resource for anyone interested in learning more about the current offerings in the sales enablement industry.
We highly recommend reading the whole report to understand the full context and everything that is currently happening in the sales enablement industry. But, we wanted to highlight just a few interesting tidbits that give you a quick understanding of this space’s growth. Read on to learn more about some of our takeaways from this report.
The Sales Enablement Industry
The number of vendors that Forrester evaluated in this year’s report was truly impressive . They evaluated 12 vendors in total, and each vendor was required to have at least $1 million in revenue. That quantity of participating vendors reveals to us that sales enablement is a bustling market full of organizations vying for their own space.
The market seems to only be growing, too. Citing their Q3 2018 Global B2B Marketing Sales Enablement Online Survey, Forrester reports that “[fifty]-four percent of B2B companies have or are in the process of implementing SEA [sales enablement automation] solutions, and another 19% plan to in the next 12 to 18 months.” Now, I can’t say I’m a math wizard or anything like that, but by my count that’s 73% of respondents who are currently thinking very seriously about sales enablement. You would be hard-pressed to think of another strategic initiative that is weighing as heavily on the minds of leading B2B organizations.
What’s Down the Road for the Sales Enablement Industry?
Before launching into the actual evaluation part of the report, Forrester lays out two interesting characterizations of the market going forward, as they see it. The first is rather straightforward and makes sense for most markets that are currently experiencing several competitors jostling for position. Forrester expects some consolidation to come to the sales enablement industry as leaders emerge and other organizations decide what their strategy will be for moving forward.
The second characterization is very interesting because it basically sets the table for what will be the future of the sales enablement industry. Forrester expects a bifurcation of the market as vendors race to differentiate themselves. The two halves according to the report are vendors with a broader vision, and those who will focus on the core tenets of sales enablement. The difference comes down to those vendors that are focused on broadening the scope of sales enablement, as Forrester puts it, “to enable and automate key marketing and sales processes across the entire buy cycle,” and those that are staying focused on capabilities centered on content.
Those are just some quick insights we’ve gleaned from this very in-depth and informative report. We highly recommend taking the time to read the whole thing. Whether you’re just starting to get a handle on the concept of the sales enablement industry, you’re deep in the buying process, or you’re up and running with your platform of choice, there will be plenty of interesting information.
