Human Capital, Network Capital, and Systems Capital: The Three Pillars of Sales Enablement Strategy

In recent years, the selling function has been exposed to several challenges, which are affecting the role and function of sales (cp. Plouffe et al., 2013). As such, sales organizations today need to evaluate how to adapt their approach to enable their salespeople to have meaningful conversations with their customers. One such possibility that is gaining momentum in practice is sales enablement. A quick review of the literature reveals a complete lack of focus on the concept of sales enablement. This research provides a first conceptualization of the areas that define sales enablement and aims at spurring new research on sales enablement by providing an agenda for future research.