New Study Shows Revenue Enablement Execution Lags, Despite Clear Strategic Priorities

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SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 16, 2025--

Seismic, the global leader in AI-powered enablement, today announced findings from a new Harvard Business Review Analytic Services report that examines the state of revenue enablement amid ongoing economic and buyer disruption. Sponsored by Seismic, the research, Accelerating Growth Through Revenue Enablement, reveals that while respondents overwhelmingly recognize the great importance of enablement fundamentals, fewer say their organization is highly successful at executing them – creating a significant revenue enablement execution gap between intent and impact.

According to the study, 96% say creating meaningful customer interactions is highly important to successful revenue enablement, yet only 57% report their organizations excel at it. Similarly, 87% rate training or upskilling revenue-focused employees as very or extremely important, but just 25% feel their organization is highly successful in this area – the largest execution gap of all priorities. These shortfalls put revenue growth, team performance, and customer loyalty at risk.

“When boardroom strategy doesn’t materialize into field team execution, revenue stalls and businesses fall short of their growth goals,” said Hayden Stafford, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Seismic. “Go-to-market leaders are navigating fast-changing customer expectations, unpredictable markets, and a new generation of AI-powered technology. To keep up, they need more than strategy — they need enablement that turns vision into action. By adopting modern tools and investing in frontline talent development, organizations can create a revenue engine that’s resilient, competitive, and built for growth.”

Key Findings

• Execution gaps are widespread. While nearly all respondents agree that customer interactions, skilled talent, and cross-functional collaboration are incredibly important to successful revenue enablement, fewer say their organization is highly successful in these areas.
• Upskilling remains the most lagging area. A 62-point gap exists between the importance of training/upskilling revenue-focused employees and organizations’ ability to deliver it successfully.
• AI is reshaping enablement. Nearly 60% of those surveyed say their organization already uses AI for at least one enablement task, with applications including content generation (37%), personalized buyer emails and messaging (27%), and sales call analysis/summary (23%).
• The AI payoff is clear. For those at organizations using AI for one or more revenue enablement tasks, 70% agree that it positively impacts team productivity, 64% reported positive impacts on time spent on admin tasks, and 48% had positive impacts on the speed of decision-making due to AI – tangible outcomes that highlight AI’s role in scaling enablement success.

“In the past, our go-to-market (GTM) efforts were often fragmented, with different teams approaching the same accounts in different ways,” said Shafiq Amarsi, Vice President of Delivery Commercial Operations at Uber. “With a more integrated GTM strategy, supported by cross-functional stakeholders and AI-powered enablement technology to surface insights and centralize execution, our GTM team can operate with greater alignment and consistency. This ensures we bring the full scale of Uber to our customers rather than reinventing the wheel in silos.”

The full report, Accelerating Growth Through Revenue Enablement, produced by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services and sponsored by Seismic, is available for download on Seismic’s website.

About the Report

Harvard Business Review Analytic Services surveyed 315 members of the Harvard Business Review audience via an online survey fielded in June 2025. Respondents qualified to complete the survey if they were involved in their organization’s business-to-business revenue enablement decisions. The respondents reside globally and work primarily in senior and executive roles in general/executive management and sales/business development/customer service functions, as well as varied industries such as manufacturing, technology, business/professional services, and financial services.

About Seismic

Seismic is the global leader in AI-powered enablement, empowering go-to-market leaders to drive strategic growth and deliver exceptional customer experiences at scale. The Seismic Enablement Cloud™ is the only unified AI-powered platform that prepares customer-facing teams with the skills, content, tools, and insights needed to maximize every buyer interaction and strengthen client relationships. Trusted by more than 2,000 organizations worldwide, Seismic helps businesses achieve measurable outcomes and accelerate revenue growth. Seismic is headquartered in San Diego with offices across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Learn more at seismic.com.

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SOURCE: Seismic

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PUB: 09/16/2025 09:01 AM/DISC: 09/16/2025 09:00 AM

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