SAN DIEGO, CA–(Marketwired – Mar 24, 2015) – Seismic, the leading end-to-end sales enablement solution, today announced the results of an independent Sales Enablement Industry Report and Survey. The survey found that sales reps waste countless hours creating and updating sales materials — reducing sales efficiency and leaving organizations vulnerable to compliance issues due to out-of-date or inaccurate presentation materials. On average sales reps spend nearly 20 percent of their time creating and assembling presentation materials and completing administrative tasks, while only spending 23 percent of their time actively selling to new clients.

Results show that sales materials — product brochures, presentation decks, proposals and RFP responses — must be updated on a constant basis. What’s more, within each sales presentation there are several minor points that must be updated such as marketing messaging, pricing information, customer performance history, financial and customer account data, and more. This all adds up to 62 percent of surveyed companies saying they find it somewhat to extremely difficult to keep presentation materials up-to-date, and 83 percent of financial institutions, 78 percent of technology companies, and 69 percent of other organizations surveyed saying it’s extremely important for their companies to improve their ability to keep presentation materials up-to-date with accurate content, information and data.

The report also found that companies that use or have used sales enablement systems prefer third party vendors over internally developed systems by more than 10 percent. By using third party sales enablement solutions, teams can roll out implementations more quickly and efficiently, without having to hire internal resources to manage the system.

Additional report findings:

Companies who deployed sales enablement solutions realized significant value from their investment.

  • 51 percent of respondents said the most important benefit to sales enablement software was the ability to easily and quickly share presentation materials with others
  • 36 percent reported spending fewer hours per week creating and assembling materials
  • 28 percent said materials contained fewer inaccuracies and data issues
  • 28 percent said branding was presented clearly and consistently.

Organizations using sales enablement software are also realizing more than just time-saving benefits. When asked about the most important benefits realized from using sales enablement software, the survey shows:

  • 36 percent reported materials are more effective and increase their sales/marketing effectiveness
  • 33 percent benefited from being able to analyze performance of presentation materials
  • 31 percent saw sales reps having a better sense of what to present to clients and when to present it

“The survey results show that the sales enablement market is poised for growth in the next five years with a total addressable market for sales enablement software at $600 million, of which only around ten percent is currently being realized,” said Doug Winter, co-founder and CEO, Seismic. “In today’s fast-moving, mobile-first world, sales and marketing teams need an effective and efficient way to manage, create and deliver content wherever they are. Our customers are at the forefront of the sales enablement market having deployed an end-to-end sales enablement solution that allows them to shorten sales cycles, improve win rates and increase customer satisfaction by consistently delivering the right content to the right person at the right time.”

The Sales Enablement Industry Survey Report was conducted by a global strategy-consulting firm that surveyed 203 sales enablement decision makers. The survey respondents represent a variety of industries, company sizes and current sales enablement software usage. Complete survey findings are summarized in a report now available here: Sales Enablement Industry Survey Report.

About Seismic
Seismic is the leading end-to-end sales enablement solution that increases sales productivity and marketing effectiveness by delivering the right content at the right time on any device. By creating, customizing and analyzing sales materials with Seismic, our customers dramatically increase time spent selling and improve win rates. With offices in San Diego and Boston, Seismic is privately held by its three-time serial entrepreneur executive team and leading venture capital firms JMI Equity and Sigma West.