You nailed the message, so why does most enablement miss the mark?
When you build your company’s messaging, you likely spend weeks getting it right. You gather research, map features to real buyer pain, develop a compelling narrative, and get cross-functional alignment. You may even create a beautifully polished homepage, an updated sales deck, and a confident internal rollout.
But shortly after launch, the cracks begin to show.
You start getting questions from sales like:
“Do we have a version of this for discovery calls?”
“What should I send after a demo?”
“Is there something I can use to handle that objection?”
“Do we have messaging tailored for this vertical or persona?”
It’s in these moments that you realize: while the message may be strong, it hasn’t been fully operationalized. It hasn’t been translated into the tools that sales—and your broader GTM team—actually use.
This is where most messaging fails: not in the strategy or story itself, but in the hand-off to the people responsible for carrying it forward.
The disconnect between marketing and sales is rarely about alignment at the strategic level. More often, it’s a failure to deliver the right content for the right moment—at the speed and simplicity the sales team needs.
Sales professionals are under pressure to respond in real-time. They need quick-reference content and actionable messaging that fits their workflow, not long-form narrative decks or brand books designed for marketers.
If you don’t equip sales with usable materials, they will create their own. That’s when messaging starts to drift—across roles, channels, and buyer experiences.
Most enablement content fails because it’s built from a marketing perspective, not a sales one. It’s either too dense, too abstract, or disconnected from the high-pressure situations sales teams face daily.
So what does sales actually need? The answer depends on the moment in the sales process—but generally, they’re looking for clarity, brevity, and relevance.
Here’s how that breaks down:
|
Sales Moment |
What They Actually Need |
|
Discovery Calls |
A few concise points about the buyer’s top pains and how the product solves them |
|
Objection Handling |
Reframing language or quick proof points to neutralize common concerns |
|
Follow-Up Emails |
A sharp one-pager, case study, or link to a micro-asset that reinforces the core message |
|
Slide Presentations |
Modular slides tailored to vertical, persona, or use case—not a generic overview |
|
Competitive Deals |
Quick “Why Us vs. Them” bullets, differentiated value props, and trap-setting language |
|
Partner Co-Selling |
Lightweight messaging docs that summarize positioning, key outcomes, and benefits |
Often, marketing focuses on big deliverables: the homepage rewrite, the launch campaign, or the refreshed brand narrative. These are important, but they typically address the top of the funnel—or moments of high visibility.
Sales, on the other hand, needs day-to-day tools that work in mid- and bottom-of-funnel moments. This includes discovery calls, objection handling, and buyer-specific follow-up content.
Without a deliberate plan to connect messaging with those moments, marketing ends up playing catch-up—or worse, watching the message get rewritten on the fly.
Before you begin building new materials, it’s important to understand what already exists—and what’s missing. That’s where a Sales Enablement Gap Analysis comes in.
This isn’t just an inventory of assets. It’s a strategic assessment that maps your product message to the real conversations happening across the sales cycle.
Step 1: Understand what sales actually needs
Your sales team likely doesn’t need more content—they need more relevant content. This includes:
Core messaging that maps to buyer priorities
Short-form assets they can send or speak from
Internal guides that help them confidently speak to positioning
Clear, differentiated answers to tough questions
Step 2: Audit what you've already created
Use the following table as a starting point—these example questions will help you assess where your message is already supported and where gaps might exist:
|
Sales Moment |
Do You Have It? |
If Not, What’s Missing? |
|
Discovery |
Yes / No |
Persona pain points, 3 key challenges, value lens |
|
Objection Handling |
Yes / No |
Top 5 objections with suggested framing |
|
Follow-Up |
Yes / No |
One-pager or micro-asset mapped to use case |
|
Vertical Pitching |
Yes / No |
Modular slides with vertical-specific insight |
|
Competitive Positioning |
Yes / No |
“Why us vs. them” bullets + differentiator language |
|
Partner Enablement |
Yes / No |
Messaging summary or mini pitch for external use |
Step 3: Talk to your sales team
Instead of asking what assets they want, ask what moments they feel unprepared for.
Try these questions:
Where in the sales cycle do you feel least confident about what to say?
What parts of our messaging do you actually use today—and what do you skip?
What objections are hardest to answer right now?
Which slides or assets do you find yourself modifying every time?
These conversations will give you clearer direction than any Miro board ever could.
Final thoughts.
Great messaging doesn’t just clarify what you do—it equips people to sell it.
If your teams can’t carry the message into a deal, it’s not done.
If your buyers hear different versions at each touchpoint, you lose trust.
And if your sales enablement is an afterthought, your message won’t scale.
This is just the first step in turning your message into a usable system.
In the next post, we’ll break down how to translate your messaging into formats your team will actually use.
Because when messaging and enablement are aligned, momentum follows.
Want help turning your message into a system your team can actually use?
Let’s talk about how we can build the right sales enablement materials to support every stage of your funnel.
👉 Grab some time and let's talk!