Ideal Hiring Profile for Sales Enablement
In August 2023, I conducted a study of LinkedIn profiles (n=104) to see if one could use biographical data to gain an edge on sales enablement hiring. Lacking actual performance in role data, I defined “success” as an individual lasting at least 24 mos in an enablement role at the company. My findings:
TL;DR: Promote product people internally into sales enablement roles.
The following were strongly statistically significant (z-score > 2.0
- 70% of enablement professionals promoted from other roles internally were successful versus 43% if hired from outside [z=2.47]
- 60% of enablement professions hired into the role from outside but without prior enablement experience were successful versus 32% hired from the outside who held prior enablement roles. [z=2.40]
- 88% of enablement professionals with prior product management/engineering experience were successful versus 48% without that background. [z=2.15]
The following were NOT statistically significant (z-score < 1.0)
- Prior AE/AM
- Prior SDR
- Prior Sales Engineer (surprising given success of product people)
- Prior Marketing
- Prior K-12 Teacher (very small sample size)
- College Major (Business, Humanities, PoliSci, STEM, other)
Sales Enablement Compensation
| Title (pay mix) | New York | San Fran | Austin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales Enablement Specialist | $90K (80/20) | $75K (80/20) | $75K (80/20) |
| Sales Enablement Manager | $175K (67/33) | $165K (67/33) | $152K (67/33) |
| Sales Enablement Director | $255K (60/40) | $275K (60/40) | $240K (60/40) |