Sales enablement doesn’t start with enablement content. It starts with knowing your customer – deeply, systematically, and continuously.
According to GTM and revenue leader Becky Cole, companies that build this customer understanding into their operating model are outperforming those that rely on siloed tools and outdated sales motions. The opportunity? Shift from collecting signals to using them to shape more relevant, valuable conversations.
Here’s what that looks like in practice.
1. Go Beyond Research. Build a 360° Operating View.
Sales teams today have access to mountains of data – customer success metrics, past usage behavior, marketing engagement, and more. But insight isn’t the same as action.
The best teams aren’t researching in the dark. They’re surfacing unified views of the customer by connecting the dots between behavior, relationship history, and external signals like:
- News alerts from Google (e.g., leadership changes, M&A activity, funding rounds)
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator insights (e.g., job promotions, company milestones, speaking engagements)
- ZoomInfo Scoops and intent triggers from platforms like 6Sense, Demandbase and Bombora (e.g., tech installs/outages, org expansions, surging topics)
What to do next:
- Set up Google Alerts for your top target accounts and decision makers.
- Monitor Sales Navigator daily for buying trigger events and lead activity.
- Integrate ZoomInfo intent data and Scoops into CRM views.
- Operationalize these insights into your call planning and account reviews.
2. Automate With Context, Not Just Cadence
Outreach automation is only as powerful as the context behind it. Becky emphasizes that high-performing teams aren’t blasting templated sequences, they’re building signals-informed cadences that respond to customer behavior, pain, and opportunity.
Whether you’re using Salesloft, Outreach, or native CRM workflows, relevance is what drives response. That requires more than a personalization token, it requires insight.
What to do next:
- Use buying signals from existing systems to trigger sales cadences – don’t just rely on static personas.
- Equip your reps to adapt messaging based on key context (industry trends, product usage, account maturity).
- Treat automation as a co-pilot, not a crutch.
3. Involve Experts Early to Build Trust
Many sales teams delay involving solution engineers, product leads, executive stakeholders, or post-sale experts until late in the process. That’s a mistake.
Getting these voices in the room early, especially in enterprise sales, helps shape the solution collaboratively and builds confidence with the customer. You’re not pitching a product; you’re co-creating an outcome.
What to do next:
- Redesign your early-stage sales process to include technical and value experts in discovery
- Use cross-functional collaboration as a differentiator, not just a delivery mechanism
- Don’t hold back your best thinkers. Let them be part of the conversation that wins the deal
4. Make Buying Signals Actionable
Becky is clear: having access to buying signals is no longer enough. The question is: How are you embedding them into how your team sells?
Signals – whether it’s a product event, a funding round, or a support ticket – should shape real-time decisions. That requires coordination across sales, marketing, product, and CS. And it demands that GTM leaders model curiosity, not just rigor.
What to do next:
- Define clear plays for key signals (product activity, executive changes, industry news).
- Review how signals are used in team meetings, pipeline reviews, and deal strategy.
- Measure not just signal volume, but signal response quality.
The Bottom Line: Intelligence is a Team Sport
Customer intelligence isn’t a tool. It’s a culture. It starts with curiosity and scales through systems.
If you’re serious about sales enablement, the work isn’t just about better sales training or updated pitch decks and product slicks. It’s about turning fragmented insights into coordinated actions, and helping every customer-facing rep show up with perspective and precision.
Check out other blog posts in our Sales Leadership Series from great sales professionals like Becky Cole.