We recently published Advocating For Revenue Enablement: A Practitioner’s Guide To Executive Communications, a report born from a familiar frustration: Revenue enablement teams consistently deliver value yet struggle to earn sustained influence with senior leadership. That challenge, however, is not unique: One of enablement’s closest functional peers has already navigated it.
A decade ago, IT security faced a similar problem. The work was essential, deeply operational, and largely invisible when done well. Security teams were pulled into executive conversations only after something went wrong, and it was far from fun. What changed wasn’t the importance of security; it was how their leaders learned to advocate for the function upstream. Revenue enablement can learn from that evolution.
Lesson number one: Prevention creates value but not influence.
Early‑stage security teams focused on activity: vulnerabilities patched, systems monitored, incidents avoided. All were important but none particularly compelling to executives deciding where to invest next. Security leaders learned that prevention alone, while valuable, does not drive executive engagement. Influence emerged only when security began translating its work into the language leaders already cared about: business risk, trade-offs, and exposure — not “How many threats were blocked?” but “What happens if we don’t act?”
Revenue enablement often falls into the same trap. Teams lead with programs delivered, content deployed, certifications completed, or tools adopted. But as our research shows, executives don’t reward volume; they respond to relevance. Enablement earns attention when it connects its work to outcomes leaders are already accountable for, such as seller productivity, execution risk, behavioral stagnation, poor change management, and the cost of inaction.
Lesson number two: Mature functions balance operational excellence with strategic foresight.
Modern IT security leaders understand an important balance. Roughly 80% of their effort is foundational and preventive: keeping systems stable, enforcing standards, reducing known risks. That work is nonnegotiable and table stakes. But the remaining 20% is what earns them a seat at the table. They anticipate emerging threats, advise on future investment decisions, and help the C-suite understand risks that don’t yet appear on a dashboard. Security’s influence comes not from reacting faster but from helping the business see around corners.
Revenue enablement already excels at the foundational 80%: onboarding, everboarding, skills reinforcement, and program execution. The opportunity — and the lesson from security — lies in intentionally investing in the other 20%. That includes anticipating shifts in buyer behavior, preparing sellers for new motions before performance dips, and advising leaders on what “good” selling will require next year. Enablement doesn’t earn influence by abandoning its servant role. It earns it by complementing execution with foresight.
Lesson number three: Advocacy comes from contribution, not visibility.
Security didn’t gain executive relevance by asking to be invited into important meetings. It earned its place by making leaders better decision‑makers. Over time, CISOs shifted from reporting incidents to advising on strategy, helping executives weigh speed against risk and innovation against exposure.
Revenue enablement faces the same choice. Waiting for QBRs or budget cycles to justify past work rarely builds influence. As the report notes, enablement leaders who contribute earlier, by framing enablement insights as inputs to planning and decision–making, shift the conversation from attribution to trust. As Ben Purton, senior enablement manager of international go-to-market delivery at Zoom, put it, “Without attribution, we lose visibility. And without visibility, enablement gets cut when times are tough.” The lesson from security is clear: Advocacy isn’t about asking for attention; it’s about being useful when decisions are being formed.
Executive relevance is built, not requested.
Revenue enablement doesn’t need to become IT security to learn from it. But security’s evolution offers a powerful blueprint: Move beyond activity, balance prevention with foresight, and engage leaders on the issues they need to consider before problems surface.
Enablement’s path forward is not louder reporting or broader visibility. It is sharper relevance, grounded in outcomes, aligned to leadership priorities, and focused on helping the business succeed tomorrow, not just explaining what happened yesterday. That’s how influence is earned.
Want to discuss how to measure and communicate the value of revenue enablement? Forrester customers can request a guidance session with me here. Heading to Phoenix for B2B Summit? Sign up for my workshop, “Measure, Message, Influence: A Revenue Enablement Value Playbook,” on the mobile app.
