Sales and marketing are like chocolate and peanut butter.
Sure, they're great on their own — but when they align, they make little candy cups that make every other snack in the vending machine taste like sandpaper.
That's why we ran surveys of over 300 sales leaders to help your revenue org churn out Reese's-caliber results.
Marketing material and AI fail the same way: reps use both as shortcuts instead of learning why they work.
Our surveys found:
33%
say showing reps why an asset works, so they can adapt it themselves, is the #1 way to coach marketing’s messaging, edging out live practice (32%)
32%
name reps treating AI as a shortcut rather than a research tool as the #1 barrier to getting value from AI in prospecting
We've all heard that ancient proverb:
"Give a rep an AI tool or marketing messaging without them knowing how to engage with it, and you'll feed them for a day. Have a rep develop an involved process for leveraging those resources, and you'll feed them for a lifetime."
I forget if Confucius or Oscar Wilde said that.
A plurality of sales leaders (33%) say "showing why an asset works, so reps can adapt it themselves" is the most effective way to coach reps on marketing's messaging.
In a separate survey, a plurality of leaders (32%) named reps treating AI as a shortcut rather than a research tool as the biggest barrier to getting ROI from AI in prospecting.
That's the same failure mode surfacing across multiple tools.
A deck copied without understanding and an AI draft sent without thought break down for the same reason: reps borrowing output while skipping reasoning.
Disciplined teams treat every input, from a battle card to a prompt result, as a starting argument to interrogate rather than a finished answer.
Findability is the most underrated enablement lever.
Our surveys found:
23%
of first-place votes say knowing what assets exist and where to find them is the habit that separates reps who use marketing well, second only to tailoring (28%)
24%
say centralizing account info so it’s not re-gathered is the highest-leverage way to cut research time before outreach
Sometimes, availability is the most valuable ability of all.
We asked leaders what separates reps who use marketing well from those who don’t, and "knowing what exists and where to find it" was the second most popular answer (23% of first-place votes).
A separate survey on targeting lands in the same place from a different direction: the highest-leverage way teams cut pre-outreach research is centralizing account info so nobody re-gathers it (24%).
Read together, the two point to an unglamorous truth. Quality and personalization don't mean much without retrieval.
Every minute a rep spends hunting for the right case study or rebuilding account context is a minute not spent selling.
That makes findability less a rep-discipline issue than an infrastructure one.
Material nobody can find is functionally material nobody built.
What can you do with this next-level insight?
For reps:
Keep a short personal index of the handful of assets and account notes they actually reach for, organized by deal stage. It isn’t a library. It’s the thirty seconds between a buyer’s question and a credible answer.
For Managers:
Run a findability test in your next team meeting. Name a common deal situation and time how long reps take to surface the right asset. The spread shows whether you have a content gap or a retrieval gap.
For Leadership:
Before funding more content, audit what reps can find in under a minute. Teams that win on enablement treat retrieval as infrastructure, with one source of truth for assets and account context, not as a rep habit.
Your CRM should work harder than your SDRs
Most reps spend 20% of their day on data entry. No biggie — unless you'd rather they spend it selling.
HubSpot Smart CRM is designed to handle the admin automatically, so your team can stay in front of buyers instead of behind a keyboard. Calls get logged and summarized the moment they end. New leads get researched and a first outreach drafted — without anyone lifting a finger.
Here's what's running in the background while your team sells:
- Call summaries — Logged and recapped automatically when a call ends.
- Lead research – New contacts surface with context before first outreach.
- Deal progression – Next steps flagged before a rep has to ask.
Less admin. More pipeline. See what HubSpot Smart CRM can do for your team.
The data in question
As always, we sourced our data through Panoplai.
What’s the most effective way managers coach reps to use marketing’s messaging?
- 33%: Show why an asset works, so reps can adapt it themselves
- 32%: Practice it live (role-play, call reviews), not just share the deck
- 18%: Point to specific deals where the messaging won
- 9%: Pair newer reps with reps who use it well
- 7%: Make using it part of deal reviews
- 2%: We don’t really coach this
What’s the single biggest barrier preventing your team from getting more value out of AI in prospecting?
- 32%: Reps treating AI as a shortcut rather than a research tool
- 17%: Lack of a defined standard or playbook for AI-assisted outreach
- 17%: Measurement systems that still reward activity over quality
- 13%: Tools that aren’t actually good enough yet
- 10%: Buyer fatigue with AI-generated outreach
- 6%: Lack of time to coach reps on AI use
- 6%: Leadership hasn’t aligned on a point of view
Rank the rep habits that most separate the ones who use marketing well from the ones who don’t. (ranked, top 3; first-place votes shown)
- 28%: Tailor material to the specific buyer, not send it as-is
- 23%: Know what assets exist and where to find them
- 18%: Match the message to the stage of the deal
- 16%: Feed what they learn back so the material improves
- 15%: Borrow what’s working from other reps
What’s the highest-leverage way your team has cut research time before outreach?
- 24%: Centralized account info so it’s not re-gathered each time
- 22%: Automated enrichment / data lookup
- 19%: Prioritized which accounts get deep research vs. a light touch
- 14%: Standardized what reps research before a call
- 12%: Reps still do it manually, account by account
- 10%: Shared templates or playbooks so reps aren’t starting cold