SiriusDecisions research summarized by Highspot found that winning reps consume 35% more content overall than low performers, and that buyers received or consumed 22% more content from winning reps, with that content more often rated high-impact. Allego and B2B DecisionLabs reported that sellers were 111% more likely to use collateral when a high-performing peer presented it with a demonstration versus a product specialist with basic information.

Enablement leaders already know the anecdote. The same three AEs open every new battle card on day one. Everyone else discovers the card after a loss review. SiriusDecisions put a percentage on the pattern. Your best sellers are your number one subscribers.

What SiriusDecisions reported (via Highspot)

In The Relationship Between Winning Sellers and Content, Highspot summarizes a SiriusDecisions study on how winning reps use content. Top performers consistently used more content than counterparts. Buyers received or consumed 22% more content overall from winning reps. Winning reps consumed 35% more content than low performers, and they varied content types by stage of the buying process.

Cite this as SiriusDecisions via Highspot. We link the Highspot summary rather than a primary SiriusDecisions PDF we do not host. The direction of the finding is clear: content consumption correlates with winning behavior, both in what sellers themselves study and in what buyers receive.

The unused-library problem

The other side of the same coin is waste. Forrester and SiriusDecisions work on sales content effectiveness has long documented that large shares of marketing-created sales content go unused, and that sellers burn hours hunting for assets. Exact unused-content percentages vary by survey year and definition. The operational fact does not: average reps skip the library while top reps live in it. Publishing more assets without changing consumption habits widens that gap.

Allego’s announcement of Getting Sellers Engaged (with B2B DecisionLabs) adds a distribution finding. Sellers were more likely to use collateral learned from a high-performing peer than from a sales leader or marketer. A high-performing seller presenting new collateral with a demonstration increased likelihood of use by 111% over the least effective combination (product specialist with basic information only). Top sellers are subscribers and the channel that gets everyone else to subscribe.

Customer-reported overlap

Avery Dennison’s Highspot case study quotes an enablement leader describing a 100% overlap between reps who pitch, use Digital Rooms, and complete training in the platform and top-performing reps. Treat that as customer-reported, not a multi-company survey. It matches the SiriusDecisions pattern inside one enterprise GTM motion.

Flashcards and rankings make subscription visible. The people who already read everything show up on the board. Everyone else drills the same deck. Request access for your domain.

Request access

What enablement should do with this

Stop measuring only content production. Measure who opens, who finishes practice, and who shares. Ask your top quartile which cards they would keep if the library shrank by 80%. Put those prompts into spaced retrieval. Ask a top AE to demo new cards in the next team meeting. Allego’s 111% finding says that peer demonstration beats another email from product marketing.

Growing GTM orgs cannot clone their best sellers. They can make the consumption habits of those sellers the default. Study materials and rankings are how that default becomes visible.

Sources