Enablement

Shift ‘25 Day 1: Supercharge your Future

By Tony Smith — On September 10, 2025

image-shift25-blog-day2-og

The sun was shining and the temperatures were just right in San Diego as we kicked off with more than 1,200 attendees from around the world. The energy was electric, with customers, partners, and enablement leaders filling the room for what promises to be our biggest and boldest Shift yet.

shift25-photo-highlights-day1-03

Loading component...

Loading component...

Loading component...

Why sales efficiency hasn't improved

Doug welcomed Mark Dodds, Chief Revenue Officer of Elastic, for a candid conversation about a surprising finding: despite decades of major technology shifts — CRM adoption, the rise of the internet, and now AI — B2B sales efficiency has actually declined.

Doug shared research showing that when measuring sales efficiency (revenue growth per dollar spent on sales and marketing), gains never materialized. Even during the rollout of CRM and other transformative tech, sales efficiency worsened.

Mark offered a compelling explanation: because every company implements the same technology at roughly the same time, the playing field simply resets. Competitive advantage is fleeting. As he put it, CRM didn't necessarily make reps more productive — it mostly made leaders more informed. Sellers still succeed because of skills like trust-building, discovery, and navigating complex deals.

Loading component...

Loading component...

Loading component...

Loading component...