Backed by over 20 years of B2B revenue-growth leadership, his research guides major go-to-market functions around the globe, from the Forrester Revenue Enablement Maturity Model to annual planning frameworks shaping budgets and strategies for enterprise sales organizations.
In a recent conversation with our founder, Juliana Stancampiano, Ostrow spoke frankly about what enablement needs to become if it’s going to truly drive revenue in this new era: a strategic engine informing buying networks, embracing AI, and partnering deeply with marketing.
It’s a deep look into reshaping how we measure success, how we train our teams, and how we show up at the leadership table.
Let’s start here: the buyer isn’t who you think it is.
In the past, we talked about a "buying group"—usually 6–10 people inside the organization. But Peter points out a bigger shift: there are now 13 people inside and 9 people outside influencing the buying decision. He calls this a buying network. It includes industry peers, consultants, communities, LinkedIn connections—and, increasingly, generative AI.
And here’s the punchline: the rep is no longer the most influential voice in the room. Often, they’re just one of many.
If enablement is still focused solely on arming sellers, it's already behind. The role now is to equip everyone who contributes to that buyer’s journey—directly or indirectly. That means different content, different behaviors, and a whole different rhythm of collaboration.
Peter’s been in too many boardrooms where enablement is measured by lagging indicators: win rates, quota attainment, revenue. Metrics that are easy to track—but not easy to influence.
Enablement needs to shift the narrative. Not to avoid accountability, but to reclaim relevance.
The smart move? Start owning the inputs. Think ramp speed. Behavior change. Tool adoption. Productivity lift. If you can measure those—and package them into a story that makes sense—you can finally draw the line from enablement effort to business impact.
"It’s one thing to measure all the indicators. It’s another to package those into a story that convinces, that sells internally."
And let’s be real: spreadsheets don’t sell. But a good story backed by evidence? That gets airtime.
Here’s the wild part: enablement teams already own great AI capabilities.
The systems we use—coaching platforms, content tools, LMSs—they’re already AI-powered. But very few enablement leaders are stepping up to shape the conversation around how AI is used. How it’s governed. How it connects to the buyer journey.
Peter sees this as a missed opportunity. As buyers bring AI into the early stages of their decision-making, sellers get pushed further downstream. That makes enablement’s job even more important: to align what we teach, train, and deliver with how buyers are actually learning.
“Our own Forrester Research, we probably publish 1 to 2 reports every single day on AI from different perspectives. We have plenty. That's enablement specific. And one of the quick things that we learned when we started covering this three years ago is there isn't really an AI center of excellence because every line of business is doing what they must and what they can.”
One of the most important, and underleveraged, partners for enablement is portfolio marketing.
Peter argues that enablement and marketing often run on parallel tracks. But they should be braided together, reinforcing the same messages across every stage of the buyer’s experience.
It’s not just about messaging consistency. It’s about alignment on what matters to the customer. What problems they’re trying to solve. What story they’ve been told—and how that story gets picked up (or dropped) in the first sales call.
We’re still comping salespeople as lone wolves.
Peter calls this out: 100% of a seller’s W2 is based on what they sold, not how they coached others, helped onboard a peer, or contributed to the overall health of the team.
It’s no wonder enablement struggles to embed collaboration or coaching. The comp structure works against it. If you want reps to share playbooks and learnings, they need a reason to do it.
Enablement isn’t a support function—it’s a revenue transformation engine. But that requires:
In Peter’s words, it’s about moving from enablement to revenue strategy. Not because it sounds cooler. But because it better reflects the influence enablement can (and should) have on the business.
Want to discuss where you can uplevel your revenue enablement? Let’s talk about what Oxygen can do for your organization.
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