Welcome to Season 3 of 10/10 GTM: The Podcast for Revenue Leaders!

Our guest for Episode 88 is Kunal Pandya, VP Global Revenue Enablement at Corsearch. With a career rooted in the tech industry, Kunal has worn many hats including as investor, founder, and senior leader. Prior to joining Corsearch, he held leadership roles at SAP, Taulia, and UserZoom. 

In this episode, Ross and Kunal discuss data-driven enablement, exploring leadership and strategy and effective coaching in practice. 

Listen to the episode here, and get the key takeaways from our conversation below.

The ROI of Enablement 

When it comes to the importance of enablement, Kunal doesn’t mess around. “It’s not an option anymore,” he stresses. “It has to happen.”

He recalled a personal experience where he was sitting in a QBR with reps, talking about a sizable deal which they closed. But the deal was won after significant coaching by him. He delivered a lot of things that help the rep ramp the deal and with onboarding, and his assistance continued all the way through various enablement learning. But the issue was he received zero credit for his role. 

“Suddenly, you realize that other teams are getting credit for their role, but enablement isn’t part of this conversation,” says Kunal. 

That experience drove home a larger point: enablement must prove its value — consistently and clearly. “There was a time when companies were going big on enablement, investing in onboarding, SDR development, training, and content. But then hiring slowed down, budgets tightened, and the question became, ‘What are we actually getting from this?’ If we’re not onboarding new reps, what’s the ROI of enablement?”

According to Kunal, the responsibility doesn’t just lie with leadership to figure that out. Enablement leaders themselves need to take charge of telling their story.

“We have to help executives connect the dots. We need to shift from being seen as a service function to being viewed as a strategic partner that drives measurable business outcomes,” he says. “That’s what got me into building more data-backed, outcome-focused enablement programs. We can’t just assume people see the impact, we have to show them.”

3 Questions to Build Your Enablement Strategy

“Data-driven enablement is a byproduct of strategic enablement,” says Kunal. “ Without the data-driven aspect, there is no strategic enablement. That's not me making up the rules. It's just the way business is run. But also importantly, it's just the way that executives make decisions with numbers and insight, actionable insight.”

In Kunal’s experience, there are three pivotal questions to ask as you build your enablement strategy: 

1. What’s the revenue gap?  Start by understanding the difference between where your team is now and where you're forecasted to be. That gap is your north star as an enablement leader as it defines the problem you’re solving.

 “Enablement’s role is to bridge that gap,” Kunal explains. “But you can’t bridge it if you don’t first define it.”‍

2. What are the key levers that drive that gap? Once you’ve identified the revenue gap, look at the metrics that influence it such as win rate, pipeline generation, average deal size, sales cycle length, and more.
As you do this, keep in mind that it’s not just about static benchmarks. “Is a 20% win good or bad?” Kunal asks. “Benchmarks paint the picture. Trends tell the story.”

He emphasizes the importance of breaking data down by cohort such as region, product line, and segment to find what’s really driving changes in performance. “You might see an overall win rate trending up, but enterprise deals are tanking. That’s a signal. Over time, that’s going to hurt.”

3. Which lever do we pull to close the gap, and by how much? This is where strategic enablement becomes tactical. Based on the trends and segments you've analyzed, identify the specific lever that will move the needle.

“Is the issue with average deal size in enterprise? Is it pipeline generation for the corporate team? Once you understand the story, you can run simulations,” says Kunal. “If we want to close a $2M revenue gap, and our win rate is currently 20%, how much would we need to improve that rate to make up the difference? Enablement needs to be part of that modeling.”

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Together, these questions form the foundation of a data-driven enablement strategy that’s aligned to business outcomes, backed by insight, and ready to drive impact. 

The Art of Enablement Storytelling

In enablement, it’s easy to stay focused on programs, trainings, and dashboards. But when it comes time to sit across from a CRO, CFO, or even present in a board meeting, how you tell the story of enablement can make or break your credibility.

As Kunal puts it, “The most dangerous thing we can do is skip the story altogether.”

Imagine sitting in a board meeting with your CRO and CFO. You’re asked to share the impact of your enablement efforts. So, you start talking about how win rates have improved, how your coaching led to a big deal closing, or how onboarding times have shortened. But suddenly the questions start flying:

• Is the data accurate?
• Was that improvement due to enablement—or was it because of a new product launch?
• Who actually taught the team how to sell that product in a value-based way?

If your story isn’t tight or if it’s not grounded in real insights and tied to strategic goals, it can unravel fast.

This is where Kunal brings in Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle: start with why, then how, and only then share what you did. Too often, enablement leaders lead with the what: “We ran a training,” or “We launched new objection-handling modules.” But without a clear why, like closing a revenue gap, or a clear how — like upskilling reps based on performance data — those programs can feel disconnected from business priorities. In contrast, when you lead with the why and frame your work in terms of business impact, you earn a seat at the table.

That’s why enablement storytelling should always begin with the revenue gap. What’s the shortfall between where the company is forecasted to land and where it’s currently tracking? Let’s say there’s a $2M gap. Your job is to identify the levers that could help close it. Is the win rate too low? Is average deal size slipping in enterprise? Once you’ve identified the issue, dig deeper and figure out who your top performers are versus who’s struggling, then identify the behaviors or capabilities that separate them.

That’s where enablement has an opportunity to drive real impact. If you can identify that top performers are leading more effective, value-based conversations or building stronger business cases, you now have a story to tell. You can build a program designed to replicate that behavior in your mid-tier reps. You can reinforce it through coaching, content, and certification. And you can model the potential impact: “If we move win rates from 15% to 20% across this segment, we close the $2M revenue gap.

About Kunal

Kunal is the VP of Revenue Enablement at Corsearch, the Founder & CEO of Sales Velocity Labs, and an active tech investor. He was voted the Global Enablement 'One to Watch' in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

To learn more or connect with Kunal directly, follow him on LinkedIn.