The Ultimate Guide to Sales Acceleration

‘Selling fast’ is the new ‘selling smart.’

It’s evident that sales reps are under the gun to move quicker, connect deeper, and close with urgency. But this goal is only achievable with rich insights.

In the book “The Sales Acceleration Formula,” written by entrepreneur and advisor Mark Roberge, he details the data-driven approach any company can use to not only scale sales (significantly) but also expedite the entire sales process.

Translation? Selling to B2B organisations today isn’t about leveraging static spreadsheets and spray-and-pray approaches. It’s about blending a mix of real-time signals, historical data, and predictive analytics to inform every move.

That’s how go-to-market teams at B2B companies across industries are unlocking shorter sales cycles while still engaging qualified leads in a meaningful, compelling way and creating buyer experiences that actually drive revenue growth.

The secret sauce? Balancing speed and precision.

And precision only comes when reps rely on a best-in-class sales enablement tool—especially one with AI-powered insights and agentic capabilities—and other highly advantageous technologies that are purpose-built for GTM teams.

This isn’t theory. It’s the new reality of high-velocity, high-integrity sales.

Let’s break it down.

What is sales acceleration?

Sales acceleration is the use of cutting-edge tools, tactics, and technologies that help B2B sales teams close more deals in less time by streamlining workflows, surfacing insights, and eliminating guesswork from the selling process.

A well-executed sales acceleration strategy empowers sales representatives to automate repetitive tasks, focus on high-value activities, and stay in sync with buyers. It aligns the people, process, and technology in GTM around the shared goal of increasing revenue with greater speed, precision, and impact.

Why is sales acceleration important?

Sales acceleration is important because it helps reps move faster without sacrificing quality, allowing go-to-market teams to adjust quickly through outbound and inbound marketing adjustments and consistently execute on what works.

It enables sellers to connect with the ideal customers, craft better pitches, and spend more time building relationships that actually convert. It also empowers enablement and marketing teams to align efforts and optimise every SDR’s time, which helps them collectively realise near- and long-term sales success.

A continually accelerated sales process: Critical to your GTM success

Close collaboration and coordination are the cornerstones of cross-functional success today. As it relates to your go-to-market org, that means your teams must remain in sync at all times to ensure they collectively aim to achieve the same goals—including those tied to B2B sales acceleration.

Put another way? The following activities can’t afford to happen in siloes. Rather, they must be interconnected and part of a well-oiled GTM machine.

Lead generation: Getting more potential customers in the pipeline via marketing campaigns

Lead generation should feel like pulling the right thread, not throwing spaghetti. When your GTM team dials in where interest meets intent and delivers compelling content to your target market, not a random assortment of database contacts, your sales and marketing campaigns resonate with the right individuals.

A strong play here shortens the distance between attention and opportunity, feeding your sales cycle with folks who are already leaning in. Add smart targeting and timing, and reps spend way less energy trying to warm cold prospects.

Lead scoring: Using a defined formula to determine if contacts should become MQLs

Lead scoring is where gut-checks get replaced with math that works.

A consistent formula helps your go-to-market org—notably, your sales leaders—agree on who’s ready for a pass to SDRs and who’s better left untouched.

Fast handoffs start here, and reps save valuable cycles for buyers who are closer to making moves. It’s a filter that clears the air, not a gate that slows things down. With a little operational rigour, lead scoring becomes a launchpad for better conversations—and a better use of your sellers’ most valuable resource: time.

Lead qualification: Assessing new leads to see if it’s worth sellers’ time to engage them

When your GTM teams move fast through lead qualification, everyone wins. Reps, in particular, skip the tire-spinners and hone in on folks with fit and urgency.

A solid qualification flow keeps the pipeline clean, the calendar tight, and sales energy high. It’s less about pushing prospects forward and more about pulling out the ones worth attention. Done well, this step saves sellers hours across the board and tightens the gap between the cold call and closed-won.

Lead routing: Pushing the most promising prospects to the appropriate sales reps

Lead routing works best when it’s invisible—entirely automated and instant.

When your sales reps get the right prospect added to their plates without delay, they can jump straight into the conversations that count. Smart routing gives every team a faster start and cuts out the ping-pong. It’s about giving each seller a head start with buyers who match their skill set, book, or territory.

And when time-to-touch shrinks, so does time-to-close.

Lead conversion: Closing deals in less time and boosting each reps’ sales performance

Lead conversion reflects effort and reveals rhythm. When sales professionals on your team walk into every deal equipped with proof points, context, and messaging that’s worked before, fewer things fall through.

Sellers gain pace when the path is clear, the content is strong, and the distractions are gone. Instead of scrambling to respond, they can direct the flow.

With a data-backed customer relationship management approach, your sales team can unlock more wins with less drag (and appease your sales managers and RevOps leaders who want to see pipeline transform into new business at scale).

How historical and real-time GTM analytics informs B2B sales acceleration

“A connected data ecosystem is never done,” Forbes Agency Council’s Paula Chiocchi wrote. “Systems, standards and buyer behaviours evolve constantly.”

In other words, GTM leaders such as yourself are constantly refining and reconfiguring their analytics foundation to ensure each team has the appropriate, data-driven sales solutions that help them in their-day-to-day. Tools and technologies like:

Conversation intelligence tools give reps and managers granular insight into deal discussions

• Example of conversation intelligence: From phone calls conducted by reps, AI captures detailed summaries and suggests follow-ups based on conversation cues.
• Impact on sales acceleration: Context-based conversation insights speed up coaching cycles and help sales teams close gaps in messaging and timing faster.

Conversation intelligence changes how selling conversations get used after they happen. Instead of long replays or fuzzy recollections, teams gain structured takeaways that highlight themes, objections, and follow-ups worth pursuing.

Sales reps enter the next meeting better prepared, while managers gain a clear view into coaching opportunities without sitting through hours of audio.

Platforms like Highspot extend beyond the capabilities of legacy sales calling recording software, offering much more than just basic transcription.

Our AI-powered solution connects conversation takeaways to enablement workflows, helping B2B sales professionals refine how they show up in future calls. The payoff shows up quickly in tighter conversations, stronger follow-through, and faster deal progression across the board.

Sales intelligence solutions shed light on GTM’s shared efforts to sell smarter and faster

• Example of sales intelligence: Pulling win/loss data across regions to show what messaging, tactics, and sequences are converting best by industry.
• Impact on sales acceleration: Sales data helps teams prioritise what works so reps spend less time on trial-and-error tactics and more time moving deals forward.

Sales intelligence gives GTM leaders a shared reference point for what drives progress across the funnel. Patterns emerge across regions, industries, and roles, revealing which plays convert and which ones slow things down.

Instead of relying on anecdotes, teams align around evidence pulled from pipeline trends and historical performance. Individual seller wins become teachable moments that scale across the organisation. Over time, the entire motion tightens as high-performing approaches get reused and weaker ones fade out.

That collective lift compounds quickly, raising sales productivity without burning out reps.

Revenue intelligence platforms that relays how current sales processes impact growth

• Example of revenue intelligence: Analysing current sales velocity against historical close rates to identify bottlenecks slowing quarterly deal flow.
• Impact on sales acceleration: Revenue signals show which deals are gaining traction and which are drifting, giving ops teams room to adjust in real time.

Revenue intelligence connects daily selling motions to business outcomes leaders care about. It shows how pipeline flow, deal size, and cycle length interact across quarters, giving sales operations teams a steady read on pacing.

Go-to-market leaders gain clear visibility into where deals slow down and where acceleration already exists, making planning far less reactive.

With better alignment between forecast expectations and pipeline reality, teams adjust resourcing earlier rather than later. That steady insight supports accurate sales forecasts and keeps growth plans grounded in what the sales process can deliver.

Business intelligence tools that provide data-backed suggestions on GTM optimisation

• Example of business intelligence: Layering customer data with sales win rates and team performance by SKU to shape resource allocation and pricing.
• Impact on sales acceleration: Business intelligence shows what’s worth selling more of and where to pull back, so reps don’t waste time in dead zones.

Business intelligence pulls GTM data into a single view that highlights where time and effort deliver the strongest return. By combining customer data with performance trends, leaders can see which offers, markets, and motions deserve deeper investment.

Sellers benefit indirectly as priorities become clearer and playbooks simplify. Sales strategy reviews shift from opinion-driven debates to grounded discussions backed by evidence. Over time, each go-to-market unit spends fewer cycles on low-yield work and more energy on areas proven to convert.

That focus steadily improves deal quality and overall pipeline health.

The 5 types of sales acceleration software that can improve your selling

“While support tools exist, no significant innovations have fundamentally transformed these closing stages, underscoring the enduring importance of personal relationships in sales,” Mark Roberge co-wrote in a recent article for Columbia Business School on the use of automation and AI for sales today.

That said, there are proven solutions that can augment your sales acceleration strategy and give your GTM function the confidence and clarity they need to thrive and, at the end of the day, help sales reps hasten their account-based selling.

1. AI-powered revenue enablement platforms: Equip, train, guide, and coach reps in one place

The best revenue enablement platform feels like a war room built for closers. Everything flows: onboarding, messaging, coaching, content—on tap and ready.

Our agentic solution weaves together Highspot Agents that guide reps through every pitch, while AI Role Play helps reps build muscle memory fast, and Digital Sales Rooms give buyers exactly what they need without extra email gymnastics.

Add in AutoDocs, which helps sellers build deal-ready decks tied straight to CRM data in a matter of minutes, and our tech’s AI sales training and AI sales coaching tools, and you can level-up SDRs’ skill sets long term and ensure they consistently advance prospects in their sales pipeline increasingly faster.

2. Go-to-market intelligence solution: Turn historical data and deal signals into winning strategies

Great intel doesn’t sit quietly.

It calls out patterns, gaps, and upside with equal force. Leading sales analytics tools track what’s been tried, what’s working now, and what’s overdue for reinvention.

Notably, they bring together core metrics from other tools and technologies from across your whole (and likely expansive) go-to-market ecosystem, pairing inputs with key performance indicators that show what drives progress.

Patterns across buyer types, product lines, target markets, and territories get easier to act on, and fewer resources get tied up in slow bets. Sales, marketing, and revenue operations get to move with purpose and—thankfully—fewer delays.

3. CRM systems with native automation workflows: Align GTM teams and accelerate deal flow

A CRM that just stores data is like a calendar with no dates. When it’s wired with sales automation, deals pick up speed, handoffs tighten, updates flow instantly, and other intricate steps of your sales process happen without manual effort.

Whether it’s Salesforce or another leading platform, look for CRMs that embed next moves inside the workflow. Teams like yours also need a CRM with built-in automation that connects across email, calendar, enablement, and analytics tools.

4. Sales engagement software: Streamline the prospecting process and boost buyer connect rates

Sales outreach takes more than enthusiasm. It needs the proper cadence, structure, and consistency across reps. Buyer engagement tools give your SDRs step-by-step workflows that scale across territories and teams.

Outreach feels tighter, more relevant, and easier to replicate.

These platforms, when leveraged by both your sales and marketing teams, keep sales messaging aligned and timing crisp. Expect more meetings booked, fewer dropped threads, and tighter feedback loops between prospecting and pipeline.

They lift SDRs’ sales effectiveness without adding more to their plates.

5. Configure-price-quote (CPQ) tools: Accelerate proposal delivery and reduce deal friction

Proposals lose steam fast when pricing gets messy. Reputable CPQ platforms for mid-market and enterprise sales organisations keep things clean: automating approvals, bundling products, and ensuring discounts don’t derail margins.

Reps work from guardrails, not spreadsheets. They move quickly from evaluating essential needs laid out by technical and economic buyers, to a firm quote, helping leads feel like they’re working with a team that knows its offering inside and out.

Instead of slowing near the finish line, reps close with clarity. That rhythm keeps deals moving, keeps teams aligned, and clears the path for faster wins.

Leveraging AI and data-driven insights in your sales acceleration platforms

Artificial intelligence has a knack for seeing what people miss—and saying what others hesitate to say. With the right go-to-market platforms, you can pull insights out of your sales tech stack like threads from a well-worn sweater.

Sales, marketing, enablement—everyone gets what they need without having to ping ops, scroll endless dashboards, or decode spreadsheets. No lag. No bottlenecks. Just timely, relevant inputs that drive sharper GTM moves.

It’s not about replacing people. It’s about replacing silence with clarity.

The right AI can be a sales accelerant, cutting through clutter to help reps prep faster, managers pinpoint gaps, marketers refine plays, and RevOps sync execution with strategy. More to the point, innovative AI sales tools can:

• Flag buyers with meaningful digital footprints who are already circling key topics so sellers can strike before the deal slips into someone else’s hands
• Detect slowdowns across training rollouts and connect those dots to pipeline drag, then tee up next steps for sales leaders before the quarter gets away
• Spotlight collateral that drives revenue conversations across key personas and verticals, not just clicks or open rates buried in demand generation reports
• Give RevOps the bird’s-eye view of sales pipeline movement, sorted by timing, region, and GTM motion, without needing to file another data request

So, the question now is: Are you proactively helping your sales team close faster, cleaner, and smarter by evaluating and investing in top-of-the-line AI software—or are you magically hoping deals will close faster all on their own?