Enable’s Mainstream Adoption Strategy: Why They Skipped the Early Adopter Phase
Conventional wisdom in B2B SaaS says to start with early adopters and gradually move mainstream. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Enable CEO Andrew Butt revealed why they took a radically different approach: making their solution accessible to mainstream buyers from day one.
The Accessibility Imperative When Enable began, rebate management was a mess of “manual systems, home built systems, excel spreadsheets kind of limping along trying to use active ERP systems which don’t do this well,” Andrew explains. The typical response would be to target innovative companies willing to try new solutions. Instead, Enable saw an opportunity to make enterprise-grade rebate management accessible to everyone.
“Being modern cloud software, it’s very much on demand, so we’re making it very accessible, very easy, very kind of fast time to value so the cloud principles can apply to this new space,” Andrew shares. This accessibility-first approach has driven remarkable growth, with Enable expanding to over 10,000 companies on their platform.
Beyond Early Adopters The decision to target mainstream buyers wasn’t accidental. “We’re creating something which is mainstream. You don’t have to be like a visionary or like a really early adopter,” Andrew emphasizes. This approach required rethinking every aspect of their solution, from implementation to commercial model.
Education as an Accessibility Tool Rather than assuming customers understand the problem, Enable invested heavily in education. “We are creating a lot of content. Best practice guidance on how to manage rebates, how to do better through effective rebate management,” Andrew notes. This education-first approach helps mainstream buyers understand both the problem and solution.
Making ROI Clear and Quick For mainstream buyers, theoretical benefits aren’t enough – they need concrete results. Enable’s business value assessment process shows prospects how they can “get a payback in maybe three or four months.” By focusing on quick wins and clear ROI, they’ve made the decision process accessible even for risk-averse buyers.
Community-Driven Adoption Enable recognized that individual rebate managers needed support to drive adoption. “We’ve created more recently a community which is really putting rebate managers on the map and showing how they actually can have a huge strategic input into their business,” Andrew shares. This community approach helps mainstream buyers feel confident in their decisions.
Network Effects Accelerate Growth The focus on mainstream adoption created powerful network effects. “We started focusing entirely on distributors and then it was actually through network effect that we got into the manufacturers,” Andrew explains. By making their solution accessible to one side of the market, they naturally expanded to the other.
Key Lessons for B2B Founders Enable’s approach offers valuable insights for founders building complex enterprise solutions:
- Make enterprise software as accessible as consumer apps
- Focus on education to lower adoption barriers
- Demonstrate concrete ROI quickly
- Build community to support mainstream buyers
- Design for network effects from day one
The results validate this strategy: Enable has grown from 80 to 450 people in two and a half years, with 150% year-over-year growth. Their vision is equally ambitious: “Just like DocuSign is the standard for Esignature, we want to be the standard for any B2B incentive,” Andrew shares.
For B2B founders, Enable’s story challenges the conventional wisdom about early adopters. Sometimes, the fastest path to growth is making your solution accessible to mainstream buyers from the start.
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