Sales Enablement Innovation: Recent Episodes
Sales Enablement Collective
Ever wondered how sales enablement leaders get it done? The Sales Enablement Innovation podcast, brought to you by Sales Enablement Collective, shines a light on what really goes on backstage at some of the world’s top startups and companies - from getting cross-functional buy-in and planning the perfect SKO to looking ahead at future trends as the role of sales enablement evolves.
Each episode, we sit down with a different revenue or sales enablement leader, and dive into their pain points, successes, and what got them to where they are - as well as best practice tips to help you turn your sales team into superheroes.
On this episode, we spoke to Alan McIntosh, Senior Manager, International Channel & Strategic Programs Enablement at RingCentral and SEC One to Watch in 2024!
Alan discussed the keys to building an effective, scalable, rep certification program based on his real-life experiences.
Key talking points:* Creating sales rep certifications and coaching for consistency at scale * Certifying both sales reps and managers in unison * Measuring the immediate and long-term success of certifications
And more!
This week, we were joined by SEC Ambassador, Head of GTM Revenue Enablement and Product Marketing, and Founder of GTM AI Academy - Jonathan Kvarfordt!
Jonathan has been leading the charge on artificial intelligence in the world of enablement, and what he’s calling “AI Enablement”. In this episode, we discussed his use cases for AI, how he sees enablement evolving, and more.
Key talking points* Use cases for popular AI tools in enablement * The evolution of enablement, and why he believes AI enablement is the future * Why the growth of AI has parallels with the Industrial Revolution * Leveraging experts to maximize your return from AI productivity
And more!
Jonathan’s list of AI tools* ChatGPT * Claude * Midjourney * Google Bard * GTM Buddy * Opus * Scalenut * Gamma * Synthesia
On this week’s podcast episode we were joined by the fantastic Phil Putnam, VP of Sales Enablement at Notified, to discuss a whole host of sales enablement topics!
Phil took a deep dive into how enablement can showcase its value, the importance of creating context for analysis, his advice for enablement interviews, and more.
Key talking points* Where enablement’s value truly lies and how to communicate that to leadership * The importance of creating a context * Asking the right questions to interviewers to understand if a role is right for you * Creating real relationships with your revenue leaders
And more!
In this episode, we were joined on the podcast by Kate Philpot, Senior Director of Global Sales Enablement at Getty Images!
Kate has been in enablement for over 15 years, building up an enviable amount of experience and wisdom working in major organizations.
This episode of the podcast was dedicated to the vital act of sales coaching, where Kate discussed what coaching actually means, weaving coaching and enablement together, measuring coaching success, and more.
Key talking points: * What coaching means to Kate, and how she defines it * How to incorporate coaching into your sales enablement strategy effectively * Measuring coaching success in a tangible way * Using technology to enable coaching in a hybrid world * Making the case for coaching to reluctant sellers
And more!
This time out, we were joined by Ankita Tiwari, Senior Revenue Enablement at Yousign, on the podcast! Ankita stumbled into enablement five years ago, fell in love, and has remained in the function ever since.
In the episode, we discuss the unique challenges that come with solo sales enablement, working in start-up environments, and much more!
Key talking points:* Asking for help from other teams and aligning your priorities with theirs * How to kickstart an enablement department as a one-person team * Building a good relationship with your stakeholders and internal customers, and how often those conversations need to happen
And more!
Whitney is manager of Go To Market Strategy & Programs at Zscaler and joins us for a second time on the podcast - you can catch her first appearance here.
This time out, Whitney discussed her new and expanded role in the Zscaler GTM team, the challenges and learnings, and her tips and tricks for making SKO awesome.
Key talking points:* How to prioritize effectively when you have a lot of responsibilities * SKO at Zscaler and what goes into making them special * Zscaler’s uniquely positioned enablement team and what that means for the organization * Overcoming challenges in Whitney’s new role covering the GTM team
Key talking points:* The ‘fitness coach’ analogy and why it’s perfect for enablement * Measuring the actual value of your enablement * Becoming comfortable with change and seeing it as an opportunity * Being fearless about talking to stakeholders when its needed
And a whole lot more!
Key talking points:* Scaling sales enablement from the early stages * Tying your enablement programs to real results * The most important stakeholders and getting their buy-in * What lies in sales enablement’s future
And more!
Key talking points:* The importance of coachability to a sales coach * Proving the impact of coaching to leadership teams * Sales coaching as part of an organization’s culture * Scaling your sales coaching efforts
And more!
Key talking points:* The most common talking points and challenges among people in teams of one * What your ‘core’ sales enablement looks like when you’re in a one-person team * Measurability, tracking results, and proving the impact of your work * Working with stakeholders and balancing their many needs
And more!
This podcast was brought to you by Uniphore.com
Key talking points:* Maintaining stakeholder relationships in a cross-functional role * What Christian’s learned from being both a one-man band and part of a team * How Christian defines his pillars of sales enablement * Adapting to a lack of industry knowledge when moving into a new role
And more!
his podcast was brought to you by Uniphore.com
Key talking points:* Why empathy is important in sales * How to put it into practice and leverage empathy in your day-to-day sales role * How measuring empathy levels on calls is possible and why you should do it * Steps salespeople can take to level up their empathy skills
And more!
This podcast was brought to you by Uniphore - and find out more about Uniphore and their industry-leading Q for Sales - Emotion Intelligence for Revenue Teams - at uniphore.com.
Key talking points:* How to build an enablement function from scratch, and how to assess your first steps * Using “No, but…” to make your mark in an organization and buy yourself time from leadership * Stephanie’s advice for sales enablement professionals who have been affected by recent layoffs * Separating being a seller from being an enabler, and how that was a learning curve for Stephanie
And more!
This podcast was brought to you by Uniphore - and find out more about Uniphore and their industry-leading Q for Sales - Emotion Intelligence for Revenue Teams - at uniphore.com.
Key talking points:* Keith’s career journey, and how experience in B2C helped him in his B2B career * Why localization matters, and why a baseball analogy can sometimes do more harm than good * How to help companies understand the importance of considering localization and time zones * Keith’s learnings from organizing multi-regional training over the years
And more!
This podcast was brought to you by Uniphore - and find out more about Uniphore and their industry-leading Q for Sales - Emotion Intelligence for Revenue Teams - at uniphore.com.
Key talking points:* The difference between enabling at a large corporation and in a smaller, startup environment * The future of the enablement landscape, and what this economic turbulence means for the function * How to turn your focus to customer retention, and how sales enablement can help drive that key to survival * The importance of maintaining a relationship with your CRO - and how to achieve it in the first place
And much more!
This podcast was brought to you by Uniphore - and find out more about Uniphore and their industry-leading Q for Sales - Emotion Intelligence for Revenue Teams - at uniphore.com.
Key talking points:* The use of AI in sales, and what software like ChatGPT can mean for sales teams * The future of the sales landscape, and what Tim sees on the horizon * How product marketing and sales enablement can work together more effectively * Why call recordings need to be listened to by the entire company, not just the sales team
And much more!
This podcast is brought to you by Uniphore's Q for Sales.
Key talking points:* Her journey from engineering, to sales, to sales leadership * Moving from Facebook to a startup environment at Uniphore * The benefits of Uniphore’s Q for Sales * Why women remain underrepresented in sales
And more!
This podcast was brought to you by Uniphore - and find out more about Uniphore and their industry-leading Q for Sales - Emotion Intelligence for Revenue Teams - at uniphore.com.
Key talking points:* Working in a fluid environment, and achieving that ‘impossible state of perfection’ * How being a buyer in his own organizations helped him help his sellers * The importance a shared language plays in creating cross-functional collaboration * Why enablement makes him feel like a worker bee - and that’s a good thing!
And much more!
This episode is brought to you by Uniphore's Q for Sales - find out more at uniphore.com
Key talking points:* Why Gail was ‘predestined’ to land in enablement! * Why contention and discussion about enablement’s definition is a good thing * The importance a listening tour plays in creating an effective enablement environment * Gail’s key enablement metrics, and why you don’t necessarily need 20+ to prove success
And much more!
This episode was brought to you by Uniphore's Q for Sales - find out more at uniphore.com
Key talking points:* What enablement looks like at Liftoff, and where the team’s key responsibilities lie * The importance of understanding learning styles to successful enablement * Carla’s favorite part of working in enablement, and why it’s so rewarding * The value that networking with enablement peers and communities has had in her career so far. And much more!
This episode is brought to you by Uniphore's Q for Sales - learn more on uniphore.com
Key talking points:* How Caitlin ended up in Zscaler’s revenue team and how much she’s learned about enablement since joining * How her enablement internship has her looking towards a future career in the industry, and whether she recommends the internship route to others * Managing the transition from academic communication to enablement communication, and the similarities and differences between the two. * Travelling to Chicago for an SKO and seeing the fruits of her hard work over the past months
And much more!
This podcast was brought to you by TigerLRM - and find out more about their leading sales enablement solution and CRM on TigerLRM.com.
Key talking points:* Why Kieran made the jump into enablement from sales leadership, and why he finds coaching rewarding. * What enablement looks like at Andela, and how Kieran splits his time between various activities. * How Kieran envisions the future of enablement at Andela, and what his ideal setup looks like. * Kieran’s thoughts on the “golden” ratio of 1 enablement team member to 50 reps. * Getting buy-in from reps who are used to thinking enablement is a “punishment” for bad performance, and eliminating that stigma.
And much more!
Key talking points* Celine’s been doing “enablement” since before enablement even had that name - so how does she define it? * The difficulties in enabling a distributed, remote workforce and the steps you can take to address these challenges * How enabling managers can bring big benefits to your organization * Advice for reaching good levels of engagement on enablement newsletters * Using data to enhance your enablement
And more!
Key talking points:* Sales enablement’s nebulous definition, and how Dorothy defines it * The most common sales enablement challenges and how TigerLRM helps solve them * What lies on the horizon for sales enablement, and what Dorothy foresees in enablement’s future * Dorothy’s favorite TigerLRM feature and the benefits it brings
This podcast was brought to you by TigerLRM - find out more on TigerLRM.com
Key talking points:- How enablement needs to be the ‘voice of the salespeople’ in order to drive efficiency
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What Mark sees as the framework for sales enablement - the key pillars that lead to a successful sales enablement function
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How Mark has managed to have great relationships with important stakeholders, and how that buy-in helped
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Increasing effectiveness and engagement when it comes to training, and why training needs to be ongoing.
Key talking points:* How being a “shepherd” is more important than being a “sales expert” when it comes to leading successful sales enablement. * What enablement should do, and how he strives to achieve that. * The alliances enablement forms with Operations, Product Marketing, and other key organizational functions. * How validating your value is critical to stakeholder management, and how metrics and being a strong voice play into that.
Key talking points:* How a sales background can add credibility and empathy to your enablement efforts. * How Melanie actually defines the term ‘enablement’, and why a holistic approach is beneficial. * The human and business impact of a workplace that incorporates diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
And more!
Key talking points:* How enabling presale teams is different to working with postsale teams, and the challenges that come with it. * Building short-term enablement programs while still keeping long-term scale in mind. * How to actually define enablement success through metrics. * The revelations that come from working in a fast-paced enablement environment.
And more!
Key talking points:* The challenges you can face as you work to build up and establish an enablement department * Why sales enablement can’t hold the customer’s hand throughout their entire buying journey * Why you need to show enablement’s value in every interaction in order to get internal buy-in * How going back to basics could bring enablement to the next level
And more!
Key talking points:* The different career backgrounds that one can take on the path to enablement, and why a history in L&D has its advantages. * How eliminating silos in sales enablement can often lead to a natural transition into revenue enablement. * Why expectation management is critical, and how a good relationship with your CRO can make all the difference. * Remembering that the solution isn't always training
And more!
Key talking points:* What enablement communications actually is, and how it contributes to an organisation's success * How planning a hybrid SKO really means that you're planning two events: one in-person, and one virtual * How to plan programs for scale, and dealing for when your target audience doubles within a year * Why following your curiosities is wise advice
Key talking points:* Building sales enablement functions from the ground up, and the challenges having a 'small but mighty' enablement team brings. * The insights that a sales background can provide as an enablement leader * How sales enablement can be a rewarding discipline * How the future of enablement may lie in increasing engagement through gamification
Key talking points:
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What working in a global capacity has taught him about sales and life, and how a passion for Latin America helped him on his journey.
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The evolution of sales enablement into other revenue-generating functions, and how working cross-functionally is key.
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The importance of including sales leadership in organization-wide enablement efforts
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Increasing your chances of getting leadership buy-in for sales enablement
Key talking points:* The advantages that a sales background brings to the table when you’re involved in sales enablement * Why confidence is one of the most important things to instill during onboarding and training * How to get enablement onto key stakeholders’ radar and work towards leadership buy-in * Why enablement working alongside other functions, and avoiding a siloed approach, has its strengths
A bit about our guest:
Joe is Global Program Manager – Onboarding at Rackspace Technology, where his primary responsibility is focused on accelerating the time to productivity for Rackspace’s global customer facing teams.
Key talking points: Why his aim is to instill a problem-solving mindset in his teams, and how that's led to success even when a deal hasn't* been closed * Being the first external enablement hire at Shift, and how the enablement team continues to build the program up * How having clarity and simplicity in enablement leads to better completion, better adoption, and better focus where it matters * Defining successful enablement, and how anecdotal feedback can be one of the best indicators that you're doing well
Key talking points
- Rolling up her sleeves to open Google offices in Columbia, Central America, and the Caribbean.
- Coming up with bespoke solutions by looking at customers’ problems from different perspectives.
- How the World Economic Forum and puts creative thinking as the single most important business skill to have.
- Why the ROI for time spent creatively is significantly higher.
- Camila’s magical experience providing technology outputs for underprivileged girls and women in Ghana.
Key talking points* Onboarding virtually as a ‘Noogler’ at Google * How he used virtual ‘Rugby World Cup-style’ pitch-offs to engage sellers * Using skills, self-motivation, and systems to succeed * Why Socrates was the ultimate coach * How to use big data and BI tools to see the impact of enablement intervention
NB: Theo’s opinions shared in this podcast are his own and not those of Google or any other company
From call center worker, to coach & trainer, to channel enabler - and now heading up the sales enablement team at Invicti, Spenser says his current role is the best he’s ever had. His team motto is ‘we build roads to success’, and that extends beyond the sales function. Spenser says: “I very intentionally try to call the department that I run the enablement department rather than sales enablement, because we're here to help the entire revenue organisation and anyone that interacts with customers.” Hear more about this - and his predictions for enablement over the coming year, and more - in this episode of Sales Enablement Innovation.
Engaging customers virtually has been a challenge for many organizations over the past year, and Jaclyn D'Arcy, Director of Revenue Enablement at SaaS healthcare company GHX, tells us how she's been focused on hybrid relationship building with both internal and external customers. She also shares how she fell in love with sales enablement, creating a source of truth for content and trainings, and breaking silos to help align best practices across the organization. In particular, as enablement is immersed in understanding both technical and soft skillsets, Jaclyn says widening its scope across the business makes for better hiring decisions: “You start building better connections to your talent acquisition team, so as they are trying to fill these roles, enablement can really guide the hiring decision, so that we're bringing team members into the organization that fit our culture - that’s what makes us successful at the end of the day.” Hear Jaclyn tell her story in the full podcast.
“Sales operations is just one piece of the puzzle; revenue ops gives you the full picture.” Syte’s Head of Revenue Operations, Leore Spira, sees organizations shifting their focus from just the traditional ‘sales’ function, to recognize every customer-facing role as a generator of revenue. And that means enablement needs to support every team that influences the customer journey, from pre-sales, to retention and renewal. In this Sales Enablement Innovation podcast, she talks to us about this, how the pandemic has provided an opportunity for rev ops to shine - and how she almost became a lawyer and a marketer before arriving at her current role.
Five years ago, if you’d asked Andela's Head of Revenue Enablement, Carly Lehner, what her ideal job would be, she’d have said one that involves training, strategy and working with sales and process design. And, lo and behold, that is that is pretty much what enablement is. So she absolutely loves it. Carly talked to me about why planning and executing sales kickoffs (SKOs) is where she’s in her element, being prepared to share her opinion (even if it goes against the consensus), and how revenue enablement is the next natural step in the evolution of sales enablement.
Developing your leadership skills isn't just about what they teach you in business school. Brandon Jones' top tip is to immerse yourself in biographies of effective leaders (think George Washington, Steve Jobs and Winston Churchill) to dig into how they've motivated their teams and navigated their way to success. As VP of Revenue at PAAY, success means breaking down barriers between sales, marketing, account management and customer success to create a smooth customer journey. Find out how he goes about taking full-funnel responsibility - and why it's so important for him to replicate those organic, 'water-cooler' conversations at the start of Zoom calls.
As Director of Global Sales Enablement at UserZoom, Kunal is responsible for the enablement of the global revenue team, including a full spectrum of roles: SDRs, account executives, account managers, and strategic account executives. He talked to us about maintaining a culture of engagement and collaboration, how onboarding himself created a roadmap for onboarding new hires, and his commitment to unlocking the potential in every individual to be the best that they can possibly be.
Sales enablement can mean so many different things to different people. For IBM's sales enablement specialist, Georgia Watson, it boils down to helping sellers to be their best in the market, so they can deliver value to their clients. In this episode of Sales Enablement Innovation, she talks to us about how the pandemic has created a blank canvas for innovation, and how you need to have the right culture to bring those ideas to fruition aligned with core business strategy. Find out what sales enablement looks like at IBM - and steal some of Georgia's tips.
How do you get the most value from your content? For Litmus’ Head of Sales Enablement, Bill Peterson, it’s all about creating consistent, evergreen learning content that's kept fresh with regular product and competitor updates. He’s shifted to weekly, just-in-time learning paths that everyone can plan ahead for, which has improved completion rates and allows sales reps and leaders to make suggestions about what they’d like to be included in future sessions. Learn more about this and Bill’s take on all things enablement (including his DJ sets at Litmus’ latest SKO event).
For PandaDoc's Senior Manager of Sales Enablement, Gail Behun, high performance sales enablement means working in tandem with marketing (who craft the message) and product (who provide the detail). Aligning objectives and expectations is key - 'level-setting', as Gail puts it. She's also passionate about helping sellers to grow, and develop their career paths - for her, enablement goes beyond reps simply hitting quota and excelling in the short-term. In this Sales Enablement Innovation podcast, Gail shares her philosophy for nurturing sustainable success, and how she encourages all enablers - and aspiring enablers - to reach out to others in the community to forge connections, share knowledge and immerse themselves in the discussions happening online.
Is the enablement function shifting to encompass every team member who steps into the buyer cycle? Christi Wall, Revenue Director at Chainalysis, certainly thinks so. Another big change, now we're online-only, means a greater focus on developing intangible interpersonal skills like empathy, building trust, active listening, and how to read a virtual room. In this episode, Christi also navigates us through her career trajectory, sharing how she’s flipped her opportunities during the pandemic, as well as giving us her take on making training fun (hint: it involves a lobster costume).
“There are a lot of ways to scale a mountain. Some people have a jet to take them up, some people have a helicopter. Some people have access to tools that you may not have. But we need to recognize when people are throwing down ropes for us.” Hang Black, VP of Revenue Enablement at Juniper Networks, discusses how women and immigrants can break into the leadership ranks by sharing her own journey: learning to identify limiting beliefs and behaviors, getting used to operating in chaos, her strategies for excelling under adversity - and why being ‘busy and bored’ during Covid gave her the impetus to write a book that had been in her head for 15 years.
With so many tools in our tech stacks, most of us know the feeling of having 101 tabs open at the same time. Can sales enablement really make sales processes seamless and friction-free for their reps through digital adoption? Steffaney Zohrabyhan, Digital Adoption Leader at Sprinklr, thinks so and talks us through how she does it, why you can't feed your reps a whole elephant at once - and how the philosophy of Clippy the ‘helpful’ Microsoft paperclip lives on.
Everybody has their own superpower, says Rachel Ha'o, Global Sales Enablement at Iterable, and your job as a sales enabler is to help execs discover and amplify it - not simply copy what’s worked for yourself in the past. In this podcast, Rachel talks about how she moved into sales enablement by ‘moonlighting’, the importance of humility as a sales enabler - and shares her number one early morning tip for keeping on top of priorities in a pandemic.
Can the principle of 'less is more' be applied to sales enablement? According to Claire Scull, Director of EMEA Sales Enablement at Veritas Technologies, it's the tenet to live by as enablement moves forward in the new normal. Her view: offer more to sellers by focusing on the critical few elements that are relevant and crucial for their success. In our final episode of 2020, Claire shares how she's kept her sellers' wellbeing front of mind in a remote environment, her success in bringing fun and gamification into an inaugural virtual SKO, and how no two days are ever the same on the job.
Got a sales training programme? Check. Sales reps have a high course completion rate? Check. Job done, right? Not quite - and Jaren Krchnavi, Head of Sales Enablement for Siemens Digital Grid Software, is here to tell you why. Moving away from the 'checkbox' mentality and towards a business-oriented performance measuring system can be tricky, but the payoff is substantial. From understanding customer needs & pain points to deploying a global non-technical training programme, Jaren shares the unique trappings of leading enablement within one of the largest industrial conglomerates in the world.
How do you build and maintain engagement, excitement, and a sense of community for your sellers when it's impossible to be in a room together? Danny De Los Santos, Curriculum , Strategy & Training Team Manager at Atlassian, may have the answer: podcasting. Diving into the daily realities of supporting the sales team at an organization that is continuously growing and scaling, Danny shares some of the programmes he's recently developed to keep reps educated and entertained.
How many of us have come to appreciate the importance of flexibility and adaptability in recent months? For Adriana Romero, GTM Enablement Manager at Clearbanc, being able to think on her feet and problem solve on the fly comes as second nature. In this episode of Sales Enablement Innovation, Adriana shares her leadership journey and how she's come to embrace the startup mindset - as well as how to navigate cultural differences and turn them into strengths.
What is it like leading sales enablement at a hyper-growth company spread across several continents? Tom Cheriyan, who heads up the function at OwnBackup, is somewhat of an expert - he’s successfully de-siloed function-specific knowledge and expertise with a centralized LMS and established processes to streamline onboarding and training, from account executives all the way to sales leadership. His ultimate goal? To have 100% of his sales force hit their targets.
You may not need a psychology degree to succeed in sales enablement - but according to Tanya Jeffers-McAllister, Director of Sales Practice Effectiveness at RBC Insurance, it can certainly help! Navigating stakeholders’ key priorities and juggling different personality types are all in a day’s work, and driving cultural change - while overseeing the integration of two different companies - takes a certain skillset and some creative thinking.
Building a sales enablement structure from the ground up at a global organization is no mean feat. Aaron Evans, Director of Sales Enablement at GlobalData, is well-versed in the ups and downs of this marathon; from being the central link between leadership and the rest of the business and getting buy-in from internal stakeholders to achieving company-wide cultural change, he’s ready to share what he’s learned along the way.