Revenue Enablement Society - Stories From The Trenches

On this episode my guest is Meagan Davis, the Director of Sales Enablement at Hunters. Please join us as she shares her experiences and perspectives on not just enablement for sales teams, but for also marketing, customer success, and sales engineering teams. 

She also introduces customer certification into the mix - a bridge that fosters empathy and shared experiences between the Go-to-Market teams, prospects and customers. Meagan underlines the significance of unearthing business outcomes, objectives, and the art of effectively passing sales notes to the customer success team. 

Meagan is a lifelong learner, a believer in the potential of PEOPLE, a marathoner – and a little known fact is that she was raised in Montana! 

She has hands-on experience: selling the business case for, building, leading, and optimizing Sales Enablement programs. She recently wrote and published, “How to Start a Sales Enablement Program,” a book for practitioners that codifies lessons learned through experience, and from the many exemplary leaders and mentors that she has had the privilege to work with.

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Navigating sales enablement can be a labyrinth, but not when you have a strategic vision and the right metrics to guide you.  In Episode 57 we dive into a discussion about what separates operational vs. strategic Enablement and how to develop a data driven strategy that has measurable impact. Learn how to:

• Differentiate between operational and strategic Enablement
• Use metrics to understand what can be measured, influenced and controlled
• Align your tech stack to support data driven strategic Enablement
• Use language to change the perceptions of Enablement
• Begin the transition from operational to strategic Enablement

Kieran Smith manages EMEA and APAC GTM Enablement & Productivity for Staffbase. As a skilled Enablement leader with over a decade of experience in sales leadership his focus is on designing and implementing sales enablement programs that increase team productivity and revenue growth. Kieran has a proven track record in developing sales strategies that are aligned with business goals and revenue outcomes. He has developed expertise in sales leadership and coaching coupled with a deep understanding of sales operations, sales methodologies, and sales technology.

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Get ready to secure your seat at the table where business decisions are made as we unravel the important role of stakeholder management in sales enablement. We're joined by the always insightful Felix Kruger, a name synonymous with sales enablement, founder of FFWD, and the voice behind the popular podcast, State of Sales Enablement. We talked about:

• The importance of stakeholder management in Enablement
• Effective strategies for building strong relationships - even difficult ones
• How to demonstrate value and impact to stakeholders to secure buy-in 
• The importance of effective strategic communication
• How to avoid the most common pitfalls in stakeholder management

Felix has been a seller, sales enabler, and independent Sales Enablement consultant in organizations ranging from early-stage startups to billion-dollar enterprises.

He is now the Chief Enablement Officer of consulting firm FFWD.

Felix supports enablers around the world in adopting best practices with his podcast, The State of Sales Enablement, webinars, newsletters, and conference speaker assignments.

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Are you navigating the complex landscape of tech-driven sales enablement? Join me as I chat with Priya Sachdev, founder of Sprouting Shoots, who sheds light on this often overwhelming topic and how to avoid the pitfalls of "shiny object syndrome." Learn from Priya's expertise on striking the perfect balance between technology adoption and practical application, as well as understanding the driving force behind the advancements in sales management technology.  During our conversation Priya shared her insights on:

• Why Sellers often hate technology
• Why the return on time invested can be very low
• Overcoming adoption challenges such as underutilization and churn
• Why the concept of a "best system" is a myth
• Using technology to reduce sales friction

Priya's “ikigai” (purpose) is elevating the strategic importance of sales. For almost 3 decades she has partnered with business leaders, executives, and entrepreneurs in the B2B space to drive effective sales strategy through customer engagement. She's worked with more than 250 midsize to large organizations, and managed teams from 5 to 1500.  Her key projects have been in the industrial, BFSI, tech services, SaaS, professional services, FMCG, automotive, healthcare, and medical equipment industries. 

Priya was listed as one of the “25 most influential women in India” by CEO Magazine in 2017 and “The 10 Successful Women to Watch For in 2018” by Insights Success. 

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In this episode discover the power of nurturing the whole person. Learn why motivation is the cornerstone of effective coaching and how each individual's desired work experience fuels it. We also cover the importance of equality in the workplace, especially concerning gender and motherhood. Listen in as we explore how embracing the whole person, understanding motivation, and striving for equality can unleash human potential and create a more fulfilling work experience for all.

Phil Putnam is a listener, executive operator and enablement leader.  In his current role as VP of Sales Enablement at Notified, his days are spent leading and optimizing the skill base and employee experience of Notified’s global Sales team. 

 Having come into Sales Enablement after nearly 20 years in customer-facing post-sale roles  at organizations including Apple, Adobe and Sprinklr, his approach to sales skills and education is 1000% influenced by the realities of what happens after the signature, and taking ownership of how the sales experience sets a customer up for long-term success and ongoing renewal.     

When he’s not lost down a PowerPoint formatting and animations rabbit hole, which he absolutely loves to be, he can most likely be found at home in New York City with his partner, watching shameless amounts of TV and annoying his dog with an overwhelming amount of cuddles.

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Have you ever doubted your abilities and felt like a fraud, despite being very competent? Have you tried to help a friend dealing with feelings of inadequacy? If so you've likely experienced Imposter Syndrome which causes people to feel anxious and inadequate and affects their mental well-being. Learning to overcome it is a critical skill for sustained mental health.

For this special Mental Health Month episode professional Imposter Syndrome Coach Alli Rizacos joins us to share insights into Imposter Syndrome and techniques that anyone can use to help conquer it. Listen in and learn about:

👉 The root causes of Imposter Syndrome
👉 Authenticity vs. Attachment
👉 How to upgrade your personal "operating system"
👉 Moving from self-criticism to building your inner leader

Alli had a 15 year career in sales at companies like Salesforce before leaving the corporate world in 2021 to start her own coaching business as an Imposter Syndrome Coach. She works with revenue leaders to overcome their imposter syndrome and upgrade their mental operating system so that their minds are working for them and not against them. 

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How do you enable sales teams to turn average demos into compelling stories that capture their prospects' attention and keep them engaged?  Can demo effectiveness be measured? If so, how should Enablement teams track and improve their demo enablement? In this episode, Brian Geery shares his proven strategy and techniques for enabling sales pros to give demos that highlight solutions to prospects' business challenges and helps them create a vision for how to solve those challenges. Listen in to learn:

• 7 steps to create a persuasive and compelling demo
• What KPIs to use to measure demo effectiveness
• How to give your demo enablement  a makeover
• Demo scripts - yes or no?
• Specific steps for getting started

Brian Geery is a Managing Partner at SalesNv and author of How to Demonstrate Software So People Buy It. His firm transforms software demos, so they win more deals. They give your demo a makeover. Sales leaders at high growth SaaS companies use Brian’s guidance to increase demo win rates, reduce new hire demo ramp time, and enable everyone to demonstrate like a top performer.

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True revenue enablement is a strategic approach that aligns sales, marketing, customer success, and product teams to improve customer experiences, drive revenue growth, and increase profitability. In this episode Matt Cohen, Sr. Sales Enablement Manager at Dotmatics and I discuss the foundational elements of creating strategic enablement that he's used successfully. Listen and catch valuable insights into:

• Determining  if an organization is ready for strategic Enablement
• Defining Enablement as a critical first step
• Selecting a sales methodology
• Creating Enablement aligned to your buyers' experience

Matt Cohen has been in go-to-market roles for the past 7 years since earning his MBA, building enablement for sales tech leaders like Seismic and Clari through hyper-growth. 

Throughout his career, he has leveraged his ability to strategically align resources in a way that fosters adaptability and scale. That passion for alignment is why his career is in Enablement, which he views to be the proactive identification of gaps in the buyer journey and shaping priorities to fill them through the optimization of people, process, and technology in service of revenue. 

Matt co-founded the San Diego Chapter of the Sales Enablement Society, served on the Board of the Boston Chapter and is currently working on starting a new chapter in Nashville. He regularly contributes thought leadership in the form of articles, podcasts, and webinars, and was recognized this year as a 2023 Enablement Leader Making It Happen by SalesHood.

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According to Forrester, direct managers have the most impact and influence on sales reps’ success and organizations must make their enablement of sales managers as comprehensive as that of rep-level contributors. Forrester has also found that B2B sales leaders often make flawed assumptions about the ease with which new sales managers can transition from previous roles. 

In our 50th episode Terry Bird, VP of Enablement at Vonage, and I explore ways in which sales enablement organizations can support revenue team managers in various stages of their career. Join the conversation as we discuss:

• How much more complex the role of sales leader has become
• Gartner's analysis of top performing sales managers
• The constant Internal vs. External struggle
• How the Voyage team is supporting leaders and enabling them for success

Terry is based in the UK and has a long history in technical sales and sales roles prior to moving into the Sales Enablement space around 15 years ago.

In 2008 Terry joined IBM and worked in a number of roles helping to drive enablement transformation, before ultimately landing as Director, Sales Enablement for IBM Global Sales, overseeing enablement programs and tools for a population of over 20,000 sellers and business partners. Terry joined Vonage in 2021 where he took up the mission of helping to establish a company-wide sales enablement function.

Terry loves the challenge of architecting cultural change alongside helping go to market teams deliver success. Away from his day job he has been a DJ for over 25 years, playing all over the world alongside legends of the house and techno scene.

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Revenue enablement teams aren't the same as HR - they don’t exist to deliver corporate and regulatory training. Revenue enablement teams exist solely to optimize the performance of all customer facing teams and have a positive impact on revenue.

To fulfill that mission it's critical for revenue enablement teams to create and execute strategies and programs that correlate and align with the financial objectives of their executive team so in this episode Kunal Pandya and I discuss:

• Strategic vs. operational enablement
• The impact of current economic conditions on enablement teams
• Mitigating the risk of being labeled a cost center
• 3 key changes you can implement to become more strategic

Kunal Pandya has over 20 years experience, with various tech and high-growth SaaS companies such as SuccessFactors, SAP, Taulia, HighRadius and UserZoom, leading global revenue enablement teams. He is passionate about building and executing data-led enablement strategies to drive significant and transformative growth and impact.  He can be heard at various events, webinars and podcasts, highlighting the importance of strategic enablement functions in order to deliver revenue impact.

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