Sales Enablement Lab with Thierry van Herwijnen | Enabling Sales Conversation That Matter

Jacco vanderKooij is the founder of Winning By Design a global consultancy firm focussed on helping businesses to drive aggressive growth by designing and optimizing their sales processes. Together with Jacco, we discuss how you enable a sales force which is tasked to break into a new market and achieve rapid growth. Jacco recently blogged on this topic on LinkedIn. We talk about why 80% of today's startups typically miss their growth targets and why this will increase next year. Jacco shares his plan on how you can create a strategic approach to enable predictable high growth by designing and implementing the right sales processes. You can contact Jacco through LinkedIn here. Did you enjoy listening to this podcast and don’t want to miss another episode? Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes!

Roderick Jefferson is the global head of Sales Enablement for Oracle Marketing Cloud. This week we continue to build on a topic we discussed before in the Sales Enablement Lab podcast, the role of the front line Sales Manager. Like Dave Brock, Roderick is passionate about this important topic. Roderick shares why the role of the front-line sales manager is critical. According to Roderick, this is where the rubber hits the road. We discuss what makes a great front line sales manager, the importance of coaching and how you develop a coaching program. We also debate the benefits of having a dedicated coaching team and the value they can bring to your sales opportunities. At the end of the podcast, Roderick shares his practical tips for Sales Enablement practitioners on how to create an enablement approach for front line sales managers. What do you do to enable front line sales managers? What programs do you run? Let us know and share your thoughts and questions below. Did you enjoy listening to this podcast and don’t want to miss another episode? Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes!

I am thrilled to have Scott Santucci join us again on the Sales Enablement Lab podcast. We both just returned from Florida for the first global Sales Enablement Society meeting ever!. Scott and a handful of other passionate Sales Enablement practitioners launched the Society as a local initiative in Washington DC earlier this year. Since then the Sales Enablement Society has expanded exponentially and currently has 750+ members representing Sales Enablement practitioners, analysts, educators, and vendors! In Florida 100+ Sales Enablement enthusiasts got together under Scott's leadership to discuss topics like: What will be the strategic value of Sales Enablement in the future? How do we want to develop the role? What is the charter of the Sales Enablement Society? What questions would we like to answer as a community? Scott describes openly the roller coaster he went through in the last few months trying to pull this off the ground together with his team of volunteers. Want to learn more about the Sales Enablement Society or join? Go here, learn more and sign up! Did you enjoy listening to this podcast and don’t want to miss another episode? Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes!

This week Jim Ninivaggi joins the Sales Enablement Lab podcast. Jim is responsible for strategic partnerships and alliances at Brainshark. Before Jim joined Brainshark, he was with Sirius Decisions where he launched the Sales Enablement practice working closely with hundreds of clients providing them with strategic advice. In Season 1, episode 15 we talked with Jim on how to create the business case for Sales Enablement. This week we are focussed on sales onboarding, a key area for most Sales Enablement practitioners. Monster.com reports 30% of external new hires turn over within the first two years of employment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of replacing an employee is over 25% of their annual salary (some say 50%), so it is very costly when you don’t get it right. Together with Jim, we answer questions like: What is the definition of sales onboarding and how does it compare to traditional training? Where does onboarding start and where does it stop? How do you create an onboarding organization and strategy? How do you measure success? Let us know what you think of this week's topic! How do you define sales onboarding and what program have you developed? How do you measure the impact of your onboarding program? Did you enjoy listening to this podcast and don’t want to miss another episode? Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes!

Peter O’Neill is the VP & Research Director for B2B Marketing (previously called Sales Enablement) at Forrester. Peter manages a group of analysts focused on B2B marketing. In this week's podcast, Peter will give an update on Forrester's B2B Marketing Forum which took place in October in Miami. Peter shares the highlights of the conference and provides an update on the 'Dead of the B2B Sales Rep' research which we covered earlier in the podcast during season 1 episode 9 (Tom Pisello, Alinean) and season 1 episode 11 (Peter O'Neill). Also, we discuss Account Based Marketing (ABM), the alignment of Sales and Marketing and the rapidly evolving technology space around Sales Enablement. All topics which were focus areas during the conference. Did you enjoy listening to this podcast and don’t want to miss another episode? Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes! Let me know your thoughts and feedback by using the comments section below!

This week we continue our conversation with David Brock. David recently released a new book called the Sales Manager Survival Guide. This week we are focussed on attracting and retaining the right sales talent to your team. Every person we recruit is a multi-million dollar decision. We need to hire the right talent We discuss topics like: How do you find the right talent using sales competency models and less on chemistry? How should the interview process look like? Who in addition to the hiring manager should interview the potential candidates? Once hired, how should the onboarding process look like? How do you construct an effective performance review? How do you create the right sales cadence with weekly, monthly and quarterly objectives? Don’t miss David’s book! Order it now! Did you enjoy listening to this podcast and don’t want to miss another episode? Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes! Let me know your thought and feedback by using the comments section on my blog below.

This week we welcome back David Brock to the Sales Enablement Lab podcast. David is the founder and president of Partners In EXCELLENCE, a boutique consultancy company focussed on the customer facing side of organizations. David recently released a new book called the Sales Manager Survival Guide. The Sales Manager Survival guide is focussed on the front line sales manager and the day to day challenges they have to overcome. They are responsible for translating the companies sales strategy to day to day execution. Millions and millions are spent on training sales people but often we forget the front line sales managers. In this two-part podcast series, we will focus on addressing some of the biggest challenges front line sales managers face on a daily basis. We will cover topics like: How to create your 30-60-90 day plan when you start as a frontline sales manager? What are the organization expectations from front line sales managers? How do you transition from sales to sales management without losing your friends in the organization? How do create a ‘coaching’ environment in your organization? How do you coach a high performing sales team? Don’t miss David's book! Order it now! Did you enjoy listening to this podcast and don’t want to miss another episode? Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes! Let me know your thought and feedback by using the comments section on my blog below.

In this week's podcast, we continue our conversation with Tamara Schenk, Research Director CSO Insights, from last week and discuss the findings from her latest research on Sales Enablement.

This week we will focus on questions like: 'How do you create a culture of collaboration to maximize the outcome of your Sales Enablement initiatives', 'What is the latest thinking around sales onboarding'.

If you are interested reading the full report you can find it here (scroll down and download the CSO Insights 2016 Sales Enablement Optimization Study). If you would like to read more from Tamara I highly recommend her blog posts.

Welcome to Season Three, Episode 1. We kick off the latest season of the Sales Enablement Lab podcast with a conversation with Tamara Schenk. Tamara is Research Director at CSO Insights focussed on Sales Enablement. Tamara joined us earlier in season one for a conversation on 'Why a Systems Approach to Sales Enablement is Crucial.'

In this episode, we will discuss the latest research from CSO Insights on Sales Enablement, based on a study and survey conducted earlier this year. Because of the wealth of information Tamara has to share this will be a two-part podcast.

This week we will answer questions like: 'What is according to CSO Insights the latest definition of Sales Enablement?', 'How mature is Sales Enablement currently?' or 'What is the scope of Sales Enablement?'

If you are interested reading the full report you can find it here (scroll down and download the CSO Insights 2016 Sales Enablement Optimization Study). If you would like to read more from Tamara I highly recommend her blog posts.

Welcome to Season Two, Episode 1! After our break we are back with an exciting second season of the Sales Enablement Lab podcast. Similar to season one we have a great line-up of co-hosts!

This week we kick off with Daniel West who is the VP of Sales Strategy & Operations at Infoblox. Daniel is one of the key thought leaders in the area of Sales Enablement and Sales Operations and it is a pleasure to have him as a co-host this week.

During this week's episode Daniel shares his personal views on Sales Enablement and how he influenced this space as a thought leader. Daniel will touch on how he has seen the role mature in the last few years and how he sees the strategic importance of the role of Sales Enablement in the new Digital Economy.

Daniel will share some of the key initiatives he is working on, how he aligns his strategy with the business and some of the Sales Enablement challenges he faces and what he is doing to overcome them.

At the end Daniel will share how he measures his impact and will we will discuss some of the important learning he had in the recent years and how you can get started with your own Sales Enablement initiatives!

Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter!

We would love to hear your feedback! What kind of Sales Enablement programs are you working on? How are you measuring your impact? Leave your comments, feedback and suggestions on our blog.