In my experience it's been less of a challenge enabling the sales/account team on 'hard skills'. Over time you can see to it that people become comfortable with demo'ing your platform, using your tech stack, understanding the financials. However, trying to coach someone in the art of 'customer storytelling', or doing deep 'discovery' is something every enablement team struggles with.

I am a firm believer of meritocracy. So when it comes to pay raise especially in sales roles it should be very black and white for a sales rep to determine when would they qualify for a pay raise. It should be very easy for sales people to chart out their salary hikes based on their performance. The more consistent you are in delivering and over achieving your targets, the faster you should get to your pay raise. Needless to say, that there is no compromise when it comes to ethics and integrity when you are achieveing your targets.

This answer is purely based on opinion, so please keep this in mind. I believe that any new tactics and strategies need to be relevant to the sales methodology set by the enablement team. Why? Reps, especially those that are "green" to the field, need a repeatable, consistent skill development structure. Additionally, this methodology should be where onboarding, ongoing reinforcement training, and content should map to. Adding new sales tactics and strategies are most effective for experienced reps who have already mastered their own selling methods. This doesn't mean you shouldn't or can't share some cool articles or resources for these new tactics and strategies - especially cool non-enablement resources and tools they can use to implement those methodology-mapped skills. A good example of this is how to sell through social media, where selling skills like good discovery, creating interest, and driving the next steps, etc. can still be incorporated into this new selling channel. Sharing knowledge should be part of the Sales culture. However, enablement programming should prioritize established methodologies for consistency and to make your impact measurement as easy as possible. 

Staying up to date on industry trends and sales enablement best practices is something that needs time to absorb the information to analyze if your organization needs to adjust any of the current or future programs. Below I have outlined a few ways to stay up to date on both industry trends and best practices. Industry Trends Sales Enablement is accountable for providing the GTM customer-facing teams with the current information and training to assist them in their customer engagements. Below are some of the Industry Trends to review based on your business needs. * Vertical Markets - Sign up to industry papers, forums and magazines to stay ahead * Personas - Sign up to any CSuite forums, magazines and blogs to stay informed of the thinking * Technology - Sign up to the technology forums that align with your solutions, preferably your own company's customer early adoption, or customer forums or developer communities * Purchase Industry Benchmarking Reports : Forrester or Gartner to assist in your efforts There are alot of vendors that offer enablement and insights for the enablement practioner. Below are the top three enablement professional networks that would help you. SalesEnablement Pro ATD (Association for Talent Development) Sales Enablement Society (Chapters are local in your area)

The answer to this question depends on the sales leader (i.e. me vs someone else), the product that the rep is selling, the stage of the business, etc. The list goes on. I personally am always looking for candidates who have these two attributes: 1. Innate curiosity 2. Persuasiveness The first is (hopefully) obviously critical. The more curious the rep, the better they should be at discovery. The better they are at discovery, the more time you can spend helping them execute the back half of their deals. The second is also hopefully obvious. I know plenty of reps who excel in sales through discipline and structure, but I'd take a rep who is also persuasive (on top of those things) any day of the week.

If an account executive is sharing feedback (positive or negative!), here are a few questions you can ask to decide how to incorporate it. 1. Is the feedback specific? To act on feedback, we have to have enough information to properly diagnose the cause. If an AE shares that an account was unqualified, did they share the name of the account and the particular reasoning? 2. Do we know what led to the feedback? To act on feedback, you have to know what to change. Identify the specific behavior or process that led to the feedback. In this case, perhaps there was a qualification question that wasn’t asked or we had incorrect data in the CRM about the account. Different causes require different solutions and we shouldn’t assume the cause. 3. Is this an individual occurrence or a trend? Ask if they have any additional examples for the feedback or even recent counterexamples. Scoping the occurrence of the feedback will help you figure out if you need to work with single individuals or change an overall process. Don’t treat feedback as global unless you have shown a sufficient sample size. Once you have gotten the above information, you can decide how to implement a change (and if a change is worth implementing). If the feedback seems to be coming from a one-off situation, you may want to approach at the individual level. If the feedback seems to point towards a larger trend, you may want to design an experiment or A/B test to see if the suggested changes work. Lastly, make sure to proactively request feedback from the AE team. Their input is particularly valuable for (1) deciding how to prioritize account books and (2) refining your Ideal Customer Profile and even identify new use cases. 

Sheer “number of activities” (calls/emails) completed is one of the most over-hyped metrics. While it is easy to measure with modern tracking tools, I find it incentivizes the wrong behavior of reps and ignores the importance of quality. Now often the best sales reps in an organization also top the leaderboards in the frequency of their activities, but volume alone is not the solution. Today generic templates & sequences spammed out to hundreds or thousands of prospects is a losing strategy. Even with the support of the best AI tools today to “customize” sequences, the results pale in comparison to truly personalized outreach. To truly make great connections, if you spend time researching your prospect, understanding the context in which they operate (company strategies, challenges, personal motivations, etc.) and personalizing your outreach to their specific situation, you will find higher rates of success. AND if you do that successfully at a high volume & frequency, you will top the activity charts with higher quality meetings.

* Lack of Relevant Experience: It’s concerning if a candidate's resume lacks relevant sales experience or is not tailored in a way to showcase how their experience is relevant to the open role. Including a personalized cover letter or tailoring the summary/objective of the resume to highlight relevant skills and achievements is important to show alignment. * Inconsistent Job History: A history of short tenures at previous companies can raise concerns about a candidate's commitment and reliability. Aim to demonstrate stability and longevity in your roles, and be prepared to explain any job changes or gaps in employment during interviews. Additionally, always make sure that your resume aligns with the roles on your LinkedIn profile. It’s not a good sign when either the resume or LinkedIn is inaccurate. It’s surprising how often we see misalignment. * Not closing the interviewer: When it comes to a sales interview, not being prepared to ask for the next step in the process or get buy-in on their candidacy is a huge miss. As a sales professional in a sales interview, you are expected to close. It shows you investment in the role and your ability to move a conversation forward. * Skipping thank you notes: It may seem a bit old school, but the best reps I’ve ever hired have all written extremely thoughtful thank you messages during the interview process. Take the time to reiterate your interest in the role and thank the interviewer for their time and insights. It’s a sign of strong follow up and rapport building skills and can further set you apart from the candidate pool.

You'll get many enablement requests from a vast number of sources. I recommend triaging using this flow: * Inbound request for enablement * Substantiate with data (where & when possible) * Identify outcomes to measure & impact * Understand if the gap is: skill, will, or knowledge * Define learning outcomes * Decide if the program is necessary * Execute the program * Capture feedback * Report back findings

A mentor taught me to evaluate opportunities leveraging the VIP framework . The framework incorporates three inputs Vision, Impact and People. Here is a quick breakdown of how I have thought through each of the inputs. 1) Vision: How excited are you about the companies vision and mission? How aligned is the leadership team and company around the vision? Does the company have aspirations of being a generational company solving a large problem set? 2) Impact: Is there an outsized opportunity to drive impact for customers, the company and the people I work with by leveraging my experiences and skillsets? 3) People: Do the folks I'll be working with share similar core values? What is the quality of the leadership team and personnel? What can learn and develop from their experiences?