AMA: Braze Director of Product Marketing, John Heywood on Sales Enablement

While it's true that product launch velocity and Sales adoption/knowledge/fluency can at times feel at odds with one another, it doesn't have to be this way. Yes, Sales people have will have new things to learn -- and pace of innovation, alongside their core responsibilities like prospecting, nurturing leads, and ultimately trying to close deals -- can make it hard for them to keep up, or make you feel like they aren't prioritizing learning what is you have to teach them. With this in mind, it's ...Read More

Great question - and one that I think about daily! While I engage each team a bit differently, I still think of Sales and Sales Engineering (or Solutions Consultants) as parts of the same org and team, each playing different roles at different stages of a deal cycle. As Account Execs are almost always engaging in a deal cycle ahead of an SE or SolCon, I always prioritize some level of technical fluency with Sales Reps. To be clear, this does not mean they have to know our documentation inside ou ...Read More

As I wrote in a different answer, Revenue and Sales Enablement can be a double edged sword. On one hand, Enablement is a critically important and effective channel to scale Sales impact, when done right. But when we ask tens or hundreds of Sales people to spend an hour (or more!) of their time away from finding and closing business, Enablement might appear to be 'costly' to the business from a salary perspective. (Just for fun, if you want to put more concrete numbers behind what I mean, check o ...Read More

My advice here is to start with horizontal product functionality, as well as messaging/positioning that is similar across verticals. Use this a foundation upon which you can build to go deeper into industry needs through: Specific use cases and applications Vertical-specific technologies Regulatory dynamics Industry parlance/verbiage As you dive deeper into Industry positioning, my suggestion is to start with what will be easiest for your sales team to understand. For example, it may sound simpl ...Read More

This depends on what it is you have to say, who you are saying it to, and how easy (or complex) you expect it will be for your audience to understand and put the information you are delivering to work. At a high level, my advice is to keep Sales Enablement sessions as short, focused and to the point as possible, to guard your Sales team's time and to help keep their attention/drive retention. For most products, I find I can get through the material I need to in 30-60 minutes, though this can of ...Read More

I've been fortunate in that I haven't found myself in a situation where GTM teams are taking credit for my work, though I can imagine that if that's happening, it could be frustrating. With this said, I'll keep my advice simple: Do your best to let go of concerns over who gets credit for the work, and instead focus on doing what is most impactful for the business, for Sales, for your customers & partners, and for your team. If you do the right work, good things will follow. The second part o ...Read More

It's hard to identify a single thing that will solve your Sales team's needs, but if I must pick, I'll go with Case Studies -- or other Customer Marketing/Customer Advocacy assets like Quotes, Testimonials or Blog Posts that feature use cases, success stories and quantifiable value. As PMMs, we are always crafting our own messaging and positioning based on customer and market understanding. While this is a huge part of the recipe, we can increase our effectiveness when we show vs. tell. Putting ...Read More

While I'm not a Sales Enablement professional, I've been fortunate to have opportunities to move laterally in my career. I started in Sales (Account Management), then moved into Product Marketing for several years before taking the leap into Product Management, which I did for 3 years at Twitter and then a smaller B2C startup. I ultimately realized my calling is in Product Marketing, but I draw heavily on my experience on both the Sales and Product side of the house, as these are two of my core ...Read More

The answer to this question in some ways depends on what your goals are. Are you looking to: Solicit participation in a Beta or Early Access Program? Are you trying to recruit the customer for a case study or testimonial? Conduct user research in partnership with Product/Design/Engineering? Get customer feedback and validate messaging and positioning? ...or something else? My approach will depend somewhat on my objective, but ultimately your success will be tied to framing your ask in a way that ...Read More

Boiling this question down, the single core asset that underpins successful Sales Enablement is most often the Pitch Deck / customer-facing slides. To be clear, the key asset that almost always comes before this is the all important Product Marketing Brief & FAQ (note: this can have different names by company, e.g. Messaging Source Doc, Feature Fundamentals Doc, etc.). The brief is your foundational source of truth for any launch -- this will inform derivative assets like the Pitch Deck, 1 p ...Read More

This can be tricky, and the exact approach you take will depend on your organization and underlying issues. To start, I'd first want to understand why the Sales team is not engaged. Have you asked? (or can you?) My expectation (and hope!) is that with more detail, you could better diagnose and create an action plan, in concert with Sales Leadership and any Enablement, Onboarding and Learning & Development teammates. For example, if Sales doesn't understand or feel confident in the material t ...Read More

I would not frame this as "either/or," as you'll be best served by engaging both Sales Leadership and subsets of your sales org. Ultimately, how and when you engage each group will depend on your objective, as well as your organizational structure and approach. In most growing or mature B2B SaaS organizations, you will find a relatively consistent Sales Team structure -- with some combination of AEs, AMs, SDR/BDRs, Sales Engineers/Solutions Consultants, and post-sales teams like Customer Success ...Read More