Where would you start if Sales Enablement was new for a company?

Ah, this sounds like a fun prioritization exercise! If sales enablement was just kicking off, I'm assuming that generally marketing and PMM functions are relatively new as well. There's probably a lot of marketing and enablement debt that you're working through right now. I would be really disciplined about identifying initiatives that are going to meet your business goals-- and you'll hate this answer... but it's going to be different for every organization. But in general, I would assess: Read ...Read More

Full disclosure, I've never 'started' sales enablement in a company so I'm just going to tackle this from my point of view but it's not based on real world experience! I would keep things very simple and frame them up the same way you would with a GTM for a new product/solution/service. What is the value proposition, messaging, competitive stance etc and how do you in turn ensure your sales team(s) understand that. Also, who is the customer what is their pain point and why will your solution be ...Read More

A lot I could go into here, but I'd oversimplify the steps into a few areas:  Sales strategy and sales model: Start with understanding how this works at your company. How is sales structured - e.g., is it all direct sales, or a mix of direct and indirect? What is the sales coverage strategy - e.g., generalists vs. generalists + specialists? Inside sales vs. outside sales? Do you have named account coverage or do the reps cover territories? These factors play a big role how you'd structure your s ...Read More

I will assume this question is meant for a growing startup who has just started hiring a more formal enablement team. Sales enablement at its core is meant to ensure the business is providing the right training at the right time, that is aligned to the company's objectives and future direction. This calls for a bit of discovery to help you validate that you are building a curriculum to solve the RIGHT problems. In order to understand the areas of opportunity, a bit of discovery is in order: 1- T ...Read More

There are three key elements you need to consider: Your story and the constituent “story-lets” Your internal audience - sales being the most important, but you need to address the needs of other customer-facing professionals (customer success, support, professional services, etc.) Their audience (and how you can enable them to communicate better with them. To begin with, you will need to be in the thick of the action with the sales team. Listen in on sales calls, have weekly/monthly calls to col ...Read More

To be hiring sales enablement at all, the sales team is likely a size where scaled processes & training is needed. There are likely marketing resources in charge of things like content and collateral. There are likely already other resources on staff who can speak to the technical aspects of the product and implementation. So, even though I'm in product marketing, I'd actually advise against starting with product training. If I were to make my first-ever hire in Sales Enablement, here's how ...Read More

I would map out the customer journey and identify stages where either there are leakage in leads, or the conversion process is not as efficient as it can be. To do this, I would listen to recorded sales calls if they're available, or ask to sit in on a few calls. Ensure that the calls cover a variety of customer types. Then, I would identify priority stages in the journey where enablement would be most helpful. Then, you can identify the assets or processes that could make the biggest difference ...Read More

The first thing I would do is take the time to deeply understand what the biggest gaps are for the sales team, and what their immediate needs are. Enablement is such a broad program, and the last thing I want to do is waste cycles building things that the team won't find useful. Where are the quick wins that can jumpstart my enablement efforts? The second thing I would do is make sales enablement a reliable ritual with the team. Set time aside to be in direct contact with the team regularly (per ...Read More

Alissa Lydon's advice about finding quick wins is exactly right. I want to add how to think about sequencing those wins so they build credibility instead of burning it. Start by riding along. Not virtually, not by reviewing call recordings after the fact. Sit in on live deals, watch the actual moments where the pitch falls apart, and listen to how reps handle objections. At Salesforce, the first thing I did when I stepped into a new territory was spend two weeks in the field. Every gap in our en ...Read More

I'd start with an initial Sales Confidence survey to see how confident your current team is with selling whatever you are selling. The survey will provide you with the necessary insights to draft your first Sales Enablement strategy. Ultimately, the Sales Confidence Survey is an outlet for the Sales team to share their struggles and challenges with you, and for you - to act on these insights strategically. When I joined my current company a few years ago, sales enablement was something referred ...Read More