A Strategic Lens on Sales Enablement

Getting Strategic with Sales Enablement
How to make enablement a critical part of your organization

Research from sales professionals on driving productivity reveals that selling is harder now  than before the pandemic. Buyer behaviors are ever-shifting as customers vacillate between digital and in-person connection and consumption habits. What’s the key to ensuring your sales organization is setup for success in this challenging environment? A strategic and effective sales enablement program that’s highly embedded in your organization!  

Join InVision’s VP of Marketing, Laliv Hadar, and Slack’s Senior Manager of Global Enablement Programs, Ashton Williams, in a conversation about the state of sales enablement and how organizations can ensure they are setup to drive high performing sales teams – and results. 

 What you’ll learn: 

• Trends in the buyer landscape impacting sales enablement programs
• Partnering with management to drive success and playbook adoption
• Ensuring that enablement is strategically aligned to sales goals
• How enablement ladders up to brand purpose

Listen now and don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the InVision Xcast to stay fresh on the latest industry trends, technologies and insights.

Transcript

Laliv Hadar (00:10):

Hi everybody. Welcome to the InVision Podcast, the Xcast where we help brands navigate audience engagement in times of change. I'm Laliv Hadar, VP of marketing and I'm delighted to be a part of this discussion today on getting strategic with sales enablement. I can't wait to hear our guest speaker's perspective on sales enablement and how the space has evolved over the past few years and where it's heading. Before we start, what exactly is sales enablement? According to Gartner, it's the process of providing the sales organization with the information and tools that helps sales teams sell more effectively. It's the resources that will transform sellers into high performers and in turn deliver revenue for your organization. Importantly, sales enablement plays a key role in scaling the sales organization beyond a handful of overachievers. It provides all salespeople with the best practices, knowledge and resources required to be successful.

(01:11):

Now let's take a quick look at the staggering growth of the space over the last few years. Investment in sales enablement has searched in popularity, experiencing an over 340% increase in adoption over the last five years. And it's no wonder why, because it works. Robust enablement tools and messaging correlates with a 15% improvement in sales performance and a 49% win rate on forecasted deals compared to just 42% without. Last but not least, 55% of C-suite executives say that investing in a strong enablement program is a must for boosting sales productivity. Here at InVision, we understand how people learn and engage with content and the importance of designing sales enablement programs that effectively reach and empower sales teams. We know that building connected sales enablement campaigns and sales kickoffs that cater to this audience will allow sales teams to connect in ways that work best for them and drive the best performance for the organization.

(02:18):

So let's dive in with our industry expert. Today I'm joined by Ashton Williams who leads global enablement programs for Slack. Prior to Slack, Ashton led revenue enablement in the startup space. Hi Ashton. I'm so excited to have you here today. Without further ado, let's jump right in. So given our post pandemic world and the past few years of digital living, is enablement more or less important now? What would you say?

Ashton Williams (02:50):

That's a good question. I actually say that with digital living, it's transformed the need for enablement. So when we saw the world pivot to virtual, if you didn't have formal sales enablement or someone owning your learning, that was a very big lift. And I think we got to see kind of front and center the value of enablement. Anyone who didn't have it was left behind. However, as we've talked about, enablement has existed for quite some time so I would say it's not that it's more important or less important now. I think the accountability to really focus in on what people need to be successful happens more in a digital space. They can't turn left to their partner and say, "How did you do that?" They can't overhear a great sales call. And so we have to actually really intentional about the behaviors that drive success and scale them, which is the best practice. But I think it shows up so much more when folks are onboarding in their living rooms and not meeting their leaders for months on end.

Laliv Hadar (03:46):

Great. Yeah, super, super interesting. And I think related to that, in kind of living in this all digital world, what trends in the buyer landscape do enablement professionals need to be mindful of? For context, and again, I think this is also something that's transpired with our digital world, the B2B journey is now more self-serve than ever. Prospects expect digital touchpoints, they're often further down the sales pipeline before you even know that they're considering you. According to a 2021 Trust Radius survey, 87% of all buyers want self-serve to be part of the buying journey. This is just one trend, but quite a big one. What are your thoughts on this trend and additional trends to watch for in this space?

Ashton Williams (04:33):

Yeah, I think it's so true. We've seen the evolution of the smart buyer for such a long time. I think every age has the new information has been given to the buyer and we now need to show up conundrum. But realistically, I think what enablement does or what we have to be mindful of always is being aligned to how our customers buy. And that is surprisingly really hard. The bigger you get, the more you want to focus on how you'd like to sell, your sales processes, all of your content and staying in tune to how our folks buy is critical. And that means that while how we deliver enablement, maybe a vehicle is training or content, the actual play of how to reach our buyers changes rapidly. And we need to be dynamic with that.

(05:17):

That also means that our customers are coming to us at very specific decision points. They're not coming at a stage where they don't know a possible solution. They're not coming at a place where they haven't looked at your technology or done a little bit of research. And so the conversation actually starts at a further down the sales cycle and we have to be ready to maximize that right away. And I think that is a muscle that is a bit different. We used to have a little more time to ease in to a buying conversation and we really don't. We actually have to pull our buyers back into why do you want the solution? What are you trying to do? How can we help you to get to that place of delivering value? Where sometimes they come to us ready to decide.

(05:59):

Some other trends I think that are really important to watch for is that return to in-person. We're really seeing the market make a shift to in-person being Tang. As much as we want to work from home, and that is so important and dynamic, our customers really value face-to-face contact. They haven't had it, not even with their own colleagues. And so getting back into that skill of how do I sell live? How do I have a conversation without my notes? How do I have a meaningful conversation with multiple stakeholders in a room and make the plan to book that meeting is really something to watch for. And I think that's going to shift how we enable, but especially how much we can rely on just content.

Laliv Hadar (06:42):

Definitely, can absolutely relate. And I think what you said about the face-to-face and the human interaction is really big right now. At InVision, we're really focused on helping businesses grow through storytelling, kickoffs, by helping build reward and recognition programs to reinforce sales behaviors and that kind of thing. We're really heavy believers in that. And I think that's a sticky, a way to make enablement more of a sticky part of the organization. And I'm curious sort of how do you see enablement? How do you see making it a critical part of an organization of a brand and a brand's growth?

Ashton Williams (07:24):

I think enablement exists at every company, whether it's named or not. In the startup space, maybe I get hired first or product marketing gets hired first and someone is spending time explaining to the reps what's changed in our product or our industry. Eventually that might become a sales leader who's going through and developing programming because they see gaps on their team. So I want to call out that regardless of whether you have formal enablement or whether it feels like enablement culture, it's happening at your organization because they can't move through change without it. But when we think about making that an integral part of the culture, I don't know if enablement is the right word, as much as it's about participation and growth. And when you have a culture of growth and participation, you're telling folks, "I can't sell for you. You have to as an athlete, train on your own time, but you also need to show up to team practice ready to be at that same level."

(08:19):

And I think when we think about making enablement a critical part of the organization, it's really understanding what enablement is here to help with. And so yes, I can run a training. That is a mechanism for delivering the strategy of enablement. What I want to see more companies think about is we're thinking of pivoting to this new market, this new region, this new idea, and enablement being that advisor on where are our teams at. What do we need to help them get there? How do we execute, get them strategy? How do I build learning and growth and support so that they can go do this new hard thing?

(08:52):

And oftentimes you see an organization where they're not critical is it's very transactional, that relationship. So it's here, build a training for this and they're being instructed exactly what to do. Or please build me a kickoff, but we're not going to share what our priorities and goals are. And that kind of is just a loss for that company on the value they could be having through that enablement partner. And I think just bringing that into the conversation and into the strategy of the business a little earlier, is really how you make it critical.

Laliv Hadar (09:22):

Right. Yeah, that's really insightful there. And kind of related, as you mentioned how to make it a critical part of the business, how do you best partner with sales management? We know that enablement might sit in the sales org, sometimes it sits in marketing, or it's its very own department and larger companies. How do you make the collaboration successful? And what are other internal teams that are your core stakeholders and partners in building successful enablement programs?

Ashton Williams (09:54):

I love this question. Sales management is at the center of performance. You cannot not have enablement and you can have leaders who are taking an investment in their teams and coaching and developing them, and they are so critical to the success of their folks. And so I think when you come into an organization as an enablement partner, it's so important to one, speak the language of your sales leadership. I have to be able to talk about those top line numbers that keep them up at night. I have to be able to understand what's at risk. I also have to be able to be clear on what I can deliver versus what they're responsible for. And I often say when the collaboration doesn't go great, we're unclear about that. And that's why I say I can't create a CV, I can't make more dollars for you. That is a hundred percent going to be what our sales leaders and sellers have to go do.

(10:45):

But what I can do is help scale the behaviors that lead to success. And so I'm going to hold my sales leadership accountable to tell me what are the behaviors that lead to success and let's align on those. And then I'm going to come back with a strategy of how we get more people doing that. And we might be wrong together sometimes or have to pivot, but that relationship has to be one where I understand what they're accountable for so that I can be easy to work with, helpful and impactful, but also a trusted advisor where I'm offering insight. Most of your team doesn't know how to do this behavior. Did you know? We're trying to teach them this, but in fact they need this. That relationship also builds on where they understand the value we deliver. And I think when you're working with them, being really clear on what you can and can't control is so important. But also being clear on how you'd like to work together and align to the business priorities.

Laliv Hadar (11:31):

Great. So kind of taking the next step from that, and you talked about being aligned with the sales management and being aligned to sales goals, how do you drive adoption of engagement materials, sales plays, and all the incredible work that an enablement team crafts?

Ashton Williams (11:52):

Every enabler's question. So I'd say this also ties back to sales leadership. And that is really because if you think about the end user, which is, let's call it our sales rep, promotable work is the most motivating thing. I either want to do the best for my customer or the best for my career. And that's just really human. And so when we think about engagement and adoption of materials, there's twofold. One, my fellow stakeholders in marketing and in all other programs and product and enablement have to come together and go, "Is this relevant and this this actually helpful in the reality of what our folks have to do?" And that's a tough conversation and not one that happens often enough.

(12:34):

And then the next part of that is working with our sales leadership to say, "Hey, this is helpful, this is powerful. You believe it too. Go make it promotable work." And they have to then drive that accountability, that compliance and follow up. I think too often adoption goes down because we forget that we're nobody's boss. At the end of the day, I can't make you do stuff. That's your manager's job. But also that I don't speak the language of your day-to-day. And that is also what your manager is gifted at. And they can thread those themes through coaching, through reinforcement in ways that are so important and we really forget them as a vehicle to communicate and drive adoption.

Laliv Hadar (13:14):

That's great. Yes, that makes a whole lot of sense, that really close alignment working together, reinforcing messaging and so forth. So let's switch gears a little bit and look at the landscape in terms of trends that are on the horizon. Obviously technology impacting everything we do and a lot of things that we do in the sales and marketing space. How are things like AI, content aggregation platforms impacting the space? And is helping your sales force align themselves in message against your brand purpose becoming more important in the post pandemic world? So a bit of a two-part question, but maybe start with some of the tech trends that you're seeing impacting the enablement space. That's good.

Ashton Williams (14:01):

I wish you could just see the big grin on my face right now because this is such a cool time for innovation in the space. And we're seeing it show up in so many ways. So some of the trends are really leveraging AI to recommend personalized content. I think we've seen different versions of this that require a bit more manual kind of attachment, but how do we help a learner have and the typical e-commerce experience? I go shopping, I pull up something on a website and something in the corner goes, "Hey, you were here last time, you forgot this." Or, "We remembered your size. Here's a recommendation." That is the type of experience that we're used to. But internally for our employees, we don't deliver that today even though we know so much about them. We know where they work, we know where they come from, we know what they're interested in, we know their next career move, we know where they're struggling in their business.

(14:52):

And we're really seeing a trend of trying to aggregate that internal information to service up kind of just in time enablement, both at specific parts of a customer engagement, so we can see in your meeting that a CFO has just joined because they're in our database, why don't I make sure that the right content gets to you? Or at a coaching moment where I say, "We know that this conversation should have gone a little differently. Here's some resources based on where you're trying to go." And I think we're seeing the AI really develop here and really seeing technology trying to take advantage of this new technology and deliver those experiences on the internal level. And then for your second question, which was about really aligning messaging against a brand purpose, I don't think it's ever not been critical to be aligned to your why. Simon Sinek is iconic for a reason, but I think what has become difficult is that we've just had two years of people buying at rapid growth. It was a pandemic for lots of industries that really had to reinvent and digitally transform.

(15:58):

But for those who were already there, they saw incredible growth and not a lot of scrutiny on those purchases. We are now getting back to what is actually normal business selling where there's scrutiny against these purchases. And that means that you have new people in the deals, you have new conversations that they feel new, but we're really out of practice around the storytelling of the future we can provide and not just comparing feature function because everybody was buying anyway. And I think right now, really getting people back to that future vision selling and what we're trying to accomplish and aligning folks to like this is the most important purchase for right now even though you're trying to do more with less, we promise you we're valuable, is so critical. And that has to ladder up to the overall why of the business because investments are few and far between right now.

Laliv Hadar (16:54):

Yep, absolutely. So I think one of the things we like to think about, InVision, how we view sales enablement is really through the lens of audience engagement with the understanding that engaged and trained sales teams that have a strong knowledge of the brand vision and the role they play in delivering it, are going to be your best advocates in the marketplace and hence focus a lot on employee engagement programs and things to really help create those brand advocates within the organization. And the sales team being a very big contingent of that of course. What would you say Ashton, is maybe one or two big kind of tips or takeaways from our discussion today for sales enablement professionals these days? And you kind of touched upon it right now with our current state of things so if you can elaborate a little more and just give folks a couple of tidbits to walk away from our conversation in how they think about their careers and their work and enablement or the work of their peers or other departments that they work with that are enablers things for them to think about, that would be great.

Ashton Williams (18:06):

Yeah, I think I have three because I can never pick just one. So first I would say what is changing is always the sales play. It's always how do we align to what the customers want and how they're buying. But how we do enablement hasn't changed for a long time. It's training, it's learning, it's strategy, it's webinars, it's content. Like how we support people hasn't dramatically changed. So just to remember that there is some stability despite the feeling of these massive pivots. And it's the same exercise of figuring out how our customers want to buy. And when you do that, it becomes so clear what your next steps need to be. The second would be really take stock of the team you have in place. And when I say team, I mean do you have a strong partnership with your sales leadership? Are you in marketing and lockstep with your goals? Are you clear on why the company is moving in X direction?

(19:03):

It allows you to just focus your efforts, but also it takes a village to get a sales team up to speed. And if you think about the new era we're in, we're re-onboarding our entire staffs right now to sell in an economic low. And they haven't done that in two years. And so just to remember to pull that whole team in. And then the third would be, remember there's a difference between enablement with a big E and enablement with a little E. This is a quote from my favorite friend Whitney. And Big E is the enablement done by the enabler. It has a strategy behind it, it's the big sweeping programs and projects and big things that you do. And the little E are all those things that exist within that. That might be your product marketing team coming in and doing an industry session. That may be bringing your sales leader in to do a talk.

(19:53):

You need a good combination of those two things, but you also need to keep track of all of them so that you understand what's being fed to your field and really prioritizing right now because we have to be ruthless and prioritizing their time and what they learn so that they can go have a great start to the year.

Laliv Hadar (20:12):

Excellent. Wow, what a great way to wrap up our conversation here. Very inspirational little tidbit from you there in terms of how folks need to be thinking and moving and working smart in this current environment. So I appreciate that, Ashton. And thank you so much for joining us today. And to our audience, we hope you enjoyed our discussion. And look out for the next Xcast episode coming soon. Thank you.