Driving GTM Productivity by Doubling Down on Enablement
Why is enablement essential right now? Let’s be honest, revenue leaders have always faced competing priorities, but as we address the challenges and impact of COVID-19, leaders are being forced to look at things very critically and evaluate and prioritize in new ways. Most organizations cannot rely on increased lead flow and pipeline is dropping significantly. High levels of uncertainty and change, coupled with longer deal cycles, are major driving forces shaping strategy, so being effective with the opportunities available to us is critical.
For revenue leaders, it comes down to this question:
“How can I ensure that my revenue generating teams are as effective
as possible in every single customer or prospect interaction?”
Enablement directly addresses this question. Enablement exists solely as a force multiplier for revenue productivity. With a sharp focus on upleving skills, coaching effectiveness, resource curation, and minimizing operational roadblocks for customer facing teams, enablement ensures the one-to-many productivity relationship is maintained. Having an enablement function that supports the most critical aspects of driving revenue and customer engagements can be the difference between success and failure, a lost deal or a closed deal, a churned customer or a retained customer.
Additionally, moving to a 100% remote workforce requires enablement that previously might have been addressed in more ad hoc ways. Dispersed sales teams cannot rely on real-time, in-office interactions such as tapping the shoulder of a colleague or manager when they have questions. The “general osmosis” that occurs when sitting in physical proximity with their teams and management is also a huge loss when sellers cannot hear how their colleagues or managers are handling different types of calls. The opportunities for dynamic brainstorming or validating new ideas and approaches are more difficult, as is the ability to scale these strategies to the rest of the team. Even down to the brass tacks of staying updated on what the team needs to do to be productive becomes much more challenging in a remote work environment.
What if I don’t have an established enablement function?
Many small to midsize companies have had tremendous success moving an internal team member from a sales or customer success role to focus on enabling the larger revenue team. This not only utilizes existing headcount, but is also a great career path opportunity for someone who has expressed interest and demonstrated acumen for an enablement role. This is a common progression and has proven to pay dividends when enablement is executed with a true understanding that comes from having been in a selling role. Although there is a transition period, there are a lot of transferable skills and Level213’s Accelerator course has provided the structure and training that transforms sellers into enablement professionals. Given the current levels of change and uncertainty in the world economy, this approach can be used to leverage internal headcount and create a win for the entire selling team.
How do I find this person on my existing team?
There are many advantages to making an internal hire. Because they are already working at your company, they can hit the ground running without having to learn the business, the needs of someone in the selling role, the value prop or messaging, customer profiles, or your internal team dynamics. While there are shared attributes between sales and enablement, the enablement profile has additional skills that will need to be developed. When determining an internal resource to lead the enablement function, look for a person who:
Tends to be the natural coach or teacher to their peers
Steps up to help and mentor new hires to ramp effectively
Creates resources or documents best practices for their own use and then shares them with the entire team
Can apply their sales expertise and perspective to create scalable processes and programs
Has the respect of sales leadership and other key stakeholders
Demonstrates the ability to work cross functionally and be a liaison for the GTM teams
As an example, Rachel Ha’o was an early AE at a resource constrained, early stage startup. Being a high achieving problem solver, she created resources and processes to support her own performance and quota attainment. Rachel is also a natural coach and team player, so she shared these tools with the rest of her selling team, empowering them to achieve similar results. Over time, the selling team grew and needed training that would set new hires up for success and support the growth of the existing team. Rachel took this on in her “spare time” (while still hitting quota!), curating her own best practices into their first official sales onboarding program. It didn’t take long for the Head of Sales to recognize Rachel’s natural propensity for enablement and they agreed that her talents should be used to establish and lead the Sales Enablement function for the selling teams. Although they would lose her as a top performing rep who consistently hit quota, her efforts as an enablement lead were more valuable because they could be scaled across the entire team, resulting in a much greater revenue impact. As part of this transition, Rachel participated in Level213’s Apprenticeship program, ensuring she had the scaffolding she needed to build a solid foundation for her team. In short order, she was able to manage onboarding and training programs across Sales, CS, and Support in two global offices, implement learning and content management, and spearhead SKO events. Through her programs, she was able to deliver a 70% decrease in new hire ramp time and a 34% increase in team participation to quota. Today, Rachel continues to support growing GTM teams as a Sales Enablement Manager.
I have identified a resource, now what?
Regardless of whether you have chosen an internal or external hire, leaders must ensure that the enablement role is “enabled” by providing the knowledge and resources required for them to be effective. Your options for this usually boil down to:
Hire an experienced enablement leader who can bring their own expertise with them
Utilize someone from your selling team and rely on their transferable skills and acumen, as well as a bit of trial and error
Internal or external hire, ensure their success by leveraging outside expertise and guidance to support a rapid ramp into effective enablement practices
If you are like most of our clients, you fall into Option 2 or 3. Level213 specializes in enabling enablement and engages with clients in the following ways:
Apprenticeship & Coaching -- customized programs designed to coach your new enablement person so they can be a force multiplier, executing on the most critical enablement programs that will have an immediate impact for your team
Accelerator -- self-paced, online training program, designed specifically for enablement professionals and utilizes the content and templates from the Apprenticeship program
Sales Enablement templates -- stand alone library of templates to support more established enablement professionals as they engage in program planning and execution
Now is the time to take control of your GTM team’s destiny by identifying what they need to maximize every customer engagement. Take a look at your business and determine whether or not your customer facing teams have the resources to support your selling motion and how you are using force multipliers. Still not sure what makes the most sense for your business or have questions about your specific circumstances? Drop us a note and we’ll walk through it with you.