WHY is Sales Enablement? Positions 2 and 3: To Run A Business Within A Business and Evolve to CPO
Why is Sales Enablement? In order to uncover the answer, a few weeks ago in my initial article I invited you to travel back in time with me — to the founding of the Sales Enablement Society itself. To Palm Beach, Florida the Friday before Thanksgiving 2016, where a congress of around 100 sales enablement professionals participated in “The Birth of the Sales Enablement Society.”
They came to consensus — and signed into existence — the core doctrine for the global SES, including the foundational vision, principles, and positions. My hypothesis is that these founding positions, in part, hold answers to “the WHY?” of Sales Enablement …and are ripe for further exploration and collaboration by the engaged and curious.
We started with Position ONE: Sales Enablement Leaders did not see themselves as having a single-threaded, defined role. So they decided to embrace the diverse nature of the function and think more strategically about the role by coming to consensus on the functional “flavors” of Enablement.
In this article we will unpack Positions 2 and 3 together in the search for Sales Enablement’s “why:”
Position TWO: Regardless of the flavor, Sales Enablement is a cross-functional problem and, to be successful, should be run as a business within a business.
Now that founders had established the flavors, they envisioned that team of Enablement professionals taking the next step.
This SES position laid the foundation for the Enablement #Orchestrator.
A vision to elevate… from what?
“Ambassadors of Broken things”
…running around, putting out fires, and “fixing.”
To what…?
“Orchestrators of a cross-functional, strategic, Sales Enablement Business-within-a-business.”
…and ULTIMATELY to what?
Position THREE: Just as the CIO evolved from Data Processing, or CFO from Bookkeeping, the target for the evolution of the Sales Enablement function: Chief Productivity Officer.
So back to ONE for a recap…
Position ONE: Flavors of SE
Those initial “flavors” or Domains of Sales Enablement were:
1. Sales Talent Management
- WHO: Human Resources / L&D and Sales
- WHAT: Hiring, Onboarding, Training, Readiness
- WHEN: Hire to retire
2. Sales Messaging
- WHO: Marketing and Sales
- WHAT: Messaging, Personas, Content marketing, Buyers journey
- WHEN: From concept to customer contact
3. Funnel / Demand Management
- WHO: Groups within Marketing, Ops, HR and Sales
- WHAT: Leads, Improve win rate, Opportunity management, Presentations
- WHEN: From customer contact to contract
4. Sales Operations / Administration
- WHO: Finance, Legal, Sales Ops, and Sales
- WHAT: Reporting, Legal review, Quoting systems, Policies
- WHEN: From customer contract to revenue
So the “WHY is SE” of position #1 was essentially that Sales Enablement can provide value by acting within a framework focused on reducing the friction in individual sales-supporting systems logically, if not equally.
To positively impact the sales environment by identifying and approaching each system that makes up that environment individually in order to increase overall productivity. And not, for instance, focusing heavily (or even solely) on a single system, while paying low to no attention the other three as a Sales Enablement team.
Which brings us to Position TWO where the SES Fore-founders connected the functional dots…
Position TWO: Regardless of the flavor, Sales Enablement is a cross-functional problem and, to be successful, should be run as a business within a business.
Now that founders had established the flavors, they envisioned that team of Enablement professionals taking the next step. To connect the cross-functional dots and create alignment. To orchestrate a “business within a business.” On a mission…
- To identify the friction and confront the realities of the environment within each “corporate silo.”
- To solve strategically and collaboratively for systems / alignment challenges across functions.
- To fix the sales SYSTEM for the sales PEOPLE …vs the inverse (which unfortunately there still seems to be this tendency.)
- To operate as an interwoven cross-functional “Enablement fabric” of flavors. Just for fun let’s call it an Enablement Operating System. E-o-S!
I digress.
This SES position laid the foundation for the concept of the “Enablement #Orchestrator” and the evolution of the profession.
A vision to elevate… from what?
- “Ambassadors of Broken things”
- …running around, putting out fires, and “fixing.”
To what…?
- “Orchestrators of a cross-functional, strategic, Sales Enablement Business-within-a-business.”
How? Well I can only speak from personal experience, and that of the Enablement teams I have walked alongside…
- Taking a step back, gaining a seat at each functional table, and starting with strategy.
- Leveraging not just the Sales Enablement team, but tapping into dotted line resources as well.
- Getting in the trenches to walk alongside the customer facing frontline and have greater empathy for / understanding of each customer facing role …AND the customer themselves!
- Capturing cross-functional input and first-hand experience when forming strategy. Giving top performing representatives of each function a say so that the approach reflects each function’s DNA. In doing so, you enroll them in the mission, and enlist them in driving adoption.
- Unlocking the combined, focused energy of the entire internal team via strategic alignment.
- Creating an engine / environment for leading with value to the customer, in a “business outcomes” language vs. products/features/pitches.
- Preparing the frontline to meet EACH MEMBER of the customer team where they are, providing a buying experience specific to each that makes them feel like “this person knows my business and can clearly articulate how to solve for the specific outcomes I seek.”
“We see Sales Enablement as sitting in a cat bird seat, cutting across corporate silos, being a nexus of L&D, sales admin, sales ops, and marketing. We see Sales Enablement as becoming a vital asset to businesses. We no longer see ourselves as misfits, but as trusted advisors who are needed to enable growth and stability within an organization.”
- Bob Britton in his Nov 2016 LinkedIn Article Something Happened in Palm Beach…
Sales Enablement teams “cutting across corporate silos, being a nexus of L&D, sales admin, sales ops, and marketing” and collaborating…
Internally – as an Enablement team within and across the company.
- What if were were designing our internal Enablement charters around cross-functional “flavors” instead of a seemingly single-threaded focus? A team working together – each member operating through the lens of their competency and tribal knowledge. Taking that next click down to curate more informed approaches per function and that, when brought together, inform more highly integrated strategies to serve sales?
Externally – with Enablement peers of the same flavor in global community.
- What if we were all channeling Enablement community conversations (and possibly even job descriptions) globally into four (or maybe more — I’m sure they could use an informed refresh — join the conversation here) “flavors” of Sales Enablement. We could be collaborating in peer workgroups with strategic insights on how to work the friction out of each of the cross-functional sales systems – one silo at a time. One company at a time.
And NOW, with BOTH position #1 and #2 in tow, let’s hop back in that time machine into the near future, look under the roof of an Enterprise’s Enablement team, and ask again…
WHY is Sales Enablement?
Wouldn’t it reveal a much more highly valued Enablement function?
One that was creating alignment and heightening productivity across the enterprise, to empower not “just sales” but the ENTIRE customer facing frontline?
…and might that Enablement team be a bit more bulletproof when the next recession hit?
…and might that function be on track to truly “elevate Enablement?”
…to evolve to a place where the Enablement Team Leader has their OWN seat at the executive table?
Position THREE: Just as the CIO evolved from Data Processing, or CFO’s evolved from Bookkeeping – our fore-founders wanted to set a target for the evolution of the Sales Enablement function. They landed on “Chief Productivity Officer”
CPO? Maybe! But this still remains to be seen. Clearly, positions one and two lay the foundation for position three.
The SES founding meeting was now more than seven years ago, and where are we?
The more I scan the headlines, study revenue-centric content and courses, listen to podcasts, and partake in panel discussions, the more it seems that Revenue Enablement is where current momentum leans.
And CRO is already a thing.
Maybe the answer is somewhere in between.
Erich
Acting ATL Sales Enablement Society Chapter President
Pavilion Executive Envoy
Enablement #Orchestrator Ambassador
https://calendly.com/erich-starrett/whyse30
Originally posted August 24, 2023 on LinkedIN
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