Sales Enablement 101 I How to Partner with Sales (ft. Beebe, Senior Manager @Liftoff)

Summary

In this insightful discussion, Henry and Bibi delve into the complexities of sales enablement, sharing key strategies for successful collaboration between sales, product, and marketing teams. Bibi, with her background in sales and experience building a sales enablement function, highlights the importance of understanding team motivators, feedback loops, and the role of transparent communication. She also shares best practices for aligning growth objectives, managing priorities, and using tools like Lessonly to support training and documentation. The conversation offers valuable lessons on fostering cross-functional partnerships to drive business growth and improve productivity.

Takeaways

• 😀 Sales teams are typically structured by specialty (region, product, industry) or pipeline segment (SDRs, AEs, CSMs) to manage customer relations and generate business.
• 😀 Sales enablement should be intentional with training programs to avoid negative associations, keeping in mind the sales team's time is valuable and directly tied to company profits.
• 😀 Regular feedback from sales teams helps identify customer challenges and informs product improvements, acting as a translator between the two departments.
• 😀 Sales enablement should not duplicate work already being done by sales leadership but should build on it by providing valuable resources and support for success.
• 😀 Proving the value of sales enablement through data is crucial; metrics such as improvement in productivity or quota achievement help demonstrate success.
• 😀 Making resources easy to find and use is essential to avoid wasting both the sales team's and enablement team's time, ensuring efficiency and engagement.
• 😀 During company mergers, it's important to create training programs to help teams understand each other’s company culture, products, and services to ensure smooth integration.
• 😀 Sales enablement must collaborate closely with product marketing to ensure internal training is aligned with external communication, avoiding misalignment in messaging.
• 😀 Balancing priorities between sales, marketing, and product requires transparency and clear communication to ensure all teams are focused on common organizational goals.
• 😀 Tools like Lessonly (LMS), Google Docs, and shared workspaces help facilitate communication, training, and documentation, with content management systems (CMS) adding value to organization efforts.
• 😀 The variety and challenges in sales enablement are exciting, but larger organizations can face challenges like increased bureaucracy and adapting to fast-evolving industry regulations.

Q & A

What is Bibi Sanders' role at Liftoff?

Bibi Sanders is a Senior Manager on the Growth and Enablement team at Liftoff, focusing on both growth (facilitating the go-to-market process for new products) and enablement (empowering sales and customer success teams with tools, resources, and information).

How are sales teams typically structured at Liftoff?

Sales teams at Liftoff are structured by specialties such as region, product, or industry, and pipeline segments like SDRs (for lead generation), AEs (for closing deals), and CSMs (for business growth).

What is the significance of understanding individual motivators in sales teams?

Understanding individual motivators helps ensure that sales enablement programs are designed in a way that aligns with what drives each team member, avoiding negative associations with enablement and ensuring the programs are effective.

How does Bibi help bridge the gap between sales and product teams?

Bibi acts as a translator between the sales and product teams by gathering feedback from sales teams about product features and customer needs, then communicating those insights to the product team. This ensures that the product team understands market needs while aligning with sales objectives.

What is the importance of feedback loops in sales enablement?

Feedback loops are crucial because they ensure that the sales team’s needs and challenges are continuously addressed. Regular feedback helps improve training programs, resources, and product features, making them more effective and aligned with real-world sales challenges.

Can you describe a successful example of Bibi's work in product feedback aggregation?

Bibi initiated a quarterly aggregation process where feedback from various commercial teams is collected and categorized into themes. This feedback is then reviewed with the product team, leading to a significant increase in the number of product features driven by commercial feedback being added to the product roadmap.

How does Bibi work with product marketing, and what is their overlap?

Bibi works with product marketing by focusing on internal training and ensuring that sales teams understand the product features and their benefits. Product marketing handles external communication to customers. Their overlap occurs when Bibi needs input from product marketing to ensure the internal training aligns with external messaging.

How does Bibi manage competing priorities between sales, product, and marketing?

Bibi manages competing priorities by focusing on common company goals and ensuring transparency between teams. She emphasizes regular communication and alignment between sales, product, and marketing to avoid conflicts and ensure the organization is moving in the same direction.

What tools does Bibi use to facilitate communication, training, and documentation?

Bibi uses Lessonly, a learning management system, to host and track training programs. She also uses Google Docs and shared workspaces for collaboration. While Liftoff currently lacks a content management system, Bibi sees the value in having one to better manage the content produced.

What does Bibi enjoy most about her job, and what challenges does she face?

Bibi enjoys the variety of her work, especially the opportunity to learn and the excitement of building new products. She finds the constant changes in the product roadmap and the need to adapt to evolving market conditions stimulating. The challenges she faces include dealing with increasing bureaucracy as the company grows and adapting to industry changes like privacy regulations and acquisitions.