My love story with Sales Enablement

"Do what you love" - How it all started

I have always avoided quoting Steve Jobs. Too showy, too ubiquitous. At least for me. But looking back at the last decade, his words ?You’ve got to find what you love“, are too spot on this time. They help me express and share what I believe in, what I feel right now. Let me explain.

In early 2013, I had just discovered my passion for Sales Enablement. I was 42 years old, had spent enough time in Marketing and Sales to diagnose some irritating, but constant friction between both departments.

Friction between Sales & Marketing?

And friction can be a too nice word. So let me be more graphic.

It wasn't rare that I heard Marketers say something along these lines: ?We give the sales guys all this great content, but they simply don’t use it! All they fancy is their cars.“

And sellers would fight back saying ?These Marketing folks in their ivory tower… they don’t understand what really matters in a buyer conversation, their content is useless."

A Customer Experience gap worth closing

Seeing customers left alone with that CX gap between Marketing-controlled online content and what then got exchanged in a seller to buyer conversation, often left me speechless. So many irritated customers, so many chances missed.

It was so obvious to me that this gap needed closing. But in reality it was right there. Lurking like a dragon in Game of Thrones.

How on earth did B2B companies invest all this money and resources to end up with a broken CX? How would they expect customers to buy from them if they push them in different directions throughout the buying cycle?

Luckily, this was a problem we shared with our competitors. They were no better, hardly any company was…

But, wait a minute, was I not in a position to fix this? Luck struck in 2012…

?Our“ Sales team asked for a ?sales app“

In 2012, I was serving as Global Marketing Director at ZEISS Vision Care, a leader in eyeglass lenses. The iPad had just been invented two years prior by Mr. Jobs and the folks at Apple.

Many orgs were still figuring out whether this was a toy or whether there was practical use in the business world. Some companies even banned it, fearing their staff would end up playing ?Angry Birds“ during office hours. Not so at ZEISS.

When our US sales team asked for a ?sales app“ to support buyer conversations on the iPad, my team was all ears. This was finally our chance to bridge the big divide between online and offline CX.

We put ourselves to work with the sales team, mapping the buyer journey. Then we gathered a better understanding of which assets made sense when and where, developed some interactive playbooks that included our most shiny campaigns and…6 months later…we went live!

Finally some ?love“ from Sales… and Customers!

Our app was not a simple ?show stuff“ solution, but had sharing capabilities from day one. This helped sellers see value beyond showing Marketing content as post-meeting follow-up got a lot easier.

We even had a feedback channel where sales people could rate and comment on specific collateral. Only a few did in the beginning, but when they saw Marketing react, that started a vicious circle - quite the opposite of the finger pointing we had earlier.

Even more striking was word from customers, sharing their excitement around more tailored sales consultations. Sellers were now able to gather in-store data in a conversation and create personalised value propositions on the spot.

With great adoption in the US and some early signs of a positive business impact, my team now had a showcase to run by management and other markets, paving the way for a global roll-out in our Business Unit and beyond.

I was so thrilled about this success story that I decided to ?do what I love“ and start a new chapter in my career. I left the world of ?brick & mortar“ companies and started over in Enablement Tech.

From Enablement practitioner to seller of Enablement technology

For me, back in 2015, it didn’t take much imagination that the Enablement wave that was already pounding the US and the UK, would hit Germany soon. Still, it was daunting to enter uncharted territory all alone. So I got really excited when it became clear that one of my close friends - a person I admired for his personality and business acumen - would join the quest.

One of our first missions was to find a ?mothership“ - a leading tech player in the Enablement space with plans to expand in Germany. While we believed we would find that partner in North America, we found them much closer to what we call home.

Showpad was founded in Ghent in 2011 - just one year after the iPad launched. Its name goes back to trade show and iPad as this was the very first use case. Things can be so simple at times.

What we loved most about Showpad was their vision, the product's usability and the founder-led go-getter culture that spanned the entire team. At the time, the company was a scale-up in hyper growth mode with a few dozen employees and branch offices in the US and the UK. However, there was more respect when it came to Germany - a country not known for front-running digital experiments.?

So, the idea of having partners in Germany was welcomed by Showpad and just two meetings later we had our partner contract in our pockets - followed by "wet ink" from our first customer just a few days later!

From partner to first employee in DACH

When we started, Showpad already had a few customers in Germany. These - and our own industry networks - were our bridgeheads into the market.

What followed was a two year long hustle that actually never felt like one. We had great fun mainly doing BDR and AE work, sometimes even dealing with friendly fire from the mothership in Ghent, where sales teams were also eager to conquer Germany from there.

We collected countless business cards (they were still a thing then), ran thousands of customer meetings and signed many new logos. Implementation and after sales support was provided from Ghent, unless it was expected in German. We would then roll up our sleeves and help out as best as we could.

Product-market-fit was ultimately proven when the biggest deal in a quarter came out of Germany in the spring of 2017. So right when I was starting to think about how to scale this faster, something unexpected happened. I got a termination letter from Showpad, bringing an end to our partnership. ?How on earth…“ I thought, when the phone rang...

It was our then CEO and Co-founder Pieterjan Bouten , sharing that Showpad was now committed to starting an in-market presence in DACH. I should get in touch with Hendrik Isebaert , our VP Sales EMEA for a role as employee #1 in the region.

Hendrik was a rising star. What he touched would turn into gold. In fact, what started as an internship in 2015, would take him all the way up to becoming CEO of Showpad in 2022! Of course I wanted to work with him!

Shortly before that event, my business partner had decided to pursue a career outside of tech as a business angel and investor. This was a move that sadly also ended our friendship which is the only big regret I have during all this time.

A dream come true - make Enablement big in DACH

In the summer of 2017, I woke up as a ?Showpadder“. I hadn’t felt much different over the past two years, but now there was a badge to prove it. And I got invited to the legendary Showpad parties to witness our co-founder Louis Jonckheere ’s legendary stage diving!

Working with Hendrik was like taking off with a fighter jet on afterburners. If I could dream big, he could dream bigger! While I was growing into the role of Sales Leader, he immediately commissioned some of our best sellers in Ghent to dedicate themselves to the DACH market. Making Sales Enablement big in the DACH region became our shared dream.

We identified Munich as our office location and my wife agreed to move there. Hiring the right talent in the German epicentre of big tech would become our biggest challenge. Applicants could often choose between jobs at companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Salesforce… and Showpad. However, Showpad’s rocket ship aura and culture was often able to win them over and our local team started taking shape.

Finally, in spring 2018, the Munich office opened with a bang - an opening event at Allianz Arena - the home of Bayern München’s football team. The first four local Showpadders started and suddenly we had a full chain of pre sales, sales and after sales support within the region. It immediately made a difference. A few prospects where we were running multi-year sales cycles, tipped over when they saw our dedication to the region.?

At the end of the year our local team had grown beyond ten people, all very proud to report ?mission accomplished“ as we had overachieved the ambitious targets set for the region. This solid start laid the foundation to keep scaling in the region with many early hires growing into function leaders over time.

Spreading the love for Sales Enablement through Showpad partners

Passing over the baton of regional sales leadership, my next mission was technology partnerships on a global scale. I did not have previous Alliances experience, but found myself well equipped when it came to finding and articulating a ?win-win“ story to sellers on both sides - which turned out to be an Enablement job in itself.

Having been in Sales earlier made it easy to grasp what really mattered and find ways connect the dots between both organisations.

This was the time where I got precious insights into organisations like Apple, Microsoft and Salesforce - always being inclined to bring some of their approaches and maturity back to Showpad - even if it looked like a giant leap into the future.

And the best of all was seeing more and more partner-sourced wins pour in, sometimes even turning out to be the biggest ones in a quarter.

And finally Enablement Advisory - helping practitioners make a mark

Under the lead of Wim Borremans , Showpad had started to expand its Services offering from what was initially focused on implementation support to a much broader Services portfolio - with the newest one being Strategic Advisory.

This is a function that goes beyond the technology that Showpad provides at the core, but is geared towards holistically supporting Enablement teams in building out business capabilities that help sellers be more successful.

I had always been driven by the top line impact of Enablement. The prospect of teaming up with Tamara Schenk - an outstanding Enablement thought leader and Erich Starrett - a kick ass Enablement orchestrator, was more than exciting. I am very grateful I got to work with both of them and actually take our relationship beyond one that is purely work-related.

Together, we have defined "what good looks like" in Enablement, have taken our Advisory toolset to the next level and - what counts - have proven its value in real life with some of our top clients. While our team no longer exists at this point, I'm glad to see "our" tools and frameworks now being delivered at scale throughout Showpad's Services team.

What’s next for me?

The words "love" and "passion" are mentioned 10 times in this article. These are "big" words in a work setting. In fact, early in my career I suppressed that more emotional side of me as I believed this to be unprofessional. Later in life, I found the opposite to be true. When Steve Jobs delivered his Stanford Commencement address on June 12, 2005, he was able to put into words what I had just discovered to be true for me.

10 years ago, following my heart was the right thing to do. Now the time has come where I need to make choices again. I will follow my heart. It will tell me what is right.