Pivot into revenue enablement (or get left behind)

Over the last few years?

Enablement has evolved. Massively.

From one-off in-person lectures, to Zoom breakout sessions during the pandemic, to gamification and reinforcement... You and I have seen it all.?

But the latest shift isn’t about how you enable, but who.

Enter revenue enablement

Let’s face it. The economy isn’t what it was before the pandemic.?

To adapt, companies are changing their teams.

We have to enable more GTM teams to drive results. This is where revenue enablement comes into play.

Where sales enablement focuses on the sales funnel, revenue enablement supports the full customer lifecycle.?

That means marketing, business development, sales, customer success, professional services and even partnerships. Enabling all these teams helps them speak the same language, ensuring alignment throughout the buyer’s journey.?

Ultimately?

This brings in bundles more leads while slicing churn.

When?you should switch (Hint: It's sooner than you think)

Every organization with a sales, marketing and CS function can benefit from increasing its scope to revenue enablement.?

Most traditional enablement teams are already working on bridging the gap between sales and marketing. Now, we extend that bridge over to CS as well.

The question isn’t why you should do it, it’s when — and the time is now!

?? Enjoying Molly's article? For more expert sales enablement content, check out the Sales Enablement Collective content hub.

How to make the move

1) Go slow at first

Big changes are daunting.

So there's no need to go all-in right away.

Start with the basics. Slowly build interest. In a world where CS is increasingly expected to be more commercial, many of the programs you run for sales would help them, too.

Discovery and demo training are great examples.

It’s a similar amount of effort, with potentially double the impact.?

This works especially well if you’re a solo enabler looking to expand your support to new roles. Or, for small teams with a specialist solely focused on CS.

Once you have permission to grow your enablement team, you can hire a person dedicated to the org. But don’t feel like this has to happen right from the start.?

2) Gain trust

Enablement will be new to your CS team. They need to believe in the value of your enablement efforts. You'll need to gain their trust.

The best place to start is to simply ask.?

Interview senior stakeholders, as well as top- and bottom-performing employees.

Then, rather than deciding which sessions you'll start with, pick a few you think will have high impact. Use a Slack poll or survey to have reps decide the session order.

This helps convert people into active participants.

3) How I brought revenue enablement to life at Sedna (A micro case study)

At Sedna, I was a one woman show.

Last year, we began the journey towards revenue enablement.

Given the economic situation, we made a strategic call that our CSM team should start becoming more commercial. As most of them didn’t have experience in this, I was asked to step in.

But I didn’t really have any experience enabling CS.?

I thought it would be easy, but boy was I wrong!?

I was met with a lot of resistance. So, I had to think outside the box.?

We were launching the Sandler discovery model. We knew we wanted all of GTM to have the training. This was to be our first real test of “revenue enablement”, but the CS team didn’t think they needed it.

To tackle this, we took a phased approach over 8 months. We started with the BDRs, who are hungry for any training they can get their hands on.?

The sales team heard the BDRs using Sandler tactics and started begging for the training themselves. So we went with sales next, but we threw a CS person into the training as well.

It wasn’t long before the majority of people in CS, PS and even the CEO were knocking at the door for the training.

Final thoughts?

Revenue enablement is the way forward.?

Not only does it allow enablement teams to have more impact across the business, but it breaks down silos and creates a unified language and strategy across the customer lifecycle.?

Over time, this change will bring in bundles of leads, customers, and ultimately new revenue.

And the best part?

Your customers will be happier than ever before.

Molly's article was originally published here in full at Sales Enablement Collective.

What did you miss?

??Lines are closed, numbers are in…and we have our 2024 Sales Enablement Collective Awards finalists!?

Thank you to everyone who recognized the sales enablement professionals around you, we were overwhelmed by the number of nominations we received. ??

Check out all our finalists for our award categories here.

??From blank canvas to masterpiece: How to craft a customer-focused sales enablement program

Ruben Boom presents a case study on how he built a customer-focused enablement program. He runs through building the concept all the way to implementation, with actionable advice throughout.

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