September 5, 2023 • 28 mins
I recently sat down with the 4 newest members of the Sales Enablement Society Board of Directors to talk about the evolution of Sales Enablement and the Sales Enablement Society itself. Del Nakhi, Gail Behun, Mary Beth Hanifer, and Chris Kingman share their experiences, passions, and talk about the SES initiatives they're each leading. You'll hear Del talk about engaging members with compelling content while Gail is on a mission to strengthen our community. Mary Beth is leveraging her extensive experience in sales and enablement serving as our secretary, and Chris is working on a thrilling project with Johns Hopkins that you won't want to miss hearing about!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Sales Enablement Society Stories from
the Trenches, where enablementpractitioners share their
real-world experiences.
Get the scoop on what'shappening inside Sales
Enablement teams across theglobal SES member community.
Each segment of Stories fromthe Trenches share the good, the
bad and the ugly practices ofcorporate sales.
Enablement initiatives learnedwhat worked, what didn't work
(00:25):
and how obstacles wereeliminated by corporate teams
and leadership.
Head back, grab a cold one andjoin host Paul Butterfield for
casual conversations about thewide and varied profession of
sales enablement, where there isnever a fits all solution.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the
Sales Enablement Society Podcast, stories from the Trenches the
only, as far as we know,completely bias for us
community-based podcast, wherewe bring together enablement
professionals from all over theworld.
We talk about common problemsand how we're solving for them,
and we also try to draw out someunique things that others are
(01:02):
experiencing and how they'redealing with those, to maybe
give us all ways to think aboutbroadening what we're doing and
how we're impacting the teamsthat we serve.
Before we jump in, I want tomake sure and thank our friends
at Alleggo for sponsoring thisepisode.
One of the common problems thatwe face as enablers is
(01:25):
struggling to get the salesteams we support more efficient
and improving time toproductivity.
With Alleggo's modern revenueenablement platform, marketing,
sales and enablement teams geton the same page and have
continuous improvement available.
You can break through all thenoise and deliver the buying
experience that the buyers todaydemand.
(01:48):
I would say you're sellers too.
They want a modern, cleanapproach to their enablement.
Faster RAM for your reps, morerevenue for your business in
less time.
See how it can work for you.
You can check it out live atAlleggocom.
I am excited now to introduceyou.
This is a bit of a differentformat for us.
We recently had four new boardmembers join us and we've
(02:14):
brought everyone together andwe're going to have a
conversation.
I'm excited we're breaking alittle bit of new ground.
I'm going to briefly tell youwho they are and then they'll
each introduce themselves alittle bit.
We've got Del Nakai, gail Ban,mary Beth Hanifer and Chris
Kingman.
Why don't we start off with you, del?
Just a little bit aboutyourself and what you're doing
(02:36):
on the board with SES.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Sure, my name is Del Nakai and I'm the founder and
CEO of a new company called Leadto Catalyze.
My focus for the SES, which I'mreally excited about, is
building out content andengaging our members with new
voices and really focusing onensuring there's really
standards across the board withhow we're operating and how we
(02:58):
drive impact at our companies.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I'm just going left or right across my screen, gail.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Thanks, paul.
I am the director of sales andaimment for Genover Square.
I've been in the sales andaimment space about 10 years and
I've had the privilege tovolunteer on the conference the
last two years before I joinedthe board.
My passion for SES is reallyaround community building and
our ability to strengthen thisevolving profession through
(03:25):
community.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Okay, all right, we're going to talk more about
that in a minute.
Mary Beth, let's hear from you.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Hi, I'm Mary Beth Hanifer and I have been a
volunteer with the Sales andAmablement Society since 2017,
and I've been in the sales andaimment space since before it
was called Sales and Amablement.
I've been in roles that haveevolved from one thing
eventually into enablement as weknow it today, and also the
secretary on the board.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
All right.
Speaker 6 (03:51):
And Chris.
I'm Chris Kingman, global headof digital enablement for
TransUnion and founding memberof Sales and Amablement Society,
and I joined the board a coupleof months ago with the specific
focus on bringing the projectwith Johns Hopkins to life.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yes, and very exciting.
So first, thank you foreveryone.
Everyone that you've just heardfrom have just jumped in with
both feet and the progress andthe things that they're
accomplishing are justphenomenal.
Watch, gail, you started to godown this road, the road of why
you're so passionate about beingpart of SES, and all of us are
(04:30):
here because we've beenpassionate about SES for some
time, some years but when youjoin the board, that is
definitely leveling up in termsof the amount of time, talent
and energy that you're bringingto SES.
So, since you introduced thetopic, maybe just a little bit
(04:51):
more on why your decision tojoin the board and why you're
passionate about the work thatwe're all doing.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
It wasn't even a decision to join the board.
I was so honored and excited.
I think I said yes before Billfinished the sentence of asking
me to join, so I was reallyexcited.
I think the Sales and AmountSociety plays such a critical
role in our industry, especiallyright now, because we are in an
evolving profession.
We're in a profession thatdoesn't have tight swim lanes
(05:20):
and black and white definitions.
Thank you, as a community, wehave an opportunity and a
responsibility to start addingthat type of structure, start
building that type of communityto make this profession as
powerful as possible, and Ididn't see any better vehicle
than doing that, besides doingthat with SES.
Ses, as a community, is memberdriven.
(05:44):
It started with 100 people inour room saying, yeah, we're
here and we're going to do thistogether.
And to Mary Bess Point, peoplehave been doing this for years
under different titles, butreally had the opportunity in
2017 to bring together and startto codify those ideas.
And now it's really importantto even evolve that curve and I
(06:05):
wanted to have a voice and anopportunity to be part of that
process, both with my Chicagonetwork directly and with the
national and then a globalfootprint too.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Mary Beth, apparently you were enablement before.
Enablement was cool, so I wouldlove to hear your perspective.
Why are you on the board?
What are you excited about?
Speaker 5 (06:26):
I'm so excited to, as Gail said, it's taking your
volunteerism to a new level andbeing able to give back to the
community that I feel has givenso much to me.
When I first learned about theSales Enablement Society in 2017
, I had just come out of acompany where I'd been there for
over 20 years, and so I had avery what I call the bubble
(06:50):
around me a view of whatenablement was and what it
looked like.
And so to come and meet thiscommunity of people and to learn
from other practitioners, learnabout college programs and
sales, and to learn aboutvendors and just the research
analysts and the fact thateverybody came together in the
(07:13):
Community Sales EnablementSociety from all of these walks
of life it just it was justamazing to me, and so I started
volunteering and learning, and Imean I just everything that's
happened good in my life from acareer perspective and
personally these last two yearshas been a direct result of, you
(07:34):
know, being part of thiscommunity.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
So love that.
Thank you, del.
You're the most recent member,and then I've got a special
question for you, chris, and tieus all together, so be ready.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, I'm similar to Mary Beth and that I've been
doing this before.
It was a thing, so over 15years, and I really only found
the enablement community withinthe last couple of years, and
what I know is it would havebeen amazing to have the support
when I was just starting outand I want to be able to give
back and really help thecommunity as we're evolving to
(08:04):
Gale's point, to set them up forsuccess, especially because we
have enablers coming from somany different walks of life and
so many different backgrounds.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Right, Chris.
So you were in the room whereit happened and would love your
perspective from why you gotinvolved then and then bring us
into why you're involved soheavily today still.
Speaker 6 (08:29):
Sure, so I was.
I was involved at the LinkedInstage when it was a group and
there was a lot of talk andposts and things like that, and
when they decided to putsomething together, the first
reason I went was because it waswithin driving distance.
If that was out of state Iwould not have attended.
(08:50):
So I was very fortunate thatthey all decided Florida was the
place to be.
What drove me to attend?
I had this feeling that like Ineeded to be there.
You know, like there's thisthing, there's a lot of buzz.
I see this term enablement a lot, but you know I don't have my
arms wrapped around it, but alot of people are committing to
(09:12):
coming here and people who youknow they had a very big
presence on LinkedIn.
They had a lot of good thingsto say and more importantly for
me was a lot of people weretalking about a lot of the
things I was doing or thequestions I had, like what do
you do about this, what do youdo about that?
And I just wanted to know.
Like you know, I think, justlike everyone else, I was kind
(09:32):
of figuring it out in real timeas my organization sort of
expanded into enablement and Ithought, you know what, maybe
this could be something that'sgoing to help propel me.
Why am I here today?
And kind of what's kept meengaged?
I think I've always tried to beactive in society, you know, and
volunteer where I can.
And, similar to everybody else'spoint, I just feel like I've
(09:56):
reached the point in my careerwhere I can give back and if I
can save somebody a couple yearsor, more importantly, a couple
headaches by giving them someguidance or some, you know, some
hard game knowledge, I'll say Idon't want to point to
expertise, but I think there'svalue in that and certainly
that's a lot of, a lot of thevalue I've gotten out of it is
(10:17):
just meeting people who havebeen doing it before.
It was a thing and then, youknow, sharing their expertise
and knowledge, and maybe it is.
I think it's overlooked, butthere's a lot of value in just
networking and connecting withfolks and talking to them and
learning even something fromsomebody for 15 minutes.
And so my goals are to expandupon that with the college
(10:40):
program is just increaseawareness, increase adoption,
get it out there in the broader,you know, academic sphere and
really, like you know, putanother lens on enablement, get
open more eyes to it and helpmore people.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
I think everyone would agree that this has been a
transformational year.
I don't think that's too stronga word for the enablement
community in good ways, but,frankly, also in very
challenging ways, ways that Imean.
Anybody who was a hiringmanager in the previous 12 to 18
months before last fall waswith knows the number of
(11:16):
recruiting calls and thesometimes crazy numbers are
being thrown in enablement andthen it was almost as if someone
flipped a switch and and thingsturned in the other direction.
So and I'm whichever one of youis wants to jump in on this,
but would love to have adiscussion about the challenges
that we're experiencing as acommunity and either what role
(11:39):
that that SES is working to playin supporting those challenges,
or maybe even some things thatthat you think we should.
We should be thinking abouteither one.
I want to go first.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
I'll go first.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
All right.
Speaker 6 (11:53):
Yeah, I mean, I completely agree.
It does feel like a switch wasflipped right, like all of a
sudden a lot of our peers aresaying you know, I'm, I'm part
of the next round and my techstartup decided they needed to
let go of folks.
My perception is to theuninformed sales enablement is a
gamble and it's very hard ifyou don't have the right
(12:18):
conversations or the right valuepropositions.
You're effectively asking forbudget to gamble on this idea of
enablement right, rather thanthe inverse of do it and prove
it works and then get thefunding.
And I just my.
My two cents are my.
My opinion is that a lot offolks, a lot of folks, went with
the gamble first, instead ofyou know somebody taking out a
(12:41):
side of their plate and maybe itdidn't work, maybe it didn't
pan out, but it's very easy totake bad enablement and the
label it as an operating expenseand cut it from your you know,
your budget as a society.
What are we going to do about?
How can we help that that?
There's a couple things.
One, the jobs post.
(13:01):
I think it's critical.
You know it's great it's.
It's better than the jobsorting functionality of
LinkedIn itself.
Linkedin doesn't recognizeenablement as a category in its
jobs thing which maybe, maybe weput a board member on just that
, indeed doesn't recognize it asa practice or a career and so
(13:24):
just pulling what is it's like50 jobs maybe is hugely
impactful.
And then another thing I thinkthat we're we're now just
working on is and Paul and I arejust working on is and Paul and
I are just working on and Ihave just started these
conversations but expanding ourpartnerships with folks outside
right, looking at otherorganizations that are sales
focused and saying you know canenablement benefit you and your
(13:46):
members right, and in increasingthe access to enablement
resources so organizations mightbe able to engage with
enablement practitioners withoutinvesting that money.
And so they can, they canvalidate and they can test and
they can see hey, this might beworth it instead of a blank
gamble.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Gail, your hand was up.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Chris made such a great point.
Thank you so much.
And I think, to piggyback onthat, I think there's been a lot
of what I've been callingbuyers for more on the part of
our CROs and our VP of sales.
They bought into the idea ofenablement.
They bought into it heavily.
We've seen organizations thatwent from a function of one to a
function of seven or eight veryquickly and then just as
(14:27):
quickly didn't see the immediateROI, didn't really understand
how enablement could affectoutcomes, just looked at
programs and have gone hard inthe reverse.
And so I think, as part of SES,our goal is also to help bridge
this conversation from salesenablement to the CROs, to the
(14:47):
sales leaders, to help themunderstand how to build scalable
, repeatable, responsibleenablement programs that are
there for the test of time.
I mean, I have always said asan enabler, we are here for the
long term.
We are not a quick fix, we arenot a band aid.
We are here to build thepractices that build sustainable
businesses.
And now we have to focus onbuilding sustainable enablement
(15:10):
practices in our own worlds andI think if we can do that and
influence that as a society,we're really a resource for our
members and to our companies,the CROs and the VPs of sales,
because they're going to getbetter outcomes from their
enablement partners when theyhave a really good opportunity
and understanding of how toleverage these teams.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, and I can build on what Gail was mentioning in
terms of enablement is not aquick fix.
So that's something I focus ona lot, which is change
management, and I have so manyopportunities to talk to members
of our community because theyreach out to me and say, hey,
I'm going through thesedifferent initiatives, how do I
manage all of this change?
And I've also talked to so manypeople who were laid off at
(15:54):
least a dozen who went throughthe interviewing process and it
gave me a lot of insight intowhat's going on.
And what I'm observing is acombination of responsibility,
part of it on our end and interms of enablement, and part of
it in terms of our stakeholdersreally understanding how to
leverage enablement.
So what I'm seeing isenablement is oftentimes brought
into filling gaps, especiallyin terms of revenue leadership,
(16:18):
whether it's based on capacity,time, skill set, but what is
missing is really understandingthat revenue leaders still play
a really key role in anyinitiative that we help to lead
in terms of coaching,reinforcing, holding their teams
accountable to it and the waythat SES can really help with
this.
And what we're working on interms of the content initiative
(16:39):
is having content dedicated toaddressing not only the needs of
our community in terms ofenablement, but also sharing
this with our stakeholders, sowith CROs, even CEOs, and
addressing exactly how to buildan enablement function, where to
place the enablement team, howto define enablement in a way
that sets them up for success,which ultimately sets the
(17:02):
company up for success.
So there's just a lot ofopportunity there to help
educate and we're also seeing alot of newer people coming into
enablement.
That to Chris's point earlier.
They can stand on the shoulderof giants.
So many of us have done thisfor so long that we've learned
by mistake and in some ways,newer folks to enablement.
(17:22):
They don't have the ability tomake those mistakes.
They need to hit the groundrunning.
So with some of the contentwe're going to be building, that
is really meant to help them aswell.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
That's a great observation we all did have when
we came into enablement atvarious stages in our career a
lot more of a honeymoon periodthan most people are going to
get now.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Mary Beth, take a step, building on Gail and Gail
and Chris, especially thathoneymoon period, and we have
the newer enablers and when youlook at the job descriptions
that are out there forenablement, the kitchen sink is
getting thrown at it.
Basically, as far as you have tobe everything and they're
(18:08):
wanting one person that can be.
In the past would have beenfour or five people's different
functions and it's all in one.
So it's also, I think, whatwe're going to be up.
What we can offer our communityand our members, and especially
our newer folks that are newerin their careers, is how to
approach all those differentinitiatives from a change
(18:29):
minimum perspective, but alsohow to address those
strategically and so that we'renot just viewed as something
tactical.
I mean, yes, there are tacticalsteps somebody would take in
initiating a program, but how tochange your thinking and be
more strategic and have thosestrategic conversations with the
(18:50):
leaders that you're supporting.
So I think that's a keydifferentiator of our community
and I think of what we'restarting to offer as a board and
as an organization build outour programs to serve our
members.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, all right, I want to shift gears.
I don't want this to be toomuch of a commercial, but we got
to talk about the SESexperience in San Diego.
So in about 30 days, maybe alittle more, we will all be
there in San Diego.
And going back to 2016, 2017, Iwasn't in Florida for that
(19:27):
first meeting or involved in theLinkedIn groups before, but it
was shortly after that that.
At the time, I was doing somework with Jill Rowley and she's
going to let me know, and I waslike, wow, this is cool, there's
a tribe.
So very good, now fast forward.
There are a lot more optionsfor folks in the enablement
(19:47):
community.
So what is different about theSES experience and why should
people really give it someserious consideration again?
When there are so many choices,anybody want to start off on
that one, mary Beth.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Yeah, I think the real key differentiator of our
experience is it's forpractitioners, by practitioners.
We are there for our communityand when we review the speaker
submissions, we are looking andbalancing the different themes
and the roles of the folks thatare submitting, and they're you
(20:30):
know where they are in theirjourney as well is for what
they're offering to bring andshare with our practitioner, you
know, with other practitioners.
So I think that that real keything there has always been, you
know, for practitioners bypractitioners, and oh, my
goodness, it's what an amazingopportunity it is to be with
(20:54):
your community of practitionersand also, at the same time, we
have our partners who are therehelping support us through it,
and so it's an opportunity tomeet with those folks face to
face as well.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
Since Mary Beth stole everyone's answer, I will say
that's why she went first.
Yeah, yeah, the benefit for meand I've been, I was at a lot of
the earlier conferences, did alot of digital ones and then I
missed the last one due to ahurricane.
But the benefit for me and it'salways been the benefit for me
(21:28):
is you have to think about whereyou are in your enablement
career and the reality is,unless you've been to three or
four organizations, like ifyou've been doing it at one
place for a good amount of time,you really only have one flavor
of enablement.
Like enablement looks one wayto you.
The real benefit for me ismeeting people at different
organizations or withindifferent industries and
(21:51):
understanding how they do it andunderstanding the problems that
they face.
The greatest learnings I get aresitting down with somebody who
does enablement outside of thetech industry, who approaches a
problem that maybe I've alreadysolved or maybe I'm just now
becoming aware of and hearingwhat they did about it.
It's even if that's a 20 minuteconversation over lunch and
(22:15):
then a LinkedIn connection.
You know you can reach out tothat person a year down the road
and say, hey, you said you didthis thing.
This is now a priority for me.
It's initiative.
Can you tell me how you did it?
And I've done that a handful oftimes and 100% of the time
people like, absolutely, here'smy calendar, let's talk about it
(22:38):
.
The easiest way to get ahead inenablement is to have the
frameworks and have the answers,and at that conference is where
you're going to go get them.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Absolutely, and we're live and it's in person and
it's practical, and all of thosethings come together to make
the experience so critical.
I will sound a little like acommercial, because I get to,
because I get to work on theconference.
It's October 2nd through the4th.
It's San Diego.
We've got 30 plus sessions,we've got hackathons, we've got
workshops, we've got hands on,we've got amazing keynote
(23:09):
speakers.
And, to Chris's point, this isthe one time of the year you can
take two and a half days out ofyour life, off of Zoom, and be
in a room with real human beingswho are doing what you're doing
and solving the problems andfacing the same challenges, and
that energy will sustain you forthe other 361 days of the year.
(23:30):
And we need that, especially nowthat so much of us have gone to
almost full Zoom or workingvirtually or not.
We can't sit shoulder toshoulder with our salespeople.
We can't break bread as oftenwith our leaders and enablers.
For the most part, a large partof our community that attends
the conference are solopractitioners or a team of maybe
(23:52):
one or two, and so that's.
The other advantage is that webuild community, because that
becomes our team.
So many of us are working aloneor working with small teams.
That conference is a place tostart to build your virtual
department, and there are somany times I go out to
Connections and say I'm buildinga framework, I need help, I'm
(24:14):
building this, I need help, andthat community is 100% there and
the conference is the placethat you can make and bridge
those connections in a real live, human, non-zoom setting.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Non-Zoom setting.
That should be the headline.
That's our tagline.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
That was Zoom.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
As the conference chair, I want to ask you just
kind of an add on to that.
It's not the SES annualconference or something similar,
it's the SES experience andthat name I know you were
involved in choosing and it wasvery intentional.
Why experience versus whateverelse we could have called it?
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Oh, because experiences are memorable.
I spent the first 20 years ofmy life working in conferences
and events and I still have apassion for it.
We can talk, we can teach, wecan learn, but when we
experience, it sinks in at amuch deeper level.
It becomes part of who we are.
You will remember experienceslong after books that you've
(25:15):
read or movies that you've seen,or even conversations, because
experiences are what moves us ashuman beings.
And being able to create anexperiential space where we can
bridge connections, where we canhave live workshops, that's the
passion behind SES.
It isn't, and it's neverintended to be a talk down
session.
(25:35):
If it was, we could just do iton Zoom.
We could get a lot of greattalk, but in the reality of
we've encouraged a lot of handson a lot of opportunities for
workshops.
We want you to come away withnotebooks and a pen and actually
write things down and make itstick in your brain, because
(25:57):
you're experiencing it andthat's an exciting opportunity
for SES.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
And I know that as part of and we've had you have
some really great help in theselection committee.
I know we had a maybe even arecord number of people submit
abstracts for presenting thisyear.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Naring that down could not have been easy.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
But I believe one of the criteria was that workshop
interactive experience that youwere all looking for in their
abstracts, so that it wasn'tgoing to be talking at them at
the audience.
True.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Yeah, that's absolutely part of the criteria.
We always look to make sure wehave a handful of new
practitioners who have neverspoken with us before.
It's really important that weshuffle voices and we hear from
community members that are newto our space.
We really promoted the idea ofworkshops.
We actually have a workshopspace specifically for the
hackathon and for some otherworkshops that will be happening
(26:51):
, and we look for diversity oftopics.
Even when we get multipletopics on the same track, we
look for how is thispractitioner going to speak
about metrics or aboutmeasurement a little bit
differently.
We also look at where do wehave practitioners that maybe
come from larger organizationswho are going to bring one
viewpoint, where they have ateam of 20 enablers versus
(27:14):
people who are solo enablers andthey're DIYing it all, and so
that mix and match really allowsan audience, an attendee, to
come in and pick and choose thetracks and the sessions that are
really going to resonate withthem and where they want to
learn from.
Maybe they're with a reallysmall org and they want to see
hey, what would it be like if I?
Speaker 3 (27:33):
went over and joined Amazon.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
And they can learn from those practitioners.
So that's the goal of thetracks is to give a lot of
diversity, a lot of hands-onopportunity and a lot of
community building.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Thank you, and that half hour flew by.
So, chris Marybeth Del Gail,thank you for bringing your
energy and your talents tosupporting our global enablement
community, and thank you forthe last 30 minutes and spending
some time out of your day withus.
I also want to thank ouraudience, who invests time with
(28:10):
us every other week to tune inand listen.
And finally, I want to thankAlleggo.
We are a nonprofit, for thosethat may not be aware, and we
definitely are dependent on thekindness of our friends, and
Alleggo has consistently beenone of those, and we appreciate
it.
So we'll be back in two weekswith another guest and new
content.
In the meantime, stay safe.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Thanks for joining this episode of Stories from the
Trenches.
For more sales enablementresources, be sure to join the
Sales Enablement Society atsesocietyorg.
That's sesocietyorg.
Welcome to the Sales Enablement Society Stories from
the Trenches, where enablementpractitioners share their
real-world experiences.
Get the scoop on what'shappening inside Sales
Enablement teams across theglobal SES member community.
Each segment of Stories fromthe Trenches share the good, the
bad and the ugly practices ofcorporate sales.
Enablement initiatives learnedwhat worked, what didn't work
(00:25):
and how obstacles wereeliminated by corporate teams
and leadership.
Head back, grab a cold one andjoin host Paul Butterfield for
casual conversations about thewide and varied profession of
sales enablement, where there isnever a fits all solution.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the
Sales Enablement Society Podcast, stories from the Trenches the
only, as far as we know,completely bias for us
community-based podcast, wherewe bring together enablement
professionals from all over theworld.
We talk about common problemsand how we're solving for them,
and we also try to draw out someunique things that others are
(01:02):
experiencing and how they'redealing with those, to maybe
give us all ways to think aboutbroadening what we're doing and
how we're impacting the teamsthat we serve.
Before we jump in, I want tomake sure and thank our friends
at Alleggo for sponsoring thisepisode.
One of the common problems thatwe face as enablers is
(01:25):
struggling to get the salesteams we support more efficient
and improving time toproductivity.
With Alleggo's modern revenueenablement platform, marketing,
sales and enablement teams geton the same page and have
continuous improvement available.
You can break through all thenoise and deliver the buying
experience that the buyers todaydemand.
(01:48):
I would say you're sellers too.
They want a modern, cleanapproach to their enablement.
Faster RAM for your reps, morerevenue for your business in
less time.
See how it can work for you.
You can check it out live atAlleggocom.
I am excited now to introduceyou.
This is a bit of a differentformat for us.
We recently had four new boardmembers join us and we've
(02:14):
brought everyone together andwe're going to have a
conversation.
I'm excited we're breaking alittle bit of new ground.
I'm going to briefly tell youwho they are and then they'll
each introduce themselves alittle bit.
We've got Del Nakai, gail Ban,mary Beth Hanifer and Chris
Kingman.
Why don't we start off with you, del?
Just a little bit aboutyourself and what you're doing
(02:36):
on the board with SES.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Sure, my name is Del Nakai and I'm the founder and
CEO of a new company called Leadto Catalyze.
My focus for the SES, which I'mreally excited about, is
building out content andengaging our members with new
voices and really focusing onensuring there's really
standards across the board withhow we're operating and how we
(02:58):
drive impact at our companies.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I'm just going left or right across my screen, gail.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Thanks, paul.
I am the director of sales andaimment for Genover Square.
I've been in the sales andaimment space about 10 years and
I've had the privilege tovolunteer on the conference the
last two years before I joinedthe board.
My passion for SES is reallyaround community building and
our ability to strengthen thisevolving profession through
(03:25):
community.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Okay, all right, we're going to talk more about
that in a minute.
Mary Beth, let's hear from you.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Hi, I'm Mary Beth Hanifer and I have been a
volunteer with the Sales andAmablement Society since 2017,
and I've been in the sales andaimment space since before it
was called Sales and Amablement.
I've been in roles that haveevolved from one thing
eventually into enablement as weknow it today, and also the
secretary on the board.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
All right.
Speaker 6 (03:51):
And Chris.
I'm Chris Kingman, global headof digital enablement for
TransUnion and founding memberof Sales and Amablement Society,
and I joined the board a coupleof months ago with the specific
focus on bringing the projectwith Johns Hopkins to life.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yes, and very exciting.
So first, thank you foreveryone.
Everyone that you've just heardfrom have just jumped in with
both feet and the progress andthe things that they're
accomplishing are justphenomenal.
Watch, gail, you started to godown this road, the road of why
you're so passionate about beingpart of SES, and all of us are
(04:30):
here because we've beenpassionate about SES for some
time, some years but when youjoin the board, that is
definitely leveling up in termsof the amount of time, talent
and energy that you're bringingto SES.
So, since you introduced thetopic, maybe just a little bit
(04:51):
more on why your decision tojoin the board and why you're
passionate about the work thatwe're all doing.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
It wasn't even a decision to join the board.
I was so honored and excited.
I think I said yes before Billfinished the sentence of asking
me to join, so I was reallyexcited.
I think the Sales and AmountSociety plays such a critical
role in our industry, especiallyright now, because we are in an
evolving profession.
We're in a profession thatdoesn't have tight swim lanes
(05:20):
and black and white definitions.
Thank you, as a community, wehave an opportunity and a
responsibility to start addingthat type of structure, start
building that type of communityto make this profession as
powerful as possible, and Ididn't see any better vehicle
than doing that, besides doingthat with SES.
Ses, as a community, is memberdriven.
(05:44):
It started with 100 people inour room saying, yeah, we're
here and we're going to do thistogether.
And to Mary Bess Point, peoplehave been doing this for years
under different titles, butreally had the opportunity in
2017 to bring together and startto codify those ideas.
And now it's really importantto even evolve that curve and I
(06:05):
wanted to have a voice and anopportunity to be part of that
process, both with my Chicagonetwork directly and with the
national and then a globalfootprint too.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Mary Beth, apparently you were enablement before.
Enablement was cool, so I wouldlove to hear your perspective.
Why are you on the board?
What are you excited about?
Speaker 5 (06:26):
I'm so excited to, as Gail said, it's taking your
volunteerism to a new level andbeing able to give back to the
community that I feel has givenso much to me.
When I first learned about theSales Enablement Society in 2017
, I had just come out of acompany where I'd been there for
over 20 years, and so I had avery what I call the bubble
(06:50):
around me a view of whatenablement was and what it
looked like.
And so to come and meet thiscommunity of people and to learn
from other practitioners, learnabout college programs and
sales, and to learn aboutvendors and just the research
analysts and the fact thateverybody came together in the
(07:13):
Community Sales EnablementSociety from all of these walks
of life it just it was justamazing to me, and so I started
volunteering and learning, and Imean I just everything that's
happened good in my life from acareer perspective and
personally these last two yearshas been a direct result of, you
(07:34):
know, being part of thiscommunity.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
So love that.
Thank you, del.
You're the most recent member,and then I've got a special
question for you, chris, and tieus all together, so be ready.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, I'm similar to Mary Beth and that I've been
doing this before.
It was a thing, so over 15years, and I really only found
the enablement community withinthe last couple of years, and
what I know is it would havebeen amazing to have the support
when I was just starting outand I want to be able to give
back and really help thecommunity as we're evolving to
(08:04):
Gale's point, to set them up forsuccess, especially because we
have enablers coming from somany different walks of life and
so many different backgrounds.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Right, Chris.
So you were in the room whereit happened and would love your
perspective from why you gotinvolved then and then bring us
into why you're involved soheavily today still.
Speaker 6 (08:29):
Sure, so I was.
I was involved at the LinkedInstage when it was a group and
there was a lot of talk andposts and things like that, and
when they decided to putsomething together, the first
reason I went was because it waswithin driving distance.
If that was out of state Iwould not have attended.
(08:50):
So I was very fortunate thatthey all decided Florida was the
place to be.
What drove me to attend?
I had this feeling that like Ineeded to be there.
You know, like there's thisthing, there's a lot of buzz.
I see this term enablement a lot, but you know I don't have my
arms wrapped around it, but alot of people are committing to
(09:12):
coming here and people who youknow they had a very big
presence on LinkedIn.
They had a lot of good thingsto say and more importantly for
me was a lot of people weretalking about a lot of the
things I was doing or thequestions I had, like what do
you do about this, what do youdo about that?
And I just wanted to know.
Like you know, I think, justlike everyone else, I was kind
(09:32):
of figuring it out in real timeas my organization sort of
expanded into enablement and Ithought, you know what, maybe
this could be something that'sgoing to help propel me.
Why am I here today?
And kind of what's kept meengaged?
I think I've always tried to beactive in society, you know, and
volunteer where I can.
And, similar to everybody else'spoint, I just feel like I've
(09:56):
reached the point in my careerwhere I can give back and if I
can save somebody a couple yearsor, more importantly, a couple
headaches by giving them someguidance or some, you know, some
hard game knowledge, I'll say Idon't want to point to
expertise, but I think there'svalue in that and certainly
that's a lot of, a lot of thevalue I've gotten out of it is
(10:17):
just meeting people who havebeen doing it before.
It was a thing and then, youknow, sharing their expertise
and knowledge, and maybe it is.
I think it's overlooked, butthere's a lot of value in just
networking and connecting withfolks and talking to them and
learning even something fromsomebody for 15 minutes.
And so my goals are to expandupon that with the college
(10:40):
program is just increaseawareness, increase adoption,
get it out there in the broader,you know, academic sphere and
really, like you know, putanother lens on enablement, get
open more eyes to it and helpmore people.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
I think everyone would agree that this has been a
transformational year.
I don't think that's too stronga word for the enablement
community in good ways, but,frankly, also in very
challenging ways, ways that Imean.
Anybody who was a hiringmanager in the previous 12 to 18
months before last fall waswith knows the number of
(11:16):
recruiting calls and thesometimes crazy numbers are
being thrown in enablement andthen it was almost as if someone
flipped a switch and and thingsturned in the other direction.
So and I'm whichever one of youis wants to jump in on this,
but would love to have adiscussion about the challenges
that we're experiencing as acommunity and either what role
(11:39):
that that SES is working to playin supporting those challenges,
or maybe even some things thatthat you think we should.
We should be thinking abouteither one.
I want to go first.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
I'll go first.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
All right.
Speaker 6 (11:53):
Yeah, I mean, I completely agree.
It does feel like a switch wasflipped right, like all of a
sudden a lot of our peers aresaying you know, I'm, I'm part
of the next round and my techstartup decided they needed to
let go of folks.
My perception is to theuninformed sales enablement is a
gamble and it's very hard ifyou don't have the right
(12:18):
conversations or the right valuepropositions.
You're effectively asking forbudget to gamble on this idea of
enablement right, rather thanthe inverse of do it and prove
it works and then get thefunding.
And I just my.
My two cents are my.
My opinion is that a lot offolks, a lot of folks, went with
the gamble first, instead ofyou know somebody taking out a
(12:41):
side of their plate and maybe itdidn't work, maybe it didn't
pan out, but it's very easy totake bad enablement and the
label it as an operating expenseand cut it from your you know,
your budget as a society.
What are we going to do about?
How can we help that that?
There's a couple things.
One, the jobs post.
(13:01):
I think it's critical.
You know it's great it's.
It's better than the jobsorting functionality of
LinkedIn itself.
Linkedin doesn't recognizeenablement as a category in its
jobs thing which maybe, maybe weput a board member on just that
, indeed doesn't recognize it asa practice or a career and so
(13:24):
just pulling what is it's like50 jobs maybe is hugely
impactful.
And then another thing I thinkthat we're we're now just
working on is and Paul and I arejust working on is and Paul and
I are just working on and Ihave just started these
conversations but expanding ourpartnerships with folks outside
right, looking at otherorganizations that are sales
focused and saying you know canenablement benefit you and your
(13:46):
members right, and in increasingthe access to enablement
resources so organizations mightbe able to engage with
enablement practitioners withoutinvesting that money.
And so they can, they canvalidate and they can test and
they can see hey, this might beworth it instead of a blank
gamble.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Gail, your hand was up.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Chris made such a great point.
Thank you so much.
And I think, to piggyback onthat, I think there's been a lot
of what I've been callingbuyers for more on the part of
our CROs and our VP of sales.
They bought into the idea ofenablement.
They bought into it heavily.
We've seen organizations thatwent from a function of one to a
function of seven or eight veryquickly and then just as
(14:27):
quickly didn't see the immediateROI, didn't really understand
how enablement could affectoutcomes, just looked at
programs and have gone hard inthe reverse.
And so I think, as part of SES,our goal is also to help bridge
this conversation from salesenablement to the CROs, to the
(14:47):
sales leaders, to help themunderstand how to build scalable
, repeatable, responsibleenablement programs that are
there for the test of time.
I mean, I have always said asan enabler, we are here for the
long term.
We are not a quick fix, we arenot a band aid.
We are here to build thepractices that build sustainable
businesses.
And now we have to focus onbuilding sustainable enablement
(15:10):
practices in our own worlds andI think if we can do that and
influence that as a society,we're really a resource for our
members and to our companies,the CROs and the VPs of sales,
because they're going to getbetter outcomes from their
enablement partners when theyhave a really good opportunity
and understanding of how toleverage these teams.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, and I can build on what Gail was mentioning in
terms of enablement is not aquick fix.
So that's something I focus ona lot, which is change
management, and I have so manyopportunities to talk to members
of our community because theyreach out to me and say, hey,
I'm going through thesedifferent initiatives, how do I
manage all of this change?
And I've also talked to so manypeople who were laid off at
(15:54):
least a dozen who went throughthe interviewing process and it
gave me a lot of insight intowhat's going on.
And what I'm observing is acombination of responsibility,
part of it on our end and interms of enablement, and part of
it in terms of our stakeholdersreally understanding how to
leverage enablement.
So what I'm seeing isenablement is oftentimes brought
into filling gaps, especiallyin terms of revenue leadership,
(16:18):
whether it's based on capacity,time, skill set, but what is
missing is really understandingthat revenue leaders still play
a really key role in anyinitiative that we help to lead
in terms of coaching,reinforcing, holding their teams
accountable to it and the waythat SES can really help with
this.
And what we're working on interms of the content initiative
(16:39):
is having content dedicated toaddressing not only the needs of
our community in terms ofenablement, but also sharing
this with our stakeholders, sowith CROs, even CEOs, and
addressing exactly how to buildan enablement function, where to
place the enablement team, howto define enablement in a way
that sets them up for success,which ultimately sets the
(17:02):
company up for success.
So there's just a lot ofopportunity there to help
educate and we're also seeing alot of newer people coming into
enablement.
That to Chris's point earlier.
They can stand on the shoulderof giants.
So many of us have done thisfor so long that we've learned
by mistake and in some ways,newer folks to enablement.
(17:22):
They don't have the ability tomake those mistakes.
They need to hit the groundrunning.
So with some of the contentwe're going to be building, that
is really meant to help them aswell.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
That's a great observation we all did have when
we came into enablement atvarious stages in our career a
lot more of a honeymoon periodthan most people are going to
get now.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Mary Beth, take a step, building on Gail and Gail
and Chris, especially thathoneymoon period, and we have
the newer enablers and when youlook at the job descriptions
that are out there forenablement, the kitchen sink is
getting thrown at it.
Basically, as far as you have tobe everything and they're
(18:08):
wanting one person that can be.
In the past would have beenfour or five people's different
functions and it's all in one.
So it's also, I think, whatwe're going to be up.
What we can offer our communityand our members, and especially
our newer folks that are newerin their careers, is how to
approach all those differentinitiatives from a change
(18:29):
minimum perspective, but alsohow to address those
strategically and so that we'renot just viewed as something
tactical.
I mean, yes, there are tacticalsteps somebody would take in
initiating a program, but how tochange your thinking and be
more strategic and have thosestrategic conversations with the
(18:50):
leaders that you're supporting.
So I think that's a keydifferentiator of our community
and I think of what we'restarting to offer as a board and
as an organization build outour programs to serve our
members.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah, all right, I want to shift gears.
I don't want this to be toomuch of a commercial, but we got
to talk about the SESexperience in San Diego.
So in about 30 days, maybe alittle more, we will all be
there in San Diego.
And going back to 2016, 2017, Iwasn't in Florida for that
(19:27):
first meeting or involved in theLinkedIn groups before, but it
was shortly after that that.
At the time, I was doing somework with Jill Rowley and she's
going to let me know, and I waslike, wow, this is cool, there's
a tribe.
So very good, now fast forward.
There are a lot more optionsfor folks in the enablement
(19:47):
community.
So what is different about theSES experience and why should
people really give it someserious consideration again?
When there are so many choices,anybody want to start off on
that one, mary Beth.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Yeah, I think the real key differentiator of our
experience is it's forpractitioners, by practitioners.
We are there for our communityand when we review the speaker
submissions, we are looking andbalancing the different themes
and the roles of the folks thatare submitting, and they're you
(20:30):
know where they are in theirjourney as well is for what
they're offering to bring andshare with our practitioner, you
know, with other practitioners.
So I think that that real keything there has always been, you
know, for practitioners bypractitioners, and oh, my
goodness, it's what an amazingopportunity it is to be with
(20:54):
your community of practitionersand also, at the same time, we
have our partners who are therehelping support us through it,
and so it's an opportunity tomeet with those folks face to
face as well.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
Since Mary Beth stole everyone's answer, I will say
that's why she went first.
Yeah, yeah, the benefit for meand I've been, I was at a lot of
the earlier conferences, did alot of digital ones and then I
missed the last one due to ahurricane.
But the benefit for me and it'salways been the benefit for me
(21:28):
is you have to think about whereyou are in your enablement
career and the reality is,unless you've been to three or
four organizations, like ifyou've been doing it at one
place for a good amount of time,you really only have one flavor
of enablement.
Like enablement looks one wayto you.
The real benefit for me ismeeting people at different
organizations or withindifferent industries and
(21:51):
understanding how they do it andunderstanding the problems that
they face.
The greatest learnings I get aresitting down with somebody who
does enablement outside of thetech industry, who approaches a
problem that maybe I've alreadysolved or maybe I'm just now
becoming aware of and hearingwhat they did about it.
It's even if that's a 20 minuteconversation over lunch and
(22:15):
then a LinkedIn connection.
You know you can reach out tothat person a year down the road
and say, hey, you said you didthis thing.
This is now a priority for me.
It's initiative.
Can you tell me how you did it?
And I've done that a handful oftimes and 100% of the time
people like, absolutely, here'smy calendar, let's talk about it
(22:38):
.
The easiest way to get ahead inenablement is to have the
frameworks and have the answers,and at that conference is where
you're going to go get them.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Absolutely, and we're live and it's in person and
it's practical, and all of thosethings come together to make
the experience so critical.
I will sound a little like acommercial, because I get to,
because I get to work on theconference.
It's October 2nd through the4th.
It's San Diego.
We've got 30 plus sessions,we've got hackathons, we've got
workshops, we've got hands on,we've got amazing keynote
(23:09):
speakers.
And, to Chris's point, this isthe one time of the year you can
take two and a half days out ofyour life, off of Zoom, and be
in a room with real human beingswho are doing what you're doing
and solving the problems andfacing the same challenges, and
that energy will sustain you forthe other 361 days of the year.
(23:30):
And we need that, especially nowthat so much of us have gone to
almost full Zoom or workingvirtually or not.
We can't sit shoulder toshoulder with our salespeople.
We can't break bread as oftenwith our leaders and enablers.
For the most part, a large partof our community that attends
the conference are solopractitioners or a team of maybe
(23:52):
one or two, and so that's.
The other advantage is that webuild community, because that
becomes our team.
So many of us are working aloneor working with small teams.
That conference is a place tostart to build your virtual
department, and there are somany times I go out to
Connections and say I'm buildinga framework, I need help, I'm
(24:14):
building this, I need help, andthat community is 100% there and
the conference is the placethat you can make and bridge
those connections in a real live, human, non-zoom setting.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Non-Zoom setting.
That should be the headline.
That's our tagline.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
That was Zoom.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
As the conference chair, I want to ask you just
kind of an add on to that.
It's not the SES annualconference or something similar,
it's the SES experience andthat name I know you were
involved in choosing and it wasvery intentional.
Why experience versus whateverelse we could have called it?
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Oh, because experiences are memorable.
I spent the first 20 years ofmy life working in conferences
and events and I still have apassion for it.
We can talk, we can teach, wecan learn, but when we
experience, it sinks in at amuch deeper level.
It becomes part of who we are.
You will remember experienceslong after books that you've
(25:15):
read or movies that you've seen,or even conversations, because
experiences are what moves us ashuman beings.
And being able to create anexperiential space where we can
bridge connections, where we canhave live workshops, that's the
passion behind SES.
It isn't, and it's neverintended to be a talk down
session.
(25:35):
If it was, we could just do iton Zoom.
We could get a lot of greattalk, but in the reality of
we've encouraged a lot of handson a lot of opportunities for
workshops.
We want you to come away withnotebooks and a pen and actually
write things down and make itstick in your brain, because
(25:57):
you're experiencing it andthat's an exciting opportunity
for SES.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
And I know that as part of and we've had you have
some really great help in theselection committee.
I know we had a maybe even arecord number of people submit
abstracts for presenting thisyear.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Naring that down could not have been easy.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
But I believe one of the criteria was that workshop
interactive experience that youwere all looking for in their
abstracts, so that it wasn'tgoing to be talking at them at
the audience.
True.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Yeah, that's absolutely part of the criteria.
We always look to make sure wehave a handful of new
practitioners who have neverspoken with us before.
It's really important that weshuffle voices and we hear from
community members that are newto our space.
We really promoted the idea ofworkshops.
We actually have a workshopspace specifically for the
hackathon and for some otherworkshops that will be happening
(26:51):
, and we look for diversity oftopics.
Even when we get multipletopics on the same track, we
look for how is thispractitioner going to speak
about metrics or aboutmeasurement a little bit
differently.
We also look at where do wehave practitioners that maybe
come from larger organizationswho are going to bring one
viewpoint, where they have ateam of 20 enablers versus
(27:14):
people who are solo enablers andthey're DIYing it all, and so
that mix and match really allowsan audience, an attendee, to
come in and pick and choose thetracks and the sessions that are
really going to resonate withthem and where they want to
learn from.
Maybe they're with a reallysmall org and they want to see
hey, what would it be like if I?
Speaker 3 (27:33):
went over and joined Amazon.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
And they can learn from those practitioners.
So that's the goal of thetracks is to give a lot of
diversity, a lot of hands-onopportunity and a lot of
community building.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Thank you, and that half hour flew by.
So, chris Marybeth Del Gail,thank you for bringing your
energy and your talents tosupporting our global enablement
community, and thank you forthe last 30 minutes and spending
some time out of your day withus.
I also want to thank ouraudience, who invests time with
(28:10):
us every other week to tune inand listen.
And finally, I want to thankAlleggo.
We are a nonprofit, for thosethat may not be aware, and we
definitely are dependent on thekindness of our friends, and
Alleggo has consistently beenone of those, and we appreciate
it.
So we'll be back in two weekswith another guest and new
content.
In the meantime, stay safe.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Thanks for joining this episode of Stories from the
Trenches.
For more sales enablementresources, be sure to join the
Sales Enablement Society atsesocietyorg.
That's sesocietyorg.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!