May 22, 2024 • 31 mins
Have you ever wondered why some sales teams consistently hit their targets while others struggle? Keenan, CEO of A Sales Growth Company and acclaimed author behind "Gap Selling," rejoins me on the podcast to unravel the secrets of enabling high-performing sales teams with his innovative S.P.E.E.D. model.
Gain insights into creating enablement impact by prioritizing actual sales performance outcomes and aligning strategies with critical business metrics sales leadership uses.
Learn about integrating the three layers of training, skill development, and forecasting into your enablement framework and how to embrace the shift from traditional enablement to a results-driven approach. With the S.P.E.E.D. model, enablement teams will empower sales teams to succeed by focusing on what truly matters—the tangible impact on business metrics and organizational growth.
Keenan and I unpack:
- The details behind the S.P.E.E.D model and why it works
- The three layers of S.P.E.E.D. that align enablement to revenue success
- The critical sales metrics all Enablement teams need to internalize
- How to assess the current state, identify gaps, and make improvements
Keenan is the CEO/president and chief antagonist of A Sales Growth Company. With over 20 years of sales experience, he has long influenced, learned from, and shaped the sales world. Keenan calls it as he sees it and lets nothing and no one go unnoticed.
He is the celebrated author of Not Taught: What It Takes to be Successful in the 21st Century That Nobody’s Teaching You and Gap Selling: Getting the Customer to Yes: How Problem-Centric Selling Increases Sales by Changing Everything You Know About Relationships, Overcoming Objections, Closing and Price.
Gap Selling has been voted among the sales community as one of the best sales books ever.
Father of 3 amazing girls, PSIA Certified Level 2 ski instructor (see, more coaching), and avid Boston sports fan, Keenan keeps crazy busy when he’s not focused on A Sales Growth Company.
Please subscibe on Apple, Spotify or Google.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Revenue Enablement Society
Stories from the Trenches, whereenablement practitioners share
their real-world experiences.
Get the scoop on what'shappening inside revenue
enablement teams across theglobal RES community.
Each segment of Stories fromthe Trenches shares the good,
the bad and the ugly practicesof corporate revenue enablement
(00:24):
initiatives.
The bad and the ugly practicesof corporate revenue enablement
initiatives Learn what worked,what didn't work and how
obstacles were eliminated byenablement teams and
go-to-market leadership.
Sit back, grab a cold one andjoin host Paul Butterfield,
founder of Revenue FlywheelGroup, for casual conversations
about the wide and variedprofession of revenue enablement
, where there's never aone-size-fits-all solution.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the
Revenue Enablement Societypodcast, stories from the
Trenches, the podcast where forover four years now, we've gone
around the world we've lookedfor enablement professionals
that are doing new things, doingit differently, shaking it up
and bringing them here to talkabout it, and sometimes we talk
about what didn't go well, butwe always try to keep it
(01:08):
interesting.
We're doing a little thingdifferently this time.
The person that we've gotcoming as a guest he's actually
number one, first time that I'vehad a guest on twice on this
podcast Now.
The last time was, I think, twoyears ago, so that should tell
you something.
He's got to be somewhatinteresting.
Number two he's somebody thatyou probably know but wouldn't
expect to think about when youthink enablement.
So with that I want to welcomeKenan.
(01:30):
Kenan is the author of GapSelling and he is also the CEO
of a sales growth company.
Kenan, welcome back for thesecond time.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Thank you, baby, appreciate it.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know I could not have you with.
What you've been up to I'd loveto talk to you about today is
the new ebook that you releaseda few weeks ago now.
That is for enablement, folks.
I mean, yes, other go-to-marketleaders will benefit from it as
well, but it is a book aboutenablement for enablement, and
you call your model speed andthat's an acronym, so let's
(02:06):
start with that.
What does speed stand for?
sales performance executionenablement and delivery, love it
.
Some big stuff in there.
We got sales performance, yougot right.
So so, number one, if the salesteam's not performing, nobody's
doing their job, right, um, butthen you've also got that
delivery model.
Yes, and that's where so muchof the challenge is in
(02:27):
enablement, from what I've seen,and we'll get into that.
But what again?
You've seen tremendous successwith gap selling.
It's just a phenomenal runawaysuccess, both the book and the
methodology.
So what inspired you to sitdown and write an e-book about
enablement?
Where'd that come from?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
It came from a couple of things, I would say.
The holistic motivation was Iwas getting frustrated with
sales, with our sales trainingand gap selling not being as
productive or as effective as itcould be or, even worse, even
more so it came from a lot ofthe sales processes I went
through.
So I went through a number ofsales cycles and I mean, look,
(03:07):
even us, we have a well over 40%win rate.
But I don't care who you are,you're never going to win 100%,
right?
I mean, what's his name?
Ted Williams.
Last word hit 400.
So you know, I don't try toargue or suggest it because
we're getting 100% win rate now.
It just doesn't work like that.
Argue or suggest it becausewe're getting 100% win rate now,
it just doesn't work like that.
We have a pretty high win ratehere and what struggled, what I
(03:28):
struggled with, is a lot of theones we lost.
It was driven by enablement.
The ones we lost whenenablement was involved was it
was enablement's inability toactually see how training and a
methodology and sales skillswould move the number.
And there was too much talkaround certifications and too
much talk around learning anddevelopment and too much talk
(03:50):
around attendance of thetrainings and the content of the
training, which is valuable,but it was just wasn't enough
depth in connecting that to theoutcomes that should happen.
And so, in areas that we wouldsee people and organizations
fail unequivocally every singletime, if an organization failed,
(04:13):
that had enablement or wasdoing anything that related to
improving skills quality, wasthe lack of a type of model of
framework that connected theupfront training and skills
development all the way to theend of the of the sales process,
a cycle from a forecasting anddelivery perspective.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So I just got frustrated yeah, um, I don't
remember who I heard this fromfirst, but what you somewhat you
described, uh, I've heardpeople talk about as butts in
seats and smiley sheets.
Yeah and yeah, I mean.
I mean, if people don't show upfor the training, then you're
not going to get anywhere.
But that should not be the bigmeasurement that you're looking
at and feeling good about.
100% no, because people show up.
(04:55):
I mean, you grew up in sales.
I grew up in sales.
I imagine you sat in your fairshare of absolutely useless
trainings multiple times.
I used to hate that.
You know it's like I could bedoing something else.
I could do anything else butthis 100,000% you nailed it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(05:19):
So one of the things that, tomy mind, sets this apart from
other enablement models orframeworks, however people
choose to think about it is thethree layers and the fact that
not just that there are threelayers, but the three layers.
And the fact that not just thatthere are three layers, but the
three layers that youidentified, I feel like make
this a holistic approach thatmaybe people aren't thinking
about.
So let's start with that, walkus through the three layers and
just a little bit of backgroundon those, please.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, so the three layers.
What I recognized is to yourpoint again about the butts in
seats, right.
And so I sat back and I thoughtto myself, well, what's going
on here?
Why are we so focused on thebutts in seats and why are we so
focused on the learning anddevelopment piece, when the goal
or the original thought aboutenablement was improving the
sales results?
Right?
(06:00):
And so I sat back and said,well, okay, well, how would we
measure that?
How would we test that?
And what I came up with isthere were three distinct
elements or areas within a salesorganization that allow an
organization to see where theyare in the training and to test
out how well their salespeopleare doing.
So the first one I think wenailed, and that's the skills
management layer, and that is,from a sales enablement
(06:22):
perspective, that is by far themost robust.
It is everything fromonboarding, the choosing of the
methodology, building theplaybooks, building the LMS
system, the building, thecertification.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
You know it's, it's, it's all the training, it's all
of the skills development,probably what most people think
of when they think of enablement, at least at first.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yes, yeah, but that wasn't up because, well then,
what happened?
So then I recognize there'ssomething called the opportunity
management layer, and you couldalmost say that's the arena,
that's game time, right, andI've realized that there just
wasn't enough attention beingpaid to that part of it and I
liken it very much toprofessional sports.
They spend a lot of time oncoaches, nutritionists, trainers
(07:12):
, playbook development, etc.
But then when it goes into gametime, there are people in the
game who are watching theplayers play.
They're assessing their playbased on what they learn.
They're assessing their playbased on what they were taught
in the playbook.
They're assessing their playbased on their ability to read
the defense, and they're doingit in real time.
(07:34):
When the players come off thefield, they pull up videos.
When the players come off thefield, they sit with their
coaches.
They're saying you missed thisblock, did you notice this?
Look at your feet work.
Did you miss the defensive feetwork?
Did you miss the defensive read?
Did you miss the offensive read?
Like they're doing it in realtime and through that real time
they're able to recognize whatthey need to work on when it's
practice time again.
So they go back to practicetime, skills management,
(07:55):
development and they put them inthe appropriate area strength
development, diet, route,running, whatever it is and they
work on that so they can, whenthey go back into game time,
they improve.
Just you know what I'm saying.
And so enablement just wasn'tpaying enough attention to that
and when they were, they stillweren't capturing the actual
behavior change they wanted.
(08:16):
They weren't, or I found veryfew were measuring the behavior
change.
Very few put processes in placeto create benchmarks for the
behavior change and so, eventhough they're doing all the
skills changing, they weren'tpulling it through to the
opportunity management layer.
And then the last layer is theforecasting layer and that's
sort of like that's a salesoperations type of thing and
that's really managing what'sthe output right?
(08:37):
Are we seeing the output?
Are we seeing in terms offorecasting?
Is the forecasting accurate?
Do we have processes in placeto ensure we're forecasting the
right things?
So those are the sort of thethree buckets, and then in
between them all is theidentification of what we call
bid data, buy input data.
Basically, buy input data isdefined as the information the
(08:59):
buyer gives the salesperson.
I will say that again becauseit's very important the
information the buyer providesthe salesperson, not what the
salesperson assumes thinksinterjects, but the buyer
actually tells them.
That then allows the buyer andthe salesperson to determine if
the cost of inaction is greaterthan the cost of action.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So, and those are going to be the predictable
customer inputs that are to beexpected in most, if not every
sales cycle and making sure thatthose reps are capturing that.
Yeah, I mean, I have found thatto be true.
Without those customer inputs,it's really just a rep's opinion
, which means then a manager'sapplying a fudge factor based on
(09:46):
the track record of this rep'ssuccess, and the CFO is probably
applying another fudge factorbecause nobody really knows.
It's just a bunch of opinionsand then the opinions get worse
as they go off the chain or theyget less informed.
And the other thing I loveabout you mentioned in your
sports analogy there is whetheryou didn't say if they lose the
game, they do that real-timeanalysis, they do that whether
(10:09):
they win the game or lose thegame yeah because even when you
win, did you win in the way thatyou planned?
did you execute at the levelthat you could have?
Okay, great, you won by two tds.
You could have won by four.
Why didn't you?
Right?
So you're always so.
Let's Okay, there's so muchhere, let's get into this, and
(10:30):
you may choose to cover this bylayer, however you think.
But what are the challenges?
And I know you've been talkingto a lot of sales enablement
leaders, some folks I know, somefolks that I don't, and so
would love it.
What are you hearing from them?
That are the challenges you'rehearing from them that you feel
like this is going to help cover?
What are you hearing in thefield?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Oof.
Okay, so I got to.
I got to tread lightly here.
Mm-hmm, I'll let you coach me,paul.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
All right, I'll let you coach me, me well, I mean,
what are you?
What are you hearing from theenablement folks you've talked
to?
I know you've talked to somethat are yeah, they're people I
know are really smart at thisstuff, but what challenges are
they seeing?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
so reason I'm treading lightly here is when I
show the speed model.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
The response is overwhelming but the composite
overwhelming positive.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Me yes, overwhelming positive yeah, okay, and and
people who have been doing itfor years, you can see the gears
turning and you can almost seethem like damn it.
Why the hell did I come up withthis?
Like like it's so clear when Ishow it to them, but yeah, right
, and so they buy in, they loveit and they're bought in, right.
But when I don't show the speedmodel and we're talking about
the problems, the reason I haveto tread lightly is most of
(11:41):
enablement doesn't recognizethey're the problem.
I would agree, right, and so I'm.
Just I'm trying to berespectful, because these people
are passionate about their jobs, right, but the bottom line is
they don't really understandthat they're the problem.
And so what happens is I'll askquestions, like you know,
whether it's in a sales processor in a consulting environment
or just in a dialogue.
I'm like so, hey, what is yourteam's win rates?
(12:02):
Oh, I don't know.
I got to check on that, right.
Oh, okay.
Well, what is your team's quotaattainment over the last three
years?
Ah, yeah, I got to check onthat.
I said, well, even if you checkor they give it to me, like,
okay, so you made it and you'vegrown two or 3% year over year.
What's the breakdown roughly?
Is that, is that everybody'smaking quota, or is that only
30% making quota and the other70%, but that 30% is carrying
them?
Oh, yeah, I'm not.
(12:23):
Average sales cycle oh, I haveto check into that.
So you see, what's your averagecontract value?
I have to check into that.
So you see where I'm going here.
They don't know, or they arenot attached to the metrics that
matter to a sales organization.
So then I simply have to askwell then, how do you know what
(12:47):
you're doing is working.
What are you trying to move?
And the answers are things likeyou said when you started the
show the number of peoplebecoming certified.
But if there's certificationsincrease, are you seeing an
increase in any of those metrics?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
we have no idea are they the right certifications?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
you can get certified in a lot of stuff that's not
going to help yes, exactly, andso really what I'm seeing and
it's not what they're me isthey're frustrated that they
don't see are perceived as beingvaluable, but then when you ask
them the questions, they don'tknow the answers to the things
that the CRO or the CEO woulddeem as valuable in their impact
(13:23):
.
In hitting that, still focusedon far too much about learning
and development, skillsdevelopment and behavior change,
without any way of building thesystems that will assess it,
measure it and provide them toretrain reskill and grow it.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
You know, if you had said that two years ago I mean
just about two years ago itprobably would have seemed, like
you know, heretical, right?
Because there were some of us,there were some of us out there
I'm one of them, my friendSiobhan, I mean.
There are others that came froma background of sales
leadership.
So we understood thatenablement doesn't exist for any
(14:04):
purpose other than to enablethe sellers to actually make
more money, right Period.
But if you didn't come fromthat background, that wasn't
necessarily intuitive and so, asof a couple of years ago, you
probably would have rocked a lotof people's worlds, even saying
what you just said.
For a variety of reasons,including economic contraction
over the last two years, themajority of the enablement
(14:24):
community now realizes that Now,this is just my opinion.
Community now realizes that Now, this is just my opinion, but
it's a fairly informed one thatyou have probably 70 to 80% of
them that understand things needto change, but maybe aren't
really sure how to go about itand maybe we take some of these
things for granted.
If you grew up in sales, ifyou've led sales teams, you
(14:49):
understand sales math and you'reprobably already just inclined
to want to know those numbers.
But if you didn't, you got togo learn that you know.
Maybe you don't know where tostart, I don't know, but I'd say
there's probably a 70%.
Then I would divide the rest ofthat group into halves.
One half that is doing it theway that we're talking about and
the final group don't realizethey have a problem.
I think there is.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I really still think there's some of that out there.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
You know, uh, I I still see far too many companies
posting uh sales name onpositions, but then when you
read the description, it's likea sales trainer from 1996.
Yes, you know so.
So, yeah, there's.
So there's still that problemtoo.
But but for that bulk of peopleI, you know, and I mean I've
read you gave me a sneak previewof speed.
I've read it, I've looked at Ifeel like, for that majority
(15:33):
that realizes something needs tochange and there's a lot of
discussion about this onLinkedIn my opinion is this is
going to give them a frameworkto start to execute that right,
because you got to have astarting place right and by
doing a speed assessment, you'regoing to know where your
starting place is.
Because I think most enablementleader in that 70, 80%.
(15:55):
What is your pitch to me as towhy I should invest some time in
reading the speedy book?
What am I going to get out ofthat?
(16:16):
So I'm the, you know I'm one ofthose people that recognizes it
needs to be.
I need to be more tied to therevenue outcomes, I need to be
more plugged into that, and I'vemade a few steps in that
direction, but still I don'tknow exactly what to do.
How can speed help me?
Are you head of enablement?
Yes, yeah.
Well, let's just stick withhead of enablement, because it's
a lot tougher to do that ifyour boss doesn't get it.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
You're head of enablement?
Yeah, do you know what yourannual operating budget is, mr
Head of Enablement?
Assuming that they have theirown operating budget, then do
you know the cost of youroperating budget or do you have
(16:58):
a rough idea of what your costof your division is?
Yeah, okay, do you know whatthe return on investment of that
is that you?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
can point to because of enablement.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
You've created x.
You do know what that is okay,so it's a question.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Oh well, when I was running an enablement team, I
could have told you.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
You asked me you asked me what was my pitch so
I'm in role play right now.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, okay, gotcha, gotcha, all right, so I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So I'm enrolled because I just can't pitch you.
I need to know two or threethings of information.
Got it, got it.
Okay, let's do this.
So the first one is mrenablement person, do you
understand what your total,either operating budget, is and
or your total cost of yourenablement team?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
I do total cost of your enablement team.
I do.
Okay, what is that?
I've got 20 folks.
I'm going to say probably abouttwo and a half million a year.
Two and a half million.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Can you show each year what the incremental
benefit of you working for youand your enablement on this
company could be through sales?
Can you show that?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
We kind of know what you know.
There are some things.
For example, we introduced, youknow, better qualification
framework and we felt, like youknow, we saw some uplift there.
But we don't have any directcorrelation.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Okay, so understanding you don't have
direct correlation, even thoughit directionally looked like
your efforts worked.
In that moment, when it lookedlike they worked directionally,
was your organization prettyexcited.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Well, the name of a team was excited and, to be
honest, the sales leaders somerecognized that we had a
contribution to that, somedidn't.
It was mixed.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
So was it frustrating that only some felt you had a
contribution in that?
Sure, okay, if you experiencedthat in other areas, besides
just the qualification process,and you're continually rolling
out initiatives that you believeare not, either you can't
directionally show the benefitor others don't believe it, then
(18:47):
I think there's some value inreading the speed model.
Okay, the speed model isliterally designed to provide
you with a full life cycleprocess to of what to implement,
where to implement it and howto show that it's actually
working and that you candemonstrate your impact in your
effort to the um, to theoutcomes.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Boom, and I think that last piece so thank you
that last piece should be whateverybody just latches onto with
a death grip, because one ofthe things I've learned over the
years is, if you're the head ofa name especially, it is on you
to understand the things you'retalking about and to be
communicating that to theexecutive team and doing it in
(19:30):
their language.
What do they care about?
How are they getting measuredand how are you helping them get
there?
Because they really don't careabout a lot of the other stuff
that we were talking about a fewminutes ago, and that's one of
the gaps that I've seen in a lotof enablement teams is they,
for a variety of reasons, don'tknow how to talk to their
executives in executive speed,and so I would just add that in
(19:53):
as well.
But the nice thing about speedis, if you're executing it, from
what I've seen, you're going toalmost won't be able to help
yourself because you're going tobe measuring things that they
care about and just make surethat's what you're talking to
them about.
They don't care how many peopleshowed up for training.
You got frontline sales leadersto help you herd those cats.
(20:13):
You get up.
You get up to talking to theCRO.
They really don't care right.
They just want to know what'sit what?
What's it doing for me?
How is it impacting me?
Um, you've had a chance toshare this ebook and and do some
uh some actual workshoppingwith some folks in the
enablement community.
What kind of feedback are yougetting from them?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
The feedback is like I think I shared earlier, is
pretty overwhelming.
I mean, I don't want to be, inrelative terms, people not
running around, you know,freaking, jumping and doing
cartwheels but the generalresponse has been wow or no, oh
it's about time, or this isexactly what we need, right, so
(20:53):
it's somewhere in that differentSome people lead with, and then
there's also a little bit aboutGod.
To your point, it's what I'vebeen doing, but I never really
had a way of describing it and Ididn't really have a way to
check it.
So I see this as a way for meto even even I've been doing it
to, to, to make sure I'm doingit right and shift some things
on certain efforts and act as avalidator.
(21:13):
But, generally speaking, notone person has come back yet and
said, yeah, this doesn't hitthe mark, not even close.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, and I think I shared this with you when I
first got finished readingthrough it For the fact that you
haven't actually run anenablement team.
It really is very good.
I mean, if I didn't know youand I read that I would just
assume you must've executed this.
You know at least once.
Um, but I'm going to attributesome of that to the fact that
(21:44):
you literally wrote thedefinitive book on listening and
understanding business problemsand root causes, and it sounds
to me like you've just beenusing those skills in the
enablement world and you got agood handle on it.
Now, besides the book, you'vealso got an assessment model.
So let's talk a little bitabout that so people can
understand what that resource isand how they might use it.
(22:08):
So I've read the book.
I understand the speed model.
Now what?
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I should.
I should have my own stuff infront of me because I suck at
doing things from memory.
But the speed model has.
We talked about the threelayers and within each layer
there are what we call speedmodel requirements.
So at the end of the day, ifpeople want to take the speed
model and tweak it and dowhatever they want, they're
entitled to it.
But we're very clear on what webelieve is a must within
(22:36):
executing the speed model.
In other words, like you can'tbe in the speed model and do not
do these three things.
One is you know, pull the bidmodel all the way through, right
, and we tell you where the bidmodel should go.
Another one is having amethodology.
You have to have a methodologyin the speed model.
If you don't, it's not thespeed model.
Go, do something else, becausethere's still a lot of
organizations that blow my mind,that do not believe the
methodology is important.
(22:57):
Right, right.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah, let's just do random shit and see what sticks.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So within each one of those andI'm trying to call this up
right now, just so I can not tryto guess under each of those we
say there are anywhere from.
I'm gonna butcher this freakinghere.
It is anywhere between five andtwelve or eight, um, what's the
word?
I'm looking for sub elements tothe model.
(23:25):
So, for instance everybody bearwith me, don't be mad I want to
make sure I get- this right.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
So you've got like core requirements, it sounds
like, but then there arevariables that are attached to
each of those core requirements.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Yes, and so under that right.
So let's just say I know forfact, like under sales sorry,
under the skills managementthere is the adoption of a
methodology, there iscertification, there is
identification of the bid data,there is training for business
(23:59):
acumen, there's training on theproduct, there's training on the
bid data, all these thingsright.
But then from there, to know ifyou're doing that, then I tell
you what should be part of acertification.
To know if you're doing that,then I tell you what should be
part of a certification.
What should be part of thespeed, I'm sorry of the big data
, what should that control?
(24:20):
So I go really, really deep,right, and helping people
understand that I'm not tryingto do this high level.
So when okay, here's a goodexample.
I found it right from skillsmanagement, sales, I'm sorry,
sales methodology, company LMScertification process,
documented buyer input data,ideal customer profile training,
customer business problemtraining, product training,
business acumen training, keysales metric training Notice,
(24:41):
right there.
Key sales metrics training,right, sales manager coaching
and framework.
So those are your 10 subelements or elements that make
up the skills assessment or theskills management layer.
From there, there's anywherefrom three to five descriptions
or process requirements for eachone of those.
So the point being is, we'retrying to take this from a
(25:03):
framework to an execution layer,and so we tell you exactly what
needs to be part of, let's say,the bid data, the documented
bid data section.
We tell you exactly what thatis.
So you can't say, oh yeah, wegot the bid data Check.
I force you to say, ok, well,does it include this, this, this
(25:27):
, this and this?
And you have to say oh, oh no,it doesn't.
Yes, oh no, it doesn't yes, oohno, it doesn't See what I'm
saying.
So I'm taking you on a journeyto get very what are they called
?
Prescriptive, prescriptive,okay.
And then from there I go even astep further and you can't just
say yes or no.
You have to either say I don'thave it, I have it and the team
(25:48):
uses it with management,enforcement.
In other words, we make them.
So it's not voluntary, right.
The team uses on its own.
The team uses with developmentand support.
So this isn't we're forcing you, it's you're using it and we're
helping you use it better,right.
And then, finally, we use itwith development, support,
(26:12):
management, and it's integratedinto all the layers of the speed
model, right?
So you asked a great question.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
So it's a maturity model.
I'm sorry, it's a maturitymodel You're starting to get
into with this.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
I'll go with that.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, yeah, when are you?
And then you've got the.
You know the answer to thosefive or six questions will give
you a sense of where you are.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yes, on that maturity scale, okay, yes, so, and it
defines it as well.
I've learned that often notjust in sales enablement a lot
of different disciplines.
You ask somebody if they havesomething and they'll say yes,
but then when you dig in andmake them define, define or show
it, they don't really have itRight, like oh, here's a perfect
example.
Do you have good?
Um, it's going to be cheesy,but everybody knows my metaphors
.
Do you have really good oralhygiene?
(26:50):
Oh, I have great oral hygiene.
Okay.
Do you brush your teeth threetimes a day?
Oh, no, only two.
Do you floss two times a day?
No, only once.
Do you brush for at least oneminute on each row?
No, see what I'm saying?
So we have this tendency to dois think we've defined what good
looks like and no one's evenset that up.
So that's what we've done hereas well.
(27:11):
It's not just here's what it is, but we're going to define it
for you Love that.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
If you don't have a gold standard, then how do you
know if you've hit it or not?
Right, yeah, you got it.
Which, to me, is the biggestreason for methodology.
When I talk to people, you knowand they're like well, you know
, we got this or that, but wedon't know about a full
methodology.
And you know it's like well,again, if you don't have a
standard, how are you coaching?
What are you coaching to?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
how do you, how do?
Speaker 2 (27:35):
you know, yeah, so so many reasons well put.
So how can?
I'm sure we've got a number oflisteners right now that are
that are just you know, they'rereally getting curious about
this.
How should they, or best wayfor them to engage and start to
learn the speed model, whatresources are out there and
where do they find them?
Speaker 3 (27:54):
I mean as far as I know, not as far as I know.
I mean as far as the speedmodel is concerned, there's only
one place.
You got to come to me not mebut you got to come to ASG,
right.
So I mean you go to ASGcom.
Sorry, you can go, I think.
No, we don't own that one.
You can go to sales growth,sales growthcom or sales growth
companycom.
Take your pick and you can findit in our resource center and
(28:19):
look, you can always.
It attached is the assessmentso you can read it and take the
assessment.
You can take the assessment andthen read it.
So it's not hard to find on DMme and LinkedIn or something.
I'll send you a link to get it.
It's easy.
We're also doing a on the 30thI think that's next Thursday
we're doing a live webinar onthe speed model, so that'll be
(28:41):
the first public introduction.
We've done a handful of privateones with sales enablement
folks, but now we're doing apublic one.
So you can hit me up or go tomy page.
You'll find an invitation tothat.
So you can hit me up or go tomy page and find an invitation
to that.
So I think there's a lot ofways.
One thing I would like to say.
This is what I would like tosay whether or not you're
deciding if you should try thespeed model or do anything else
(29:01):
in enablement, the main questionI have for you the litmus test
to determine if there is room oropportunity for improvement or
growth inside your enablementorganization is one have you
documented and shared with yourentire enablement team what the
(29:22):
four key metrics are you'retrying to move?
Okay, it is.
Every person in theorganization Know what they are,
know where you are and how faryou are from where you want to
be, and I will tell you thatthose are quarter attainment and
or revenue.
Again, I'm flexible on that one,but I prefer quarter attainment
(29:42):
, overall quarter attainment forthe entire team.
Win rate, percentage, averagecontract value, sales cycle
length.
Those are your four.
You want to add others?
That's great.
But if your organization doesnot know where you're sitting
today against those, you do notknow what they were last year
and you do not know what theywere the year before.
(30:03):
So a three-year trend rate andyou do not know what the
two-year or one-year I'll go oneor two-year trend rate moving
forward is, then it's time tocome to Jesus and have a
conversation about your team andbuild from there.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
That makes a lot of sense, and I've already said
what I think of it, so I wouldjust add my two cents to that.
Go out, download the book.
It's not, there's not a charge,right.
It's out there, it's availablefor anybody that wants it.
Go download it and get a holdof me or Kenan, and let us know
what you think, because I thinkyou'll be impressed.
Kenan, thank you, appreciateyou coming back, appreciate the
(30:41):
investment you're making in theenablement community with the
speed model, and we will talk toyou again soon.
To everybody else, thank youfor giving us another half hour
of your time, and we'll be backin two weeks with another guest.
Stay safe till then.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Thanks for joining this episode of Stories from the
Trenches.
For more revenue enablementresources, be sure to join the
Revenue Enablement Society atresocietyglobal.
That's resocietyglobal.
Welcome to the Revenue Enablement Society
Stories from the Trenches, whereenablement practitioners share
their real-world experiences.
Get the scoop on what'shappening inside revenue
enablement teams across theglobal RES community.
Each segment of Stories fromthe Trenches shares the good,
the bad and the ugly practicesof corporate revenue enablement
(00:24):
initiatives.
The bad and the ugly practicesof corporate revenue enablement
initiatives Learn what worked,what didn't work and how
obstacles were eliminated byenablement teams and
go-to-market leadership.
Sit back, grab a cold one andjoin host Paul Butterfield,
founder of Revenue FlywheelGroup, for casual conversations
about the wide and variedprofession of revenue enablement
, where there's never aone-size-fits-all solution.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the
Revenue Enablement Societypodcast, stories from the
Trenches, the podcast where forover four years now, we've gone
around the world we've lookedfor enablement professionals
that are doing new things, doingit differently, shaking it up
and bringing them here to talkabout it, and sometimes we talk
about what didn't go well, butwe always try to keep it
(01:08):
interesting.
We're doing a little thingdifferently this time.
The person that we've gotcoming as a guest he's actually
number one, first time that I'vehad a guest on twice on this
podcast Now.
The last time was, I think, twoyears ago, so that should tell
you something.
He's got to be somewhatinteresting.
Number two he's somebody thatyou probably know but wouldn't
expect to think about when youthink enablement.
So with that I want to welcomeKenan.
(01:30):
Kenan is the author of GapSelling and he is also the CEO
of a sales growth company.
Kenan, welcome back for thesecond time.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Thank you, baby, appreciate it.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know I could not have you with.
What you've been up to I'd loveto talk to you about today is
the new ebook that you releaseda few weeks ago now.
That is for enablement, folks.
I mean, yes, other go-to-marketleaders will benefit from it as
well, but it is a book aboutenablement for enablement, and
you call your model speed andthat's an acronym, so let's
(02:06):
start with that.
What does speed stand for?
sales performance executionenablement and delivery, love it
.
Some big stuff in there.
We got sales performance, yougot right.
So so, number one, if the salesteam's not performing, nobody's
doing their job, right, um, butthen you've also got that
delivery model.
Yes, and that's where so muchof the challenge is in
(02:27):
enablement, from what I've seen,and we'll get into that.
But what again?
You've seen tremendous successwith gap selling.
It's just a phenomenal runawaysuccess, both the book and the
methodology.
So what inspired you to sitdown and write an e-book about
enablement?
Where'd that come from?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
It came from a couple of things, I would say.
The holistic motivation was Iwas getting frustrated with
sales, with our sales trainingand gap selling not being as
productive or as effective as itcould be or, even worse, even
more so it came from a lot ofthe sales processes I went
through.
So I went through a number ofsales cycles and I mean, look,
(03:07):
even us, we have a well over 40%win rate.
But I don't care who you are,you're never going to win 100%,
right?
I mean, what's his name?
Ted Williams.
Last word hit 400.
So you know, I don't try toargue or suggest it because
we're getting 100% win rate now.
It just doesn't work like that.
Argue or suggest it becausewe're getting 100% win rate now,
it just doesn't work like that.
We have a pretty high win ratehere and what struggled, what I
(03:28):
struggled with, is a lot of theones we lost.
It was driven by enablement.
The ones we lost whenenablement was involved was it
was enablement's inability toactually see how training and a
methodology and sales skillswould move the number.
And there was too much talkaround certifications and too
much talk around learning anddevelopment and too much talk
(03:50):
around attendance of thetrainings and the content of the
training, which is valuable,but it was just wasn't enough
depth in connecting that to theoutcomes that should happen.
And so, in areas that we wouldsee people and organizations
fail unequivocally every singletime, if an organization failed,
(04:13):
that had enablement or wasdoing anything that related to
improving skills quality, wasthe lack of a type of model of
framework that connected theupfront training and skills
development all the way to theend of the of the sales process,
a cycle from a forecasting anddelivery perspective.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So I just got frustrated yeah, um, I don't
remember who I heard this fromfirst, but what you somewhat you
described, uh, I've heardpeople talk about as butts in
seats and smiley sheets.
Yeah and yeah, I mean.
I mean, if people don't show upfor the training, then you're
not going to get anywhere.
But that should not be the bigmeasurement that you're looking
at and feeling good about.
100% no, because people show up.
(04:55):
I mean, you grew up in sales.
I grew up in sales.
I imagine you sat in your fairshare of absolutely useless
trainings multiple times.
I used to hate that.
You know it's like I could bedoing something else.
I could do anything else butthis 100,000% you nailed it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(05:19):
So one of the things that, tomy mind, sets this apart from
other enablement models orframeworks, however people
choose to think about it is thethree layers and the fact that
not just that there are threelayers, but the three layers.
And the fact that not just thatthere are three layers, but the
three layers that youidentified, I feel like make
this a holistic approach thatmaybe people aren't thinking
about.
So let's start with that, walkus through the three layers and
just a little bit of backgroundon those, please.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, so the three layers.
What I recognized is to yourpoint again about the butts in
seats, right.
And so I sat back and I thoughtto myself, well, what's going
on here?
Why are we so focused on thebutts in seats and why are we so
focused on the learning anddevelopment piece, when the goal
or the original thought aboutenablement was improving the
sales results?
Right?
(06:00):
And so I sat back and said,well, okay, well, how would we
measure that?
How would we test that?
And what I came up with isthere were three distinct
elements or areas within a salesorganization that allow an
organization to see where theyare in the training and to test
out how well their salespeopleare doing.
So the first one I think wenailed, and that's the skills
management layer, and that is,from a sales enablement
(06:22):
perspective, that is by far themost robust.
It is everything fromonboarding, the choosing of the
methodology, building theplaybooks, building the LMS
system, the building, thecertification.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
You know it's, it's, it's all the training, it's all
of the skills development,probably what most people think
of when they think of enablement, at least at first.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yes, yeah, but that wasn't up because, well then,
what happened?
So then I recognize there'ssomething called the opportunity
management layer, and you couldalmost say that's the arena,
that's game time, right, andI've realized that there just
wasn't enough attention beingpaid to that part of it and I
liken it very much toprofessional sports.
They spend a lot of time oncoaches, nutritionists, trainers
(07:12):
, playbook development, etc.
But then when it goes into gametime, there are people in the
game who are watching theplayers play.
They're assessing their playbased on what they learn.
They're assessing their playbased on what they were taught
in the playbook.
They're assessing their playbased on their ability to read
the defense, and they're doingit in real time.
(07:34):
When the players come off thefield, they pull up videos.
When the players come off thefield, they sit with their
coaches.
They're saying you missed thisblock, did you notice this?
Look at your feet work.
Did you miss the defensive feetwork?
Did you miss the defensive read?
Did you miss the offensive read?
Like they're doing it in realtime and through that real time
they're able to recognize whatthey need to work on when it's
practice time again.
So they go back to practicetime, skills management,
(07:55):
development and they put them inthe appropriate area strength
development, diet, route,running, whatever it is and they
work on that so they can, whenthey go back into game time,
they improve.
Just you know what I'm saying.
And so enablement just wasn'tpaying enough attention to that
and when they were, they stillweren't capturing the actual
behavior change they wanted.
(08:16):
They weren't, or I found veryfew were measuring the behavior
change.
Very few put processes in placeto create benchmarks for the
behavior change and so, eventhough they're doing all the
skills changing, they weren'tpulling it through to the
opportunity management layer.
And then the last layer is theforecasting layer and that's
sort of like that's a salesoperations type of thing and
that's really managing what'sthe output right?
(08:37):
Are we seeing the output?
Are we seeing in terms offorecasting?
Is the forecasting accurate?
Do we have processes in placeto ensure we're forecasting the
right things?
So those are the sort of thethree buckets, and then in
between them all is theidentification of what we call
bid data, buy input data.
Basically, buy input data isdefined as the information the
(08:59):
buyer gives the salesperson.
I will say that again becauseit's very important the
information the buyer providesthe salesperson, not what the
salesperson assumes thinksinterjects, but the buyer
actually tells them.
That then allows the buyer andthe salesperson to determine if
the cost of inaction is greaterthan the cost of action.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So, and those are going to be the predictable
customer inputs that are to beexpected in most, if not every
sales cycle and making sure thatthose reps are capturing that.
Yeah, I mean, I have found thatto be true.
Without those customer inputs,it's really just a rep's opinion
, which means then a manager'sapplying a fudge factor based on
(09:46):
the track record of this rep'ssuccess, and the CFO is probably
applying another fudge factorbecause nobody really knows.
It's just a bunch of opinionsand then the opinions get worse
as they go off the chain or theyget less informed.
And the other thing I loveabout you mentioned in your
sports analogy there is whetheryou didn't say if they lose the
game, they do that real-timeanalysis, they do that whether
(10:09):
they win the game or lose thegame yeah because even when you
win, did you win in the way thatyou planned?
did you execute at the levelthat you could have?
Okay, great, you won by two tds.
You could have won by four.
Why didn't you?
Right?
So you're always so.
Let's Okay, there's so muchhere, let's get into this, and
(10:30):
you may choose to cover this bylayer, however you think.
But what are the challenges?
And I know you've been talkingto a lot of sales enablement
leaders, some folks I know, somefolks that I don't, and so
would love it.
What are you hearing from them?
That are the challenges you'rehearing from them that you feel
like this is going to help cover?
What are you hearing in thefield?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Oof.
Okay, so I got to.
I got to tread lightly here.
Mm-hmm, I'll let you coach me,paul.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
All right, I'll let you coach me, me well, I mean,
what are you?
What are you hearing from theenablement folks you've talked
to?
I know you've talked to somethat are yeah, they're people I
know are really smart at thisstuff, but what challenges are
they seeing?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
so reason I'm treading lightly here is when I
show the speed model.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
The response is overwhelming but the composite
overwhelming positive.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Me yes, overwhelming positive yeah, okay, and and
people who have been doing itfor years, you can see the gears
turning and you can almost seethem like damn it.
Why the hell did I come up withthis?
Like like it's so clear when Ishow it to them, but yeah, right
, and so they buy in, they loveit and they're bought in, right.
But when I don't show the speedmodel and we're talking about
the problems, the reason I haveto tread lightly is most of
(11:41):
enablement doesn't recognizethey're the problem.
I would agree, right, and so I'm.
Just I'm trying to berespectful, because these people
are passionate about their jobs, right, but the bottom line is
they don't really understandthat they're the problem.
And so what happens is I'll askquestions, like you know,
whether it's in a sales processor in a consulting environment
or just in a dialogue.
I'm like so, hey, what is yourteam's win rates?
(12:02):
Oh, I don't know.
I got to check on that, right.
Oh, okay.
Well, what is your team's quotaattainment over the last three
years?
Ah, yeah, I got to check onthat.
I said, well, even if you checkor they give it to me, like,
okay, so you made it and you'vegrown two or 3% year over year.
What's the breakdown roughly?
Is that, is that everybody'smaking quota, or is that only
30% making quota and the other70%, but that 30% is carrying
them?
Oh, yeah, I'm not.
(12:23):
Average sales cycle oh, I haveto check into that.
So you see, what's your averagecontract value?
I have to check into that.
So you see where I'm going here.
They don't know, or they arenot attached to the metrics that
matter to a sales organization.
So then I simply have to askwell then, how do you know what
(12:47):
you're doing is working.
What are you trying to move?
And the answers are things likeyou said when you started the
show the number of peoplebecoming certified.
But if there's certificationsincrease, are you seeing an
increase in any of those metrics?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
we have no idea are they the right certifications?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
you can get certified in a lot of stuff that's not
going to help yes, exactly, andso really what I'm seeing and
it's not what they're me isthey're frustrated that they
don't see are perceived as beingvaluable, but then when you ask
them the questions, they don'tknow the answers to the things
that the CRO or the CEO woulddeem as valuable in their impact
(13:23):
.
In hitting that, still focusedon far too much about learning
and development, skillsdevelopment and behavior change,
without any way of building thesystems that will assess it,
measure it and provide them toretrain reskill and grow it.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
You know, if you had said that two years ago I mean
just about two years ago itprobably would have seemed, like
you know, heretical, right?
Because there were some of us,there were some of us out there
I'm one of them, my friendSiobhan, I mean.
There are others that came froma background of sales
leadership.
So we understood thatenablement doesn't exist for any
(14:04):
purpose other than to enablethe sellers to actually make
more money, right Period.
But if you didn't come fromthat background, that wasn't
necessarily intuitive and so, asof a couple of years ago, you
probably would have rocked a lotof people's worlds, even saying
what you just said.
For a variety of reasons,including economic contraction
over the last two years, themajority of the enablement
(14:24):
community now realizes that Now,this is just my opinion.
Community now realizes that Now, this is just my opinion, but
it's a fairly informed one thatyou have probably 70 to 80% of
them that understand things needto change, but maybe aren't
really sure how to go about itand maybe we take some of these
things for granted.
If you grew up in sales, ifyou've led sales teams, you
(14:49):
understand sales math and you'reprobably already just inclined
to want to know those numbers.
But if you didn't, you got togo learn that you know.
Maybe you don't know where tostart, I don't know, but I'd say
there's probably a 70%.
Then I would divide the rest ofthat group into halves.
One half that is doing it theway that we're talking about and
the final group don't realizethey have a problem.
I think there is.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I really still think there's some of that out there.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
You know, uh, I I still see far too many companies
posting uh sales name onpositions, but then when you
read the description, it's likea sales trainer from 1996.
Yes, you know so.
So, yeah, there's.
So there's still that problemtoo.
But but for that bulk of peopleI, you know, and I mean I've
read you gave me a sneak previewof speed.
I've read it, I've looked at Ifeel like, for that majority
(15:33):
that realizes something needs tochange and there's a lot of
discussion about this onLinkedIn my opinion is this is
going to give them a frameworkto start to execute that right,
because you got to have astarting place right and by
doing a speed assessment, you'regoing to know where your
starting place is.
Because I think most enablementleader in that 70, 80%.
(15:55):
What is your pitch to me as towhy I should invest some time in
reading the speedy book?
What am I going to get out ofthat?
(16:16):
So I'm the, you know I'm one ofthose people that recognizes it
needs to be.
I need to be more tied to therevenue outcomes, I need to be
more plugged into that, and I'vemade a few steps in that
direction, but still I don'tknow exactly what to do.
How can speed help me?
Are you head of enablement?
Yes, yeah.
Well, let's just stick withhead of enablement, because it's
a lot tougher to do that ifyour boss doesn't get it.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
You're head of enablement?
Yeah, do you know what yourannual operating budget is, mr
Head of Enablement?
Assuming that they have theirown operating budget, then do
you know the cost of youroperating budget or do you have
(16:58):
a rough idea of what your costof your division is?
Yeah, okay, do you know whatthe return on investment of that
is that you?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
can point to because of enablement.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
You've created x.
You do know what that is okay,so it's a question.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Oh well, when I was running an enablement team, I
could have told you.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
You asked me you asked me what was my pitch so
I'm in role play right now.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, okay, gotcha, gotcha, all right, so I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So I'm enrolled because I just can't pitch you.
I need to know two or threethings of information.
Got it, got it.
Okay, let's do this.
So the first one is mrenablement person, do you
understand what your total,either operating budget, is and
or your total cost of yourenablement team?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
I do total cost of your enablement team.
I do.
Okay, what is that?
I've got 20 folks.
I'm going to say probably abouttwo and a half million a year.
Two and a half million.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Can you show each year what the incremental
benefit of you working for youand your enablement on this
company could be through sales?
Can you show that?
Speaker 2 (17:48):
We kind of know what you know.
There are some things.
For example, we introduced, youknow, better qualification
framework and we felt, like youknow, we saw some uplift there.
But we don't have any directcorrelation.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Okay, so understanding you don't have
direct correlation, even thoughit directionally looked like
your efforts worked.
In that moment, when it lookedlike they worked directionally,
was your organization prettyexcited.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Well, the name of a team was excited and, to be
honest, the sales leaders somerecognized that we had a
contribution to that, somedidn't.
It was mixed.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
So was it frustrating that only some felt you had a
contribution in that?
Sure, okay, if you experiencedthat in other areas, besides
just the qualification process,and you're continually rolling
out initiatives that you believeare not, either you can't
directionally show the benefitor others don't believe it, then
(18:47):
I think there's some value inreading the speed model.
Okay, the speed model isliterally designed to provide
you with a full life cycleprocess to of what to implement,
where to implement it and howto show that it's actually
working and that you candemonstrate your impact in your
effort to the um, to theoutcomes.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Boom, and I think that last piece so thank you
that last piece should be whateverybody just latches onto with
a death grip, because one ofthe things I've learned over the
years is, if you're the head ofa name especially, it is on you
to understand the things you'retalking about and to be
communicating that to theexecutive team and doing it in
(19:30):
their language.
What do they care about?
How are they getting measuredand how are you helping them get
there?
Because they really don't careabout a lot of the other stuff
that we were talking about a fewminutes ago, and that's one of
the gaps that I've seen in a lotof enablement teams is they,
for a variety of reasons, don'tknow how to talk to their
executives in executive speed,and so I would just add that in
(19:53):
as well.
But the nice thing about speedis, if you're executing it, from
what I've seen, you're going toalmost won't be able to help
yourself because you're going tobe measuring things that they
care about and just make surethat's what you're talking to
them about.
They don't care how many peopleshowed up for training.
You got frontline sales leadersto help you herd those cats.
(20:13):
You get up.
You get up to talking to theCRO.
They really don't care right.
They just want to know what'sit what?
What's it doing for me?
How is it impacting me?
Um, you've had a chance toshare this ebook and and do some
uh some actual workshoppingwith some folks in the
enablement community.
What kind of feedback are yougetting from them?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
The feedback is like I think I shared earlier, is
pretty overwhelming.
I mean, I don't want to be, inrelative terms, people not
running around, you know,freaking, jumping and doing
cartwheels but the generalresponse has been wow or no, oh
it's about time, or this isexactly what we need, right, so
(20:53):
it's somewhere in that differentSome people lead with, and then
there's also a little bit aboutGod.
To your point, it's what I'vebeen doing, but I never really
had a way of describing it and Ididn't really have a way to
check it.
So I see this as a way for meto even even I've been doing it
to, to, to make sure I'm doingit right and shift some things
on certain efforts and act as avalidator.
(21:13):
But, generally speaking, notone person has come back yet and
said, yeah, this doesn't hitthe mark, not even close.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, and I think I shared this with you when I
first got finished readingthrough it For the fact that you
haven't actually run anenablement team.
It really is very good.
I mean, if I didn't know youand I read that I would just
assume you must've executed this.
You know at least once.
Um, but I'm going to attributesome of that to the fact that
(21:44):
you literally wrote thedefinitive book on listening and
understanding business problemsand root causes, and it sounds
to me like you've just beenusing those skills in the
enablement world and you got agood handle on it.
Now, besides the book, you'vealso got an assessment model.
So let's talk a little bitabout that so people can
understand what that resource isand how they might use it.
(22:08):
So I've read the book.
I understand the speed model.
Now what?
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I should.
I should have my own stuff infront of me because I suck at
doing things from memory.
But the speed model has.
We talked about the threelayers and within each layer
there are what we call speedmodel requirements.
So at the end of the day, ifpeople want to take the speed
model and tweak it and dowhatever they want, they're
entitled to it.
But we're very clear on what webelieve is a must within
(22:36):
executing the speed model.
In other words, like you can'tbe in the speed model and do not
do these three things.
One is you know, pull the bidmodel all the way through, right
, and we tell you where the bidmodel should go.
Another one is having amethodology.
You have to have a methodologyin the speed model.
If you don't, it's not thespeed model.
Go, do something else, becausethere's still a lot of
organizations that blow my mind,that do not believe the
methodology is important.
(22:57):
Right, right.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah, let's just do random shit and see what sticks.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So within each one of those andI'm trying to call this up
right now, just so I can not tryto guess under each of those we
say there are anywhere from.
I'm gonna butcher this freakinghere.
It is anywhere between five andtwelve or eight, um, what's the
word?
I'm looking for sub elements tothe model.
(23:25):
So, for instance everybody bearwith me, don't be mad I want to
make sure I get- this right.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
So you've got like core requirements, it sounds
like, but then there arevariables that are attached to
each of those core requirements.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Yes, and so under that right.
So let's just say I know forfact, like under sales sorry,
under the skills managementthere is the adoption of a
methodology, there iscertification, there is
identification of the bid data,there is training for business
(23:59):
acumen, there's training on theproduct, there's training on the
bid data, all these thingsright.
But then from there, to know ifyou're doing that, then I tell
you what should be part of acertification.
To know if you're doing that,then I tell you what should be
part of a certification.
What should be part of thespeed, I'm sorry of the big data
, what should that control?
(24:20):
So I go really, really deep,right, and helping people
understand that I'm not tryingto do this high level.
So when okay, here's a goodexample.
I found it right from skillsmanagement, sales, I'm sorry,
sales methodology, company LMScertification process,
documented buyer input data,ideal customer profile training,
customer business problemtraining, product training,
business acumen training, keysales metric training Notice,
(24:41):
right there.
Key sales metrics training,right, sales manager coaching
and framework.
So those are your 10 subelements or elements that make
up the skills assessment or theskills management layer.
From there, there's anywherefrom three to five descriptions
or process requirements for eachone of those.
So the point being is, we'retrying to take this from a
(25:03):
framework to an execution layer,and so we tell you exactly what
needs to be part of, let's say,the bid data, the documented
bid data section.
We tell you exactly what thatis.
So you can't say, oh yeah, wegot the bid data Check.
I force you to say, ok, well,does it include this, this, this
(25:27):
, this and this?
And you have to say oh, oh no,it doesn't.
Yes, oh no, it doesn't yes, oohno, it doesn't See what I'm
saying.
So I'm taking you on a journeyto get very what are they called
?
Prescriptive, prescriptive,okay.
And then from there I go even astep further and you can't just
say yes or no.
You have to either say I don'thave it, I have it and the team
(25:48):
uses it with management,enforcement.
In other words, we make them.
So it's not voluntary, right.
The team uses on its own.
The team uses with developmentand support.
So this isn't we're forcing you, it's you're using it and we're
helping you use it better,right.
And then, finally, we use itwith development, support,
(26:12):
management, and it's integratedinto all the layers of the speed
model, right?
So you asked a great question.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
So it's a maturity model.
I'm sorry, it's a maturitymodel You're starting to get
into with this.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
I'll go with that.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, yeah, when are you?
And then you've got the.
You know the answer to thosefive or six questions will give
you a sense of where you are.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yes, on that maturity scale, okay, yes, so, and it
defines it as well.
I've learned that often notjust in sales enablement a lot
of different disciplines.
You ask somebody if they havesomething and they'll say yes,
but then when you dig in andmake them define, define or show
it, they don't really have itRight, like oh, here's a perfect
example.
Do you have good?
Um, it's going to be cheesy,but everybody knows my metaphors
.
Do you have really good oralhygiene?
(26:50):
Oh, I have great oral hygiene.
Okay.
Do you brush your teeth threetimes a day?
Oh, no, only two.
Do you floss two times a day?
No, only once.
Do you brush for at least oneminute on each row?
No, see what I'm saying?
So we have this tendency to dois think we've defined what good
looks like and no one's evenset that up.
So that's what we've done hereas well.
(27:11):
It's not just here's what it is, but we're going to define it
for you Love that.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
If you don't have a gold standard, then how do you
know if you've hit it or not?
Right, yeah, you got it.
Which, to me, is the biggestreason for methodology.
When I talk to people, you knowand they're like well, you know
, we got this or that, but wedon't know about a full
methodology.
And you know it's like well,again, if you don't have a
standard, how are you coaching?
What are you coaching to?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
how do you, how do?
Speaker 2 (27:35):
you know, yeah, so so many reasons well put.
So how can?
I'm sure we've got a number oflisteners right now that are
that are just you know, they'rereally getting curious about
this.
How should they, or best wayfor them to engage and start to
learn the speed model, whatresources are out there and
where do they find them?
Speaker 3 (27:54):
I mean as far as I know, not as far as I know.
I mean as far as the speedmodel is concerned, there's only
one place.
You got to come to me not mebut you got to come to ASG,
right.
So I mean you go to ASGcom.
Sorry, you can go, I think.
No, we don't own that one.
You can go to sales growth,sales growthcom or sales growth
companycom.
Take your pick and you can findit in our resource center and
(28:19):
look, you can always.
It attached is the assessmentso you can read it and take the
assessment.
You can take the assessment andthen read it.
So it's not hard to find on DMme and LinkedIn or something.
I'll send you a link to get it.
It's easy.
We're also doing a on the 30thI think that's next Thursday
we're doing a live webinar onthe speed model, so that'll be
(28:41):
the first public introduction.
We've done a handful of privateones with sales enablement
folks, but now we're doing apublic one.
So you can hit me up or go tomy page.
You'll find an invitation tothat.
So you can hit me up or go tomy page and find an invitation
to that.
So I think there's a lot ofways.
One thing I would like to say.
This is what I would like tosay whether or not you're
deciding if you should try thespeed model or do anything else
(29:01):
in enablement, the main questionI have for you the litmus test
to determine if there is room oropportunity for improvement or
growth inside your enablementorganization is one have you
documented and shared with yourentire enablement team what the
(29:22):
four key metrics are you'retrying to move?
Okay, it is.
Every person in theorganization Know what they are,
know where you are and how faryou are from where you want to
be, and I will tell you thatthose are quarter attainment and
or revenue.
Again, I'm flexible on that one,but I prefer quarter attainment
(29:42):
, overall quarter attainment forthe entire team.
Win rate, percentage, averagecontract value, sales cycle
length.
Those are your four.
You want to add others?
That's great.
But if your organization doesnot know where you're sitting
today against those, you do notknow what they were last year
and you do not know what theywere the year before.
(30:03):
So a three-year trend rate andyou do not know what the
two-year or one-year I'll go oneor two-year trend rate moving
forward is, then it's time tocome to Jesus and have a
conversation about your team andbuild from there.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
That makes a lot of sense, and I've already said
what I think of it, so I wouldjust add my two cents to that.
Go out, download the book.
It's not, there's not a charge,right.
It's out there, it's availablefor anybody that wants it.
Go download it and get a holdof me or Kenan, and let us know
what you think, because I thinkyou'll be impressed.
Kenan, thank you, appreciateyou coming back, appreciate the
(30:41):
investment you're making in theenablement community with the
speed model, and we will talk toyou again soon.
To everybody else, thank youfor giving us another half hour
of your time, and we'll be backin two weeks with another guest.
Stay safe till then.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Thanks for joining this episode of Stories from the
Trenches.
For more revenue enablementresources, be sure to join the
Revenue Enablement Society atresocietyglobal.
That's resocietyglobal.
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