Enablement requires an iterative mindset.
We’ll build what we need today, and if what we need is different tomorrow, we’ll change. Enablement isn’t set in stone; rather, it’s always evolving.
In this episode, I interview Christi Loucks, Head of Revenue Enablement & Operations at SecZetta Inc., about building an enablement team from scratch and the overlap between enablement and operations.
Join us as we discuss:
- How building programs snowballs into enablement
- Prioritizing time and attention when running multiple departments
- Keeping an iterative mindset (and overcoming perfectionism)
- What enablement and operations have in common
How building programs snowballs into enablement
Building programs, like successful customer or employee onboarding programs, gets you noticed far and wide within an organizational context.
Each time you build a program, it lands you on another team’s radar.
This is exactly what happened to Christi, and she used every opportunity to serve every team in the business and its partnership landscape.
Prioritizing time and attention when running multiple departments
After starting with SecZetta, Christi found herself on the first rung of a new ladder.
While she runs multiple initiatives across departments and partner entities, she uses the quadrant system to prioritize her tasks. Looking at the combinations of urgency and importance (they are in fact different), she flexes and gets the right things done at the right time.
Her North Star at all times is what holds the highest impact on sales velocity.
At SecZetta, she first focused on hiring, onboarding, and early stage sales enablement. Now she actively works on creating structures and processes to take that to the next level.
Keeping an iterative mindset (and overcoming perfectionism)
Especially when working in a high-growth tech business, it’s important to be agile. Apart from the formalization of agile workplaces, as an individual you need to be agile in the sense that you can flex and pivot according to dynamic variables and priorities.
No two days are guaranteed to be the same and so no two days should get a rubber-stamp approach when you’re in enablement. It’s a highly iterative process to achieve momentum and ongoing success.
The key is to not reinvent things every day. Christi starts by looking at what already exists and builds upon that as much as she possibly can. It is efficient, it is sufficiently contextualized, and it can move the needle substantially in limited amounts of time.
What enablement and operations have in common
It’s important to keep people engaged and to be memorable. Christi has gone to great lengths to achieve this, including showing up to training in a lobster costume (we bet that team will never forget it!).
Enablement and operations both focus on sales productivity and deal velocity.
Enablement and operations are team sports. Talking about things from the top, down, isn’t enough. Techniques need to be applied in order to determine whether a concept or process is actually successful.
For example, Christi might be working on an onboarding program. She rolls it out, but she depends on operations to produce the data which she can analyze, to understand whether or not that onboarding program is effective.
Breaking down silos
Another reason that Christi believes there’s an increasingly blurry line between enablement and operations is that both functions are expanding. Businesses are no longer labeling rigid silos like they once used to.
As much as sales teams continue to focus on sales, there’s an integrated and shared focus across all functions, driven by the key objective to grow revenue.
There is so much that goes into it when you look at revenue holistically:
- Indirect deals
- Channel sales
- Implementation services
- Retention and renewals
- Customer service
- Training
Each of these functions can and should be contributing to the company’s overall revenue.
This is why enablement and operations are being strung together and blended more and more in today’s business environment. It’s not to say that these functions will be fully amalgamated, but they will continue to become more aligned over time.
Get in touch with Christi on LinkedIn.
For more engaging sales conversations, subscribe to The Sales Engagement Podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or on our website.
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