Using the Buyer's Journey to Enable Revenue with Paul Butterfield, Founder & CEO of Revenue Flywheel Group
In this episode of Exploring Growth, host Lee interviews Paul Butterfield, founder and CEO of Revenue Flywheel Group. Paul shares his extensive experience in technology and sales leadership, focusing on how to transform sales teams into customer-centric organizations. They highlight the need for a unified strategy to bridge gaps between sales and marketing, aiming to drive revenue and build strong customer relationships.
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If all customer facing or at least
customer um, teams that have
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impact on the customer if they
don't deal with them directly,
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if they're not working under a single
strategy aligned to that journey,
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something's not as good.
At best case, something's not as
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good as it could be.
Worst case, something is
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probably broken. All right.
Welcome back to Exploring Growth.
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Today I have the opportunity to
sit down with Paul Butterfield.
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He's a founder and CEO of
Revenue Flywheel Group.
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And they help transform sales teams
into customer centric organizations.
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Welcome to the show, Paul.
Hi, Lee. Thanks for having me.
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I've been looking forward to this.
Yeah.
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So, you know,
before we get into our discussion,
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because we're going to talk about
buyer's journey and all the,
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all the things. Yeah.
Um, tell us a little bit about
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revenue flywheel Group.
Um, tell us a little bit about your
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background and kind of the things
you're involved in right now.
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Revenue.
Flywheel Group actually has
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existed as a part time thing,
uh, since about 2015.
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But I left my last corporate VP
role in, uh, spring of last year
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to take it full time.
And we did a rebrand and all of that.
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But what we do as an outgrowth
of my over two decades in tech
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leading sales organizations,
both channel and direct sales,
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and also building and leading,
uh, revenue enablement teams and
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strategies at three different
companies on a global scale,
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and bringing together the things
that I have learned in all of
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those capacities to help clients
learn how to think differently,
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it's usually differently, um,
and be truly focused on what's
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going on with the customer and
serving them while still.
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In fact, when you do it right,
revenue generally takes care of
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itself. Uh, yep.
So but it's just that it's me.
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Just take a couple of decades of
experience.
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Things I've learned,
things I've learned not to do,
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trying to help other people
figure it out Yeah. That's great.
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And so when we were introduced
immediately, what stood out to me was
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your focus on the buyer's journey.
And, you know, I know with Signal
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Media, my content marketing agency,
we focus a lot on the buyer journey.
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So, you know,
people come to us and want
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podcast or video content created.
The first thing we talk about is,
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okay, let's talk about what's
happening from the very beginning.
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You know, maybe an ad all the
way through to customer success.
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And a lot of times it's not
fully mapped out.
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So we'll have to look at what is
actually happening.
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But um, but you know,
we start with the, with the, the,
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the customer journey, the buyer's
journey, because that's how we're
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going to be able to build content
to serve the parts where they may
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have gaps for higher engagement or
conversion or whatever it may be.
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And so I thought that that stood out.
And so I think for a lot of
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companies, what I see is this
big disconnect between sales and
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marketing, marketing teams.
And I think it's I know it is.
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I can confidently say it's
because they haven't thought
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enough about the journey, right?
Because if they look at the full
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journey, they're going to realize
that it's all one big happy family.
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We all we don't need to have
these this divide and conquer
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kind of mentality.
So I'm curious your perspective.
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Well, 100% everything you just said,
the one of the terms that that I use,
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um, and that you may have seen
on the website, is what I call
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customer journey enablement.
And we may get into this a
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little more in the episode, but,
you know, yet sales enablement,
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you get revenue enablement.
I look at it as customer journey
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enablement because of what you said.
If all customer facing or at least
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customer, um, teams that have
impact on the customer, if they
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don't deal with them directly,
if they're not working under a single
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strategy aligned to that journey,
something's not as good.
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At best case, something's not as
good as it could be.
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Worst case, something is
probably broken and, you know,
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somewhere in between. That's right.
So to me, that journey is everything
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that you're talking about.
Um, because the marketing is
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typically concerned with.
But then what happens when an SDR
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or PDR, which may be marketing or
sales when they get Ahold of them,
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then what happens in the handoff
to sales? Right.
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Is there a sales methodology
that's customer centric, that's
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actually creating a differentiating
experience for prospects?
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What happens after that?
Is implementation coordinating
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with all of this? I hope so.
What about customer success.
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So that's to me that that's the
entire journey.
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It's that infinity loop that
we've all seen lots of slides on
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in the last couple of years.
But my work is really focused on
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that point where marketing is
probably handing it off to sales
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all the way through renewal and
customer success. So yeah.
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Yeah, I like, you know, we haven't
seen that infinity loop for some
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time. It's kind of gone away.
But I did like it for a while.
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It's kind of it's kind of, you know,
cliche, but it does make sense
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because the mentality is there.
Like it needs to start.
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It sort of starts and ends with
everyone, right?
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So yeah, everyone should be on,
you know, playing on the field.
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Yeah. Yeah.
And in SAS it really is an
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infinity loop.
If you break the loop you lose
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revenue.
So yes, I think that's why it
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spoke to me because I've been in
SAS for so long at this point.
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So yeah, I totally agree.
Um, and so um, where does the term
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sales enablement sort of where was
that born and how does it how does
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it apply to all of this. Yeah.
That's a that's a great question.
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I we'll do the, we'll do the uh,
the abridged version because.
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There first also you you're,
you're like you're like a big
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time in sales enablement.
So I mean I'm sort of like poking the
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beast here a little bit, but yeah.
Tell a little bit about first.
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Like you're somebody who roles um,
you're mentioning you're,
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you're a part of an organization.
I can't remember the name of it.
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We were talking about the podcast.
Oh, the. Revenue Enablement Society.
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Yes. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah, I, I got into enablement
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completely by accident,
relatively late in my career,
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I guess the last 12 years or so
of my corporate career.
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And so I guess now I've been
doing about almost 14 years.
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And the short story is I was
leading the Mid-Market East or.
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Yeah, Mid-Market East or North
America sales team at a company
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called In Contact.
We had a change of leadership.
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New EVP came in, and after he'd
been there a couple of months,
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I went in and my one on one,
it was in September or 12.
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I remember this and I went into
the last month of the quarter.
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I'm expecting to talk about deals,
to go commits, slides,
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all that stuff, and we probably did.
But remember what I remember as
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he walked to his whiteboard,
he wrote the words sales enablement.
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And in the fall of 2012,
I'd never heard that term,
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and I was not new to sales.
And he explained to me what that was,
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and he went on to explain that
he'd watched how I was
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developing my ideas, and he sent
me home with the challenge.
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Was I willing to take on a role that
he would create for me and figure out
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how to do what I was doing for my own
team, for the entire org, because
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there was no learning development,
professional development of any kind
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in our company for any department.
And I went home for the weekend and
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came back, and the rest is history.
So that's how I got into it.
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So I was doing a lot of research,
and the fact is there wasn't
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much documented.
It was a new industry,
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a new profession, maybe,
is a better word. Yeah.
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Uh, there were some people at
Forrester, was doc started,
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documented Gartner, some others.
But there wasn't a lot,
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a lot of it was figured out.
And I was always very grateful for
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those many years, uh, you know,
carrying a bag and leading teams
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that I had pretty good insights.
And my other, you know,
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sales leaders in that organization.
Okay, guys,
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we can't complain anymore.
Bill's given me, you know,
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budget and and we're going to have
training now. What do we need? Right.
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So we we figured it out so we
didn't get everything right.
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But but we got a lot right and I
got better.
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I went to GE and then I went to
Vonage and finally ended up in an
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edtech firm called Instructure,
where I had to come in.
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I never inherited a team.
I had to build the strategy, build
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the team, etc. and the same time I'm
going through this, the profession
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was going through this. Yeah.
So sales enablement but but,
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but with the growth of the profession
There was a lot of. So what?
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I'm looking for a lot of different
opinions on what sales enablement is,
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and some of it was very centric,
focused on just the learning and
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development and onboarding,
things like that.
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Then you had folks like me that
grew up in sales, and to me,
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if somebody's sitting in a class,
we better see an improvement in
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their performance at some point down
the road or we wasted their time.
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Yeah, enablement was a means to
an end and nothing more. So.
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So these two philosophies grew up
side by side, and at some point
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I don't remember really when it
was I started talking about as
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revenue enablement because I
started to figure out that,
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but just focusing on the sales team,
we were missing out on creating
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a better customer experience.
Others were figuring it out as well.
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So you fast forward to about two
years ago, more and more people are
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using the term revenue enablement.
I was elected as board president
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of the Revenue Enablement Society,
but it was called the Sales
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Enablement Society at the time,
and had always been one of the
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things that the board and I did,
uh, in the fall of 23 was announce
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a name change at our convention
to be more current with what the
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industry was actually seeing. Yeah.
So that's that's a short version.
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And there's also been a lot of
shakeup in the enablement community
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as the SAS company, as SAS,
the SAS economy contracted.
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Enablement was hit hard.
And as difficult as that's been,
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the silver lining.
And I hear this from a lot of
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folks I talk to,
is that enablement teams that
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weren't focused on revenue outcomes
now realize that's it, right?
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Those companies don't have
dollars to throw at the newest
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cool team or thing.
And so you've got to show a
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return or correlate a return.
You're not generating the revenue,
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but you've got to show some
correlation.
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So what is sales enablement?
I mean I say sales and you're going
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to higher level revenue enablement.
What is. It.
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It's a combination of things.
So the first thing people a lot
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of people think of is training.
Right. What what is it.
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And yes, training is part of it all.
Training is sales.
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Training is probably sales
enablement. But there's so much more.
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There's working with marketing
enablement.
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Teams cannot stand alone in an
ideal situation enablement, product
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marketing or possibly marketing,
depending on how they're organized,
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but specifically product marketing at
a minimum, and rev ops are a three
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legged stool, none of which will
succeed fully without the other.
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And so a big part of enablement is
working with those other teams,
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like a product marketing team,
and making sure that product
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marketing has that customer map,
that customer journey map.
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Product marketing is generating
collateral and things.
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But is that lining up with the way
that we're teaching the sellers to
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sell and prospect and all of that?
Let's make sure we're supporting
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them. All of that.
It's working with the folks that
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rev ops to make sure that we are
measuring the impact that
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enablement is having.
Um, and I mentioned earlier, it's
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working with enabling the training
and onboarding and continuing the
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professional development of those
customer success teams that are
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so vital for those customers,
okay, to be successful.
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That was a that was a horrible,
terrible that was an essay question
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from high school and say thank you.
Anyway But but you get my point.
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Because the minute you sign a
contract,
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the renewal cycle has started.
And if they don't have a great
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hand-off and a great customer success
experience, renewal gets becomes
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very difficult in 1 or 2 years,
whenever it is so.
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So again, at a high level to me,
enablement, revenue enablement
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is all of those things.
You've got onboarding, you've got
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ongoing professional development.
But but it's coordinating being
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almost a hub with these other
groups to make sure that things
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are the sale.
Sellers are hearing one voice,
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a united voice in how we're
going to market. There you go.
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So it's sort of the connective
tissue for, for for ideally.
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Yeah. Working together. Yeah.
When it's working. Well.
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Oh interesting about this um,
timeline that you're talking about
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from 2012, you know, into the
current day is at the same time,
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in a parallel, you have the birth
of inbound marketing and you
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have inbound marketing is now,
um, you know, at first it was
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sales enablement, right?
And then as time goes on with inbound
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and other forms of product marketing
and those kind of things coming,
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coming on especially heavy in
tech and SaaS.
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Um, that's where I think it has to be
looked at as revenue enablement,
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not just sales. Yeah.
Yeah, I think I think, yeah.
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Go ahead.
And there's still not consolidation.
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You'll hear people call it sales
enablement.
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Revenue enablement I've even heard
go to market or GTM enablement.
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I don't totally buy into that.
I can see where they might be
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coming from.
That's why I just came up with my own
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label, Customer Journey Enablement,
because I found when working
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with executives,
my last company I worked for was
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part of the Thoma Bravo portfolio.
We were one of their port calls, and
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I was asked to come in and a couple
of times and do a do an advisory
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session with their CRO operating
group for all the port calls.
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And what I found in doing that is
this group of highly educated, highly
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successful people truly did not did
not understand what enablement was.
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And part of why is because if you're
not living in it day to day and you
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hear 2 or 3 different terms for it,
you're seeing it executed in 2
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or 3 different ways, right?
That just confuses.
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It's just confusing for anyone.
That's where I came up with the
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customer journey enablement,
because that anybody can get their
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head around, even if they have no
background in enablement. Yeah.
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Revenue leaders and go to market
leaders understand customer journey.
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So yeah for sure.
And you know what I've seen you tell
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me from your perspective this is this
is something that's very hot and
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heavy in the SaaS world primarily.
Do you see this in the traditional
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B2B world at all? It's growing.
Yes. The answer is yes.
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It's probably depending on who I
talk to.
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5 to 10 years behind where it is
in the tech world. Makes sense.
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Yeah, but I have friends.
I have a good friend who is the
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head of sales enablement for The
Economist in London. Oh, okay.
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Very traditional. Right. Magazine.
Well, it comes as a newspaper, but,
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um, but I know folks that head up
enablement or UN enablement and
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American Express at some of the
biggest banks in the country at the
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post office. Um you get the idea.
Uh, yeah. Uh, I'm trying to remember.
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Where is the one?
Um, I'm thinking of Ford.
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She runs a huge enablement
program at Ford Motor Company.
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So it's coming along.
And more traditional,
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I guess Ford is is B2B or B2C,
but but more and more companies are
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starting to figure out the benefits.
Yeah. Okay.
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So as we kind of now set our
sights on the buyer's journey and,
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you know, you work with a lot of
sales team salespeople when when
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you meet them and you find them
in their current state. Mhm.
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Um, how are they typically operating.
Are they thinking about buyer's
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journey or are they thinking
about any of that.
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That's hard to say because because
within a sales team of any size,
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some have figured it out and some
have it, you're always going to
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have some some highly successful
salespeople that either either
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subconsciously or consciously
have figured some of this out on
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their own, and they're they're
crushing it because of that. Sure.
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But typically the typical seller, um,
and typical organization that I've
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worked with, either as an internal
resource or as a consulting resource.
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There's a couple things going on.
Even if the sellers and the
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buyers and sellers are trying to
think about the customer and the
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buyer journey, they haven't been
provided with that information.
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There's not a cohesive plan to
train them on it and reinforce
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it and give them materials that
help them utilize it.
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And what that results in is they
do not have the business acumen
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to hold a conversation with a
prospect that's not 20 questions
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and or a demo and or a pitch deck,
and, and those things may all
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have their place do have their
place somewhere in the process.
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But in that first conversation, it is
not the ideal customer experience.
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You need to go in and add value.
Yeah, and that's a problem in
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most organizations.
Now you can you can identify that
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and you can teach them all of that.
It's all fixable.
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But that's that's probably the
biggest problem I see coming in.
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You know, salespeople are very
tactical and very technical in I
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don't know if I'd say technical.
It's probably confusing to say it
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that way, but taxes would differ.
Yeah, it's just that they're.
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Yeah, they're not technical know.
So that's not a bad,
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bad way to describe it.
But they're tactical and that
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like you described they have they
have their set game plan and
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they don't know about where the
buyer is coming from or where
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the buyer is going to. Right.
And that's a big problem for
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context in how they're deploying
their game plan. Right.
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And you've got typically you're
going to have multiple ISPs or
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buyer personas, whatever the
company happens to call them.
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And they've got to understand
who they are.
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What do they care about. Right.
What what are the things in their
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world that whatever product or
service we're selling can impact?
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And why?
What are the use cases and the
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problems that current customers
that do the same, that are in the
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same job role are, are solving for?
And why are they buying?
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And you bring all of that and you
package it in a way that sellers
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can digest and make conversational
prospects. Notice Prospects.
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Yes, we've heard this over and
over and over again.
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They notice that kind of discovery
meeting and they appreciate it.
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It's much more intentional, much more
personalized. So let's get into it.
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And a lot stickier too. Yes, yes.
Um, you know, there's a lot probably
301
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probably when it gets down to it,
just because you're building so
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much more trust in those,
in those interactions.
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Um, and then your, the trust that
you build is being delivered on,
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um, so your, your,
your framework, your, your um,
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your thinking in terms of uh, the,
the revenue, um, what did you call
306
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the buyer's journey enablement?
I call it customer journey
307
00:17:17,770 --> 00:17:20,590
enablement. Okay.
So let's talk about that framework.
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00:17:20,590 --> 00:17:22,450
What does that look like and how
is it different?
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00:17:22,450 --> 00:17:25,570
I mean, we know probably we don't
need to talk about how it's different
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because we know it's pretty very
different, right, than what the
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current salespeople are doing.
But how are you getting salespeople
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to shift to this new mentality?
Well, when I talk about customer
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journey enablement,
that's more than just the sales
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teams as we talked about.
Yeah, but but to answer your
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00:17:40,360 --> 00:17:45,580
question Any major change like
we're talking about here, whether
316
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it's in how they're prospecting,
how they're doing, discovery,
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how they're negotiating, anything has
to come with executive sponsorship,
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00:17:54,850 --> 00:17:58,720
whether you've got a chief sales
officer or a CRO and EVP of sales,
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00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:04,900
whoever that highest sales leader is,
this needs to be something that
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they see the need for,
and that is then going down through
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the frontline sales leaders.
Because one of the things I
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learned very quickly when I
moved into enablement is nobody
323
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in sales reported to me anymore,
and they didn't have to do
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anything that I suggested.
And so so making sure that we've
325
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got that we're working with the
sales leadership team, frontline
326
00:18:27,340 --> 00:18:31,360
through executives is critical
to driving any of these changes.
327
00:18:31,360 --> 00:18:35,530
It's just that simple. Yeah.
Yeah. Makes the best. Enablement.
328
00:18:35,530 --> 00:18:39,790
The world will do nothing if sales.
If they have to listen. Right. Yeah.
329
00:18:39,790 --> 00:18:42,840
That's right, that's right Yeah.
It's got to come back to a business
330
00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:45,930
outcome that's driven from
leadership. Exactly. Um, yeah.
331
00:18:45,930 --> 00:18:50,910
Okay. So, so so how how are you?
Let's describe your customer
332
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journey enablement framework.
Um, take us into take us into that
333
00:18:55,140 --> 00:18:59,220
and tell us kind of how that works.
We've covered a lot of it with
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00:18:59,220 --> 00:19:02,520
some of your other questions.
Uh, because again,
335
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the way I look at it is you talk to
the beginning of the conversation
336
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about companies needing to have
mapped out that customer journey
337
00:19:09,390 --> 00:19:12,720
or by your journey. Right.
So let's assume they've done that.
338
00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:15,570
Then what we're doing and it's
those teams.
339
00:19:15,570 --> 00:19:17,850
It's marketing, it's rev ops,
it's enablement.
340
00:19:17,850 --> 00:19:21,990
Looking at that and sales
leadership at some point as well.
341
00:19:21,990 --> 00:19:28,350
But looking at that and figuring out
what those touch points are. Um.
342
00:19:28,620 --> 00:19:31,800
Figuring out what could we be
doing better. Right.
343
00:19:31,830 --> 00:19:34,230
So we've already talked about a
different kind of discovery,
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00:19:34,230 --> 00:19:36,210
a different kind of prospecting,
a different kind of. Right.
345
00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:39,270
Um, how do we.
And then and then how are we
346
00:19:39,270 --> 00:19:42,780
going to plug those gaps?
You can't do everything all at once,
347
00:19:42,780 --> 00:19:45,600
but you can get a lot done when
you're doing it coordinated
348
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across multiple teams.
So I don't have a standard
349
00:19:49,710 --> 00:19:52,710
framework lead just from the
standpoint that although there
350
00:19:52,710 --> 00:19:55,350
are many commonalities,
when I come into an organization,
351
00:19:55,350 --> 00:20:00,180
there are still enough differences
that a deep assessment is is
352
00:20:00,180 --> 00:20:03,960
always what I recommend before
we start building anything,
353
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let's go in and let's.
So that's usually the first step
354
00:20:06,090 --> 00:20:07,710
I will do.
I you know, they'll give me
355
00:20:07,710 --> 00:20:10,080
access to gong or chorus.
They'll give me access to
356
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:13,200
Salesforce can be accessed,
you know and I will interview.
357
00:20:13,230 --> 00:20:16,140
Very. Comfortable. Yeah.
And then I'll come back to the
358
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executive team with a recommendation.
Say, you know, here here's a Swot
359
00:20:20,250 --> 00:20:23,460
analysis kind of a funnel right.
Here's a Swot analysis high level.
360
00:20:23,460 --> 00:20:26,400
Here are the here's your biggest
thing I see the impacting revenue.
361
00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:29,040
Here are the next three things.
Here's what you can do about it.
362
00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:32,280
Right.
And I and my idea is that if
363
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I've done a great job, hopefully
they'll keep me around and pay me
364
00:20:34,620 --> 00:20:37,980
to help them execute all this.
But I also promise my clients to give
365
00:20:37,980 --> 00:20:42,630
them a standalone analysis that they
can take and execute on their own.
366
00:20:42,630 --> 00:20:49,080
Maybe they can execute, but, uh, um,
so so that's part of the framework
367
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too, is, is honestly figuring out
what's going on within those revenue
368
00:20:52,890 --> 00:20:56,220
and go to market teams that's causing
the problems that we're seeing.
369
00:20:56,220 --> 00:20:59,430
So so when you're you're looking
at all these organizations,
370
00:20:59,430 --> 00:21:03,300
what you see patterns and everything,
what's something that sales and
371
00:21:03,300 --> 00:21:07,290
marketing teams could do right now
to sort of adopt this methodology,
372
00:21:07,290 --> 00:21:12,030
this, this idea, um.
If, if you don't have or if they
373
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don't have a well-defined ICP
buyer persona.
374
00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:18,420
And by that I'm talking a profile,
fully developed profile, um,
375
00:21:18,570 --> 00:21:20,730
background.
You know what they do,
376
00:21:20,730 --> 00:21:24,720
what a day in the life looks like.
Again, problems that they are
377
00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:27,930
current customers in that role
are solving with what you sell,
378
00:21:27,930 --> 00:21:31,260
what the company sells.
Uh, you get the if you don't have
379
00:21:31,260 --> 00:21:35,700
that well defined and worked
with enablement or worked with
380
00:21:35,700 --> 00:21:38,900
somebody to give it to the sales
people in a digestible way.
381
00:21:38,900 --> 00:21:42,080
So that is battle cards?
Maybe, but it's also are your
382
00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:47,270
outbound scripts and anything you're
writing for them speak that way.
383
00:21:47,270 --> 00:21:50,480
Does your website speak that way so
that the salespeople are being set
384
00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:53,690
up for that kind of conversation?
That's where it begins.
385
00:21:53,690 --> 00:21:58,820
If you don't have those buyers
figured out and your salespeople
386
00:21:58,820 --> 00:22:01,400
trained on how to talk to them
at a business level, yeah.
387
00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:04,760
Anything else that I'm going to talk
about isn't going to work. Yeah.
388
00:22:05,390 --> 00:22:09,200
So then let's flip it on its head.
What what is at least something
389
00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:14,870
they should stop doing?
Stop defaulting to a demo on the
390
00:22:14,870 --> 00:22:18,590
very first call. Yeah.
And and and to be fair and SAS,
391
00:22:18,590 --> 00:22:22,070
we've done it to ourselves now
customers expect it. Yeah.
392
00:22:22,070 --> 00:22:25,760
But I've also it's rare to run
into a customer who when you
393
00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:28,790
explain again you're not going
to play 20 questions with them,
394
00:22:28,790 --> 00:22:32,210
but you explain the purpose of the
conversation and they can see that
395
00:22:32,210 --> 00:22:35,780
it's actually a conversation with
some intelligence behind it. Sure.
396
00:22:35,930 --> 00:22:38,750
Um most of if there are serious
buyer,
397
00:22:38,750 --> 00:22:41,900
most of them will appreciate that.
Even if they say, well,
398
00:22:41,900 --> 00:22:44,390
I was expecting a demo.
This is where I talk about we got to
399
00:22:44,390 --> 00:22:48,440
make sure we're all working together.
When marketing has got the stars
400
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:50,150
and bidders report to marketing
a lot of times.
401
00:22:50,150 --> 00:22:53,300
So what is the what are those
bidders setting for expectations
402
00:22:53,300 --> 00:22:55,490
when they create the appointment
and they're setting up for a demo,
403
00:22:55,490 --> 00:22:58,580
or they setting an expectation
that this will be a conversation
404
00:22:58,580 --> 00:23:00,920
about your business?
Everybody's got to be setting
405
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:04,550
the sales team up to do that.
But that's the biggest thing is stop
406
00:23:04,550 --> 00:23:08,390
default, because without knowing
what that prospect is dealing with
407
00:23:08,390 --> 00:23:11,510
and what they're looking for,
you're just throwing a lot of,
408
00:23:11,510 --> 00:23:14,630
you know what at the wall. Yeah.
And watching to see what sticks.
409
00:23:14,630 --> 00:23:17,300
If we're honest, that's all.
That's all a demo is without
410
00:23:17,300 --> 00:23:19,730
intelligence first. Yeah, right.
That makes sense.
411
00:23:20,180 --> 00:23:25,280
Um, if so, you know, maybe to round
this out, talking about, you know,
412
00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:29,330
measuring success or or even
reporting, it seems like there would
413
00:23:29,330 --> 00:23:33,830
be a mechanism, you know, like,
for my own, for my own knowledge.
414
00:23:33,830 --> 00:23:37,070
I'm interested to know Um,
about sales enablement.
415
00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:39,770
Um,
in terms of how you're communicating,
416
00:23:39,770 --> 00:23:43,460
what value that's bringing, right.
You mentioned how, you know,
417
00:23:43,460 --> 00:23:45,830
you're measuring certain things
and you're being able to report
418
00:23:45,830 --> 00:23:50,180
what does that look like?
It's gotten a lot easier to do
419
00:23:50,180 --> 00:23:52,310
because of technology that's
come on the scene in the last
420
00:23:52,310 --> 00:23:55,130
couple of years.
By calling in to emphasize only
421
00:23:55,130 --> 00:23:57,380
sellers generate revenue,
enablement teams do not.
422
00:23:57,380 --> 00:24:01,340
Marketing teams do not generate
actual revenue, but they both need
423
00:24:01,340 --> 00:24:03,980
to be able to show correlation,
reasonable, consistent correlation
424
00:24:03,980 --> 00:24:07,820
to that revenue increase.
And when I started trying to
425
00:24:07,820 --> 00:24:10,790
figure out how to do that before
the technology existed, uh,
426
00:24:10,790 --> 00:24:15,620
a mentor of mine, a guy who's, uh,
led for 3 or 4 successful exits.
427
00:24:15,620 --> 00:24:19,130
So he knows a thing or two, right.
Uh, recommended a book to me called
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00:24:19,130 --> 00:24:21,980
the strategy Focused Organization.
It's Harvard Business Press.
429
00:24:21,980 --> 00:24:25,070
Kaplan and Norton are the authors,
and it's a little dated,
430
00:24:25,070 --> 00:24:28,550
but the concepts are not.
And and the and what Kaplan and
431
00:24:28,550 --> 00:24:32,090
Norton tried to solve with this myth.
And it does read like a textbook
432
00:24:32,090 --> 00:24:34,250
because they're professors.
But what they were trying to
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00:24:34,250 --> 00:24:36,980
solve for was a dilemma.
I imagine that you've seen
434
00:24:36,980 --> 00:24:39,800
multiple times.
I definitely have companies roll
435
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:43,280
out a grand strategy,
and six months later nobody
436
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:45,800
could tell you what it was,
much less any measurable results.
437
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:47,570
That's what they were trying to
solve for.
438
00:24:47,780 --> 00:24:51,140
And they do that by creating a
strategy that starts with
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00:24:51,140 --> 00:24:54,200
revenue outcomes.
And every element of the strategy is
440
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:57,680
building and connecting back to that.
I mean, I'm super simplifying this,
441
00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:00,530
but sure.
Um, and also there's a balanced
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00:25:00,530 --> 00:25:03,020
scorecard for every element of
that strategy.
443
00:25:03,020 --> 00:25:06,530
You are setting a goal,
a measurable metric of
444
00:25:06,530 --> 00:25:09,950
improvement for every element of
the strategy might be monthly.
445
00:25:09,950 --> 00:25:13,250
I have found quarterly is about
the right cadence to, you know,
446
00:25:13,250 --> 00:25:15,470
change those and you're
measuring the success of that.
447
00:25:15,470 --> 00:25:19,580
And if you've built the map correctly
and you're and you're making those
448
00:25:19,580 --> 00:25:23,120
measurable improvements in every map
of this element of the strategy map,
449
00:25:23,210 --> 00:25:27,170
the revenue will take care of itself.
So that's how we did do it.
450
00:25:27,170 --> 00:25:29,060
Now again,
there is some great software out
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00:25:29,060 --> 00:25:31,880
there for enablement teams to use.
Now that also ties into
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00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:35,890
Salesforce or Dynamics.
and you can track things that the
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00:25:35,890 --> 00:25:39,160
sellers and the customer service team
are doing, success team are doing,
454
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,730
and measure it back to those
Salesforce revenue numbers.
455
00:25:42,730 --> 00:25:45,700
That's made it a lot easier.
So for me, it's probably a blend
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00:25:45,700 --> 00:25:47,890
of both of those right now,
because if you don't start with
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00:25:47,890 --> 00:25:50,500
the strategy map, you still
don't know what you're going to
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00:25:50,500 --> 00:25:54,400
measure in the technology piece.
So yeah, that's right. That's right.
459
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:56,800
Well, this has been a great
conversation. Thanks, Paul.
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00:25:57,070 --> 00:26:01,300
Yeah, thanks a lot packed in here.
And so anybody that's tuning into
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00:26:01,300 --> 00:26:04,000
sales enablement for for the first
time just hit repeat and listen
462
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,640
to this again because we've just
covered a lot of ground.
463
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:09,310
And I think there's a lot of
rabbit trails that you can take
464
00:26:09,310 --> 00:26:12,130
off of this conversation.
Oh we could do a few episodes.
465
00:26:12,250 --> 00:26:16,360
Definitely. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
So if I want to send people your way,
466
00:26:16,360 --> 00:26:19,030
where do I send them?
Uh, they can go to the website,
467
00:26:19,030 --> 00:26:22,090
book an appointment with me
directly through the website, or.
468
00:26:22,090 --> 00:26:24,850
I'm, I'm, well,
easy to find on LinkedIn,
469
00:26:24,850 --> 00:26:28,030
fairly pretty active on LinkedIn.
And always happy to hear from people
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00:26:28,030 --> 00:26:31,570
that way as well. That's awesome.
Thanks again, Paul, and we'll have to
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00:26:31,570 --> 00:26:33,160
have you back All right. Thanks, Lee.