Episode 10:
Meagan Davis on the essence of sales enablement and long distance runningAbout this episode
Special guest Meagan Davis and I discuss the essence of sales enablement and how it’s similar to long distance running — you have to prepare, set a project plan, to train, be ready for speed bumps, broken shoe laces, SMEs that don’t show up or other anticipated/surprising events that may impede your ability to succeed.
Meagan recently published How to Start a Sales Enablement Program, available on Amazon. Her goal in writing the book was to capture and share her own learnings in launching a sales enablement function at a security tech company.
Meagan discusses her belief in the value of big, audacious goals. She has a “make it happen” attitude that helps her to get the job done, to deliver results in an emerging tech company with limited (or occasionally no) budgets.
She also shares her best practices in winning over and working with executive stakeholders, an evergreen topic in the sales enablement community.
We discuss the value of focusing on people, process and then technology, ensuring that the technology helps to deliver the individuals’ and organizational goals, rather than forcing the organization to fit into a specific technology operating model.
Five key takeaways of our conversation:
- Find a coach or mentor who has been there before and is willing to talk through your challenges or be a sounding board for ideas
- Be humble and disciplined
- Be hungry to learn, and broaden your definition of what a "lesson is"
- Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good
- Have audacious goals