Episode 7:
Does sales enablement excellence require process expertise or subject matter expertise? Lisa Skillern and I duke it out!About this episode
Lisa Skillern brings a special blend of process expertise in sales enablement and domain expertise in security. Her stakeholders love her; her sales teams count on her. She has carried a bag and run marketing. She has driven revenue and sales productivity in both large and small organizations. When we needed an enablement pro to drive global sales enablement for the security portfolio at Google, she was the obvious choice and we worked together to design and deliver enablement for our related portfolios.
Lisa focuses on the pragmatic side of sales enablement -- what will make a difference to her stakeholders today, this month, this quarter. She is very good at managing those stakeholders and discusses her approach to developing and managing those "influence without authority" relationships.
We discuss the metaphor of "boatswain" -- it's our job to direct the crew, to ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction so that we all achieve our group (and individual) goals.
Lisa outlines how she evaluates a sales enablement organization - whether it's a cohesive unit working together and what might need to be tweaked to ensure a higher level of impact. If you're working within an existing organization, or are considering a move, Lisa's guidance will help you to evaluate the organization.
Key takeaways of our conversation:
- Effective stakeholder management is critical for the success of every sales enablement professional...and takes ongoing attention and diligence
- For the most impact, the sales enablement professional brings both domain or subject matter expertise and lots of process experience