“Game On” in Sales Enablement

I have been intrigued lately by articles and blog-posts commenting on whether Sales Enablement is truly a new idea, or if it is just a re-hash of old software categories (e.g. knowledge management) that have seen their day come and go. There are some very smart people on both sides of the discussion, offering points that make sense and certainly make for some good discussion back and forth. On this whole topic of the space and its highly-debated “newness”, I have one simple thing to say… “Who really cares?”.

Folks, we have to get out of our own way here. Officially naming categories of software and debating on whether or not someone has done things like this before is way too academic for me, adds absolutely nothing to the impact well-thought-through solutions can have, and honestly strikes me as more about the authors of posts than about the end-users of the software itself. Maybe it is just my Midwest upbringing coming out, but lets check our professor-ships at the door for a minute and look at the hard-cold facts…

• Other than maybe the Great Depression, there has never been a more difficult time to sell anything
• The only decisions companies are making are for solutions that align with their most-important strategic objectives
• When decisions are being made, buyers have sophisticated buying processes and know a great deal more than ever before about possible solutions
• Our Salespeople are truly the last hope we have of delivering a differentiated presence in the market. If they are unable to articulate value at a very strategic level to multiple, well-informed decision-makers… not only will they fail, but the companies for whom they carry the bag will fail as well, and many others will lose their jobs along the way.

This not a doom and gloom scenario. Actually, it is quite the opposite… a scenario rich with opportunity.… a very important challenge with very high stakes. I wouldn’t want it any other way. It is “Game On” in the world of truly impacting productivity for salespeople.

For those who may be skeptics or think my “Game On” statement is over-the top, I would ask you to consider, and hopefully comment on the age-old question “Is Selling a science or an art?” It often depends on who you ask… someone trying to implement sales-process may argue the “science” path, someone trying to avoid sales process may argue the “art” path. My thoughts… clearly it is a combination of both.

The “science”—there is definitely a base of knowledge, of content, of people of products, of markets, etc. that any salesperson needs to be conversant and intelligent in front of a customer. Do you know any brilliant chemists who did not have to understand and know the periodic table first? Maybe, but rare. Do you know any concert pianists who did not have to at least understand the scales first? Again, maybe, but rare.

The “art”—using the above analogies, this argument is easy… just learning the periodic table does not make you a brilliant chemist. And all of our ears have been unnaturally harmed by a piano player who learned the scales and was not able to go much further. Without question, there are any number of styles, talents, and gifts from above that separate artists and their brilliance from the rest of the pack.

Tying this back to the world of Sales… in this selling environment (or any that I see for the foreseeable future) with its high premium on conversations and the importance of conversations in differentiation, we all need front-line sellers who have those artist-like gifts, no question. But, if our organizations stifle the artistry that these people bring, and instead have them spending that valuable time sifting through hard drives, rummaging through portals, calling their peers, cobbling together content, etc… we lose. Game Over. At its core, Sales Enablement is about allowing all sellers to know what the best people know (the insights, the content, the subject matter experts). It is about giving them the periodic chart, when they need it and how they need it—covering off on the “science”, so that their own unique artistry and voice can emerge and have a chance at succeeding.

What has been fascinating to watch over the past years is that, unlike in the past with CRM for example… where someone in corporate was trying to determine what salespeople really need, this realization of what salespeople need to feel enabled to succeed is coming from salespeople themselves. Amen. As the people who every company turns to each quarter to make it happen, salespeople are saying “enough”… help me know what/who I need to know quickly and when I care about it, so that I can go do my job. The artists have spoken. They want some smart science to help magnify the impact of their art… and they have never needed it more.

In my mind, that means “Game On”.