Episode 307: How to Build a World-Class Enablement Function with Kelly Lewis

GUEST: Kelly Lewis, VP of Revenue Enablement at Highspot

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Businesses are constantly seeking ways to enhance efficiency, productivity and overall success.

One key area that has gained significant attention in recent years is the enablement function.

However, building a successful enablement function requires more than providing employees with the necessary resources.

The logical question that comes to mind is:

How can you build and run a world-class enablement function, and what might be the best practices in making the most of your enablement investment?

To help us with this incredible topic today, we have Kelly Lewis, VP of Revenue Enablement at Highspot. With almost 15 years of experience in Healthcare IT, Kelly specializes in building high-performing revenue teams, focusing on creating strong cross-functional coordination and a positive team culture.

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Is Your Enablement Team a Secret Weapon or Scapegoat?

Revenue enablement can be a game-changer for companies when implemented strategically, aligning teams and driving behavior change beyond simple training. However, success relies on overcoming common pitfalls, such as enablement being misused as a scapegoat or overwhelmed by competing priorities. Leveraging enablement as a valuable asset rather than an adversary boils down to the need for businesses to prioritize strategic alignment and clear focus for their enablement teams. Embrace enablement with the right mindset and practices, and watch it transform into a cornerstone of your business success.

“It's a problem that enablers need to solve and think strategically about how we both create an enablement function at our organizations and utilize that enablement function to actually drive behavior change versus really going back to that old training mentality of training for something and moving on to the next thing.”

Kelly Lewis, VP of Revenue Enablement at Highspot

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Unlocking Enablement Success

When it comes to measuring the impact of enablement, instead of solely relying on attendance and survey scores, delve deeper into the qualitative feedback from your training sessions to offer valuable insights into what truly resonates with your team. Embrace the challenge by tracking the tangible actions taken post training, such as conducting business reviews, to measure the effectiveness of your enablement efforts.

However, keep in mind that the ultimate goal is not just to complete these actions but to execute them skillfully, leading to positive business outcomes like generating pipeline and closing deals. Also, focus on developing a strong partnership with sales leadership to ensure accountability and adoption of enablement initiatives, setting the stage for sustained success and growth.

“The biggest key, and if you can do this, you have unlocked the future of enablement. Can you show that the people who took your enablement did the business review well, generated a pipeline and closed those deals? I this the "Walk to Value," and you're not going to do it all overnight. But that's a path you can take to end up showing the true value of what your enablement team is delivering to the field and the organization.”

Kelly Lewis, VP of Revenue Enablement at Highspot

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Aligning Enablement with Go-to-Market Strategies

To effectively align enablement with your go-to-market strategy, start by gathering insights directly from the field, including both challenges and wins from your reps and managers. Then, combine this with data analysis to identify key performance areas and obstacles. Also, be sure to engage sales leadership and cross-functional partners such as marketing, finance and operations to understand their goals for the field team.

Next, bring these stakeholders together in a collaborative setting to prioritize actions into two categories: accountable actions that are compulsory for reps and available resources that are optional but beneficial. This allows you to simplify the focus to a manageable number of priorities, ensuring all teams are aligned and working towards common goals.

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Could AI Become Your Best Enablement Teammate?

AI could become a transformative ally in your professional journey, especially in sales and enablement. By incorporating AI for tasks like simplifying follow-ups for reps and offering AI-driven coaching for managers, you can significantly enhance efficiency and accountability. Moreover, AI plays a key role in content creation and design, providing valuable assistance to those who may not excel in these areas.

However, it's essential to remember that in sales, the human element remains irreplaceable for consultative selling. Therefore, you must carefully balance leveraging technology and nurturing human skills. Consider AI as a companion, not a competitor, and harness its potential to elevate your performance and keep pace with the industry changes.

“I heard a quote once that you should make AI your companion, not your competitor. And that is what I believe. It has been game-changing for my team, our reps,and especially our sales managers.”

Kelly Lewis, VP of Revenue Enablement at Highspot

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Now that you know how to build and run a world-class enablement function, discover the full list of episodes at The B2B Revenue Executive Experience. If you enjoy the show, instructions to rate and review it are found here.

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