Throughout H1 2024, the landscape of revenue enablement within the tech industry has evolved rapidly. Companies are increasingly recognizing the critical role that revenue enablement plays in driving growth and competitiveness. With tech overall becoming more saturated and customer expectations continuously rising, having a well-defined and effective revenue enablement strategy is no longer optional but a necessity – and the teams leading the charge are busier than ever, implementing new ideas, strategies, technologies and game plans. 

As we move further into 2024, Sales Assembly took the pulse of 6 Revenue Enablement leaders to get a sense for what they’re working on, the state of things, and their thoughts / plans for the second half of the year.

What is your biggest area of focus over the next 90 days? 

Emily Hyde – We’re focused on going back to “the brilliant basics” both in our deal motions and how we create accountability and coaching opportunities via input metrics or leading indicator activity data. Deal Motions – On the heels of adopting a new forecasting tool, we are focused on ensuring our forecasting definitions map to our sales process with clearly defined seller activities and exit criteria by stage.  Input Metrics – We’ve recently aligned across our revenue organization on the weekly and monthly activities that lead to attainment per role. Over the next quarter, we’re working with our leaders to use these activity metrics along with other tools like Gong to diagnose and prioritize 2-3 skills to coach per rep on their team. 

Heather Green – AI. Specifically diving into enabling our teams on what AI is, how we utilize it at our company, and ways to speak about it with prospects and clients appropriately.

Emily Fitzpatrick – Driving to the close – ensuring both reps and managers are managing their pipeline and their deals with rigor towards the close.

Jesse Potter – We are rolling out a new multi-product value framework and associated discovery playbook for Sales that includes guidance on our key personas, the challenges they face, and how our products can work together to address their pain. 

Bryan Naas – We are on a years-long journey to transform our team from a focus on selling the best product to selling the value of our solutions that help our customers achieve their desired outcomes. H1 was fully focused on driving the right research and discovery to understand those needs. The next 90 days are about putting it into action by articulating a clear vision of “a way forward”.

How have your priorities changed since the start the year?

Emily Hyde – If anything, our priorities have remained the same however we have had to make tradeoffs on timing. Setting ambitious priorities at the beginning of the year has been met with reality checks and a lot of listening to understand from our front line leaders where we need to slow down and spend more time reinforcing v. piling on more change/priorities. We’ve made needed changes to our delivery timelines in the name of “slowing down to speed up”. We’ve started at the top with alignment on those changes before cascading to front line leaders to gain buy in and then last, communicating it to the field.

Heather – For the most part, smaller one off projects have popped up that have become more time consuming than anticipated – such as AI, tooling changes/updates

Jesse – As we began the year, our primary focus was on driving success and expanding our pipeline with our recently launched Email Marketing product. Additionally, we were excited about introducing a new account management function. On the enablement side, we aimed to establish our core competency framework for sales and to develop targeted programs for enhancing these skills. Early in the year, we experienced some turnover in sales and customer success leadership, which necessitated adjustments to our initiatives as new leaders joined the team. We also accelerated the rollout of a new AI product as the early beta results showed a lot of success and we wanted to be one of the first to market with this new innovation. So that has all required a lot of flexibility and heightened the importance of cross-functional collaboration and building good internal processes.

Gail – Since the start of the year, my priorities have shifted significantly. I am now laser-focused on metrics that drive revenue above all else. This change was driven by the need to deliver immediate, tangible results in a short-term world. As a result, I’ve moved from broad, overarching programs to more targeted initiatives aimed at specific goals for distinct audiences, such as AEs versus AMs. 

Bryan – Overall, our priorities have remained the same since we set them at the end of 2023. What has evolved are our focus areas to activate the behavior we are trying to drive. For example, early in the year we focused heavily on the skills our reps need to execute good research and discovery. Now that focus is shifting toward value articulation and accountability.

How has your strategy or thinking changed since the start of the year?

Heather – Our strategy has remained the same: to upskill our current team on what we sell and how to sell it, while also focusing on adapting onboarding for new hires

Emily Fitzpatrick – We have stayed firm on helping our team adjust to the current market conditions and enablement, and the sales leadership team has had to learn along with the sales team how to navigate and find success in the market and how to set our teams up to be successful. Adaptability has been crucial

Jesse – I personally came into the year thinking that we were starting to move past the turbulence and difficult selling environment that we’ve had since Covid slowed down and all the layoffs of the last two years, which would allow us to focus on building the foundational elements of the enablement function that I know are critical (ie – standardized sales methodology, great onboarding, and ongoing coaching and skill development measured through a competency framework). I’ve come to realize that we’re still not out of the woods yet and that we’ll need to continue being highly responsive to the shifting priorities of the business. So we’re actually focused now on building better cross-functional processes and implementing a “decision tree” playbook that basically gives a standard way for enablement, Ops, PMM, and other cross-functional teams to spin into action when a new decision is made at the board/C-level (ie – a shift in strategy, a new product rollout, etc).

Gail – Implementing long-term solutions in a short-term-focused world has been challenging. My priorities have shifted from broader ideas and programs to smaller, more targeted initiatives with specific goals for distinct audiences, such as AEs versus AMs. Additionally, I’m conducting more in-person sessions, as attention spans for asynchronous programs have waned.

Bryan – We’re really tracking how the market is continuing to evolve throughout the year. SAAS sales continues to become harder now because money is not as freely available. We have to ensure we are focused on delivering what our customers care about. This is increasingly all about efficiency and cost savings over top line revenue.

Do you have one or two tools or resources you’ve started working with this year that have turned out to be game changing?

Emily Hyde – Gong continues to be an excellent partner for us. We expanded our relationship with them to include forecasting in an effort to consolidate tooling. Their continued innovation around AI and bringing critical and timely deal insights to the surface makes me excited for our future together!

Heather – 6sense, hands down. ABX is the new way forward, people don’t want to speak with a sales rep until they have done their own research and are nearly ready to purchase. 6sense allows reps to be equipped with all of the buying intel in their SFDC instance, allowing them to focus on the right accounts and contacts within those accounts. Regie AI is at the forefront of changing prospecting forever – they aren’t fully where they need to be, but tools like this should be taken seriously moving forward.

Emily Fitzpatrick – Gemini (Googles ChatGPT) has been game-changing for the enablement team – accelerating our planning, content and training design, etc

Gail – Certainly, here’s a refined version: I collaborated with a vendor to develop a frontline manager coaching program. Initially, we adopted a traditional approach with virtual learning and “homework,” which proved unsuccessful. We then pivoted to a program featuring small, targeted training groups, bringing different managers together to tackle real-time problems. The results from these sessions were then shared collectively, benefiting everyone involved.

Bryan – While not a tool, we partnered with SOAR Performance Group out of Atlanta to help us design, launch, and implement our new sales methodology in 2024. Their partnership along the way has helped define our success throughout H1.

What is the most important skill your sales or post-sales teams need to master today? 

Emily Hyde – Hands down, executive engagement and alignment. Both new business and churn data showed us that influence in the deal had a significant impact on win rate. As the market has changed, aligning our value to executive level, strategic priorities is table stakes for a successful sale. 

Heather – Active listening and follow up. These two skills seem so rudimentary and yet are difficult for many to master. Active listening is key to understanding your client’s needs and wants – while allowing you to learn how to position your offering in a way that makes most sense for them. And follow up creates trust, shows that you will do what you say you will, when you say you will. Its an imperative step in the buying process that can either help you to win or lose the deal.

Emily Fitzpatrick – Rigor around driving to the close, ensuring the right stakeholders are in the conversation, the timeline isn’t changing, we know who the final approver is, and they are aligned. Making sure the Sales team has an an eye on all the details and is constantly checking in with the customer.

Jesse – Discovery. For our business we had a single product that was disruptive and innovative and fairly easy to sell leading up to Covid. Then during Covid we had even more demand and reps didn’t need to do deep discovery. Now, post-Covid we find ourselves in a much more competitive market where innovation is catching up, and we’re adding new products to the platform that are not as mature and also that have more incumbent solutions in the market already. So we need to equip our sellers and CS teams to do a better job of uncovering the actual pain and challenges of our clients in order to elevate beyond just feature/functionality and into a value based discussion around the pain that reps should be identifying with good discovery.

Gail – The most important skill for our sales and post-sales teams to master today is insight selling. The days of simply asking more and more discovery questions are over. To truly add value and differentiate themselves, sellers must offer actionable insights and innovative ideas. Without this, they risk being seen as just another commodity. 

Bryan – Time management – reps get pulled in so many directions that makes it too easy to lose track of priorities like research and meeting preparation. We’re trying to  do a better job, as an organization, to reduce internal commitments for reps to give them more time. That said, the most successful reps are the ones that own their calendar and prioritize their time on the highest value actions. 

What’s one prediction on the “State of B2B GTM” over the coming year? 

Heather – Marketing will begin to play an even bigger role on the sales cycle than ever before. It’s going to be imperative that teams have a good understanding of who does what and what it looks like in their environment to maximize effectiveness.

Emily Fitzpatrick – We are in a transformational time in sales; I think sellers who prioritize learning and adapting will stand out from the crowd. With more and more products and automation hitting the market, the salesperson’s role will be to provide value, personalization, and connection with buyers.  I think folks that invest in learning about and understanding what this new technology can do to make them more effective and productive will rise to the top.  We already know that buyers are more informed than ever, before they even engage with salespeople – so how can salespeople ensure they show up with something impactful and memorable to say?

Jesse – I think that the next year is going to be a real test of the viability of AI in GTM. There’s so many new tools or existing vendors implementing AI into their tools and most of them are just trying to hop on the hype around AI and haven’t had to show much actual value yet. Many of them are also putting out free/cheap offerings to get people hooked, but just like streaming TV, I see those prices ramping up quickly once they’ve got a customer base.

Gail – Over the next year, I predict a significant shift in the B2B GTM landscape: fewer sellers, more products, and an increase in self-serve options. Only the best, most insightful sellers will stand out, focusing on selling the most important and complex products. These top-tier sellers will need to cut through the noise by offering deep insights and tailored solutions, while more straightforward products will move towards self-service models. 

Bryan – AI will continue to help automate processes making our reps more efficient. This will allow us to continue to do more with less. The entire sales org will evolve into a much more highly skilled and productive machine. 

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