Ep. 69 - Meet Gail Behun, New RES President!

How do you balance the potential of AI to impact revenue generation, sort through the hype and be strategic in your deployment of AI? Join me as I sit down with Dayna Williams, and we peel back the layers of AI's role in the future of sales and delve into the intricate dance between leveraging cutting-edge tools and staying true to the timeless principles of sound business practices. 

We tackle the challenges faced by sales teams and explore how they can navigate the pressures of consistent performance while adopting a disciplined approach to innovation. 

Dayna shares her seasoned perspective on avoiding the pitfalls of jumping onto the latest tech trends without a game plan.

Some of the actionable insights she shares in this episode:

• What's missing from the hype and the headlines?
• Elements of a readiness plan or blueprint
• Where and how to begin

Dayna Williams is the author of "The Diligence Fix" which explores what happens when we strive for revenue growth. Her ideas come from advising sales leaders in the areas of internal communication, integrated training, change methodology and making customer feedback actionable. Dayna is also an experienced content and conference producer who lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and five rescue dogs.

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Get ready to accelerate your revenue enablement success with insights from Forrester VP and Principal Analyst, Peter Ostrow. 

Recently Peter joined me to unpack the potential of AI to transform Revenue Enablement efficiencies and results. If your Sales Enablement budget is like most the team is understaffed and underfunded while juggling competing priorities.

Listen now to hear how you can use AI tools you already own to maximize their impact on every facet of your enablement programs, from RFP analysis to tailoring pitch-perfect emails.

Peter Ostrow is currently VP, Principal Analyst at Forrester B2B Sales. Peter capitalizes on 20+ years of revenue growth leadership in sales enablement, sales talent management, and operational expertise. Prior to joining SiriusDecisions and Forrester, Peter was a VP/Research Group Director for the Aberdeen Group, where he founded and was Principal Analyst for the Sales Effectiveness Practice, as well as overseeing research in marketing, customer success, field service and human capital management disciplines.  Prior to his analyst work, he was a long-time B2B sales rep, manager, and enabler.Since 2020, Peter has served on the board of directors of the Sales Enablement Society, the largest and only nonprofit organization dedicated to the sales enablement profession.

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In this episode with I discuss the critical partnership between Rev Ops and Rev Enablement with Sandy Robinson,  SVP of Revenue Operations and Enablement at Patra Corporation. Sandy shares her experiences and ways to unlock  the synergies between these two teams regardless of where they report. Some of the topics we covered:

• How Rev Ops and Enablement ideally partner
• Successful change management
• Systems selection and deployment
• Metrics and reporting

Sandy brings over 20 years of experience in sales, leadership, training, enablement, and revenue operations to the industry. She has a proven track record of driving revenue growth and optimizing operations through data-driven insights and innovative solutions. She has led sales teams to exceed targets, developed go-to-market strategies, and implemented scalable processes to drive growth. 

Sandy's mission is to enable teams through intense focus on the complete customer buying journey related to systems, tools, training, and processes. Sandy enjoys mentoring younger women, helping them to navigate their careers, and setting an example for other women in her field.

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This episode I have the opportunity to sit down the new RES Executive Board President Gail Behun. She opens up and shares her thoughts and observations about:

• The current state of the revenue enablement profession
• Her 4 key revenue drivers for measuring the success of enablement
• Observations from the 2023 RES Experience and what's to come
• Her priorities and vision for RES in 2024 and beyond

Gail Behun is a seasoned Sales Enablement leader, currently serving as the Director of Revenue Enablement at LivePerson, a global industry leader in AI-powered solutions. 

With an extensive career spanning high-growth SaaS companies, Gail has honed her expertise in sales and marketing roles, processes, methodologies, and business practices. Her approach to enablement is centered on building high-performing teams and ensuring comprehensive employee learning and development.  She thrives on connecting the dots innovatively and pioneering new initiatives in enablement, learning, sales, and operations.  

Gail is not only committed to advancing her organization's goals but also to the broader enablement community's growth and success.

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Have you heard of the "Tiger Seller Profile"? It's a concept and framework developed and used by Rodney Umrah during his years in sales, account management and enablement at IBM, Microsoft, NetSuite and in his current role as Head of Global Revenue, Partner and Customer Enablement.

In this episode Rodney explains how to elevate your sales team's performance as we dissect the elements that transform good sellers into great ones, and how tailored enablement programs can act as a catalyst for widespread excellence. For example:

• Identifying the skills, tactics and techniques of a Tiger Seller
• Working with HR and recruiting teams to elevate the hiring process
• Identifying skills gaps and enablement priorities based on Tiger Sellers
• Aligning sales process stages to the strengths of Tiger Sellers

Rodney Umrah has 26 years’ experience working in the global technology industry (software / cloud) at IBM, Microsoft, Oracle NetSuite, Xactly and Forcepoint. He has a wealth of experience in technical, sales, revenue, partner and customer enablement leadership roles. 

Rodney’s vision is to deliver enablement services globally that accelerate revenue growth and improve customer retention and satisfaction. 

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Why do sales leaders undervalue their enablement teams? With all the conversations and opinions about how to measure and demonstrate  business impact are Enablement teams actually gaining credibility? Jerry Farr, founder of Sales Excellence Advisors, joined me recently and shared his unique insights on why sales leaders might still be undervaluing  their enablement teams and how Enablement leaders and teams can flip that perception.

• How do sales leaders really perceive the value of Enablement?
• Do Sales leaders hesitate to include the Enablement team in C-level meetings?
• How credible are typical attempts to measure Enablement impact?
• Is there a way to measure impact that actually resonates with executives.

Jerry Pharr is a veteran sales enablement & operations leader at high-growth, tech companies. At varied companies like Outreach and Redis, he's architected and implemented a unique approach called Behavior-Centered Enablement, which is a systems-driven blueprint for delivering sales excellence at scale. He now coaches other enablement and operations orgs to improve sales performance by incorporating this framework. Jerry is one of the original founders of the Revenue Enablement Society, and is an advisor to multiple tech startups on their GTM and revenue operations strategies.

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Ever wondered how to successfully make the shift from "doing digital" to "being digital"? In this episode Paul "Norf" Norford, VP of Global Enablement at Ivanti  enlightens us with his insights on this topic and discusses the usage of digital platforms like YouTube and LinkedIn for skill enhancement.

• What are the digital aspects of Enablement?
• Doing digital vs. being digital
• Using micro learning and JIT training
• Leading with stories

Paul ‘Norf’ Norford is the VP Sales Enablement and Chief Evangelist at Ivanti. He's super-passionate about helping people, partners and customers change the way they do business.  Norf brings vast industry knowledge, influence, insight, creativity and passion to drive the introduction and adoption of new solutions and services to increase supply chain and I.T productivity and operational excellence. 

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Do you ever wonder about the intriguing intersection of AI and sales enablement? Join us as we sit down with Jonathan Carford, aka Coach K, the new head of revenue enablement for an exciting startup, Symmetric. Unravel the mystery between predictive analytics and true AI as Jonathan shines a light on their key differences and how to unlock the full potential of each platform to streamline your work and increase efficiency. 

Strolling through the futuristic world of AI application in sales, we marvel at the brilliant revolution it brings. Imagine having an interactive AI persona to practice your sales pitch or an AI assistant that researches job histories and companies for your presentations. We delve into the role of product marketing, enablement, and revops in developing customer personas and the prospect of AI generating innovative ideas. Not to mention, the potential of AI analysing 10ks for those who are not business school graduates.

Finally, we round off the conversation with Coach K's experiences with AI auto-tagging in CMS systems - a game-changer making content management a breeze. Jonathan also shares his criteria for evaluating AI platforms and shares nuggets of wisdom on trusting your instincts and embracing failure. We discuss the subtle art of LinkedIn connections, providing valuable tips to handle requests. Be sure to tune in to this enriching episode on the future of sales enablement and AI. Join us and Coach K on this journey - you won't want to miss it!

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Discover the transformative power of a life brand in this episode with Irina Soriano, Vice President of Enablement at Seismic. Join us as we explore the concept of a life brand - one that transcends self-promotion, and instead, emphasizes service to others and contributing to the community. We'll hear Irina's  insights on how this unique approach to branding can significantly alter the perception of enablement professionals and leaders. She also opens up about her personal journey in enablement and the profound impact it has made on her life.

• What is a "life-brand"?
• Using your life brand to build confidence
• Leveraging your life-brand professionally
• Safeguarding children's life-brand

Irina Soriano is the VP, Enablement at Seismic, the leader in Enablement. During her 15-year career, Irina built several global Enablement departments across EMEA, Asia-Pacific, and the US from the ground up. She leads the NYC Wise (Women in Sales Enablement) chapter, is the author of “Generation Brand”, as well as a TEDx and keynote speaker.

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Who doesn't love a great success story? 

This year the Sales Enablement Society Experience was held in San Diego and the theme was "The Enablement Evolution". For this episode I had the opportunity to sit down with 10 different Revenue Enablement pros and listen to their stories about personal and career Evolution. They shared great ideas that were new to me and I'm sure you're going to enjoy listening to them just as much as I did!

Thank you Mike Simmons, Sheryl Buscheck, Jill Guardia, Amy Levine, Chuck Marcouiller, Fiona Simpson, Michael Galvin, Michelle Dieschbourg, Sandy Robinson and Laura Meister.

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