This article comes from Debbi Varela’s talk, ‘The revenue enablement ecosystem - it takes a village’, at the Austin 2023 Sales Enablement Summit, from our sister community, Sales Enablement Collective, check out the full talk here.

Having spent nearly two decades in sales, I can say for a fact that the enablement landscape has changed significantly since I began my journey in 2006.

Luckily, this has meant that over the years I have been able to be constantly experimenting, learning, and evolving, and through trial and error, I've discovered strategies that have led to success.

Today, I want to share some of the insights and lessons I've learned throughout my journey.

Whether you're just starting out or have years of experience under your belt, this article is packed with valuable tips and strategies to help you create a culture of enablement and build an unstoppable enablement ecosystem within your organization 💪.

But before we dive in, let me ask you a question:

Have you ever heard of the kitchen sink effect in sales enablement?

You know, that overwhelming feeling when you're bombarded with countless requests and it seems like everything but the kitchen sink has been thrown your way.

Trust me, I've been there too, and it can be quite a challenge to navigate through the chaos.

That's why it's crucial to define what sales enablement truly means to you and your team. We need to carve out our own little corner in the enablement world and build a thriving ecosystem around it, here we'll explore how to do just that.

Are you ready? Great!

Let's dive in and discover the transformative power of building an enablement ecosystem that will propel your organization to new heights ✈️.

We’ll talk about:

  • Defining sales enablement
  • Step 1: Knowing what you’re building
  • Step 2: Organizing and activating your ecosystem
  • Aligning for success
  • Final thoughts

Defining sales enablement

When it comes to sales enablement, we often throw around the term without fully understanding its meaning. So, let's start by defining it.

Sales enablement is more than just a buzzword. It's a strategic approach that encompasses a wide range of activities aimed at equipping our sales teams with the necessary resources to excel in their roles.

At its core, sales enablement is about providing our salespeople with the right information, content, and tools they need to sell more effectively and efficiently.

Now, you might be thinking, "That sounds broad and all-encompassing." And you're absolutely right. Sales enablement covers a vast spectrum of responsibilities and initiatives.

Hence the "kitchen sink effect".

It's that feeling when you look at your never-ending case queue or receive seemingly endless requests from the business. You can't help but wonder, "Should we really be doing all of this?" Sound familiar?

The truth is, we need to find a way to prevent the kitchen sink effect and determine what truly matters.

To do that, we must start by clearly defining what sales enablement means to us and our team's role within the enablement landscape.

We need to carve out our own little area of enablement and build our ecosystem around it, bringing us to step 1.