WiSE: You started your career in an operations  analyst role and from there built a business case to create a role in enablement.  Tell us about  your journey.

Brooke Coletti:  I started on a Sales Operations team as an analyst, responsible for pulling data for executives. This role gave me insight into metrics and data that executives and the board considered while evaluating the health of the business. While analyzing the data, I noticed trends that correlated with the Salesforce stages in the sales process. After conversations with Sales leadership, I learned that the managers were responsible for educating their own individual teams but were provided little guidance. I realized there was an opportunity to build consistency and alignment across the company and wanted to be the person to do it. I built a proposal justifying the need to create an enablement role. That proposal was approved, and that is when my Sales Enablement journey began.

W: Enablement can mean a lot of different things to different people and companies.  Tell us what enablement means to you and what the most rewarding part is of an enablement role.  

BC:  In many organizations, enablement is the heartbeat of the company. I've been responsible for all enablement programs, including onboarding and continuous learning, for the internal sales teams and channel partners. Throughout my career, I have been brought into organizations to build enablement programs and frameworks from the ground up. My programs embed tools and processes that will ensure the company's success over the long term. My approach is holistic, with enablement encompassing the entire learning cycle from initial strategy through execution and reinforcement. To me, enablement means that you are a trusted adviser to an organization, contribute to the strategy of the go-to-market sales motion, and help Sales reps see and reach their potential. Helping Sales reps achieve their potential is the most rewarding part of being in enablement. I love seeing reps succeed in their role, progress in their career, and see the positive impact they have on the company's performance.

W: The amount of enablement technologies available on today's market can be a little overwhelming, what is one tool that you consider a must-have and how has it helped your team be successful?   

BC:  Highspot is the one tool that made a huge impact on my previous organization. It was the centralized location for the entire companies content and training programs. I rolled out the tool to allow the company to have the ability to provide resources and training to the team in a thoughtful way instead of random content in Sharepoint. 

All new hires went through a learning path customized to their role within the organization, consisting of courses, lessons, and videos. This was crucial to the leaders of the organization because new hires were being certified on different skills in the Highspot system through knowledge checks, video submissions, and learning progress. 

Since implementing the enablement tool, I effectively lowered time to revenue by eight days by implementing self-paced training courses and a certification program. Win rates and deal velocity also increased by ~15% due to the Sales team's knowledge of the learning resources and collateral available to support them throughout the deal cycle. 

Through the use of Highspot, the organization could track the company's collateral usage and focus both the Marketing team's and my time on content that employees deem to be the most useful and impactful. Overall, this tool and the processes I rolled out to best utilize the tool have allowed the organization to thrive and continuously meet and beat revenue goals laid out by the board of directors.

W: Enablement can be a challenging role if you don't have alignment.  What  has been the most challenging part of enablement and what is your advice to others for overcoming similar challenges?

BC:  Enablement is a relatively new field, and the function can vary from company to company. Being new to enablement, I struggled to understand that my job was not to fix things within the organization and be reactive but to be strategic and help an organization align go-to-market (GTM) strategies. 

I overcame those challenges by creating an enablement charter to outline what enablement is and is not, to align the organization. Without alignment, the company will waste time, money, and resources, but most of all, fail to realize the full impact on the bottom line. 

I experienced that alignment with Sales is key; without the Sales leadership’s support of the strategy, initiatives, and priorities, nobody will be successful. Sales leadership must hold the team accountable to incorporate the knowledge and commit to the process designed to educate sales staff. 

Lastly, the importance of collaborating with the Product and Marketing teams; this aligns the enablement and training schedules to the product roadmap early on. Being in lockstep with Marketing is paramount to understanding and influencing the content strategy and aligning with the company's GTM strategy.

W: There's a lot of different skillsets that can make an enablement professional valuable, tell us about the skills you posses that have made you so successful in the field?  

BC:  I believe every enablement leader should be able to collaborate, communicate, and drive consensus with a focus on partnerships. The Enablement team knows everything in the sales, sales operations, marketing, and product teams. The ability to effectively communicate and vocalize concerns is key. Visibility into macro and micro-level business strategies is critical in anticipating and designing solutions for challenges and issues the business may face. 

The key to success is focusing on the how and the why; concentrating on the why will create long-term success through partnership and collaboration. Focusing on why we are doing an initiative is how enablement transforms from being viewed as a training or problem-fixing team to a valued partner.

W: What is the most important advice you can offer to someone who is looking to get into the enablement field?  

BC:  Now that working remotely has become the norm, more companies realize that Enablement is a must-have. If you are looking to get into the enablement field, I recommend joining your local WiSE chapter and meeting the members who are already in enablement in your area. Many WiSE members are more than willing to mentor, share their experiences, and may even have roles within their organizations to help get your foot in the door. 

I encourage people always to be true to themselves and their values. Take the time to understand what makes you tick. Passion will be a driving force for success, regardless of what others deem as being ‘successful.’” For me, it means continuing to evolve, not settling for what has ‘always’ worked in the past, and participating in the enablement community to build a support system.

If you're a woman in enablement and would like to be interviewed for the site,

 email WiSEGlobalContact@gmail.com with the subject line, 'Interview'