The first 90 days in any new position is a time to assess the world around you, determine how you can best contribute, and tread lightly while making your presence known. For the new Band-Aid, glue stick, catch-all, fixer-of-broken-things sales enablement leader, this is all taken to a new level. As you get ready for your first 90 days, here are five priorities that will determine whether you sink or swim:
1. Get your priorities straight
Align with the priorities of the business. All companies set objectives to grow revenue. They rely on the sales team to accomplish this and making sure the sales team can generate revenue is now your responsibility. So, understand how the business intends to grow (new markets, new products, sales transformation, headcount reduction, etc.) and internalize it. This becomes your true North and the way you differentiate and prioritize impact from the noise.
2. Examine the stack
There’s an app for every imaginable sales situation. While technology can have a substantial impact on efficiency and even effectiveness, disparate tools without a clear strategy can be counterproductive and expensive. Take inventory of what you have and the intended use case, then examine the data to try to discover adoption and impact. This is critical to understand prior to the inundation of opinions driven by loyalties, pet projects, and relationships.
3. Walk a mile
While cross-functional alignment is important, sales leadership, sales support, and sales are your primary customers. Get to know what they do, how they do it, their obstacles to success, their winning recipe, sales motions by role, and who the top performers are. Shadow them, ride along, listen to recordings, use their resources, and try your hand at a day in the life. The more familiar you become with the current state, the faster you can have an impact.
4. Get social
And I don’t mean LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook (although we have a strategy for that, too), but instead rely on good old-fashioned conversations. Learn who is who and make it your job to meet them. Take the time to truly understand the different cross-functional roles and how they connect into the company priorities and sales execution. Compare what you learn to the data from #2 and the experiences from #3. Ask good questions and be a good listener. Building credibility, confidence, and trust in these relationships are critical to your success. Keeping #1 front and center allows you to challenge the status quo with mutual success as the driver.
5. Mind the gap
As you work through these five areas, some dots will connect and some won’t. The gaps where the sales organization doesn’t have a process, content, tools, or resources for sustainable success are where you make your mark. Bridge those gaps and set the criteria by which you will monitor and measure the outcomes and you’ll be off and running!
Have questions about how you can apply this information to your own organization?
If you are looking for a sales enablement leader, we’re here to help. We have used our extensive experience with sales enablement leaders across the globe to articulate the competencies critical for success and have an extensive network! Reach out to your Customer Success or Account Manager to discuss company-specific strategies!