Does Sales Enablement require experience in sales?

In the spirit of transparency and candor, let me say that I have a definite opinion about this question and its answer. My view is based on my personal journey coming to Sales Enablement by way of training, learning and performance, data analytics and content management, rather than from a sales background.

That said, I’m not convinced that Sales Enablement can function fully without some sales “street cred.” In my previous role I collaborated very closely with a highly experienced and respected sales leader as a peer within an SE function. This sales expert was the “front of the house” – conducting onboarding quick starts, readiness bootcamps, peer- and manager-based assessment, and sales best practice calls.

However, that, of course, is not the whole story. If it were just about selling skills, Sales would already have all the knowledge necessary. Each sales organization is the world leader in expertise selling its solutions to its customers! The model of “sales-expert-instructor-led-training” is giving way to peer-to-peer coaching and review, knowledge sharing and team-based selling. This is an approach to the sales skills training aspect that I recommend when the SE function consists of a single SE practitioner.

And then we come to data, analytics, supporting infrastructure and technology, curriculum and certification program management and content governance– topics which probably make the eyes of most sales people roll into the back of their heads as they either keel over or run screaming from the room. These skills are found in practitioners at the opposite end of the behavioral spectrum- structured, detailed, analytical, programmatic, data-driven- from that of the archetypal account rep.

One issue here is the variance in definitions for Sales Enablement. I was gratified to find HubSpot defining Sales Enablement as data, technology and content– just where I fit in. But of course, that’s what HubSpot would want it to be.

The Sales Enablement Society has a more impartial and detailed working definition, which is result of a lot of collaborative work over the last year:

Sales Enablement ensures buyers are engaged at the right time and place by client-facing professionals who have the optimal competencies, together with the appropriate insights, messages, content and assets, to provide value and velocity throughout the buying journey. Using the right revenue and performance management technologies and practices, along with leveraging relevant cross-functional capabilities, Sales Enablement optimizes the selling motion and supporting processes in order to increase pipeline, move opportunities forward and win deals more effectively to drive profitable growth.

Note that this says very little about experience selling- it is mainly about the tools, processes and resources to support a complex sale mapped to the buyer’s journey.

So with all that, the question remains, and perhaps the answer is we need a hybrid approach that combines both in-field sales experience and credibility with the analytics, governance and management. This combination in one individual seems to me to be true “purple squirrel” territory, and effective sales enablement teams should perhaps be no smaller than two, and include at least one representative from both arenas.