Welcome to Inside Sales Enablement, Season three, where we take a leap into the enablement time machine and...

> Take a look back with those who played a part in enablement history.

> Pause in the present and hit on a few modern themes

> And then shift our focus to the future and what it may bring for enablement teams.

Hello and welcome! I'm Erich Starrett. I started out as an ISE "Insider Nation" devotee of Sales Enablement Society founding father Scott, Santucci, and trailblazer Dr. Brian Lambert. I then collaborated with them to build OrchestrateSales.com, the global home for the podcast and related resources for Enablement Orchestrators and sales enablement history.

Why? Well as a sales enablement history nerd with a passion for the continued elevation of the profession. I see it as the Sales Enablement Smithsonian and, more specifically, an opportunity to serve you - the global enablement community.

Together, we will revisit the wisdom of the treasures therein as well as uncover some new ones with a series of special guests, which may even include you.

The foundation of cross-functional and enablement orchestration was established in the three founding principles signed into existence by the hundred-ish fore-founders of the SES back in Palm beach in 2016, for which this week in the studio is the seven year anniversary.

So in celebration after a year of hiatus, we're knocking the dust off the orchestrate sales.com property.

In the first episode we had Sales Enablement Society founding father Scott Santucci as our special guest, focusing on before the SES and how it almost didn't even exist.

Today, Scott rejoins me in the orchestrate sales studios, as we land alongside the a hundred-ish, fore-founders in Palm beach, back in November of 2016, where, and when the Sales Enablement Society officially began.  

Mentioned in this episode:

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Welcome to the Inside Sales Enablement Podcast.

2

Where has the profession been?

3

Where is it now?

4

And where is it heading?

5

What does it mean to you?

6

Your company?

7

Other functions?

8

The market?

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Find out here.

10

The Inside Sales Enablement

Podcast starts now.

11

Erich Starrett: Hello and welcome

to inside sales enablement.

12

Season three, where we take a leap

into the enablement time machine

13

and take a look back with those who

played a part in enablement history.

14

Pause in the present and hit on a

few modern themes, and then shift

15

our focus to the future and what

it may bring for enablement teams.

16

Hi, I'm Erich Starrett.

17

And I started out in the inside sales

enablement audience, listening to sales

18

enablement society founding father

Scott, Santucci, and trailblazer Dr.

19

Brian Lambert, and then collaborated with

them to build orchestrates sales.com.

20

The global home for the

podcast and related resources

21

for enablement orchestrators

and sales enablement history.

22

Why?

23

Well as a sales enablement history

nerd with a passion for the continued

24

elevation of the profession.

25

I see it as the sales enablement,

Smithsonian, and more specifically,

26

an opportunity to serve you the

global enablement community.

27

Together, we will revisit the wisdom of

the treasures therein as well as uncover

28

some new ones with a series of special

guests, which may even include you.

29

The foundation of cross-functional and

enablement orchestration was established

30

in the three founding principles signed

into existence by the hundred-ish

31

forefounders of the SES back in Palm

32

the studio is the seven year anniversary.

33

So in celebration after a year of

hiatus, we're knocking the dust off

34

the orchestrate sales.com property.

35

In the first episode we had sales

enablement society, founding father

36

Scott Santucci as our special guest,

focusing on before the SES and

37

how it almost didn't even exist.

38

Today, Scott rejoins me here in the

orchestrate sales studios, as we land

39

alongside the a hundred ish, four

founders in Palm beach, back in November

40

of 2016, where, and when the sales

enablement society officially began.

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Scott.

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, but let's get in a time

machine and head to Palm Beach.

43

So back to the article, thinking through

how we keep the organic nature of

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spreading whatever it is we were doing,

but also trying to find a way To have

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strength in numbers, I was inspired by

the Continental Congress the colonies

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used in 1776 that ultimately led to

one of the most unusual documents,

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the Declaration of Independence.

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We resolved to have a meeting where

we'd invite delegates representing

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all of the flavors of our community

and put it out there on LinkedIn.

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Given the emergent nature of the

role, we decided we're going to

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Build an organizational model

completely in support of our members

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experience and designed for growth.

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In other words, we're not going

to build silos and go down the

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path more chosen that's broken.

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Going back to that point in time, you

ended up landing in founding positions.

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Before I dive into those, anything

you'd like to say about the

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Continental Congress, how that landed

in that outcome, and is that what

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you envisioned from the beginning?

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Scott Santucci: Okay, so If we know

our history, our founding fathers

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made the Declaration of Independence,

then they fought a very long war, they

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won their Declaration, they won their

independence, they created this government

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under the Articles of Confederation,

and then they created a Constitution.

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design of how to organize would

be more akin to the Constitution.

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We're not there in that story.

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We're in the hey, how do we get A group of

delegates from different states together

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and convene to decide whether or not

we're going to declare independence and

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declare independence from who for what.

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So this is step 1 and all the

prerequisites before and why would

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we even do this in the 1st place?

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That's not how you do meetings.

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That's not how you set up groups,

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so if you go back, I said, okay,

I'm willing to put my political

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capital in my high paying management

consulting job with a bunch of other

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stuffy management consultants to

carve out space in this really

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stuffy thing to get 20 people there.

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Let's work backwards from that from

what that experience needs to look

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like to make that a good good event.

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Our goal was to get 20 people there.

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We're going to double down on the

social media lessons learned that

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I never would have learned if I if

Jill Rowley didn't challenge me and

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we didn't compare notes afterwards.

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I had to first figure out how

to explain this meeting to the

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management consulting people and see

whether or not we could get a room.

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what would that cost us.

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How do I prevent it from other partners

they're using it to try to pitch,

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how do we give it that distinction?

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How do we set up what the things are

and how do I help people realize that?

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Okay, we have to work in a lightweight.

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Creative way, but these are business

people that are going to be really annoyed

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if we don't, be buttoned down to, how

do we balance those particular things?

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So that got really stressful.

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But along the way we would put things

out and there were two key incidences

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that I thought were pretty unique

between . September and November.

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So people are like what's the agenda?

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It's I don't know.

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How am I supposed to

know what the agenda is?

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I don't know yet.

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You're either going to come or

you're not going to come, right?

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So he says, what does the meeting?

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And I said, I don't know, Terry.

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It's going to be this and this, and

we're going to cover this and it's

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going to be this kind of format.

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I'm going to run it just like the sales

and the ones that we did at Forrester.

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And . Okay.

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I'm in.

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Okay, cool.

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And that was from, he was

going to fly in from amsterdam.

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Think of the commitment that guy is taking

and the fact that he's doing it and he

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has to explain why he's going to do it.

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And he doesn't even have an agenda.

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Erich Starrett: I'm having empathy for

you thinking, wow, , this guy's doing this

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and I don't know what's going to happen,

but you put all the cards on the table.

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You did not overset expectations,

people trusted you and wanted

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to be a part of that experience.

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And they made the bet.

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Scott Santucci: But I think that the

thing is that it's the shared risk.

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That's important, right?

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Be aware that some of the people

here are flying in and they're taking

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some risks to anybody who was in

that 100 or are involved in that

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we're taking some degree of risk.

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, there isn't a button down approach.

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This is brand new.

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Jen Marie did a lot of

work to, organize it.

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Nicole did a lot of work to support it.

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Raul did a lot of work.

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We had a special role for Jen

Burns that I'll talk about later.

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I love her role that she had

in that founding meeting.

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We invited Gerhard see what happens

but I think where it really got a lot

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of momentum, and this is something

that , maybe you could broker this.

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Okay.

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I've begged for years for Bob Britton to

just talk about this one little issue.

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He said, Hey, I like what this is.

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It's the land of misfit

toys and it about it.

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And what that did is it validated a

lot of the things that we're doing.

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And in that moment he was just being Bob,

being designed or engineered or whatever.

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And the spike that we

had in activity was huge.

137

So we went from a situation from,

worrying about whether 20 were going

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to be there to suddenly we've got 40

people who are committed . Now I'm

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having conversations annoying the

hell out of the events people at AGI.

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The room that you were going

to give us isn't big enough.

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Do I have to cap attendance?

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Then we go from were goal was 20

we get to 40, then we're at 50.

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We got to change venue again, who's

going to get who's going to feed

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these people, all these expenses and

people are getting anxious as hell.

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What kind of signage do

we need to have these?

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This is the feedback that I'm getting

on the . On the AGI side, should we

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escalate it to the management team?

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Then we get to 75.

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We had a hundred people show up

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. thE other thing too, is

that the conference..

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Some people were flying in early

that night, . Some people were in

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there for the sales enablement thing.

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And some people were, we're

here for, the AGI thing.

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And the crowd of people that

knew me from Forrester, it

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was a different vibe than the.

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Sort of a corporate vibe of

a management consulting firm.

157

I'll let you imagine

those differences there.

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Shouting.

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Hey, Santucci

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so what happened is that Brian

arranged for everybody to meet

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beforehand for a breakfast beforehand.

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So people came in, with

a really great attitude.

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And how we ran that meeting was I first

gave a presentation, maybe I can find

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that that was about 20 minutes that

just went through, here's the history.

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And then we had three

positions that we took.

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There's the North star is

the VP of productivity.

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The 2nd, 1, is that we

recognize that there's a lot.

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Of flavors of it, and we

need to be inclusive of the

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flavors, not stomping them out.

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Is in order to make it work within a,

the latticework of a, of an organization,

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it's got to be set up and managed and

run like a business within a business.

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ANd I think that was by far the most

popular topic among among those groups.

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Zero debate about the definition because

since this is a about a vision and a

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North Star, there's no debate what

happens with definitions is they

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become grounds to exclude people.

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My turf.

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This is what it is.

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Absolutely.

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And when you debate that

all you do is argue.

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You don't, you don't

create consensus that way.

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So none of that was occurring.

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It was, this is a position.

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Do you agree with the

position or don't you?

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Yes or no.

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And debate it, argue it because we're

going to put it on paper and we're going

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to, we're going to take a position here

that the hundred of us are representing

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all the people who aren't there.

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So that's how that meeting worked.

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The first topic was, if we do

this, what will our mission be?

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And then had a draft.

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For people to react to, I learned from

that example that I shared with you

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about the VPs of sales on one side and

the VPs of marketing on the other side.

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Give somebody something for

people to react to rather than

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a clean white sheet of paper.

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Each table, I think there are about

eight tables there, had to come up with a

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position for each one of those different

parts, and then argue their position or

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state what their reaction was to that

position statement, and then we would

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say, okay, what about these elements do

we agree, and then whichever table had the

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best one, we sent them out in the room to

write it up, Moved on to the next topic.

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So the format was in each

one, it's like a gate.

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It was a mini agenda within an agenda.

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Hey, here's the frame of reference.

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Here's how we got here,

then here's the first topic.

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What would our charter be?

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I didn't come up with it, the 100

people in the room came up with it.

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Erich Starrett: Everyone's DNA was in it.

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was in it.

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Yeah.

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I love it.

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Scott Santucci: Yeah.

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Each table had their

like a tournament, right?

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Each table reacted to it.

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Each table talked about it.

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We all agreed.

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And then then we assigned

one table to go write it up.

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We also had people meeting outside to

say,, how would you set up chapters?

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What would that look like?

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Daniel was out there cause he already

got told he was going to be a chapter

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leader, but Jill Guardia was there.

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Carol Sustala was out there.

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If we did it, what, how would

it, how would you make it work?

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So the main topic were

these three positions.

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So the next position was,

Hey what are the flavors?

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In other words, what's the

scope of sales enablement?

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We had some discussion there we talked

about different viewpoints, how we

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in Virginia were being welcoming of

marketing people, product people,

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anybody who had a hand in driving

more sales, anybody we wanted to

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welcome as part of this discussion,

we didn't want to exclude anybody.

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We didn't want to say one group

knows more than the other.

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And the guy who runs the technology

marketing leaders group, Mike lock

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in front of everybody, one person by

himself, and he scolded everybody from

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being not inclusive of marketers enough.

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And I'm like, amen, brother.

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I agree.

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This is too heavy on sales

mechanics or whatever.

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We're never going to

build an inclusive group.

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If we don't have more tentacles

to be inclusive or even the word

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choices to make people that way.

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I love that he challenged everybody on

that and he was , 100 percent right.

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So what do we do to accommodate

these particular views?

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Is it reasonable that anybody's

going to be able to be the VP

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of sales productivity, which

is what the end state goal was.

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Are we going to be able to promote

and elevate the role if we don't

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have the ability to work among

and within an organization?

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Of the hundred people there,

I'd say 40 of them were VP

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level folks, major corporations.

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And none of them thought that's doable.

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You can't make this a function that

you wall off so well because You

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can't connect into the matrix of

how big corporations are organized.

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You have to be a fabric.

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You can't be a silo.

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We had some tough times.

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We had one guy stand up and say.

254

Hey I disagree that we can

be the VP of productivity.

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If we put that out there,

I'm going to get fired.

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That's when I thought Robert

Peterson shined the most.

257

He basically said, so you're just going

to basically say that all organizations

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have to be organized the way that

they're organized this way forever.

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That doesn't make sense.

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You can change your

organizational structure.

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That's in your control, right there.

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There's the value of having

an academic in the room.

263

Because if somebody in a corporate

environment won't ever think

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they can talk that way, but it's

ridiculous to think that you can't

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ever change your organization because

you can, it's in your control.

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And by the way, in that moment,

Sheevaun said, I'm going to do that.

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I want to do that role.

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That's going to be my role.

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Erich Starrett: And she proved it.

270

Scott Santucci: Yeah.

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She, and she's proved it right.

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She said that in that room right there.

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And another person that really was

exciting to me around that space

274

and time was Chris Kingman, and

he challenged us all saying, you

275

guys are a bunch of old people.

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He didn't say it this way.

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Okay.

278

I'm just paraphrasing.

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Erich Starrett: You have

creative license, Scott.

280

Go.

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Scott Santucci: I do get creative license.

282

But clearly everybody knows

if you're listening to us,

283

I'm bragging on him, right?

284

Of course.

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Yes.

286

But he says, Hey, you guys

are a bunch of old people.

287

You're not representing the

voices of any millennials.

288

I'm like, damn, you're spot on.

289

He's exactly right.

290

How do we create more room

to have those voices heard?

291

Erich Starrett: What about were there

key players that spoke out in the

292

sales enablement is a cross functional

problem and to be successful should be

293

run as a business within a business?

294

Scott Santucci: I talked about

Mike challenging everybody

295

, you're being exclusive.

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You're not factoring in marketing.

297

I very much agreed with that.

298

I think after that, the

discussion about business within

299

a business had so much energy.

300

Each table had their own spin on it.

301

And each table had their

own way of talking about it.

302

That was additive.

303

In group public environments,

it gets presented as one way and

304

people debate how that won't work.

305

But what happened in the room was

this is a great foundation and on,

306

on this foundation, I can change

this out or swap this in, but I

307

can still make the foundation work

308

instead of it's an answer.

309

It's an architecture.

310

And because of this architecture, this

allows me to do these kinds of things.

311

And with people with a large span

of control is really helpful.

312

So the debate wasn't debate.

313

It was, yeah, and you could do this

and we could build this on top of that.

314

And this structure has to be here

and you have to bound it this

315

way because of these reasons.

316

It's not a creative debate to let

everybody have their own answer.

317

It was because this is a architecture,

the boundaries create the things

318

to enable success to happen.

319

If we embrace the constraints of

this, it allows us to do way more.

320

If we keep tweaking it and debating

it 80 ways to Sunday it's worthless.

321

So I wouldn't say there was any one.

322

It was so collaborative.

323

If anything.

324

I had to be really mindful to

to stop the conversations and

325

say, so what do we agree on?

326

What will we publish?

327

Because we still had to write

up, the things we agreed on.

328

Then before we go, everybody

has to sign this document.

329

So we made this thing in the

back that everybody had to sign.

330

And I also had a rule.

331

It must be unanimous.

332

Oh, that's great.

333

Whatever we agree on, we have to document.

334

That's why people in the room

went and documented those things.

335

We assembled it together.

336

Then we have to read it out.

337

We have to have a unanimous agreement.

338

But before we do any of that, we

have what my favorite role was.

339

I mentioned Jen Burns.

340

Yeah.

341

Jen Burns role the entire time

wasn't really to participate.

342

It was to take notes for

people who weren't there.

343

Her job was to challenge all of us

collectively from the point of view

344

of people like her, in the room.

345

And I, I just think it's a stroke of

genius because Jen's a little bit cynical.

346

Anyway, you'd never know it meeting

her, but she is, and to give her this

347

kind of cynical role to challenge us

and be combative, and she was so great.

348

It's you guys said this and this,

what the hell does this mean?

349

And she was, she played the

role perfectly and I was like,

350

these are all great points.

351

Do we agree that we're now

just speaking our own language?

352

Let's answer her questions.

353

They're legitimate questions.

354

Let's answer them.

355

And it was great because it made

things even tighter, which facilitated

356

the, okay, let's go through.

357

Have we been thorough?

358

Did we do this?

359

Did we do that?

360

Did we do this?

361

Do we unanimously agree on these things?

362

And we got unanimous agreement.

363

Great.

364

Now what I'd like you to do is based

on that, go sign that document because

365

you guys all did it and that you're

assigning this, you're committing

366

yourselves to making this work.

367

And that was the meeting.

368

Erich Starrett: That's phenomenal.

369

I would love for the museum to have

the signed document and the Jen

370

Burns notes, the bad cop notes.

371

Scott Santucci: But we have some

pictures of one of my favorite

372

pictures is Jen's with the

microphone sort of challenging us.

373

Erich Starrett: Scott, what a neat peek

into the room where it happened literally.

374

Do you feel like they apply today?

375

Scott Santucci: We did publish, what

the rules were for the meeting and

376

people were expected to read periods.

377

So would I say.

378

That meeting format is applicable today.

379

100%.

380

Would I say giving people

pre reads and having well

381

documented rules before meetings?

382

Absolutely.

383

I think that's important.

384

And the forcing function of saying,

we're going to accomplish these things

385

and no one leaves until they're done.

386

I would say having a gated process

to follow definitely is something

387

that is is very important.

388

And then you could say, what were

the outcomes on the three positions?

389

Are the three positions still valid?

390

I think the point is just

like you would critique.

391

Okay.

392

The Declaration of Independence

says nothing about how the

393

country is going to be organized.

394

It basically just says, hey, king,

it's silly that you have power.

395

We think that power, we

think God gives us the power.

396

And we think that the, that a good

ruler is at the consent of the governed.

397

And these are the reasons

why we think you're a tyrant.

398

And because of that, we break up.

399

That's...

400

That's the gist of what the

Declaration of Independence is.

401

When those people signed it,

they were committing treason.

402

What happens to you in 1776 is

you get drawn and quartered.

403

So by signing it, they're

signing their death sentence.

404

These people came to a meeting where

thEy didn't know what to expect.

405

Some people from their time, some

people made the risk of of doing

406

it, and they signed their names to

something they had the courage . We

407

created the right environment

so that the debate could occur.

408

They argued and they allowed

the best ideas to emerge.

409

Erich Starrett: The formalized.

410

Three positions of the society.

411

Scott Santucci: This group of people in

relation to the topic of sales enablement

412

are saying these are our positions so

I would say that the sales enablement

413

society is built on those three positions.

414

Those three possessions are the

founding bedrock of what the sales

415

enablement society was built upon.

416

One, you're going to promote and elevate

the role with the end destination

417

to be the VP of sales productivity.

418

Two, there are four flavors of sales

enablement that have to do with

419

friction points between human resources

and sales, marketing and sales.

420

administration and sales

and finance and sales.

421

So these friction points exist.

422

The only way those friction points

can be resolved is if you look

423

at it through a business process

lens, not a departmental level.

424

lens

425

Position number three.

426

The only way to do that.

427

Is if you're building competencies

based on running your department

428

as a business within a business

429

said differently, what does it mean?

430

It doesn't mean sales enablement

is the head of training.

431

It doesn't mean sales enablement

only means this and it excludes

432

that sales enablement isn't defined

as a charter department and you

433

declare victory with a budget.

434

No,

435

you have to build a charter, you have to

run it as a business within a business,

436

you have to always find more ways of

adding value, you have to find more ways

437

of any more money, you have to find more

ways of satisfying your constituencies.

438

tHat's the contrast.

439

That's the bedrock of which the sales

enablement society was built upon

440

organizational structure, the concept of

an experience, all of that comes later.

441

100 people, 40 of whom were from

VP titles in huge companies.

442

60 from a variety of other subject

matter experts that you can go and trace

443

down, who those people were that sales

enablement, we take these three positions.

444

Erich Starrett: What

a great legacy, Scott.

445

And one that there's such opportunity

to still, it's still so relevant today.

446

What do you see next as the

founder and father of the society?

447

And how would you

encapsulate all of that?

448

As the walk away this is how

we can benefit from it today.

449

Scott Santucci: oKay.

450

So what I would say is.

451

I'm not really caught up in the founder

of sales enablement or anything like that.

452

What I am is focused on

solving a business problem.

453

The business problem is this companies

B2B companies spend an exorbitant

454

amount of money on sales and marketing.

455

They're not getting the return on that.

456

They focusing more and more on activities

and activities and getting further and

457

further focused away from customers.

458

The growth potential for any business

is to understand their customers.

459

Understand what their commercial

experience is and design

460

their system accordingly.

461

Given that if people were practicing,

because I've been practicing each

462

of those foundational principles,

what does productivity look like?

463

In order to have that conversation,

you have to have lots of debates with

464

operational people and finance people.

465

You can't just immediately just

walk up and say, here's a document

466

from Gartner or somebody and

says, here's what it looks like.

467

Give me stuff.

468

I believe that there are some

great metrics the building off of

469

that idea, I co created with TCB,

this concept of commercial ratio.

470

Anybody can adopt commercial ratio.

471

I

472

a hidden cost model to help

demonstrate quantifiably,

473

verifiably, and objectively what.

474

sales productivity looks like.

475

It is not subjective.

476

You can debate all you want to about

individual sales people or whatever.

477

None of that moves the needle.

478

So in terms of the bucket of what sales

productivity looks like there's been a

479

lot of great work that's done around that.

480

We can create space to have

those conversations and

481

share what those lessons are.

482

The next bucket . I think that

people have gotten so focused.

483

On defining a job and a department

and who owns what, that the idea

484

that sales is a team sport, if you

want caught revenue, that's great.

485

But revenue you have to factor in

a lot of accounting factor that in

486

that growth is a team sport is lost.

487

That most people are no, it's

about the MQL and sales won't do

488

this and marketing won't do that.

489

None of that is helpful.

490

The basic facts are, is that

what you do with your product

491

has a lot to do with sales.

492

What you do with finance and how you

measure things and how you set up your

493

organization has a lot to do with sales.

494

How you deploy your Salesforce and

how do you simplify what you're

495

doing has a lot to do with sales

496

and the role and responsibilities

that you cast and whether or not you

497

have marketing people actually in

the trenches doing things, or whether

498

they're just making stuff , on the

sidelines has a lot to do with sales

499

because, to customers, they

can sense the misalignment.

500

80 ways to Sunday sooner or later.

501

They're going to opt it, opt out if,

and they have so many other choices.

502

Then the third bucket would be running

as a business within a business.

503

That's not rocket science.

504

Somehow people take it rocket

science because they worry about

505

whether they're writing the

perfect charter statement or not.

506

Or they worry about all of these

things that don't matter and

507

they're not paying attention.

508

They're not right.

509

They're not envisioning it like

they're eight years old and setting

510

up their lemonade stand, what matters?

511

What kind of lemonade are you making?

512

Do you have two scoops of sugar in it?

513

Or do you have or do you have people

making so many different variations

514

of lemonade, you have no idea how

to keep track of your inventory?

515

Do you, do you get the

lemonade out to people on time?

516

Do you follow up and feedback with them?

517

Or do you just assume because it was

a hundred degrees out and they're

518

going, Oh, thank God for this.

519

That they, they think

your lemonade is awesome.

520

Maybe when it's 80 degrees out

and no one's there, maybe it was

521

because of other other conditions.

522

So there's all of these basic, simple

things that people just ignore that

523

if you're running your group as a

business, one of the business, you,

524

you can be not only adding more value

to the business, but you can also be

525

identifying functions that aren't adding

value to the business and, acquire them.

526

You can actually do hostile

takeovers and things like that.

527

There's so many things that you can

do if you're running your department

528

as a business with a business.

529

If you're just taking orders from

people and saying, I want to report to

530

the head of sales or I want to report

here, I want to report there because

531

they get me you put yourself at risk.

532

So I think though the wisdom and

the power of those three positions.

533

By staying constantly focused on building

out from them is a gigantic opportunity

534

to constantly doing what I observe

that's happening is a constant

535

reinvention of, name changes, or we

call it this, or we've always called

536

it that and constant disagreement.

537

You get nowhere.

538

You don't look serious to, to, to CEOs.

539

You become on the chopping

block for every CFO.

540

And I know these things because

I'm having these conversations

541

at the executive levels.

542

So I think that the opportunity really is

these are foundations to be built upon.

543

They're not just statements

out in the world that hey,

544

people aren't ordering that up.

545

That's not the way you build things.

546

In 1776, nobody thought that a group of 13

colonies were even going to win the war.

547

Let alone be the biggest

economic power in the world.

548

Erich Starrett: And the battle

continues seven years later, Scott.

549

Thank you so much for being a catalyst

for all of this and for your time today.

550

It's super meaningful to hear you,

especially on this anniversary every

551

time I speak with you, I uncover new

fascinating tidbits of enablement

552

history that inform such a huge

opportunity that still exists today.

553

Three foundational positions.

554

A gift that you and the collective

group and the collective

555

wisdom have given the world.

556

Maybe we can frame it up on

the way that you and the group.

557

Framed that first experience

around exactly that , the

558

experience that it's everything

there were seven Es of experience.

559

I believe that were the foundation

for that first global meeting.

560

That followed up about a year thereafter.

561

Would you consider that to be the

key element of that next meeting

562

as the three founding positions

were in this inaugural Congress?

563

Scott Santucci: Yeah, I think just

like the country had to figure

564

out they had to fight a war.

565

Let's not just gloss over.

566

Oh, Declaration of Independence.

567

And then there was the Constitution.

568

Along the way, a whole bunch

of people who were volunteers.

569

Somehow George Washington to keep

everybody together and keep them fighting.

570

Somebody had to provide that,

Thomas Paine gave him great things

571

of what they're fighting for.

572

And they did the impossible.

573

Then they had to figure out

how to govern themselves.

574

There was a point in time that

some of them were willing to accept

575

the king of Germany to run them.

576

They couldn't run themselves.

577

And of course that caused

people to just lose their crap.

578

That's what led to the constitution.

579

So it's part of, it's part of like

really understanding how things work.

580

And how human nature works.

581

Okay.

582

The declaration that was great.

583

It was a great event.

584

Now, what do you do there

and follow up from that?

585

What are all the battles that happened

between, that was November 16th.

586

What about the next big event?

587

It's what can this group of sales

enablement people accomplish?

588

Can they accomplish growth objectives?

589

Because that's what we set out

590

these things, let's prove this

group of people can do that.

591

So how do you set up a charter with

the whole goal of running yourself

592

like a business within a business,

embracing the constraints that were

593

told to us are really empowering, and

then setting up an organizational model

594

to achieve growth objectives that no

one would sign up for beforehand.

595

The next topic really should be an

understanding of why the charter for

596

2017 was set up the way it was set up

because I just fundamentally do not

597

believe people understand or appreciate

why the things were done the way they

598

are, how they were set up 100 percent to

practice and build upon the foundational

599

things that were set out in that meeting.

600

So I think that's way more important.

601

The principles are secondary.

602

Organizational structures are secondary.

603

The goal is what are we

trying to prove here?

604

What's our purpose?

605

What are we trying to do?

606

And we're trying to demonstrate in

front of the entire world, we're going

607

to do an experiment just like the

United States is a big experiment.

608

It's the way they talked

609

We set ourselves up as

a big experiment too.

610

Can a group of people come

together and drive a growth agenda?

611

And the answer is yes.

612

That was exceedingly successful

based on the specific stated

613

goals that were set out.

614

What was accomplished during what

period of time with no money only

615

volunteer resources and part time work,

616

Understanding those mechanics is far

more important than what the principles

617

were and everything like that.

618

Erich Starrett: Got it.

619

So would you call that body of

work, then the constitution?

620

And do you feel like you accomplished the

constitution or is that still to come?

621

Scott Santucci: I don't know.

622

Erich Starrett: Fair answer.

623

Scott Santucci: what I would say

is our founding fathers had the

624

history that there were two things

that you had to do in order to get

625

the Constitutional Convention going.

626

One, you had to figure out,

did the law exist in the first

627

place and why would you do it?

628

In other words, what is our purpose?

629

If we're going to convene,

what purpose do we have?

630

Everybody had an equal vote.

631

So how do you get agreement on what

do you want to do in the first place,

632

Step two then is what is the

construct that you put together?

633

What is the organizational structure?

634

Our founding fathers, the first

part, there was no precedent

635

in history to sort out.

636

But the latter part they used models

637

Like Madison, who had the Virginia Plan

that most of it is built on, studied a

638

lot of other, he studied the Roman model,

he was very influenced by the Florentine

639

Republic he made some corrections and some

adjustments, he talked to his buddy Thomas

640

Jefferson, who's very much anti anybody

to where they get the checks and balances.

641

And they argued vehemently to

where no one group would have

642

more power than the other.

643

Because they knew that they wouldn't be

able to get buy in from everybody else.

644

They had all that precedent.

645

We had precedent from

other things to steal from.

646

But the big issue was how do you go

from having that meeting to, okay,

647

why should I listen to you and how

do you get volunteers to do anything?

648

And then how do you model out

the exact problems that you wanna

649

exist to solve in the first place?

650

So what I would say is

there's probably two parts.

651

Part A, how do you define how do you

move from a state that isn't working

652

to a state that's workable and give

it an identity when nobody even knows

653

the vocabulary to talk about it?

654

Just like.

655

How in the world would you come

up with a constitution when

656

a constitution didn't exist?

657

And there was no basis on how to do it.

658

And you had 13 colonies acting like their

own, they were printing their own money.

659

They were all more or less

their own individual countries.

660

How do you get them to agree?

661

That's one problem.

662

The second problem then would be.

663

How do you construct it?

664

I would say those are the two biggest

missing pieces that are the most inclusive

665

to the entire sales enablement story.

666

Erich Starrett: And still being

defined and built as we speak.

667

So it sounds like the answer is, we

aren't at constitution as of yet.

668

Scott Santucci: I Would say that

669

I would say that post that people have

chosen to not, if you don't follow the

670

law if you don't set up the adjudication

process to evaluate things if you don't

671

put cases in front of the Supreme Court

there's the Constitution doesn't work.

672

I would say that's what's happened.

673

THere was a constitution.

674

I don't know what the name changes

and things like that, whether any

675

of those things have been changed

or whatever, or where we just go to

676

corporate bylaws and think that you

can just check checklist corporate

677

bylaws and think that's the same thing.

678

I don't know, but I do know that it's

directly related to the concept of

679

running a business within a business.

680

When you set up a business, you

don't just do checklists and say,

681

okay, we're a thriving company.

682

I would say categorically, there was

a constitution that was followed.

683

There was a power base

established that was followed.

684

It did work.

685

It worked exceptionally, exceedingly well.

686

And I would say in my observation it's

not being followed, discussed, thought of.

687

It's been ignored.

688

And I think these are the same kinds of

problems that prevent sales enablement

689

entities from thriving inside their own

companies, it's like a meta problem.

690

Erich Starrett: And it sounds to

me like a meta opportunity, Scott.

691

Scott Santucci: Correct.

692

Erich Starrett: For the society to

further solidify and regain authority.

693

Scott Santucci: Yeah.

694

Or it could just be like it

could be for just a group of

695

four people that, want to do it.

696

It, it doesn't need to be for the society.

697

Anybody can say, I want to dedicate or

learn more about the founding principles.

698

You got to go through the battles

and that's what the debate and the

699

cross referencing and the challenging

does is it turns an idea into

700

something solid, it transforms an

idea into an executable insight.

701

And then when you have stories about

how it works, then it becomes real.

702

Erich Starrett: Scott, I have an "ask."

703

I would like to raise my hand

to consolidate all of this.

704

I would love to get those

additional pieces of information

705

if you can find them.

706

My ask is the opportunity

to present those to you.

707

Let's call it the constitution and to

take a look at what would it look like

708

whether it's 4 people or 400 right to

reinvigorate what occurred 7 years ago

709

and, get a little bit more of the secret

sauce, the things that happened behind

710

the scenes, a lot of which you've shared

today, and maybe fill in some of those

711

blanks and have something that can be

offered out to the potential "we.".

712

Is that a collaboration you'd be

willing to do with me and to share that

713

history and create the opportunity?

714

Scott Santucci: Sure.

715

I would say that a good idea

might be, let's start with

716

from colonies to continent, continental

convention to declaration of independence.

717

Erich Starrett: Okay.

718

Scott Santucci: Get those things down.

719

You don't know that but you're mixing

too many things with the declaration.

720

There's so much there.

721

Saying, here are the foundational

elements, these three things.

722

Just because they're three and

because they're stated simply doesn't

723

mean they're not super powerful.

724

There's tremendous implication

in each one of those three

725

individually and then collectively.

726

Understanding the strategic

importance and impact of those

727

things is a really big deal.

728

A big opportunity.

729

Erich Starrett: You have my curiosity and

I'm excited to, I'll say unpack each of

730

the three and join you in that journey.

731

Scott Santucci: Awesome.

732

Erich Starrett: Scott, thanks so much for

your time again and happy anniversary.

733

VoiceOverGuy: Thanks for

joining us to become an insider

734

and amplify your journey.

735

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