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ISEs3 Ep6: Christopher Kingman​ - SES Fore-founder, RES + Emblaze Exec Board Member
Episode 6 • 13th February 2024 • Inside: Sales Enablement • Scott Santucci, Brian Lambert, Erich Starrett
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Hello and welcome to OrchestrateSales.com's Inside Sales Enablement Season 3 Enablement History. Where we hop in the Enablement Time machine and explore the past, present, and future of the elevation of a profession.

On Episode 6, Erich Starrett hosts Christopher Kingman M.S., Global Head of Digital Sales Enablement at TransUnion, in the OSC Studios. And - SPOLER ALERT - this Ep is COMPLETE with a first of its kind opportunity to meet our guest IRL and face-to-face! Along with some of the best-of-the-best who have made (and continue to make) Enablement and Digital Sales history. And with not one but two ISE Insider benefits to make it easy on the travel budget.

Chris has a captivating Enablement past as the youngest SES Fore-founder in "the room where it happened" ...just up the street from his Florida home. He is also well known for standing up in that very room as the voice of the next generation.  He shares his unique perspective on the past, while concurrently holding executive board roles with both the Revenue Enablement Society and Emblaze.

Don't miss insights from this consistent practitioner, leader and volunteer on the Enablement front lines about the past, present and future of the function and profession. 

Highlights include:

PAST:

> Participating in the founding meeting of the Sales Enablement Society with people who came from as far away as the Netherlands like Thierry van Herwijnen and big names like Gerhard Gschwandtner and Jill Rowley invested their time, talent, and travel generously.

Dr. Robert M. Peterson, who never lets Chris forget that he was the "youngster" there.

PRESENT:

> Chris' board role with Emblaze (fka AAISP) is informed by years of involvement including at the F2F events. 

> RES and Emblaze have partnered around the concept that your enablement person and your CRO/CSO are two sides of the same coin.

FUTURE:

> Developing the first standards-based Enablement Executive Education program.

> The 2024 Emblaze #digitalnow Revenue Growth Summit in which the RES is cultivating the Enablement track, and Chris and RES President Gail Behun will be hosting a "How to speak CRO" session. 

We also announce an ISE Season Three exclusive...

> Book NOW! RSVP ASAP for the upcoming summit in Chicagoland from April 2nd to 4th! An opportunity to meet Tim and SO MANY other thought leaders face-to-face at the 2024 digitalnow Revenue Growth Summit in association with OrchestrateSales.com's ISEs3 podcast.

Hosted by Emblaze, powered by Corporate Visions, bringing together sales, marketing, and success leaders to address the challenges and opportunities of digital selling. The link below includes an embedded "OSCISE" code for specially discounted ISE Insider Nation access! https://salesenablement.captivate.fm/diginow24

(Check out the "mentioned in this episode" section👇🏻)

Don't wait - hit PLAY! - to hear about all of the above

...and so SO much more.

Join in the journey with curiosity

alongside those courageously treading

the past, present, and future frontlines

of a growing function and global profession.

Please click 👇🏻, subscribe 📲, listen 🎧 ...and 🎙️ join the conversation! 

ORCHESTRATE Sales!

Let's #ElevateEnablement TOGETHER!

Mentioned in this episode:

ISEs3 PROMO CODE for Emblaze DigitalNow Revenue Summit 2024 in Chicago

Hit salesenablement.captivate.fm/diginow24 and it will plug in promo code OSCISE automatically -- for $745 off of the Emblaze DigitalNow Revenue Summit 2024 registration fee! Hope to see many Enablement Insider Nation smiling faces soon in Chicago. Or, more specifically, *just* outside of the Second City ...on April 2nd!

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Transcripts

Erich Starrett:

Hello, everyone.

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Today we have Mr.

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Chris Kingman, coming hot off

the SKO train at TransUnion.

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And he is also, if you don't know,

a member of the executive board

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who's got a few ideas up his sleeve

about the possibility that someone,

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even me, might be able to be,

my words, an MBA in enablement.

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Chris, let's start there.

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Anything I missed in your vast,

wide, and global portfolio

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Christopher Kingman: Thanks, Erich.

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I can proudly say I'm also a member

of the advisory board for Emblaze, the

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professional sales leadership network.

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I have a foot in each pond, if you will.

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, Erich Starrett: I would say

you have a foot in each ocean.

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I got a big toe in each pond here.

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I'm, , president of the

Atlanta chapter of the RES.

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And,, recently the

board here with Emblaze.

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So I have a lot to learn

from you, big brother.

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And, love hearing that talk track.

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I think we're onto something.

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So today, you know what, let's go ahead

and start out with super simple, . When

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did you first hear the words sales

enablement and what did they mean to you?

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Christopher Kingman:

That's a good question.

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, I think in maybe 2015, 2014, I

built a small enablement and

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support team within TransUnion in

a local office in South Florida.

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And , the manager that I was

assigned to somebody based on an

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acquisition, the question was,

Hey, what do you want to go do?

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And I said, I want to go do this

thing called sales enablement.

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And I was on LinkedIn trying

to understand, the evolution

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of sales operations, sales

training and development.

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I was building, , product training,

product demos, new hire onboarding.

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And consistently every kind of article

I would come across would say, what

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is sales enablement, what's this

thing, and you pull on that thread.

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It started to unravel rather quickly.

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There's a lot of emerging opinions

and emerging kind of ideas on it.

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The big consulting firms were

all kind of putting their pieces

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together and their stances.

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, and I think it all culminated

with the founding of, the

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society as a LinkedIn group.

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And some of the early works of

, those wonderful folks driving the

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conversation and being very open.

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About conversing with anybody who had

anything to say about it, that drew me in,

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, and then stars align and the first meeting

was 30 minutes, 45 minutes up the street.

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Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have

flown across the country for that.

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So I drove up to the meeting, , and

I got to see, , a lot of these

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people that I've been exchanging

with online and they knew who I was.

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They were like, hey, it's good to see you.

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Thanks for coming.

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I did the first signed the statements that

everybody signed, worked on the definition

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Erich Starrett: Awesome.

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Christopher Kingman: and that was it.

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It was off to the races.

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, and then over the years, just.

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More and more both staying on

top of the research and being

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in, invested in the research.

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Ingesting as much as I could in the

earlier parts of my career, , and

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then volunteering here and there with

the society, , being on the advisory

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board, , doing a lot of kind of side

projects and then eventually being

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asked to join the board as well.

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Erich Starrett: Wow.

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What a storied history.

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You might be the winner in the

past, present and future categories.

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So you already jumped into

my question number two.

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So maybe I'll throw you a little

bit of a curve which is where, when,

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and how does the sales enablement

now revenue enablement we'll get

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there in a minute, fit into your

timeline and professional journey.

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You were there at the original.

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You're one of the 100 ish.

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I hear fore founders.

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So thank you for that.

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Now on the executive board.

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Curious.

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, along that journey.

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Can you in that meeting?

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Are there 456 10 people you remember?

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Part of it is my personal treasure hunt

I'm on to identify the hundred, right?

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So maybe we could take it offline and

you can rattle off as many folks as

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you can remember were in that room,

the room where it happened, right?

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, but are there a couple folks that

stick out early on, , that maybe

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you're even still in touch with and

are still part of the evolution?

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Christopher Kingman: Sure, , we all

know Scott was there and doing most

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of the work with Scott Santucci.

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Erich Starrett: Oh, okay.

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Yeah.

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I've heard of him.

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Christopher Kingman: He's going to mention

I was there, so I'll talk about him

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being there, Scott commands attention.

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He did an awesome job of

driving the conversation.

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It was interesting to go to something that

I thought at the time was like, wow, I

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don't know what I'm going to get when I go

to, I just, I know I got a strong feeling.

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I got to be there.

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I got to go see what this is about.

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And you can tell very quickly, like

there is some intention behind doing this.

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We're not just, no, we're

not in a room full of.

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People,, just talking about the

weather, like there was some things

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that needed to get out in the open and

discussed and aligned and agreed upon.

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It was a successful meeting.

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I don't know if we would have

made it this far if we didn't have

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the engagement and the outcome.

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And a lot of people traveled very

far, , to be there, Thierry came

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from the Netherlands, I believe.

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. And you had lots of big names.

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You had Gerhardt there.

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You had a bunch of other folks.

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Jill Rowley was there.

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, you had,

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Erich Starrett: She always is mentioned

that we're six or seven for six or seven.

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Rowley is always.

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And that's yeah, I love that.

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She was there.

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Christopher Kingman: She played a

very, impactful role in the early

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days, was very generous with her time.

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When people want to talk to her

about hey, how do we grow this?

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What do we do?

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How do we grow my network?

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Just an awesome person to know, right?

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Like influencer for sure.

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But when you actually sit down and talk to

this person, they had something for you.

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Even when you had nothing,

I had nothing to offer her.

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And she still gave me value.

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It was great.

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,

my favorite person enabled my Rob Peterson was there.

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Cause obviously Rob takes every

chance to pot shot me and remind

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me that I'm much younger than him.

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Erich Starrett: Dr.

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Rob.

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Christopher Kingman: Still

keep in touch with Rob a lot.

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And every time he's got an enablement

question, , I feel very honored that

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he always reaches out to me for help..

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That's where I met Rob

and I met Howard Dover

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Erich Starrett: yes.

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. Doctor Dover.

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That's awesome.

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He's got a book too.

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I got to get him on the show.

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Talk it up.

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Christopher Kingman: you should,

it was an amazing experience.

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The thing that always gets brought

up, especially when I guess I get

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looped into the conversation is.

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I was the youngest person in that room.

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,

Erich Starrett: That's cool.

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Christopher Kingman: Now,

I don't care about that.

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People, of other generations tend to make

a big deal, I guess about 10 years ago,

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the whole millennial thing was a really

big, , point of contention, if you will.

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So it was a hot topic,

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in that session the conversation

navigated to what about millennials

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and how are they changing buying?

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And I felt it wasn't that I needed to

say anything, but I believe Scott said,

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are there any millennials in the room?

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And I was the only one other than two

vendors who were not there to talk, right?

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They, they were just supporting.

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I was the only one I stood up.

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They said this and, because I

know Scott talked about this, too.

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Erich Starrett: Yeah . You were

in episode one of season three.

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Christopher Kingman: I think I I

recall I said something like this.

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Millennials aren't special and we

don't need to be treated special.

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I believe that then I believe now

we're no different than a generation.

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And that was it.

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It was the only thing I said, but for

some reason, I got a lot of praise

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just for standing up and saying that I

don't, I didn't think it was a big deal.

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, but just because I was the youngest

enablement person who opened their

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mouth that carried me just a little

bit, the first conference , where I

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could actually talk about the stuff

that I do and, hopefully demonstrate

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I know what I'm talking about.

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And my age has nothing to do with this.

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Erich Starrett: I'm a believer.

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And, honored to have you

here on the podcast, Chris.

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So let's shift to the next one, What

of the founding positions, right?

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And I don't need to tell you them..

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But, , of the three and just for the

audience, I'll reiterate, position one

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being sales enablement as a strategic

approach and there being different

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flavors of it in the four primary areas

that were originally discussed back

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in Palm beach, talent message., demand

management and administration where

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the four kind of flavors of enablement

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Position two, in order to accomplish

the mission sales enablement

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needs to be chartered as a cross

functional business within a business.

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To be effective.

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And then finally, we're evolving to

something the aspirational state at the

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time was chief productivity officer.

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So of those three, which you're

clearly very familiar with and

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might have even penned one of them.

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Okay.

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Which subgroup were you in of those three?

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Do you even pay any attention

to those three anymore?

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No, Where are we today?

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Where are we going?

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Christopher Kingman: I worked on

one of the projects, but I couldn't

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tell you which one of those it

was, because it was so long ago.

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, they're still relevant, but

they could also use an update.

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I'll tell you, My stance on really

what the position for me is.

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Erich Starrett: Okay,

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Christopher Kingman: I believe that it

is - and should be - a strategic approach.

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I've always loved eliminating friction.

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I think that is for me - that's the

thing that I strive for the most.

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I have teams that oversee

training and development.

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We build.

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All kinds of programs to help you upscale,

to help you be better at your job to

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help you understand what you should be

doing based on your expectations and make

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sure you get the most out of your tools.

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At the end of the day, I view

sales as an organic conversation

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between a customer and a seller.

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An exchange that's based on value

and context and it has to be organic.

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It can't be forced.

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Everything else around that is

an opportunity for enablement to

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improve and to reduce the friction.

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I don't necessarily think chief

productivity officer is the

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title I would align with, or

it resonates the most with me.

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I don't know.

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If you could collapse it into such

a concise thing, I used to call

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it the chief director of traffic.

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Erich Starrett: it's better than fixer of

broken things, stepping up strategically.

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Christopher Kingman: Yep.

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I don't like fixer broken things.

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I don't like land misfit toys.

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I think it mislabels what we do.

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Erich Starrett: And I think those were

said in jest as that was the perception

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of rather than, Hey, this is who we are.

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It's people think we're

this, but we're so much more.

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That's the impression I

get, but I wasn't there.

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Christopher Kingman: Yeah, I

totally agree with you Erich.

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I think that's.

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we, we may be having that conversation

for another decade, right?

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I think, when we talk about.

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, where the position is going.

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It's almost like it's the

person who removes all of the

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roadblocks to revenue attainment.

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Erich Starrett: I love that

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Christopher Kingman: I like to

think about enablement and what

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we do as to increase the ease of

buying and the ease of selling.

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Erich Starrett: both.

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Christopher Kingman: aligned to

those concepts, everything that we

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do falls in one or two , buckets.

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And I try to make it

as simple as possible.

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Erich Starrett: So You want to

simultaneously reduce the friction from

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both the inside out, but really leading.

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- because I know you - leading

with the outside in, right?

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Love that.

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So on to four and you've already

brought up a few of these.

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I'm gonna keep digging any good stories

that could be considered SES history.

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Even RES.

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It's been around six months There might be

some little nooks and crannies we haven't

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heard of even in just that amount of time.

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Or even lore, something that is

unknown to the larger community or

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I love the millennial thing, I love

that you unpacked it further already.

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Or maybe just something that

you haven't shared before

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and you had a front row seat.

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Christopher Kingman: The consistent

theme for me Over the history of the

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society is that it is volunteer driven.

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Everybody who I've ever engaged

with, that's part of it.

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In some leadership capacity has a job

or two and they still find time to try

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to elevate the profession in some way.

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And, I would say everybody gave something.

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Some people.

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We're there for a long time.

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Some weren't that long, but

I'm always impressed with, the

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diversity in the walks of life

that say, hey, I want to help.

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This means a lot to me.

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This community means a lot to me.

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I've gotten so much out of it , and

it doesn't have to be a person

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in a leadership position that's

influenced a member . Members

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learn from members all the time.

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For me, it's always been.

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The networking has always

been the real highlight.

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The friendships that I've made, right?

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,

I talk about Rob Peterson, but, , there's a dozen other folks that

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I still connect with,, frequently.

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And you get to meet new people

all the time and they're so

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very talented and they're, they

have a different perspective.

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The number of people I've met over

the years is just, it's astonishing.

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I would not have met that many

people sitting in a singular

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career, , the amount of friendships

I've built, I think those are great.

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And the doors that it opens I don't

think I'm a podcaster, but I end up

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on, a dozen or so a year just from

people's Hey so and so from this

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place said to talk to you about this

thing, but cool let's have a chat.

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the consulting opportunities that it's

opened, the endless amounts of, Hey,

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I want to pick your brain about this

platform I'm building because I want to

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know if people like you would buy it.

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Stuff like that.

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I've met so many smart and talented

people who are going to blow sales tech

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out of the water in the next decade.

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Just through networking and

just the relationships, they

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end up, in my inbox and I'm so

excited to talk to these people.

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Erich Starrett: I'll

put words in your mouth.

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What a great poster child for that

community and how you are doing

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that very thing right now as we

speak, as a matter of fact, right?

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, so great answer.

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And I too, I'm a big fan of

the amazing community I can't.

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Put any kind of price tag on

the folks including yourself.

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I've had the opportunity

to meet and learn from

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Let's head on to the recent past back in

Ses still calling it that at the time exp

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in sd san diego back in october It seems

like that was years ago at this point.

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, the big announcement, ? We're evolving.

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We're becoming the revenue

enablement society.

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I loved how each member of the board

stood up, gave their personal take.

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And so really, it would be great.

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Maybe some of the folks in

the audience haven't heard.

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What is your take on sales versus

revenue and kind of maybe give us even

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a little bit more of a peek behind the

curtain on why you gave it the green

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light and were all in as an advocate

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?

Christopher Kingman: In:

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for a Forrester conference.

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, and one of the questions is, what do I

think the evolution of enablement is?

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And I said, drop the sales.

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Sales enablement is a

self limiting term, right?

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And it paints the perception that all

we do is help sales or enable sales.

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As I've grown, across my

organization and the things that I

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get exposed to and want to work on.

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And as my team has grown, not all

of that is aligned to the frontline.

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And although I'm a big proponent of you

should never lose sight of the frontline,

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you should always have a relationship with

your sellers, with your sales leadership.

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You should listen to their

calls if you can, you should

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see them in action if you can.

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I don't spend as much time with them.

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I spend time with procurement and legal.

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And as I was telling Erich before this

telephony engineering, these people don't

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understand sales per se, or their needs

or the motions that they go through.

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And as an enablement professional,

it's just as much my responsibility

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to help the sellers, but also help

people in my organization understand

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what supports the sellers, right?

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At the end of the day, what, what

brings in the money that then

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funds all of the investments?

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It's sales.

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It's not, doesn't materialize.

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I don't know where we don't

engineer our way to a lot.

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We don't, red line contracts

are to do a lot of money.

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We sell stuff.

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And anything that, gets in the

way or causes friction, right?

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:

If we point backwards or impacts

productivity or people's, the, if it

328

:

makes it harder to buy or harder to sell.

329

:

I think somebody should have the

ability to, almost like the Patriot Act.

330

:

Hey, this is slowing us down.

331

:

I'm going to unpack this

and we're going to fix it.

332

:

I don't, there's very few things

I think should be off limits.

333

:

And as I've grown in my career.

334

:

The door is open to fixing larger

and broader issues that have largely

335

:

been sitting in silence, right?

336

:

And instead, look, when you look at

them holistically of how is this, break

337

:

in legal process impacting selling?

338

:

How is the break or how is the outdated

telephony system impacted selling?

339

:

What could happen for sales?

340

:

How can we enable sales

better if this is improved?

341

:

It's those questions that after sales

enablement fixes onboarding and skill

342

:

training and career pathing, And

gets them up and running and, gets

343

:

them through negotiation training.

344

:

What else are you going to do?

345

:

You need to go fix the

bigger, broader things.

346

:

I think that's where we're headed.

347

:

Certainly where I've been

headed and where I've been.

348

:

And so when it came time to vote on

that decision, there's no question.

349

:

Erich Starrett: I heard you call out some

of those flavors of enablement, right?

350

:

as we shift from sales Enablement to

revenue enablement of those four flavors

351

:

I think what you're saying is the talent

enablement bucket so to speak Of the

352

:

onboarding, the new hire ramp up the ever

boarding, the SKO ing all of those things

353

:

that are more in the talent development,

skills development, helping empowering

354

:

folks with message sales specifically of

the other buckets, the administration, the

355

:

marketing messaging, funnel management.

356

:

Which of those other domains or

flavors do you see being focused

357

:

on more through the lens of revenue?

358

:

Christopher Kingman:

That's a good question.

359

:

I think the talent, all the

components that you listed

360

:

under talent will be number one.

361

:

And that, wherever you are doing

enablement, if that's all you do and

362

:

You want to call it a sales enablement.

363

:

That's great.

364

:

I think where we're going is

that accepting our influence in

365

:

an organization should expand.

366

:

And the things that we should

tackle is going to get broader.

367

:

When we talk about the evolution

to revenue enabling, a lot of

368

:

the idea here is to help people

be better at those things.

369

:

That aren't discussed.

370

:

How do you get better

relationships with procurement?

371

:

What are procurement practices you

need to understand to be better

372

:

at sourcing sales tech, right?

373

:

Everybody knows you need a tech stack.

374

:

It's debatable what

goes in that tech stack.

375

:

No one talks about how do I navigate

buying one from my procurement department

376

:

when no one wants to fund this?

377

:

That's enablement, right?

378

:

Like I have to go and figure out who

I need to talk to and how to fund it.

379

:

And then I need to work with procurement.

380

:

To then figure out what exactly are

the internal mechanisms to do this?

381

:

It's not we picked name a platform.

382

:

We're good folks.

383

:

That's just the beginning.

384

:

That's not even the beginning.

385

:

That's the middle.

386

:

And so I think if you're thinking

about evolution of the practice, right?

387

:

Think about the evolution

of every process.

388

:

I do spend a lot of time

with my procurement team.

389

:

And they're fantastic people who just

want to educate me to make my job easier.

390

:

So I make their job easy, right?

391

:

For me, the collaboration and the

strategic nature and, breaking down

392

:

silos is something we've talked

about forever, and that is part

393

:

of the evolution of enablement.

394

:

It's a core component.

395

:

The , fifth (flavor) could be

silo breaker for all I care.

396

:

Cause I think that's,

it's an important aspect.

397

:

Like it's a requirement of

your job at this point to me.

398

:

Erich Starrett: And part of what

brought me all in on the inside sales

399

:

enablement podcast, first couple of

seasons to begin with , I love that

400

:

you said silo breaker the commercial

enablement orchestrator and that concept.

401

:

I was like, that's what I've been doing

my entire career, whether I was in field

402

:

marketing , or on the sales front lines

or in sales ops or effectiveness, I always

403

:

had this tendency to knock down some

silos more strategically than tactically.

404

:

So it sounds like the low hanging fruit

might actually be working with some

405

:

of the different functions internally.

406

:

Christopher Kingman: Yeah, it's

gonna be, it's gonna be organization

407

:

dependent whether demand management

is number one for you, right?

408

:

Because that whole sales marketing

getting along thing that we've

409

:

talked about for years some people

have gotten it figured out, right?

410

:

I don't think it's gonna

be cats and dogs forever.

411

:

I have a great relationship, my

marketing department, they're awesome

412

:

people and they totally get what I

need, but that was not always the case.

413

:

Before this call started, Erich and I

were talking about the latest Gartner

414

:

report on their fresh take on enablement

and it's all around driving behavior.

415

:

If you take that framework

and you say, okay, I need to

416

:

change a seller's behavior.

417

:

Here's what I need to do.

418

:

Think about your person in

procurement, your person in it.

419

:

Are they rewarded for certain behaviors?

420

:

How are they compensated?

421

:

Probably have no idea, right?

422

:

You don't deal with engineer

compensation models.

423

:

They may not be incentivized to

do anything outside of their silo.

424

:

but I guarantee you, if you

went to them and you said, hey.

425

:

This process doesn't work.

426

:

Would you mind if I helped you fix it?

427

:

You're probably going to

get a pretty warm reception.

428

:

Step in.

429

:

Say, we want to make this better because

it does impact revenue down the line.

430

:

Without being forceful and without

people telling people that they're

431

:

terrible at what they do there's always

a, tactful way to say this doesn't work.

432

:

We need to make it better.

433

:

And, Leverage age old mechanisms,

executive sponsorship, go to the CRO.

434

:

Hey, this is not working.

435

:

And here's the downstream impact.

436

:

If we fix this goes away today.

437

:

Tomorrow, this is possible, right?

438

:

They're simple conversations.

439

:

You're applying the same

level of behavior, modeling or

440

:

defining on different functions.

441

:

It's no different.

442

:

We need to fix something, or

we need to optimize something.

443

:

it just not maybe the very next

step to revenue recognition, right?

444

:

It may be two steps

down the line, or three.

445

:

Erich Starrett: To your point, since it's

not revenue generating, maybe the first

446

:

click, how do you track that metric?

447

:

And some of that's going to be a little

esoteric, but it's going to land in

448

:

a , adept customer facing frontline.

449

:

Christopher Kingman: Back to

the talent comment, right?

450

:

Those are your big rocks.

451

:

Those probably are your priority, and

chances are if you're in enablement,

452

:

you were hired to focus on them.

453

:

It's table stakes, right?

454

:

And I would, I'd caution you don't move

on to engaging with procurement until

455

:

you figure out new hire onboarding

456

:

Erich Starrett: right

457

:

Christopher Kingman: You can't build,

can't build a castle by stacking pebbles.

458

:

You're going to have to

bring in some big rocks.

459

:

It may not seem like the biggest priority,

460

:

but I have to assume that if

you are a competent enablement

461

:

professional, eventually you will

figure out all of the components.

462

:

And if you prove that they work, typically

that'll help you secure investment.

463

:

If you're semi articulate about,

we did this thing, brought in this

464

:

money, give me more investment.

465

:

I'll bring in more people.

466

:

We'll do more things, bring in more money.

467

:

Eventually you're going to get that

stuff figured out and it's, you're

468

:

going to need to go fix something else.

469

:

So why not prepare for

that day instead of.

470

:

Saying it's I'm never going to do that

or it's never, it's never going to happen

471

:

if you're really good at enablement,

chances are you're going to get

472

:

the reputation of somebody A can

fix things or B is strategic and

473

:

can orientate the organization

in the direction they need to go.

474

:

. Erich Starrett: You're making the pivot

from reactive to proactive . And back to

475

:

the Gartner report we were discussing,

they're basically leading with the new

476

:

mandate is be in at the chief strategy

officer, just in general, at the

477

:

corporate strategy level and have that

next couple of things, slay that first

478

:

dragon, crush it, get on everyone's radar.

479

:

And that dragon is probably

going to be talent enablement.

480

:

And then have that strategic.

481

:

And next we're going here and here.

482

:

And have the eyeballs of the executive

suite watching you through that lens.

483

:

Oh, talk about elevating

the profession, right?

484

:

Christopher Kingman: You got to

sway hearts, minds, and metrics,

485

:

you got to make sure that people

know that you can help them.

486

:

You got to show people you care

about their success, and then

487

:

you got to move the needle.

488

:

And that's, I think that's the foundation

for enablement success sales or not.

489

:

Erich Starrett: New t shirt.

490

:

Swaying hearts, minds, and

metrics one executive at a time.

491

:

We've done a such awesome past.

492

:

Thanks again.

493

:

So in the present what attribute or aspect

of enablement are you most passionate?

494

:

You shared the volunteering.

495

:

You shared the Emblaze , I'm

really excited to see what y'all

496

:

are doing at the top so that we

can implement that out here in the

497

:

chapters as we partner with our peers

498

:

Christopher Kingman: As I mentioned

at the beginning, I'm on the

499

:

advisory board for Emblaze.

500

:

I've, it's been, I've been

honored to be involved with

501

:

that organization for years now.

502

:

They are a great group of

people that truly care about

503

:

sellers and sales success.

504

:

So I think they're all just

enablement folks at heart.

505

:

Two years ago I joined, I joined their

sales transformation executive forum.

506

:

If you are a seller listening to this,

and if you are a sales leader or a CRO, I

507

:

definitely recommend you check them out.

508

:

It's CROs from very large sales

organizations and they would bring

509

:

their problems to the table, or new

research would be presented and it

510

:

would be interpreted and more and more.

511

:

The impression, was that

these aren't sales problems.

512

:

These are enablement problems.

513

:

And I went to their

executive retreat, which.

514

:

Probably one of my

favorite conferences ever.

515

:

Big heads of sales, big organizations.

516

:

Vendors were all there and it's three days

of whiteboarding and solving problems.

517

:

And I had a fantastic experience helping

people navigate their challenges.

518

:

And they were talking about onboarding

and training and upscaling and

519

:

how to pick a methodology, right?

520

:

I don't think these are sales

manager challenges anymore.

521

:

There are concerns for sure, but

I don't think you should task

522

:

your sales leaders to solve these.

523

:

I think that's what enablement is for, to

free up your sales leaders, to go do what

524

:

they need to do, coach sellers and sell.

525

:

And at one of the summits, I think

two years ago, I, got some time

526

:

with the leadership team from

AAISP now Emblaze, and I said, I

527

:

think this is what you need to do.

528

:

We need an enablement thing.

529

:

And a year later, they added an

enablement track to their summit,

530

:

and it was the most attended, most

requested track, and it was great.

531

:

The summit was great.

532

:

Huge turnout . I got to

present, I had a blast.

533

:

And, now this year, RES and Emblaze

have partnered, and this is all

534

:

around this concept that Your

enablement person and your CRO are

535

:

two sides of the same coin, right?

536

:

They need to be joined at the hip,

in lockstep, they need to be in tune.

537

:

If you're an enablement person and

you are not the most strategic, and

538

:

that's totally okay, you should be

partnering with your CRO to help fill

539

:

in the gaps of your strategy, right?

540

:

And if you're a CRO and you are

bogged down with all of these

541

:

things, how do I train people?

542

:

How do I coach them?

543

:

I don't have this.

544

:

I don't have that.

545

:

Where do I get a tech stack from?

546

:

You need to go and find

yourself an enablement person.

547

:

And my dream for this event was bring

those people together and put them in

548

:

a room and whiteboard their problems,

549

:

cROs, come on in, bring

all your challenges.

550

:

From I don't know what enablement is,

to how do I put together a business

551

:

case, to how do I figure out what

content management piece I need,

552

:

get it in there and have them hash it out.

553

:

Have these leaders see

the value of enablement.

554

:

For enablement people and practitioners,

go to the event and meet CROs.

555

:

I want to put people in jobs.

556

:

It's very important, especially

in our industry, we've definitely

557

:

been impacted by the layoffs.

558

:

So many folks that I know are open

to work, and that's unfortunate.

559

:

Because I think enablement can

conquer market conditions when

560

:

it's applied, but sometimes those

choices aren't really in the hands

561

:

of practitioners, the, from the top

down, it's cut, cut, cut, save money.

562

:

And they're impacted and it's unfortunate.

563

:

And so let's get you in front

of sales leaders, let's network,

564

:

let's let them see your value.

565

:

And hopefully that will

turn into something.

566

:

And I think this is just

the beginning, right?

567

:

Certainly, I'll be there, trying

to talk to everybody as possible.

568

:

President Gail Behun will be there.

569

:

We're doing a panel

together how to speak CRO.

570

:

There'll be a lot of other enablement

practitioners and presenters there.

571

:

I think it's going to be an amazing

experience and I think this is

572

:

the beginning of something great.

573

:

And, shameless plug for the event.

574

:

It's April 2nd through 4th,

just outside of Chicago.

575

:

It's in the same place every year.

576

:

I cannot stress enough,

especially, for sales leaders who

577

:

want to understand enablement.

578

:

I think this is the place

you need to go because you're

579

:

going to get the right info.

580

:

Erich Starrett: I there's

a Cracker Jack prize in this

581

:

episode for the first time ever.

582

:

That I can't wait to reveal that has

exactly to do with what you just shared

583

:

so let's go future We talked about

the possibility of this MBA in

584

:

Enablement, we talked about that a

little bit at SES experience, right?

585

:

In October.

586

:

Where are we at?

587

:

How quick is the future coming?

588

:

How soon will our children be at high

school and the career counselor's

589

:

going, you should be in enablement,

and here are the 15 universities

590

:

that you can go to get a degree.

591

:

Christopher Kingman: That

future cannot come soon enough.

592

:

I don't know if I'm doing an MBA

anytime soon, but we're developing

593

:

the first executive education program.

594

:

We recognize there is a

need for a few things.

595

:

one of my mission goals at

SES is to establish standards.

596

:

If you look at the Society of Automotive

Engineers, they have standards

597

:

for things like, why shouldn't we?

598

:

Now that can be tough because a lot

of what we do is very subjective,

599

:

but ultimately we're tied to metrics.

600

:

And there's, common themes,

best practices that can emerge.

601

:

If you compare 10 onboarding programs,

all 10 are going to be different, but

602

:

they can still contain the same things

that make up a good onboarding program.

603

:

It's educating people

on these things, right?

604

:

What do you need to look at?

605

:

How far and how wide can you go?

606

:

Enablement's great because you can

be an absolute expert at one thing.

607

:

I have a bunch of trainers on my

team and they're very specialized.

608

:

And I have one guy who

just does sales tech.

609

:

So all he does is train on sales tech.

610

:

I have another person who does skills.

611

:

I have another person that does onboarding

and they are the masters of those things.

612

:

And it's amazing, but that doesn't

have to be your experience.

613

:

You can be.

614

:

A mile wide, an inch deep, you can get

exposure to everything because that'll

615

:

help you shape your organization, but also

focus on the things that either A, your

616

:

organization needs, or B, your passion.

617

:

And that's what we're trying to do.

618

:

We're working with a major,

university in the United States.

619

:

We're putting together a

very accessible program.

620

:

That covers what we believe to be, pretty

full spectrum of everything that's related

621

:

to enablement and what drives enablement.

622

:

And where you can focus your attention

and we're bringing in the right

623

:

people, the practitioners with the

backgrounds, the education to bring

624

:

forward best in class experiences

and best in class certification.

625

:

And we're working on an introductory,

beginner level certification, if you will.

626

:

. And in the advance, you're going to bring

forward a business case, just like a

627

:

capstone project, and you're going to go

through the program, learn what you need

628

:

to learn to then improve this thing, and

then present to a panel of expert judges.

629

:

We hope to launch this thing by

September of this year, because we

630

:

want to bring a cohort of folks to the

experience, sales enablement experience.

631

:

In October to talk about the value, right?

632

:

We want to make sure that the vendors

in our space, the participants,

633

:

practitioners, the leaders all know

that we're putting our name on this

634

:

and saying this is the education.

635

:

This is the certificate.

636

:

Erich Starrett: Couldn't

be too soon, Chris.

637

:

Thank you for all your efforts in that.

638

:

And you want to talk about

elevating the profession, you

639

:

start with education, right?

640

:

It's talent development,

you might say, of ourselves.

641

:

Without further ado you ready?

642

:

Drum roll, please.

643

:

Affiliation with the 2024 Digital Now

Revenue Growth Summit in Chicagoland.

644

:

As Chris already shared, April second

to fourth, the must attend event of

645

:

Digital First Revenue Leaders, , with a

session about how to talk CRO with Mr.

646

:

Kingman and Gail Behun.

647

:

Don't miss that one hosted by

Emblaze powered by corporate visions.

648

:

We have a coupon code for you for not

99, not 299, 395 dollars off off to our

649

:

inside sales enablement season three.

650

:

enablement history listening audience.

651

:

And what better timing than with a man

who embodies in so many ways the past

652

:

and present and future of enablement.

653

:

Chris, I can't wait to see you

face to face again in Chicagoland.

654

:

And thanks again, and

you get the final word.

655

:

What's the parting shot?.

656

:

Christopher Kingman: The future of

enablement continues to be bright.

657

:

I will encourage everybody to lean

into the evolution of the trade

658

:

of the practice, open yourself to

leaning into the evolution of your own

659

:

skills, your development, your careers

660

:

we've come a long way as an organization

as a, a career, if you will to being,

661

:

loosely organized and a loose set

of skills to very organized and

662

:

things are only getting better.

663

:

I only hope to elevate the profession and

expand awareness, to a different audience

664

:

and a different set of folks that will

really value and benefit from what we do.

665

:

And I think we're gonna make great

strides towards that this year.

666

:

Erich Starrett: Outstanding.

667

:

With volunteers like you and

the volunteers around the world

668

:

that are driving the RES and the

combination with Emblaze, all of

669

:

that's possible and then some.

670

:

I'm all in.

671

:

Thanks again, Mr.

672

:

Kingman, , and thanks to

everyone for listening in.

673

:

Christopher Kingman: Thank you, Erich.

674

:

Thank you, everybody.

675

:

Erich Starrett: Pleasure.

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