Why sales enablement stops driving revenue when it becomes a service desk with Christa Fisher

Christa Fisher (00:02) if we use athletes as an example, athletes practice as much, if not more, than when they show up in the game. You can't just go to A, training and then expect to be perfect in all your deals going forward and not continually practicing. I also think if training involves actual deals, use observable deal behaviors then that helps you know if it's working or not. Benjamin Ard (00:50) Welcome back to another episode of Content Amplified. Today I'm joined by Christa. Christa, welcome to the show. Christa Fisher (00:56) Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. Benjamin Ard (00:58) Yeah, Christa, this is going to be a fun episode. I'm excited to dive in. But before we get to the material, let's get to know you share with the audience a little bit about yourself, all that fun stuff so they know who we're talking to today. Christa Fisher (01:06) Sure. So I'm currently head of sales training and development, but I've been in sales and enablement and L&D for over two decades. So really love what I do. Excited to hopefully pay it forward today and share some of my past experiences and yeah, just do a little story swapping here with you. Benjamin Ard (01:33) Christa, one thing that I have really noticed even as we were talking before we clicked record, you just bring this passion to this subject and I'm excited for that. Anytime someone's really passionate about this, I get so excited to let them share their stories and pick their brains and share that with the audience. So I'm excited to dive in. This is gonna be fun. So. Christa Fisher (01:52) It is going to be fun. Enablement is such a fun subject. No one goes to college and graduates with an enablement degree. You sort of figure out how you end up there. And I'd say in the last 15 years, it's really evolved. So it's great to see where it's going. And for those of us who started with it, where we came from, and yeah, looking forward to a fun discussion for sure. Benjamin Ard (02:21) That's very true. Yeah, I love it. So as you said, we're going to talk about enablement and how sometimes revenue isn't really impacted by enablement and how it actually can, which is kind of tough. Now, as we were emailing back and forth, you use this really cool term of enablement is often treated like a service desk. So, so what do we mean by that? And then ultimately, how do we fix it? How is it not just this support trap? How do we actually fix this concept? Christa Fisher (02:43) I think first, like we should take a step back and say like, what really is enablement? Because I think part of the problem and why it gets treated sometimes as a support function or a service desk type of action is because many companies don't really understand the power of it as a growth driver. I think when enablement is reactive, Sales requests a training, enablement delivers a training, everyone feels good, but the needle doesn't move in revenue. Then what happens is they want to fix the problem with what? More training. And then they ask for another thing and another thing, and it becomes very reactive. It starts to pull away from actual deals. It starts to feel like... It is just continual and a cycle without ever going anywhere. And all of a sudden then the company's like, you know what? It's a training problem or it's an enablement problem or it's a sales problem or and the fingers start flying in terms of the finger pointing. And so I think enablement is that intersection. It's the strategy of content and messaging and tools and people and process and if you can be at that center spoke of the wheel and that intersection of all of those things and Strategize how to do that. Well by actually diagnosing what's happening in deals You'll be better off to drive performance and improve You know where sales is going and improve revenue. So I think the key is If account execs are a race car driver, this is a good analogy I like to use for companies that aren't sure what enablement is. If account execs are a race car driver, training teaches the driver how to drive strategically. Enablement ensures that the car is optimized, that it is fueled, that it is mapped correctly, that the track is clear for the win, and that... Success is smooth and can happen without obstacles. And I think both are required. Both are important for a comprehensive approach, but you can only have one or the other. They're different responsibilities and they have to work in conjunction. I've seen it's successful when enablement is separate from training and I've seen it successful when enablement has training under it. And I've done both, but I think they, you have to know they're separate and you can't rely on just training alone. Benjamin Ard (05:03) Okay, I love this. Everything you're talking about, the analogy is perfect. I can see it in my mind. I love that. And I love the proactive versus reactive. The ability to say, if we're just sitting here taking in requests for new training decks and stuff like that, we're not really affecting revenue as much as we could. And we are not being strategic, things like that. Christa Fisher (05:09) No, becomes activity. then measuring on completions and attendance and satisfaction rates. you're just more and more disconnected from the actual revenue conversation. So it has to be embedded in the revenue engine. And I think sales ops and enablement and the sales leaders, marketing product, they have to work together and collaborate in order for that. Benjamin Ard (05:34) Yeah, 100%. Christa Fisher (05:45) to change behavior. And that's the key. Behaviors have to change and get mapped to business outcomes in order for that to be successful. Benjamin Ard (05:53) I love that. So let's say I'm an enablement expert and I'm working in a group and I'm like, Ooh, that reactive, just getting requests. That's, that's me. And I a hundred percent want to collaborate. want to be proactive. I want to be strategic. want to impact revenue more. like, how do you start to transition away from one into the other space and really prove and Focus your efforts on time and time on things that are gonna move the needle. Christa Fisher (06:21) gosh, a lot of failing forward for sure. I want to come on today to pay it forward and help others who, you know, I certainly learned through the school of hard knocks. But I think my aha moment was when, instead of asking like, what do sellers need? I think we need to ask what has to change in live deals to drive more revenue and then enablement can get more aligned to pipeline health, to conversion, to quota, not just content. It isn't just about let's add more content. Maybe they just don't understand the content. If enablement doesn't drive revenue and shorten the sales cycle, it's really just activity. So yeah, what has to change in live deals? think it's that question if everyone is on the same page about and can answer, that is where that shift happens. Benjamin Ard (07:12) I love that. What role does training actually play in all of this? Like you said, it can be separate, it can be together. What's your ideal situation for training and when is it necessary and how does it actually turn into coaching and actually impacting revenue? Christa Fisher (07:19) Yeah, I think training. should be used to not just share the what, but the how and the why. And that training and enablement should partner and should also involve sales leaders prior so that everyone's on the same page about the expectation and what should be done. But too often, if it's reactive and becomes that support function only, what happens is you rely heavy on training and it's seen as enablement. And I think that if you look at them as separate entities, that training is a function of the big picture of enablement, then it can be used strategically. And I think it's also helpful when training is applicable. It can't just be ingestion of the content. It has to be practiced. It needs to be, by the way, done post-workshop again and again. coached by sales leaders so that it's really reinforced and embedded within. actual deals within like that when that coaching happens in the moment. Training can talk till they're blue in the face and trust me, I'm in it like I get it. But really unless you have that partnership going where sales ops knows that your training maps to back to sales stages, where leaders know that their job is to not only understand it prior to attend it during to set the example during to reinforce it after. I think that is where it becomes this kind of beautiful rather than these one and done events. And when it's event based, again, you're bringing it back to a reactive state. Benjamin Ard (09:07) I love that. And like you said, it's all about changing behavior. And you've got this cool platform because you also mentioned as we were kind of emailing about this, sales reps sometimes revert back to their behaviors when they're under pressure. And I love how you're fixing the behavior. You're kind of changing the baseline. Christa Fisher (09:28) Sure. Benjamin Ard (09:28) So are there any tips and tricks for people that are trying to change the training mantra? Like you said, getting managers involved beforehand with the right follow-up. But is there anything you do with the actual training itself so that reps? I know. I just, look at like an athlete where training actually impacts the game. How do you make that happen? Like I'm fascinated by this because I'm sure there's all sorts of cool things that we could do there to have the training stick a little bit more. Especially when you're under the gun, you're on that call and you've got to figure it out and you're like, okay, what did I learn? How do I apply this? Christa Fisher (10:00) A feel-good training is nice, but a sticky training is where it's at. Let me tell you, we love sticky. So I think the key is, and if we use athletes as an example, athletes practice as much, if not more, than when they show up in the game. You can't just go to A, training and then expect to be perfect in all your deals going forward and not continually practicing. I also think if training involves actual deals, use observable deal behaviors then that helps you know if it's working or not. And so, By observable, mean, you have to be able to really hear it, see it, review it in deals, whether you're attending a call or you're recording a call, however your company looks at what's happening on customer calls and meetings. And they're not always soft skills, by the way, deal execution behaviors. And the reason why I think reps revert back. is because they haven't had the aha moment where they get caught in it. So they learn the training, they get it, but because the habit was already established, when they're nervous or when something happens or when it doesn't go to the exact use case scenario, they revert. And I think I've seen it before, for example, where a rep may be doing the things. They go and they ask discovery. They go and they're creating value. but they may not be asking deeper discovery questions. Or maybe they're not tying value back to business impact or using storytelling. Or maybe they're going in to the customer at the right level, but they're not multi-threaded. And so what happens is that then that customer decides not to renew them, we have no relationships. Or that person that was their champion moves out of the organization and goes somewhere else, and we're now lost. So I think you can be doing things that are good habits, but you don't know how to handle or go deeper as needed to be able to make sure things become observable. And so, like, I think you... You can see the observable deal behavior when a deal moves faster through the sales stages without skipping steps. When you have a cleaner clothes plan, when you have fewer late stage surprises, we love those, right? Like, suddenly it's now at procurement and it's stuck here forever where opportunities go to die. You know, like no one wants those surprises at the end because you didn't do it was really needed upfront. And so when enablement is working, You can hear it and see it in live deals. You can also see it in pipeline, cleaner deal progression, fewer surprises, as I mentioned, less reliance on discounting, right? Or those like habits that we've created. So I think it's important for sales leaders, but also for sales ops and enablement and training and marketing to really understand how to take the training from theory and concept into execution. think enablement shows up most in conversations, not completions of the training. So I think that's the key. Benjamin Ard (12:55) I love that. Plus the coaching element here of saying, okay, I've observed opportunities for improvement. Let's practice. Let's improve. Let's grow in those areas so we can do better. I think is fantastic. Okay, Christa, we're almost out of time and I have a million different questions I could ask, which is it's so fascinating, but let's go back to the tactical because this has been amazing, full tactical and strategic. Christa Fisher (13:20) Sure. Benjamin Ard (13:20) let's talk it through. I'm on an enablement team and I do want to be more strategic and we talked through some of that already. Where do I go to find the insights? Where is it? Am I listening? You know, if I'm trying to be proactive more so today, am I starting with the phone calls? Am I starting with the CRM or the BI tool? Am I talking to like, what is like the number one place I can start today? to find where the gaps are and where I can start to provide impact for the sales reps in their ultimate objective of driving revenue. Christa Fisher (13:54) Looking at metrics and analyzing those things are great, but really it's about listening. Listening to call recordings, listening during customer calls, seeing if you can get invited as a shadow or on a call live. What are the questions that we're not able to answer well? Do we understand our own story? Do we know how to create value for our own products and services? did the customer's body language tell us something, but their words tell us something else, right? Like in today's day and age when we're virtual, if something's recorded and it's on Zoom or in a recording platform like this, it's great. If it's live, even better. But I think that... You can't just only look at metrics to try and diagnose. In order to be proactive, you really have to understand the customer, their pain, and our pain in terms of what we're not doing well within the calls to move that forward, to move that sale forward. So I think that it's really a matter of listening and understanding first and then trying to figure out where do things happen. that are stalled in the deal? Is it that infamous middle stage, stage three? Is it where everything gets pushed out in forecasting by six months at a certain spot? Is it at procurement? Where is it at? Is it after we do a POC? it before? Do we even not get to one? What is it that we can say is a pattern? And if there isn't a pattern, maybe we need to take it a step back even further and try and figure out then is it systemic and is it something that involves multiple needs. So I think that's where I would go first if I was giving advice to a young whippersnapper in enablement. Benjamin Ard (15:38) I love it. That's amazing. Christa, we could dive into so much. We'll probably have to have you on again for another episode. This was incredible. Thank you for the time and insights today. For anyone listening who wants to reach out and connect with you online, how and where can they find you? Christa Fisher (15:42) Please search me out on LinkedIn, Christa, parentheses Patton Fisher, and would love to connect and I'm always happy to, you know, lean into my network and expand my network. So by all means, anytime. And thank you so much for having me. This was a blast. Benjamin Ard (16:09) Yeah, thank you so much for anyone listening. Scroll down to the show notes. Regardless of what platform you're on, we will link to Christa's LinkedIn profile right there. Click on the link, connect with Christa, you came from the podcast, tell her hello. Again, Christa, this has been amazing. Thank you so much for the time today. Christa Fisher (16:21) Thank you. Great seeing you, Benjamin.