In this episode of The State of Sales Enablement, Coach K sits down with Samantha McKenna, founder of SamSales Consulting, to explore the evolving dynamics of sales enablement and leadership alignment. Samantha, a well-known expert in sales strategy and enablement, shares valuable insights into what makes enablement effective, how to measure its impact, and why it’s essential to tie enablement efforts to business objectives.

Samantha and Coach K dive deep into:

• Samantha’s Career Journey: From her Swiss upbringing to becoming a sales enablement leader, Samantha discusses her experiences in both the C-suite and as an enabler, along with her philanthropic work supporting veterans and teachers.
• The Disconnect Between Leaders and Enablement: Samantha addresses the common disconnect between leadership and enablement teams, focusing on the challenges of defining enablement’s role and measuring its impact within organizations.
• Measuring Enablement ROI: Samantha shares how her team at SamSales Consulting tracks the success of enablement initiatives, emphasizing the importance of balancing qualitative feedback from sellers with hard metrics like response rates and conversion improvements.
• Personalization and Prospecting: Discussing her "Show Me You Know Me" methodology, Samantha explains how personalized, research-driven approaches to sales outreach can drastically improve engagement and conversion rates.
• Bringing in External Expertise: Samantha highlights the benefits of enablement teams leveraging external specialists to enhance their effectiveness, emphasizing that the role of enablement is not to know everything but to source the best resources.
• Practical Strategies for Enablement: From improving email outreach to redefining discovery calls, Samantha offers actionable advice on how enablers can drive success within their teams, focusing on practical steps rather than just theory.

Connect with Samantha McKenna:

• Website: SamSales Consulting
• LinkedIn: Samantha McKenna

Connect with Coach K:

• LinkedIn: Coach K

Tune in to learn how to shift sales enablement from a cost center to a strategic driver of business success and improve sales performance across your organization!

In this episode of The State of Sales Enablement, Coach K welcomes Tina Teodorescu, a behavioral science expert and founder of Talent Edge Advisors. Tina shares her fascinating career journey, from her background in psychology and behavioral science to becoming a fractional Chief People Officer, advising small businesses on talent strategy and organizational performance.

Tina and Coach K dive deep into:

• Tina’s Career Path: How her passion for psychology and behavior science led her to organizational behavior management and performance optimization.
• Behavioral Science in Business: Tina's early experiences working with top sales performers to create performance improvement models and her continued use of these principles today.
• Enablement and Competency Models: The importance of starting with business outcomes, working backward to identify the skills and behaviors needed, and building training and enablement programs that align with top performance.
• AI and Performance Improvement: Tina shares her perspective on AI's role in optimizing performance and talent strategies, and why the human element remains critical in coaching and mentorship.
• Inside-Out vs. Outside-In Approach: Tina explains the benefits of working from the business's desired outcomes to define necessary roles and skills, rather than building enablement programs in a vacuum.

Connect with Tina Tiodorescu:

• LinkedIn: Tina Teodorescu
• Website: Talent Edge Advisors

Connect with Coach K:

• LinkedIn: Coach K

In this episode of Troubleshooting Enablement, Devon McDermott, your host and EnableNerd, welcomes Mike Kunkle, Vice President of Sales Effectiveness Services at SPARXiQ, author of The Building Blocks of Sales Enablement, and the mastermind behind the Sales Effectiveness Straight Talk newsletter. With decades of experience, Mike shares his views on how to maximise the impact of the sales enablement function.

Here is what Devon and Mike discussed:

• How to effectively measure the business impact of enablement initiatives.
• The importance of understanding top performers and differentiating them from top producers.
• How to effectively diagnose and resolve gaps in enablement initiatives by focusing on what really drives performance.
• The critical role of sales managers in enabling their teams, including the challenges they face and how to support them in coaching and development.
• And more...

Tune in to hear Mike’s invaluable insights and strategies that can help you drive meaningful impact within your enablement function and beyond.

Connect with Mike Kunkle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikekunkle/

Read Mike Kunkle's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Building-Blocks-Sales-Enablement/dp/1952157625/

Subscribe to Mike’s Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6958899285706821632/

Mike Kunkle's Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/mikekunkle

Connect with Devon McDermott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devonmcdermott/