One of the biggest challenges businesses face when they grow is scaling effective, autonomous and quick decision-making. What worked with 30 employees will start creaking at 300, and break well before you hit the 3,000-mark. Good decision-making is extremely important. In fact, it has a compounding effect - the more good decisions a business makes, the better the results will be. So improving the quality, volume and speed of decision-making should be a priority - and done well, it can become a competitive advantage.  To help your employees make better decisions you should leverage mental ..read more

2019 is shaping up to be another fine year for those working in and around sales enablement. We’re seeing larger numbers of people work in the industry, more companies investing in sales enablement teams and numerous tools being developed to solve sales enablement challenges. In my mind, there’s never been a better time to work in sales enablement and for the foreseeable future, I think things are only going to get better. By most measures the industry is growing, thriving, even, and shows no sign of slowing. On a personal note, I find it exciting to be part of an industry that’s growing at su ..read more

One of the most significant trends over the past decade has been the explosion in the number of companies in the software as a service (SaaS) industry. Today, there’s SaaS products to support virtually every business function, and increasingly for specific segments too. Several forces have combined to make this a reality - chief among them is the mass migration to cloud computing from on-premise software, and the fact that it’s never been easier, quicker or cheaper to launch a SaaS company. In short, Marc Andreessen has been proved right, and his assertion that “software is eating the world” h ..read more

Retention truly is the foundation of growth for software as a service (SaaS) companies, but oftentimes, it is overlooked and undervalued. This is always a huge mistake. High SaaS churn is a corollary of poor retention - but it can creep up unannounced, and rather than deal a single fatal blow, it causes death by a thousand small cuts. A high churn rate is highly undesirable as it shackles growth, is a source of friction and (rightly) raises tough questions about product/market fit. You need to understand retention and optimise for it. So just why is retention so vital to the wellbeing, growth ..read more

Everybody likes to win. And while you undoubtedly learn much about your skills, attributes and character from losses, there’s nothing quite like that sense of satisfaction when your team secures a hard earned victory. I’ve been fortunate, both as an individual contributor and as part of a team to have racked up some important wins (jobs, promotions, new business and awards), but in truth, there’s only been three periods where I’ve been part of teams where there’s been an expectation of winning. Expectation of Winning Teams that expect to win are unlike anything else. By definition, winning org ..read more

One of the questions I get asked most frequently is around building a sales enablement strategy and what that might look like. While each company, context and industry is different, I believe that there are some fundamentals that should form the blueprint of any sales enablement strategy. At a high level the strategy should convey what your team does, how it does it, goals and main initiatives for the year ahead. However, here’s the thing - as sales enablement is such an emerging area, there’s a distinct lack of sales enablement thought leadership, best practices and models available, let alon ..read more

I’ve been working within the software as a service (SaaS) industry for more than five years now. During this period I’ve learnt more than I ever thought possible about the SaaS business and my personal growth has accelerated with each passing year. Working with fast-growing technology companies HubSpot and Indeed.com has taught me how two very different companies can come to dominate their respective industries. Importantly, these experiences have shown me what is required for a SaaS business to launch, grow and ultimately, succeed in new markets. I’ve also become well-acquainted with a number ..read more

Today, everyone working in and around sales and marketing knows that bots are hot, in vogue and quite simply, of the moment. That’s no secret. After years of dreaming about what might just be possible, over the past 12-18 months numerous software as a service (SaaS) companies from around the globe have taken their respective bot offerings to market. It’s been an exciting period as discussion around bots has (finally) moved on from the peripheral to the mainstream, or put another way, from the realms of sci-fi to reality. While innovators and early adopters are embracing the opportunities affor ..read more

One of the exciting aspects of working in an emerging area like sales enablement is that, today, nobody knows or indeed, has all the right answers. In many respects we’re “building the plane while flying it”, as we collectively figure out what good looks like. There’s no defined sales enablement best practices. As a result there’s a refreshingly high level of collaboration, modesty and openness among industry colleagues - in my experience fellow sales enablement professionals are generous with their time, humble and willing to help each other out. Admittedly, I’m also fortunate to work at a c ..read more

For the most part, sales enablement is poorly defined and often misunderstood. Across the world conversations take place, day in, day out between business leaders as they decide the part that sales enablement can, should and will play within their organisation. At a high level, they recognise the value and importance of a team whose role is to help the sales organisation become more productive and ultimately, successful, but when it comes to the finer details, they can often struggle to crack the code and identify what will have the biggest impact. When I started my role leading sales en ..read more