EP59 Gaining Executive Buy-in to your SE Charter with Tamara Schenk

Laying the foundation is critical to Sales Enablement Orchestrators. Laying the foundation is a foundational step to create the survival kit for an enablement leader. It's absolutely mandatory for the enablement leader.

In this episode, we're joined by Tamara Schenk. Tamara talks with us about the blueprint Sales Enablement Orchestrators need to create with all teams and roles that are involved. Laying the foundation requires approval by senior executives so that this is your blueprint you're going to achieve.

Laying a foundation is not an exercise you do for somebody else, it's not something you you do for finance or controlling. And it's definitely not filling out a form. That's the absolute the last step, when you put all the pieces together. It's a creative process of creating the blueprint you need in your organization, in your context, where you're currently at to achieve your goals. You You have to achieve an enablement to meet your company's sales objectives.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Intro 00:02  

Welcome to the inside sales enablement podcast. Where has the profession been? Where is it now? And where is it heading? What does it mean to you, your company, other functions? The market? Find out here. Join the founding father of the sales enablement profession Scott Santucci and Trailblazer Brian Lambert, as they take you behind the scenes of the birth of an industry, the inside sales enablement podcast starts now.

Scott Santucci 00:33  

I'm Scott Santucci,

Brian Lambert 00:35  

Brian Lambert, we are the sales enablement insiders. Our podcast is for sales enablement, leaders looking to elevate their function, expand their sphere of influence, and increase the span of control within their companies

Scott Santucci 00:48  

together, Brian and I've worked on over 100 different kinds of sales enablement, initiatives as analysts, consultants or practitioners. We've learned the hard way, what works and maybe what's more important, what doesn't.

Brian Lambert 01:01  

Our focus is on you as sales enablement leaders and orchestrators as an orchestrator, you need to be able to blend both strategy and tactics in order to execute. Our goal on this show is to help clarify the metrics of success, provide examples of what that looks like, and give you confidence to engage up down and across the organization. As always, we start with a centering story, Scott, what do you have for us today?

Scott Santucci 01:25  

Okay, so today's centering story, the timeframe on this is 1400 1400. Okay, got it. It was it was it was imagine that a little imagine that in 1400. And Florence, the Republic of Florence commissioned a whole bunch of sculptors, because to celebrate, hey, you know, we're done with the plague. I thought this was a little time, like, given where we are today. Maybe some wishful thinking with maybe, maybe co it would be over. Yeah. And one of the people who was commissioned one of the sculptors that was commissioned is someone we've talked about on the show before Brian, who might

Brian Lambert 02:05  

have a, I don't know, we've talked about so many Italians for some reason.

Unknown Speaker 02:12  

I know a lot of times, um,

Brian Lambert 02:16  

my favorite though, was vilfredo Pareto.

Scott Santucci 02:19  

So his tamaraws that's a little foreshadowing. Okay. Uh, well, it's one that you brought up

Brian Lambert 02:27  

to Vinci. Oh, Which one is that? Oh, um, I don't know. I can't remember. Man. You stuck in me. I love it. So it's 55 shows in man,

Scott Santucci 02:37  

the lipo Bruna.

Unknown Speaker 02:41  

Rinna leschi. There you go.

Scott Santucci 02:43  

That's right. So he actually started out as an engineer, and you brought it up in your podcast about perspective, right back divx. But, so he didn't have perspective at this time in 1400. Well, he didn't. concept of perspective, obviously, we all have a perspective,

Brian Lambert 03:00  

right? I think he just didn't put it on paper and make machines around it yet.

Scott Santucci 03:03  

So in 1400, he was just a sculptor, and the sculpting. He wanted to make it more and more real. So we developed the concept of, of a perspective. But I think one of the things that people don't realize about him is he's considered the father of modern architecture. And if you go back and think about the Duomo, if you know anything about Florence, there's this beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Duomo. And it's the largest dome that had been built since the antiquity since the senate says the largest dome ever built. And it's a big, big, big, significant event, in terms of architecture construction. And one of his biggest innovations that hadn't been done before, was the creation of drawings, or what are now called what are called technical technical diagrams, which a lot of us today refer to as blueprints. So if he hadn't have done that, it would have been very impossible to break down the work to describe the machines required to build this innovation to help get everybody coordinated, dare I say, orchestrated? In order to do that.

So there's a whole bunch of things that we have. And Bruno lasky is considered the father of modern engineering, of planning, construction, super construction, supervision, all of these things he did. And he started out as a sculptor, he had to develop the concept of perspective in order to create this, this amazing masterpiece, which a lot of people call is, you know, sort of the birthplace of you know, the the Renaissance. You can't really put a pinpoint on it, but from an architectural standpoint is a big difference between the dark ages and where we are today. It's a very pivotal moment.

Brian Lambert 04:59  

All right, there you go. So what? So what

Scott Santucci 05:05  

does that have to do with sales enablement? Well, the reason it has something to do with sales enablement is in today in today's modern world, have you ever wondered, how is it that a company can assemble a whole bunch of laborers together, that many of them aren't even college educated, can pull all those people together. And they can build a building or build a house really, really quickly, with a lot of changes that are being made to beat to the spec of different people, and everybody has their own lens and their own perspective, and this thing gets built, right hva see works, the electricity works, the laborers know what to do, because things are coded and diagrammed out. You can hire individual contractors to do to do that work, all of it, is because it's orchestrated to be to these, these construction designs. And the reason that this is important. And one of the things that we're going to talk about on this show today is how important it is to have a charter and really envision what your charter really is, what your mission is, what's your what's your focus, what foundations are you laying, because ultimately, we have to move out of the dark ages with how we're doing with sales in a way and have a Renaissance period of where we think differently. And that's really what we want to talk about today.

Brian Lambert 06:28  

Awesome. That's great. Well, I'm excited to talk about this. And I know we have a very special guest on the show today. Scott, why don't you introduce her?

Scott Santucci 06:37  

So I'm very excited. So our guest today is Tamra shank, and Tamra and I go but way back also with with with you, Brian Tamra was one of the members of the sales enablement Leadership Council that we had put together at Forrester. And when I met Tamra, she was the she was in charge of the energy vertical at at t systems. And she was so frustrated with the amount of materials provided for provided for for sales, she got she developed this concept that she called spot on, which was a content based way to to address some of these challenges. And she actually moved from being in the business unit into running sales enablement. So what I love about Tamra story is that she's got a different entry point than a lot of us a lot of us a lot of our sales enablement members come from training or come from the field, a few of them come from marketing, not too many come from come from business unit background. So tamaraws perspective is so interesting and fascinating. And one of the things that I talk to her a lot about is we got to get more, we have to do a lot better job of making sure people realize where you came from, and why you advocate the things that you do. The other thing that I'm really excited about, Tamra Joyner show a lot of people know or a lot of people have read her blogs, and many of many of the people have read her book, and her book is a great way to have a foundation. So, Tamra, how did you how did you arrive here on the show to give us a little bit of background about our relationship? And you know what, why are you here today?

Unknown Speaker 08:19  

Yeah, so what a great story. Opening story from yours. Scott, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, I mean, you're basically in touch over the last 10 years. And yeah, I'm following the podcast is for me, it's always hard to make the time to really sit down and listen to an hour podcast or so. So whenever I am in the car, and I'm going to see my mother it is two hours one way and two hours back, then I take the time to catch up with the inside on a podcast. And I have to say what I love a lot about it is that podcast provides different perspectives looks at the same issue from different perspectives, different roles, discusses different concepts and principles people can apply. And I think this is especially in our fast moving world rarely where change in volatility is, is the normal thing, the normal state of doing things, it's very important to understand basic principles so that we can apply them in every situation. I think this is especially important for any person who is in any kind of enablement role. So this is why I reached out to you what, what we frequently do and so this is I think how I got here today.

Scott Santucci 09:45  

Yes. So one thing that you'll know as an insider nation, we want you to come up with with ideas. So Tamra sent us an email about I think was the the one that we did and Systems Thinking recently and and, you know, then it triggered a lot of past conversations that we had is that

Unknown Speaker 10:06  

vilfredo Pareto. That's right, my favorite.

Scott Santucci 10:10  

So there's always going to be something. So it's interesting, whether it's the centering story that gets us like, oh, or whether it's what what the conversation was. But what we want to do is encourage you to just shout out like, Hey, here's what's resonating with me, here's what you think, then I'm going to contact you. And then we're going to put together when we say, hey, let's do a show. And the show that we're going to talk about here is laying foundations. And one of the things that I know about Tamra that is near and dear to her heart, is the idea of a charter. So talk to me about why a charter is so important. And then hold on. Before we do that. Audience, I'm going to ask you to do something here. Don't roll your eyes. Stop it. Just listen for a second. Because a charter is not a shopping list of a bunch of tasks to go do. Oh, it's not that. What is it, Tamra?

Unknown Speaker 11:05  

To me, it's a survival kit for an enablement leader. So it's absolutely mandatory for the enablement leader. So if you're in that role, you want to have that blueprint for yourself, that has been created with all teams and roles that are involved, that's approved by senior executives so that this is you, blueprint, you're going for it. So it's it's not an exercise you do for somebody else, it's not something you you do for finance or controlling. And it's definitely not filling out a form. That's the absolute the last step, when you put all the pieces together. It's a creative process of creating the blueprint you need in your organization, in your context, where you're currently at to achieve your goals. You You have to achieve an enablement to meet your company's sales objectives.

Scott Santucci 12:11  

So let's unpack this a little bit together. So if I'm listening, I might think a blueprint. Wow, that sounds really heavy technical diagram and everything like that. What I just heard you say earlier on tamaraws, we got to be principles and dealing with a rapidly changing world. How does a document do that I think about a charter is just a document. what actually is, what what does that mean? What is the charter? And how does that help me lay a foundation for being successful.

Unknown Speaker 12:42  

I mean, it's first of all, a really a living document, I would call it a living asset. So I would look at it this way, for everything you do in life, if you don't take the time, and get into an acceptance mode, and assess where you currently are, and are really honest on where you currently are, then you cannot map out where you want to go. And only if you have this point A in this point B you can say okay, this is where we're at, this is what we need to do, in order to achieve a certain goal and all the journey in between, that's a journey, you can't win alone, you can't walk it alone, you have to do it in an enablement role, always with other team members. And to map this out, so that actually everyone knows at the end of the day, what to do and how to do it is the creative process and laying out the steps and then also the principles how you want to work together. So this is how I would look at this. So it really helps you because you will always run into situations that I had. This was a couple of clients this year. You know what we we've had a charter and some really had done great Berg and great efforts and beginning of the year, then coverted and everyone was getting into panic mode. And then all the great ideas and strategies for set apart. And then how should I call it? You call about Productitis is this action tonight is how should we call this? You know, it's just audit in it when stuff to do stuff sake? Yeah, it is exactly it's so we just want to show that we do things that we take action, whatever it is, but we have taken action. And then the strategies the way we do maybe before back into patterns we we've had in the past we know they're actually not not working very well. But we showed Hey guys, we showed that we have taken action. And this is rather difficult. I'm currently working with clients to help them to work with their senior executives to get back on You know what the crisis mode was actually not so very successful, we still have done the same basic challenges. So let's map out how we could actually get back on track and really tackle them in in a more effective way.

Scott Santucci 15:14  

Yeah, I think one of the things that comes to mind and i'd love your reaction to this, what comes to mind is that quote by Einstein is what's the definition of insanity, doing the same things over again and expecting a different result? And I think what, what what you're talking about here, and the way that this is relating to me, is a charter is really the opportunity that you have to talk through or write down or codify some way. So it doesn't need to be just a Word document. It could be PowerPoint, shoot, it can be hieroglyphics and pictures, whatever works for you. Yes, but really, the idea is, we need to write down here is our problem. Let's make sure people understand what our real problem is, we're not chasing symptoms, here is the nucleolus, or the the enabling capability we have to develop. And then here's the sequence of events that we need to lay it out so that we get forward momentum, and we can fix the plane while it's flying. That's that's what I'm hearing from you. And that if you don't have that documented, or clarity of thought, clarity, I'm using that word on purpose for you, I'm setting you up.

Unknown Speaker 16:24  

I see that.

Scott Santucci 16:27  

But that that clarity of purpose, then it's almost impossible to galvanize and really orchestrate all the resources around you. That's that's what I'm taking from that. Is that right? Is that what you're laying down? Or how would you add to that?

Unknown Speaker 16:42  

Yeah, so it did, the clarity is really very, very important, especially in the beginning. So if I don't know where I'm at, I have a hard time, you know, to to even define a departure point for all my team members and collaboration partners, I want to start on this journey. So I really need to know where I'm at. So if I can map this out where I'm at, we will all start at different at different stages and rollout will come together. So we want to make sure that we can take everyone on the hike on that journey together. That is why clarity on where you're at right now is really key to success. And then the clarity on the point of the project. What does it really mean, as you said, Scott, it's about or what is the real problem you're having. And I think this is for enablement. Teams dealing with different business units, different senior executives, that all have different agendas really challenging, which is why I'm saying this is your survival kit throughout the year. Because in that role, I mean, Scott, you know that I mean, there is not a single week, when somebody will come into your office now call you or zoom you and tell you, you know, I need this. And I need that. And what you've done here is great, but we need it differently because we are so special. So if you don't have this survival kit, your child or business plan, whatever you call it, this blueprint, this structure, then you can say, Oh great, by the way this is on this is on our agenda, maybe in a month from now on or no, sorry, but this has not been prioritized, you're not going to do it right now. Or we map it to the current situation, maybe there were changes we reflected. But then you have a foundation from where you can actually do it. Otherwise you will be moved around from left to right and back to the left and and so on. And you will do a ton of stuff you will be extremely busy without without achieving anything. That's the danger Roman enablement is run into. And then they have a hard time to actually show it. This was the business to sell we were impacting. And then you have a crisis like COVID or whatnot. And then a finance guy comes around the corner and says, do we need these guys?

Scott Santucci 19:06  

Right? Yes. So let me there was so much there that I went on, unpack a lot of these things to help you our listener relate to them. So one thing, that pattern. So one of the challenges that's difficult for a lot of us to think about is more or less like a story arc. And then when we're in sales enablement, we have to be thinking about the end in mind. And...