In episode 7, Dan and Andrea discuss the Sales Paradox – the idea that the expectation from sales training and enablement is rarely reflected in the time and resources allocated to an initiative.
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In episode 7 of Sales Enabled, Dan Storey speaks with Andrea Abbate about the concept that Andrea has coined The Sales Paradox – the idea that the expectation from training and enablement is often more than the allocated time and resources sales leadership are willing to invest.
In this conversation, Dan and Andrea discuss why sales often expect maximum performance improvements with minimal effort, why training and enablement should not be seen as separate from the sales process, and how you can’t expect to cram 25 years of sales knowledge into a one-pager.
Some of the specific talking points include:
- Why it isn’t about more “at bats”, but ensuring when you are “at bat” your delivery is perfection
- How sales leadership and culture sets the standard for what development is expected
- Why your training scenarios should be harder than a real-world customer scenario and you should practice selling to your worst customer
- How the 70-20-10 model of training needs to be better educated to sales leaders, and create challenging learning opportunities outside of the classroom
- How enablement leaders and sales leaders should better negotiate in order to meet the business objectives
If you are in sales training or enablement, this episode is essential listening to help you establish your credibility and impact, as well as help you negotiate more effectively when being asked to do more with less.
For salespeople and sales leaders, this episode provides a different way of looking at your training and enablement teams, and what you should expect from them based on the time and resources you choose to equip them with.
More about Andrea Abbate:
Andrea Abbate is a global sales enablement leader, trainer and public speaker, with over 20 years of corporate experience across the US, EMEA and APAC. Currently, Andrea is the Vice President of Revenue Enablement at Showpad, a leading sales enablement platform. She had a varied career spanning sales, training, recruitment, and arts fundraising. Andrea first stepped into enablement during her 8 years at LinkedIn, moving from front-line enterprise seller in EMEA, to building the enablement function in APAC, and leading all of enablement for global Go-to-Market. Andrea is one of the Sales Enablement Collective’s 2023 “Ones to Watch” list of top sales enablers globally, and is an in-demand keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, podcaster and applied improv practitioner. She holds an MBA from Manchester Business School in the UK, is a certified Executive Coach through Marshall Goldsmith, and is an award-winning podcaster through Tigerhall. You can find her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreaabbate/
