In our recent podcast with Sheevaun Thatcher, VP of Digital Learning and Enablement at RingCentral, we started with a question she was asked at a conference, “Where do you see enablement going?” Her answer:
“It's going to go beyond sales enablement. We can't keep that boundary anymore.”
Now Sheevaun is taking sales enablement to the next level by enabling everyone at RingCentral to support and assist THE BUYER—putting the buyer at the forefront of everything they do.
Sheevaun and her team manage all corporate learning and training at RingCentral, including onboarding for every department company-wide, not just sales. Regardless of position, each new RingCentral employee comes through ‘flight school’ with her team. They help the entire company become aligned on their messaging, processes, and product knowledge. You name it—there is alignment and all of it begins with a ‘customer-first’ mindset.
And they have a keen understanding of the problems that exist in most companies:
- Lack of content usage that marketing produces (Sheevaun quoted up to 92% going unused!).
- The "Forgetting Curve" where most of what is learned is forgotten within 30 days of learning—required reinforcement and just-in-time learning.
- Misalignment in departments and not putting the customer first.
But these are all solvable with the right focus, resources, and the right solution. And sales enablement isn’t just for sales—it can help departments across the business achieve their goals. Sheevaun said that they’re up to 80-90% content usage!
Sales Enablement is Company Enablement
Sales Enablement is not anything new in the sales world. This has been a topic of discussion for years. It’s not just sales’ responsibility to hit quota, generate new leads, convert those leads into paying customers or keep those customers engaged; it’s everyone’s responsibility. Because without paying customers, there is no company.
Sheevaun was able to show RingCentral that sales is everyone's responsibility, propelling them to move beyond sales enablement. During our talk, she shared that the 4 main tenets of sales enablement are the same for the whole company.
- Does everyone understand the go-to message?
- Is the work we're doing, regardless of department, aligned (and current) on that message?
- Can people get the information when they need it?
- Is what we're doing working—or is there a problem?
Looking Out at Customers, Instead of In
One thing that Sheevaun said during our conversation amazed me:
"Every single one of us is looking out at the customer. Every member of my team knows that if there is a breakdown discovered anywhere on the customer's journey, all of us swarm to it to find a solution.”
Many companies are still siloing their departments: sales does their thing, marketing does their thing, but there’s little to no alignment and working together for the good of the customer (and the company, for that matter!). Instead of siloing their departments, RingCentral brings them together by keeping their eyes on the prize...the buyer.
They’re looking outward and seeing what the journey looks like for their customer. They’re mapping the journey, finding gaps, and coming together to decide how to fix those gaps. It doesn't matter that someone is in sales, marketing, customer support, or legal. All that matters is the customer needs them to fix the gap.
Listen to Discover How to Take Your Company BEYOND Sales Enablement
Sheevaun and I covered the above ideas and so much more like:
- How to provide consumable, digestible, usable, and memorable content for the salespeople and the buyers.
- How to hold accountability where it should be.
- How to start moving beyond sales enablement.
Be sure to listen to this month’s episode to learn more about Sheevaun and how she and her team are going beyond sales enablement to help move the business forward and help their customers. You’ll find some actionable tips that can help make your business thrive.
