[00:00:00] Stephanie Middaugh: People are tired and they’re exhausted and they’re burnt out, but that passion is still burning. We want to help. We want to do all the things. So like, we’re still going to be there. Like enablement as a profession is still going to get these initiatives and trainings and like everything through. We’re still going to be bought into helping our reps succeed and seeing the business, you know, move forward and pushing those kinds of things.
[00:00:22] Even though it kind of goes through these ups and downs and ebbs and flows. Enablement’s going to be here for a while, and it’s the companies that know how to properly leverage it that are going to see the results at the end of the day.
[00:00:35] Steve Watt: Welcome to the Enablement Edge, the go to resource for enablement and go to market pros.
[00:00:43] We’re bringing you the secrets, strategies, and tactics that drive meaningful impact. You’ll get valuable insights and expertise from enablement leaders, so you can become an effective change agent, turn strategy into reality, and transform your organization for the better.
[00:01:05] Welcome to today’s episode, and welcome to my co host, my friend and colleague, Amber Mellano. Amber, I’m really excited for today’s episode. We’re talking with Stephanie Middaugh , and she’s a really interesting enablement professional. She runs her own consulting firm, Phoenix GTM Consulting, that works with a lot of different companies, really sorting out the enablement space.
[00:01:30] Uh, she’s a author. She’s written a book called Elevate and Optimize that’s available on Amazon and really digs into enablement. Maturity, she’s presently working with a firm called Luster that’s doing some really interesting things in this space. She’s got a lot going on. It was a real pleasure to have her on the show, wasn’t it?
[00:01:52] What did you like best about our conversation with Stephanie?
[00:01:56] Amber Mellano: Yeah, I love talking to Stephanie. I liked, I really liked her perspective on how to approach a huge situation with a lot of variables and a lot of unknowns. And it actually made me super curious to go ahead and download that book and see how she talks about like, how do we tackle this huge problem?
[00:02:13] And you know, spoiler alert, one step at a time, that’s how you climb Mount Everest, you know? And so That really resonated with me and I’m excited to kind of look at her take on what, what does a mature enablement program look like and how they got there and how they can approach it. I think that’s going to be a really, I’m excited to, to dig into that read and y’all are going to enjoy the conversation we had with her about it.
[00:02:35] How about you? Yeah, well,
[00:02:36] Steve Watt: I don’t, I mean, first off, I like the way, She comes at it with a lot of empathy. I mean, the, the very first thing she talked about was it’s hard out there. Like we’re all feeling it and we, we all know it. And there’s a lot of reasons for it and it’s okay. It’s okay to acknowledge that.
[00:02:53] And, and we really need to, uh, you know, live in that a little bit. And, and then we need to move on from that and, you know, onward and upward. And I, I think that that empathy is important, uh, and it’s a little, it’s a little bit of self care there. There’s a little bit of, uh, love for your, your colleagues and, and your peers and other firms.
[00:03:17] And as a community, you know, I think that’s a, a great, uh, mindset that she acknowledges the challenges. She digs into why those challenges exist. And then, you know, she really starts to turn the page about, okay. What are we going to do about that? And, and I think that we, although we start in a difficult place of the challenges, we end up in a, in a, in a great place.
[00:03:40] And I just thought that was a really interesting and valuable, unnecessary conversation with Stephanie. I hope y’all enjoy it as much as Amber and I did. Let’s jump in. Stephanie. So glad you joined us on the enablement edge. I’ve been really looking forward to this conversation as we’ve been getting to know you a little bit in recent weeks.
[00:04:06] I’ve really liked your approach to, you know, your understanding of the space and your approach to elevating the enablement profession. So I, this one, I’m really looking forward to. Glad you joined us. Uh, Amber, let’s get this thing started. Let’s do this.
[00:04:25] Amber Mellano: All right. So, Stephanie, uh, as you well know, companies all define enablement in slightly different ways, you know, based on their industry or their size, et cetera, um, but we always like to kind of level set with our guests and really get your take on what does enablement mean to you and in your experience?
[00:04:42] How would you define it?
[00:04:43] Stephanie Middaugh: Yeah. Um, it’s, it’s one of the slightly annoying things is that everybody has a little bit different of a definition for enablement. So, I will give you mine. For me, enablement overall is just kind of, it’s allowing our, our sellers, our internal customers, sales, BDRs, customer success, solutions engineers, whoever that scope of like internal customers is.
[00:05:03] Literally, to maximize every customer interaction that they have, that’s going to be through training and education, information transfer, resource creation, and just kind of like serving up to them, removing roadblocks internally, like anything and everything, basically, that can help our internal customers maximize those customer interactions.
[00:05:24] To me, that falls under the umbrella of enablement. A lot of times we’re pinned down as just like just the training function, and if you’re using enablement or if you’re thinking of enablement in that way, you are missing out on so much of the goodness, um, of what enablement can bring to an organization and, and should bring to an organization.
[00:05:41] So like BRSS TACS, that’s what it, it should be. It’s like maximizing or allowing our customer, our internal customers to maximize every customer interaction in whatever way, shape, or form that kind of presents itself in.
[00:05:53] Steve Watt: Yeah. Love that. It’s a big space. It’s a complicated space and, and, uh, that makes it a challenging space.
[00:05:59] And I, I think maybe never more challenging than in the new year. Uh, here we are, you know, early in, in the, in the new year. And a lot of firms, they’ve got, they’ve got SKOs going on. They’ve got leadership changes. They got people coming and going. They’ve got. All kinds of big, they’ve got annual plans and quarterly plans and flux.
[00:06:21] Everybody gets a plan. When we spoke last week, you said you thought it was extra hard this year for a lot of enablers. And I mean, you talked to a lot of your peers and you said that you thought it was extra hard this go round. Tell us what you’re thinking there.
[00:06:38] Stephanie Middaugh: Yeah, I, it’s, it’s been kind of interesting.
[00:06:40] I’ve chatted with a lot of enablement professionals, uh, folks that are, are new to me and, and folks that I’ve been, you know, working with and, and just collaborating with throughout the years, and there’s just this really sad kind of common thread of just like, you see it on their face, you see it in their body language, like they’re just, I’m exhausted.
[00:06:58] And it’s really interesting. And I think there’s, and it’s not just enablement, right? Like I see it just across the board of, of everybody. And I would say, especially like corporate America, but just in general is just like kind of exhausted. You think by it’s 2025, the pandemic in 2020, which does not seem like five years ago, like it.
[00:07:15] It. All of that since then, the ups and the downs and the, oh my gosh, and like all of the things, and I think just life in general is chaotic and a little bit crazy right now. Market shifts and people are being laid off and, and who knows what’s going to happen in the recession, but not a recession and like all of the things.
[00:07:33] I think everybody is just exhausted from that. And then we see this. Translating kind of into the business world of everybody’s just, you know, from the top all the way down and enablement, unfortunately, is kind of at the bottom of, of that kind of pile and we just inevitably kind of collect all of the things that like our role, all of the rocks and the boulders and like all of the, the shit rolling downhill.
[00:07:57] We’re enablement, just like overall, we are. We’re tired. We’re tired of fighting these battles. We’re tired of trying to prove ROI. And even when we do, we still get cut and like all of the things. And we see, we see our friends and colleagues going through the exact same thing. So I think everything is just kind of catching up to us and everybody’s just kind of collectively taking like a, you know, like a deep breath.
[00:08:24] Wow, I am really run down and, and burnt out right now. Um, it’s, it’s sad. Uh, it’s definitely sad to see, but I think there, and we’re going to talk about it a little bit more a little bit later, but just like, what can we do to kind of like, move past this, right? And, and, and, you know, Look on, on the brighter side of everything, but I, I think it’s an important thing to, to recognize and validate.
[00:08:47] If you’re feeling tired, if you are exhausted, if you are banging your head against a wall in enablement, you are not alone. There are plenty of us that are also feeling that exact same way or have in the past. And we’re like here to support you. And that’s my favorite thing about enablement overall is like the community of like people that are willing to be like, yes, everything that you feel is valid and we are here to support you and help you get through it.
[00:09:11] Steve Watt: Amber, you’ve been in enablement for a long time. Are you seeing and hearing and feeling the same sorts of things as Stephanie?
[00:09:18] Amber Mellano: I would, I would echo that. I think like you were saying, it’s been piling up and piling up and it, it, there’s been no sense of a relief to that burnout and, and the frustrations that led to it.
[00:09:28] And I think also. As enablers, we’re very susceptible to that because we want to help everybody and we want to fix every problem. And we also have typically a seat at the table that allows us to see all of the problems. That makes it harder to be like, okay, I can afford one here, not here. Um, what would you say, do you think is, is causing all of this and it’s causing that, you know, pile and, and landing with us at the bottom of the stack?
[00:09:52] I
[00:09:53] Stephanie Middaugh: mean, there could be any number of reasons, but at the end of it, like, I think one of the major things is just the uncertainty kind of in the markets across the board. So I’ve been, just from like 2020, I’ve been in a number of different industries, and I would say no industry is safe from kind of the tumultuous ups and downs and whatever.
[00:10:14] Even in the AI space, which I was most recently kind of in, is still just, you know, it’s hot, it’s not, it’s hot, it’s not, like what’s going on? Oh my God. So it’s an interesting kind of, I think everybody across the board is feeling it. And I think it’s just selling is a hell of a lot harder now. You can’t just like, people aren’t just giving you their credit cards and their bank accounts to kind of get through.
[00:10:33] So like prospecting, getting a meeting on the books, and even closing a deal and signing everything, like all of these things are just magnified and made so, so much harder. The executive leadership at the top is getting pressure from their board and their stakeholders and, you know, shareholders and like all of the things all the way down to frontline managers are getting squeezed in the middle between the executives at the top and their reps at the very bottom that are frustrated around everything.
[00:10:59] And Amber, to your point, in enablement, we’re like, But we just want to help, we just want to fix all the things for you. And I’m going to try over here and I’m going to try over there. So I think it’s just, to your point, it’s everything just kind of collectively kind of coming together and to a point or I don’t know what, but, um, I think there’s a market shifts, I think have a lot to do with, with a lot of it and just kind of external things that.
[00:11:26] That we can’t control. And that’s frustrating because we could make our sellers better, but that may or may not work all the time. And that’s a hard pill to
[00:11:34] Steve Watt: swallow. And let’s add on to that. You, you actually mentioned this AI, and we’re not going to turn this into an AI episode. We’ve done those.
[00:11:43] Everybody’s doing those. Critically important. But I, I, you know, I got to pull on that thread that you mentioned in there. That’s a whole other. Sure. Range of, of uncertainty and complexity and challenges. I mean, is AI going to replace me? Uh, is it going to fundamentally change the skills that I need to do my job?
[00:12:02] Is it going to be easier or harder, bigger or smaller? Are we facing a whole new range of competitors that maybe we don’t see today? You know, is this going to be the best thing ever for our company? Or is it going to be a real hard road? Like. So there’s a lot going on . There’s a lot going on. Yeah. I, I, I think we’re all nodding our heads to that.
[00:12:25] What do we. Do with that fact, you know, after we, we take a moment, you know, we, we, uh, decompress, we make a nice, you know, hot cup of tea and, uh, say, okay, now what, what do we do? What do we do with this? How do we, how do we, as Amber said a moment ago, how do we move forward in this environment?
[00:12:48] Stephanie Middaugh: I think for one, Steve, to your point, I think everybody just needs to sit in grief for like a minute, like I’m a big proponent of like you just gotta feel it for a bit and I think it’s actually, it’s good, it’s healthy, like get the grief out, get the anger out, get the frustration, cry under your desk with a bottle of wine, sometimes with a cup of tea, Steve, whatever, like whatever just kind of like floats your boat, but at the end of the day, what, what I always try to come back to each and every time as like, all right, I need to like reframe my thought process, which is not easy.
[00:13:18] It’s way easier said than done. But I need to like refocus on what is in the realm of my control. Can I control the market shifts? Nope. Can I control whether my leaders actually have their strategies in place or have everything kind of figured out in time for me to put a strategy in place from an enablement perspective, which gives me enough time to build training and education and the initiatives and like all of the things, like, those are not things that are within my control.
[00:13:47] However, what is in the realm of my control is Keeping my finger on the pulse of the business, keeping regular cadences with my frontline managers, with even some reps across the business, ideally, hopefully with some executive leadership so that I have an idea of what is actually happening. Even if my leaders don’t have their strategy figured out, I’m frivy to those conversations on what’s top of mind.
[00:14:11] Spoiler alert, it’s usually pipeline generation. We never have enough pipeline. We never have enough there. So, like, All of these things, like that is within the realm of my control. Can I force a human being to take a training? No, but can I create all of the things, can I put it in all of the places that they are going to go to and try and find and like self serve and whatever, can I go above and beyond in those areas?
[00:14:38] Absolutely, I can. Can I try and Reframe a process. Can I retrain on a tool that they’re using that I know that they’re not using effectively? Like, these are all pieces that are, are within the realm of my control. No less frustrating when you’re not working at the strategic kind of top level. But you also have to recognize, like, will I actually be able to work at that strategic level anytime soon?
[00:15:02] Yes or no? And if the answer is no, be okay with that, and figure out what can I focus on, what can I do, so that you don’t drive yourself insane and go crazy. You can’t regularly cry under your desk with a bottle of wine. Every once in a while is fine, but
[00:15:19] Amber Mellano: You point out that, you know, if you don’t have the strategy from your leaders, you really have to focus on what you can control.
[00:15:24] Can you give us some examples, like some practical examples of that?
[00:15:28] Stephanie Middaugh: Yeah. Um, so one of the interesting things is that usually product for better or worse, or the R& D team is usually like they set a deadline for a product release or a feature, like whatever that’s going to come out. And inevitably it like pushes down the, it kicks down the road a little bit.
[00:15:44] And that can be really, really frustrating. Me as an enablement professional, I’m looking at, this is what I need to enable my team on. They need the product knowledge. They need the messaging. They need the pricing. They need the pitch deck. They need all of the things. And then it gets kicked down the road further and further and further.
[00:15:57] And then now I’m stuck with just these things like waiting. And now my role is super reactive to whatever is changing in the business. Super frustrating. In that case, it’s just kind of like refocusing. And what I’ve tried to kind of work through is instead of focusing on like an activity or a launch specifically, which is likely to push, instead, let’s reframe and focus on like, a skill, for example, or an internal tool that’s already rolled out that maybe the teams can optimize or use more efficiently.
[00:16:32] So if I think about it, like, like, kind of like an umbrella or a pillar, however you want to kind of visualize it. If I’m thinking about, I know my teams are struggling when it comes to value proposition or storytelling, maybe they’re feature dumping a lot more often than they are storytelling. So, Let’s do an initiative around storytelling instead.
[00:16:52] And that’s kind of like my main kind of top level focus. Then I’m going to come in when that product is ready, when that feature is ready, and I’m going to slot it in under and I’m going to tie it to that skill that I’m training on. Right? So like this top level, that’s within the realm of my control. Now I can go and get buy in from my leaders.
[00:17:12] I can tie some metrics to it. And then when the product is ready or whatever the thing is, when that’s ready, You slot it in and you’re training on a skill now instead of waiting, because inevitably if you train on the product, they’re going to feature dump again. So like training on the skill at the very top.
[00:17:27] So that’s how I try and like reframe my mind and not scream at my product folks. They’re just like, why is this not ready? And but, but it’s not, it’s not on them either. Like they’re running into their own thing. So like having some empathy for what they’re going through and being like, okay, I’m just going to take a step back and this is what I’ll focus on instead.
[00:17:46] When y’all are ready. Fill me in. Bloop me in. We got, I got a plan. We’re going to execute on the plan when it’s ready. And in the meantime, I have something else I can focus on.
[00:17:56] Amber Mellano: Love that. It also makes your teams feel like they’re continuously being supported and getting more prepared, even as that, you know, deadline might be getting pushed out and, and, you know, further and further out.
[00:18:06] So. Exactly. Love that. Great example.
[00:18:08] Steve Watt: We know that Firms are at very different stages of maturity when it comes to enablement, that’s always been true. Many people have built out maturity models and various sorts of things to help us diagnose that and, and, uh, figure out what’s going on. What to do with that information and, and how to elevate and improve and, and, uh, you know, mature our business.
[00:18:36] Uh, you went further and you wrote a book about it. Tell us about that. Tell us about what spurred you to do that. It’s a lot of work. Uh, probably something a lot of people have maybe considered, thought about doing, but not so many have actually done the work. What drove you to do that? What made that feel like it was important to you?
[00:18:57] And then tell us. About the book itself, really who it’s written for and what they can gain from reading it.
[00:19:04] Stephanie Middaugh: Yeah. To Amber’s point earlier, like enablement professionals just want to like give and they want to solve problems and whatever. And I like to be enablement for enablement at a certain point. So like years ago, I co founded an enablement, like, like online community.
[00:19:17] The book was the exact same kind of brainchild passion project. I had developed this maturity model when I was doing consulting, um, for a, for a little bit, I had a, a client of mine that was asking me like, well, we had enablement, it didn’t quite fit what we needed it to be. Can you help us define what enablement should be for our company?
[00:19:38] And I developed this slide kind of outlining everything at a, at a high level and, and broke it down for that particular client. And I was like, Wait a minute. I feel like this is pretty applicable across the board and I’ve, I’ve been through enough enablement roles in my, in my career and enough companies before where I had seen this like gambit of like this just like flowing, um, skew of, of different maturity levels between, uh, enablement teams and companies and everything.
[00:20:08] And I was like, I feel like this is an opportunity to just kind of like set a stake in the ground. My entire thing with whatever content I produce or put out there, I always want to be very tactical. So I’ve seen other maturity models in the past, but I, I wasn’t quite sure, like, what do I do? What do I do with this though?
[00:20:27] Like, how do I apply it? How do I get from one stage to the next? And for me, that’s, that was the question that I wanted to answer for fellow enablement professionals is like, identify kind of where you are on the model and then identify where you want to be. And then let’s take it a step further and identify like, what are the things that you need to do in order to get there?
[00:20:46] Like how do you, what steps do you take? What people do you involve? What does that look like on a very kind of nuanced myopic level? So for me, that was kind of the, the inspiration for me writing the book. Luckily, we live in a day and age where like, I just found Amazon Kindle and like was able to like self publish everything, which was just brilliant and a really phenomenal experience.
[00:21:09] Shout out to Amazon Kindle for making it so easy for people like me to do it. But yeah, it was, it’s been such a rewarding kind of experience even to get that feedback of like, I read your book and it was like so impactful. And I’m like, Oh, thank God.
[00:21:23] Steve Watt: A lot of authors have told me that after they wrote the book, people seized on certain parts of it that they didn’t expect, or maybe they thought the most value was over here, but their readers tell them it’s over there.
[00:21:35] Have there been any surprises in the feedback? Or if not just surprises, what are some of the things that people are really finding valuable about the book?
[00:21:44] Stephanie Middaugh: Um, some of the feedback that I’ve, I’ve been getting, one of the things that I really drill into in, in the book and even a couple of presentations that I’ve given about kind of the content in the book is like, I really reinforce this idea of like being honest with yourself and setting realistic goals for like what it should be.
[00:22:01] We all look at the, at the most mature, we want to like have a 12 month roadmap on everything and it doesn’t change. And only 5 percent of our stuff is reactive and what I like. But that’s probably going to happen. I think it’s one of the things that I drill into, and it’s some of the feedback that I’ve gotten from other people, is they really appreciate kind of that message of like, it’s okay if you are stuck in what’s like kind of a lower level of maturity for a little bit.
[00:22:29] It doesn’t mean that you can’t be better. Pick and choose little areas where you can mature your enablement function. You don’t have to have the whole thing figured out. It can just be like one little step at a time and like that’s what I’ve learned throughout my career is it’s not these like big massive improvements.
[00:22:47] It’s the little pieces like how do you climb a mountain? How do you eat a, I don’t know, like a, I got to eat an elephant one bite at a time, right? An elephant, that’s what it is. Yeah, one bite at a time. And it’s the exact same thing with enablement and maturing the function. Maybe you’ll get this one over here and you won’t get this other one.
[00:23:03] That’s okay. You’re still maturing overall. So that’s what I wanted to kind of get across. It’s been some of the most amazing feedback that I’ve gotten from other people too.
[00:23:11] Amber Mellano: I love that. I can just feel like people would be like, Oh, I have something for like, remind me how to do this. And a guide, like, you know, a step by step almost to, to reach.
[00:23:22] Sanity.
[00:23:24] Stephanie Middaugh: And I, I’ve even got like in the, in the later part of the book, I’ve got worksheets and kind of projects and stuff that people can kind of go through to identify where am I, where do I want to go and how do I get there? Um, and that for me is like, that’s what I wanted. I, that’s what I always crave is like, I want step by step by step, I, I have blank canvas syndrome.
[00:23:44] You hand me a blank canvas, I don’t know what, to Yeah, like, you hand me a strategy. What do I do with this? Like, I need to know kind of an example. And then I can, then my brain goes, you know, wild and crazy. Um, and I wanted to be able to provide that to other people too.
[00:23:58] Steve Watt: One thing that I know to be true and this actually came up when we spoke last week as well Stephanie is that, Maturity and size of org are not the same thing.
[00:24:09] They may, they may be aligned, maybe completely misaligned. These are different things. And, uh, you were telling us that, you know, you have definitely seen some situations where a larger org with a larger investment in enablement, a larger team, you would think that they would be quite a mature operation, but in reality.
[00:24:34] That wasn’t the case. Tell us about that.
[00:24:36] Stephanie Middaugh: Yeah. I, a lot of it has to do with, uh, I love seeing large enablement teams. I love seeing companies invest in resources for enablement, but in reality, like a lot of it has to do with like the company environment and like what’s happening at the organization and like leadership at the top and like the market that they’re playing in and like all of the things, so like.
[00:24:57] You can have a really large enablement team, but if your market is constantly changing, if your leadership is trying to keep up with that constant change, they’re going to feel that all the way down into the large enablement kind of teams. On the flip side, if you are a small enablement function at a company in a space that maybe isn’t as fast moving, You might actually be able to get to a higher level of maturity with only a hand, small handful of enablement professionals.
[00:25:30] So, like, a lot of it depends, like, again, just because you have the resourcing and the backing and the buy in of the, of the organization doesn’t automatically equal maturity in, Like an enablement function. Ideally, enablement functions, when they’re like at kind of that optimal phase, like the very like utopia of all of enablement maturity, or at least how I’ve kind of defined it in my model, you want to see most of your initiatives are proactive.
[00:25:58] You’re working hand in hand with executive leadership. They’re setting the strategy. They’re telling you exactly what numbers they want to hit and like, whatever. Everybody’s backing into that. And like, here’s how enablement can support that initiative. And like, let’s go. And it’s, I think it’s, um, kind of a misnomer that like the bigger the team, the more mature they’re going to be.
[00:26:19] That’s not necessarily true. It very much depends on, on the company, on the leadership, on the space, on the market, on a lot of different factors. So like one does not always equal the other, but like in hyper, and I mentioned this actually in a, in a presentation that I did a couple of months ago on this is like for hyper growth startups, you have to be honest with yourself again in so far as like probably not going to get out of stage two of the like enablement maturity.
[00:26:50] And that’s okay. Like it doesn’t mean that you’re failing. It doesn’t mean that you’re doing something wrong. That’s where you are. And like trying to push your agenda to mature an organization. may not always work either. And you might, you yourself might turn into a roadblock and enablement and you don’t want to do that either.
[00:27:09] So it’s being honest with yourself, being realistic, and then setting realistic goals for what’s actually possible in your company, in your market, with your leadership, et cetera. And then living in that and understanding what levers you can pull to move some pieces forward.
[00:27:25] Amber Mellano: I love that. It feels so tangible.
[00:27:27] Like, I can imagine looking at the maturity assessment and figuring out where I’m at and then being told, this is where you are, do everything you can in this place and kind of know that trying to skip ahead of where the organization is isn’t going to end well for you, most likely. You’re going to be banging your head against the wall and it’ll be going in a different direction than they ultimately go in.
[00:27:48] And that can be really frustrating. really hard to just sit back and go, here I am. This is that same focus conversation. Like this is where we are. These are the things that we can be impacting now and, and stay there. I love that. Makes so much sense. I feel soothing. Just
[00:28:02] Stephanie Middaugh: that’s what it was. Just the Zen.
[00:28:04] Zen enablement is what I want to, is what I want to achieve.
[00:28:08] Amber Mellano: Zen in the art of enablement. That’s perfect. You know, I’m thinking back to the top of our conversation where we were saying, sometimes companies really don’t know how to leverage Enablement teams, and they might come to the enablement team and say, okay, new year, new you.
[00:28:21] What are your plans for the year? What would your response be to, to a question like that coming from one of your executive stakeholders?
[00:28:27] Stephanie Middaugh: I mean, I’ve, I’ve lived this life. Like, um, I, I’ve seen this multiple times kind of in, in my career where it’s, it’s a new quarter, it’s a new year, it’s a new whatever.
[00:28:36] And the leader will come to me and be like, all right, what do you want? What are your Q1 initiatives, uh, for enablement? And. There’s a part of me that wants to kind of like scream a little bit and be like, well, but it’s not, it’s not me, like what are, what are the executive focuses? What are the executive priorities that we’re going into this new quarter, this new year?
[00:28:56] Like what, what does that look like? Because I can’t, and shouldn’t, Develop my priorities and enablement until I know the top level focuses because then I’m working in a silo. Then all of the things that enablement struggles with on a pretty consistent basis, no buy in, we can’t get attention from the reps.
[00:29:14] We can’t get frontline managers to coach to anything or reinforce anything that we’re talking about. It’s because we’re disjointed. It’s because I’ve gone off and sped up my own priorities and then the leadership is doing their own thing on the side. This is where that alignment really comes into play, and I’ve seen, there was a long time I didn’t think that that existed, that that was just kind of like a, you know, a dream state, that this never happened, and I actually experienced it at one of my previous organizations, we were We were looking to break into a whole new persona, a whole new kind of like industry, you know, within an organization and my CRO at the time I reported directly to them, he came to me and he was like, Steph, we want to break into this new persona.
[00:29:57] How can enablement, you know, help us? Achieve this, basically, here are the marks that we want to hit, here are the numbers that we want to go with. And I was able to develop an entire program around it of just like, here’s the persona, here’s what they care about, here’s the product features that they’re going to like gravitate towards the most, here’s how you were able to do that, here’s how you multi thread between our initial persona and like this new persona, and like all of the, and it was, guys, it was beautiful.
[00:30:23] It was so amazing. And you know, what happened was that I was actually able to tie impact. To everything, I was able to look at meetings booked by our BDRs. I was able to look at close rate. I was able to look at competitor win rate. I was able to look at sales velocity because we had everything figured out.
[00:30:41] So it, I know it exists now. Like I’ve seen it and it is, it is a big deal. Beautiful thing.
[00:30:48] Amber Mellano: You just described what I would call transformational enablement. Yes. You were able to impact the business because you were aligned with the business. Yes. You knew what the business’s goals were and then you were able to develop a strategy to get them there in the ways that you could get them there.
[00:31:03] And then the best part, you have that, you know, the data. To show that you were successful because you achieved those things. Oh, it’s amazing.
[00:31:10] Stephanie Middaugh: Was, it was the most amazing thing. I’m like, middle Nirvana. I just like, it’s, it’s one of those things that like whenever I am having a bad day, like in enablement and I’m just like, why am I doing what, what is going on?
[00:31:20] I look back to that and I was like, it’s possible guys. It’s po Like it’s just, it’s there. I know it, I know it exists. It’s, I’ve seen it happen.
[00:31:27] Steve Watt: We started out in some dark places. I’m glad we’re, uh, as we approach the end here, we’re, we’re smiling, we’re laughing, and we’re feeling empowered. That, that makes me happy.
[00:31:39] Let’s cap off with a little lightning round, Stephanie, like, have a little fun with. We actually asked these same three questions to all of our guests, and it’s, it’s been an interesting little adventure. Love it. Do it with you. Number one, what is something that is going to really fundamentally change in enablement over the next 18 to 24 months?
[00:32:03] Stephanie Middaugh: You know, I, we, we touched on it briefly, Steve, you mentioned it. AI, I think is, is really going to be, I’ve heard from, I’ve heard from a number of enablement colleagues. Um, that they’ve been tasked with from their leadership team to like figure out what AI tools, do we need AI? What does it look like? Which tools do we already have that have it?
[00:32:25] Like, what does this look like when, if we need to include AI? AI in our strategy, like in our strategy or plan, and like, what is that? It’s interesting when I was attending conferences the year before last, so 2023, everybody was very excited about AI. Like it’s going to change everything and it’s going to be amazing and whatever.
[00:32:43] And like, everybody was on the hype cycle, right? 2024, when I started attending conferences, I heard some skepticism of just like, Well, it’s not quite the silver bullet that we thought, and you have to be a little bit careful, having just, like, left kind of the, the generative AI space. I’m very familiar with kind of all of the things AI can hallucinate, and you have to double check and make sure the answers that it’s giving you are correct.
[00:33:05] Like, there’s all of these little things. So, like, people are still Well, So it’s gonna be like a lot of people are positive and like, definitely like keeping their eye on it. But they’re a little bit more skeptical of, it’s not gonna fix everything, right? We can use it and we think it can be more, it can make us more productive and efficient within reason.
[00:33:24] And like, how do we do that? So that’s where I would say like, I think AI is going to be a thing. But I think people are going to start looking at it more skeptically, and vendors in that space are going to have to prove that, like, you can’t just say, like, we have AI and, like, it wins the deal. Like, that’s not going to happen.
[00:33:41] Steve Watt: Yeah, hopefully using it strategically and not just to say it is. Yeah, exactly. Stephanie, what’s not going to change in enablement?
[00:33:50] Stephanie Middaugh: What’s not going to change on it? It’s going to sound a little bit campy and corny. It’s going to be like the passion that enablement professionals like bring. Even we were talking about earlier, like at the very top of the episode, people are tired and they’re exhausted and they’re burnt out.
[00:34:03] But I like that passion is still burning. Like it’s, it’s hidden a little bit, like under that, like, you know, frustration. But it’s still there. We, to Amber’s point, we want to help. We want to, to do all the things. So like, we’re still going to be there. Like enablement as a profession is still going to, we’re still going to try our damnedest to like get these initiatives and trainings and like everything through.
[00:34:24] We’re still going to be like bought in to helping our reps succeed and, and seeing the business, you know, move forward and pushing those kinds of things. That I don’t think is going to change. Enablement, I don’t think is, even though it kind of goes through these ups and downs and ebbs and flows, enablement is going to be here for a while.
[00:34:43] And it’s the companies that know how to properly leverage it that are going to see the results at the end of the day.
[00:34:50] Steve Watt: Well put.
[00:34:51] Amber Mellano: I love that. Can that be the tagline of our podcast episode? That last sentence. I love
[00:34:56] Steve Watt: it. Sorry to interrupt. Very, very well put. Final question for you, Stephanie, what’s the best piece of advice that you’ve ever been given?
[00:35:05] Now it doesn’t, it may be about enablement, it might be about something entirely different, but what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever heard?
[00:35:12] Stephanie Middaugh: Uh, I go back to my very first enablement role. I had a truly phenomenal manager, I still keep in touch with her to this day. It was just kind of a funny little quip that we, we started talking about and it was literally from like a fighting Nemo.
[00:35:27] It was like, just keep swimming. And that became like our motto as like an enablement team. And honestly, like it’s just one of those things where I feel like in enablement, especially like we just. We’re like trudging through all of the things, and it’s just, just keep swimming. Just keep moving forward.
[00:35:44] Just keep trying. And honestly, like, I mean, it applies in every element of life too, but anytime I get down on myself, anytime I do anything, it’s funny, we even still comment on like LinkedIn posts, me and my, and my former manager of just like, just keep swimming. Like that’s the, that’s the one. Um, and it just, it’s, it sticks with me and it’s got a special place in my heart.
[00:36:04] I love it.
[00:36:05] Steve Watt: Another motto to live by. You got a lot of them, Stephanie. I’m full of it, Steve. Wow. You could put it that way, or maybe, you know, you might want to, you know, workshop that. I
[00:36:16] Stephanie Middaugh: mean,
[00:36:18] Steve Watt: we’ll think about it. I don’t know. This has been great, Stephanie. Okay, everyone, listeners, viewers, go to Amazon, buy Elevate and Optimize.
[00:36:26] Lots to learn, uh, lots to be inspired by. Where else and how else can people get more of you, Stephanie?
[00:36:35] Stephanie Middaugh: Uh, I’m all over LinkedIn, so I love connecting with people. Please, uh, connect with me, send me a message or whatever. I love having little coffee chats and stuff with folks, so find me on LinkedIn, more than happy to.
[00:36:46] Uh, definitely. I would love it if you buy my book, and if you do, give me your feedback. I want to hear the good, the bad, the ugly. I love it.
[00:36:52] Steve Watt: Thanks so much for joining us.
[00:36:53] Stephanie Middaugh: Thank you.
[00:36:55] Steve Watt: Thanks for joining us on the Enablement Edge. We’re on YouTube. And all your favorite podcast providers. See you next time.
[00:37:03] Voiceover: The Enablement Edge is brought to you by the team at Seismic.
[00:37:07] Seismic is the global leader in enablement, keeping organizations on the cutting edge of engaging customers, enabling teams and igniting revenue growth. You can learn more at seismic. com.
