EPISODE 4
Seismic and Highspot are now one company. See what’s next for AI-powered GTM performance.
Learn More
[00:00:00] Irina Soriano: The timing was very good for us to publish the book when we published it because we were just reaching a point where folks are like, what else is there? Like a lot of folks were like, I’ve done all of it, where’s the next best thing that I can implement in my practice? So I think we knew there was a need, but it was even much bigger than we originally anticipated.
[00:00:20] Meganne Brezina: Due to the high velocity that many organizations are experiencing, the rapid growth, this theory of change management is becoming more and more important. It’s important in the way that we’re communicating with the field. It’s important in the way that we’re managing our own enablement initiatives and how we’re really rolling them out.
[00:00:36] Meganne Brezina: How are we doing this in an effective way that truly drives the behavior changes? And I think that all starts in the way that we manage that strategy up front.
[00:00:46] Steve Watt: Welcome to The Enablement Edge, the go to resource for enablement and go to market pros. We’re bringing you the secrets, strategies, and tactics that drive meaningful impact.
[00:00:59] Steve Watt: You’ll [00:01:00] 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.
[00:01:16] Steve Watt: Welcome to today’s episode of The Enablement Edge. We’re going to speak with two of Seismic’s own experts in the space, Irina Soriano, VP Enablement, and Meganne Brezina, Senior Director of Field Enablement. Together, With my co host, Amber Milano, who is Director of Seismic Engagement. Amber, thanks for joining me on this.
[00:01:42] Steve Watt: And, uh, we’re talking to two of the leaders of your own team. This is going to be an interesting one for you.
[00:01:48] Amber Mellano: Yeah, this was really fun, Steve. We got to talk to them about, uh, what we actually practice here at Seismic in the enablement value chain. And it was really a fun conversation, I think. It was really cool to, uh, I think one [00:02:00] of the things that we’re promoting is this idea of this is like enablement 3.
[00:02:03] Amber Mellano: 0. And so we really got to hear how our team has evolved and how this practice came in to be in the first place. And kind of get a deeper dive into what we’re doing and how we’re trying to drive this forward. Enablement story, both to show that we’re successful as enablers, as well as most importantly, show how we’ve been able to level up our sales teams and help them achieve their goals and help to drive the outcomes of the business.
[00:02:28] Amber Mellano: I thought was a really fun conversation.
[00:02:29] Steve Watt: Absolutely. Their book, it’s, it’s been almost a year now since their book came out, uh, Tomorrow’s Enablement for Today’s Leaders. And, uh, we explore the story of that book, how it came to be, why it’s important. Uh, but then we dig into some of the core aspects of that book.
[00:02:50] Steve Watt: The enablement value chain, which is this mechanization of enablement delivery and Concepts around gears and rods and [00:03:00] belts and interconnectivity. They’ve, they’ve got a really holistic and I think a pretty compelling way of looking at how these different parts come together to really drive things forward.
[00:03:12] Steve Watt: We dig into the core messages of the book, the core attributes of the enablement value chain. We talked about. analytics and how a more mature approach to analytics can be really impactful on enablement delivery and outcomes. We talked about the difference between field enablement and field activation, two things that may sound similar, but they’re not.
[00:03:40] Steve Watt: but are actually quite different. And Megan and Irina have a really valuable perspective on that. And we also talked about councils of stakeholders across the organization and how they structure these councils for valuable feedback and collaboration. [00:04:00] There’s a lot of great content in today’s show. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.
[00:04:07] Steve Watt: Megan, Irina, So excited for today’s conversation. Thanks so much for joining us on the show.
[00:04:13] Meganne Brezina: Oh, thanks for having us. We’re really looking forward to being here.
[00:04:17] Amber Mellano: Yeah. Very excited to be here. Thank you. All right, ladies. I’m excited too. I just want to dig in. First things first, let’s get your take on how do you define enablement?
[00:04:28] Amber Mellano: It’s, it is still an evolving thing out there in the market. And I’d love to hear your take on what does enablement really mean? Irina, why don’t you start?
[00:04:37] Irina Soriano: Sure, like, uh, I’m going to say it nice and short and let Megan get into the details, um, how I always explain it to my 70 year old mother who lives in Germany.
[00:04:47] Irina Soriano: Um, I tell her that we’re responsible to ensure that all our customer facing teams, they have what they need to be successful in their roles. And I think if we strip everything away, that’s [00:05:00] really our, our purpose, ultimately helping them to drive success. Customer experiences overall. So Megan,
[00:05:07] Meganne Brezina: I’ll let you take the details on that.
[00:05:09] Meganne Brezina: You’re spot on. For me, it’s all about equipping our teams, our customer facing teams with the ability to drive a world class experience. And the way that we can do that is by hitching our wagon to strategic objectives and making sure that the learning opportunities we’re providing are packaged in such a way that they can consume it quickly and then activate it quickly, therefore driving that experience.
[00:05:30] Steve Watt: Excellent. All right, let’s jump right in. And get to your recent book. So last year, you two co authored Tomorrow’s Enablement for Today’s Leaders. And it introduced the concept of the enablement value chain. And I think this is a real kind of like enablement 3. 0 kind of moment where you elevated the conversation into something more strategic and more comprehensive.
[00:05:57] Steve Watt: Then what most of us had seen prior. [00:06:00] Tell us why you felt that book was needed and, and also take us into an overview of what the enablement value chain really is.
[00:06:10] Meganne Brezina: The impetus of the book, if you’ll indulge me to tell a little story, Irina and I were actually in Chicago in April of 2023, preparing for a team offsite.
[00:06:20] Meganne Brezina: And we were sitting down mapping out some things that we wanted to tackle in the year. And we literally had a big whiteboard out and we were jotting down, Oh, you know, we want to set up these cross functional councils. We want to make sure we’ve got a strong analytics program. And then before we knew it, we had this beautiful image.
[00:06:35] Meganne Brezina: Well, maybe not beautiful, but we had an image on the whiteboard that really tackled these core components of the EVC, which I’m sure we will tackle later in this conversation. But we had a true aha moment. In fact, I distinctly remember looking across the table at Irina and her eyes got really big and my eyes got really big.
[00:06:53] Meganne Brezina: And we said, wait a second, we are documenting what we’re doing in our practice, but we have just stumbled [00:07:00] on something that is programmatic, that is scalable, that would be reliable, predictable. Um, and so we knew we needed to document that for the wider enablement community. And that was really where that whole conversation started.
[00:07:13] Meganne Brezina: Yeah, and I think
[00:07:14] Irina Soriano: to explain a little bit what we mean by the EVC or the enablement value chain, um, how we will call it, like, generally speaking, it’s just the strategic approach that we use to what Megan said, drive cross functional collaboration, but also elevate enablement experiences for our field teams overall, but then also really unlocking all those value based insights and analytics that are so critical and that are really fueling.
[00:07:42] Irina Soriano: The entire EVC, so it’s kind of like the engine, um, behind it to just continually enhance our efforts and also get executive buy in. So that’s the whole story behind the EVC and I think what Megan just said is we had all the pieces, but we weren’t really [00:08:00] thinking about how they are actually working together.
[00:08:03] Irina Soriano: And where do we have to make sure that we, you know, put a little bit of grease on a gear here and there. I think that was the, the revelation for us just to put the book together. And then we decided, hey, this is so powerful and it works so well. Um, it’s the right point in time to just share this with the wider enablement community because, As we all know, we’re all out here to learn and we all want to better our practice.
[00:08:27] Irina Soriano: And, um, that really what sparked us to say, Hey, we should put this in a, in a format so that folks can consume it and we should put it out there.
[00:08:35] Steve Watt: And for those who haven’t seen or read the book or seen some of the visuals around it. You really do envision it as a machine, uh, there’s gears, there’s belts, there’s motion, and it’s all moving together to really drive the, drive the vehicle forward.
[00:08:54] Steve Watt: Was that purposeful right from the beginning that you thought, you know, this is the, this is [00:09:00] going to be our foundational metaphor, or did you sort of, Stumble into that along the way. How did, how did that kind of visual representation come together?
[00:09:09] Meganne Brezina: If I’m not mistaken, and Irena, correct me, but I do believe the image on the white board that we started with was actually a factory and it had elevators, a lot of creativity behind it, but we are, we’re very grateful and appreciative to our marketing team that has wonderful design capabilities that really helped us harness the spirit of what we were trying to get to, to create this idea of The gears and really bringing that all together at the end of the day, but it was definitely an evolved process.
[00:09:37] Meganne Brezina: That’s for sure.
[00:09:38] Amber Mellano: You know, we’re talking about tomorrow’s enablement today. Can you give us a little bit of a treatment of how you feel like the EVC approach is different from maybe the more traditional enablement programs or things that a lot of our fellow practitioners might be using today? Give us a little idea of how the EVC is different from that or what does it build on?
[00:09:58] Irina Soriano: I think there’s two pieces to [00:10:00] it, right? So it obviously, it’s the overall enablement strategy that you can implement in any type of organization, either if you start with one enabler or two or three, um, or you have a hundred enablers on your team right now. The two things that it brings is just the flexibility and also the scalability, right?
[00:10:21] Irina Soriano: And when I say flexibility, this really means. You know, as you build out for your plan for the year, right, or your long term strategy, you can’t account for everything that is going to happen. There will be a few things that will fall outside of your plan and the EVC allows you to really be strategic, but at the same time also have the flexibility to take on ad hoc enablement.
[00:10:45] Irina Soriano: And then the second piece is just the scalability. So, I think often we’re missing some of the pieces, so when we talk with other enablers, there might be half of it is there, or maybe two or three gears are there, but the rest is not, or the [00:11:00] analytics program is missing, so I think the key here is really this is a full concept that we have put into practice, and we have seen it operate and work, and I have not seen it in this, this fashion done anywhere else.
[00:11:14] Irina Soriano: So I think it’s a very innovative way that allows for, you know, enough flexibility and scalability within so that can really be implemented in any type of organization. And that makes it so powerful.
[00:11:27] Amber Mellano: All right, well, now that we have a sense of what the EVC is all about, let’s roll up our sleeves a little bit.
[00:11:31] Amber Mellano: We’d love to hear about What do you think are some of the main threads in the book that we want to pull on and talk about a little bit more? For example, analytics is a big one. Maybe let’s start there. Give us your take on the EVC perspective.
[00:11:45] Meganne Brezina: I think it’s important. Let’s zoom out and identify what those four gears are, because as we’ve discussed, they all work together in concert.
[00:11:51] Meganne Brezina: So as we cover off on those terms, it’d be good for people to have the lay of the land. There are four key components. Amber, I think you’re right with the analytics is the [00:12:00] main, we call it the rod, that goes through every single gear of, of that value chain. The second piece is this idea of 360 enablement or revenue enablement or whatever you want to call it, but it’s really the idea of how an enablement team is looking at skills, methodology, and process woven together across both a buying journey team And a value journey team, right?
[00:12:21] Meganne Brezina: So it’s anybody who’s impacting that customer experience. That’s our top gear. Cause you have to have something to enable, right? There’s gotta be something that you’re, you’re reaching out into the field for. That second piece is around your enablement team structure around field enablement and field activation.
[00:12:35] Meganne Brezina: This was something that I know Rena is quite passionate about, and we’re so fortunate to have a great team that is really focused on the, uh, the coaching aspect for our field. And the final piece. Although not, not the least important, but just the bottom piece of that value chain is around the cross functional, uh, councils that we have set up across, not only our, call it, external partners with operations and product marketing.
[00:12:59] Meganne Brezina: [00:13:00] But we’re also looking at our own enablement team as contributing to this cross functional partnership. We’re also looking at our senior field leaders as contributing as well. And all of those pieces in concert help it all sync together. As you said, do you want to start with the analytics piece as the primary piece for ReDigIn?
[00:13:18] Meganne Brezina: Irina, I know this is one of your favorite pieces.
[00:13:21] Irina Soriano: Sure, it’s the thing that kept me up at night for 15 years. Um, my favorite topic. So, I think Something that happened very powerful for us was with analytics and Megan, I’m taking us, I don’t know, three years back, two and a half years back, we said, let’s look at all our data from the entire last year when we were doing enablement and we were really purposeful to track everything that we could potentially track.
[00:13:46] Irina Soriano: And I think we spent about a good four to six weeks to really enable that. Dive in and try to find the impact that the team had. And we just weren’t getting there. That, and I think Megan, that brought up a lot of the, the [00:14:00] feelings that we both had over the, you know, the last decade. Like we always knew we had big impact, but we weren’t really able to show the correlation.
[00:14:07] Irina Soriano: And the, the smart thing that we did is bring in our data team who then helped us to identify what do we really need to look at. And the three pieces that we then just highlighted were enablement engagement, behavior changes, and outcomes. And very often we were hopping from enablement engagement to outcomes and this middle piece, the behavior changes.
[00:14:30] Irina Soriano: That was missing and, um, I think that really then enabled us to go down an entirely different path and really being able to benchmark folks based on their outcomes against each other and see are the behavior changes there, are those folks more engaged in the enablement that we did, and it really changed our entire approach to analytics.
[00:14:52] Irina Soriano: We build an entire product around it, which is very exciting, um, that now saves us about 80 percent of the [00:15:00] time that we originally invested in analytics, which was easy, a hundred plus hours a quarter looking at data and really trying to tell that story. So, um, yeah, it’s been a complete game changer for us and something that we wanted to share in the book as well, so that other practitioners can.
[00:15:16] Irina Soriano: can take this forward and bring it to their own practice.
[00:15:20] Steve Watt: It sounds like something that we ought to dig into just a little bit further, Irina. That was really interesting. I, I know that a lot of teams are focusing on the first piece of that, the, the engagement with the enablement. You know, are people showing up?
[00:15:33] Steve Watt: Are they, are they, you know, joining the classes? Are they doing the homework? Are they doing the thing? Everybody measures that. Everybody, of course, is also measuring outcomes. Are we, Increasing the business. Okay. You know, are we increasing quota attainment and deal size and win rates? And then we’re reducing ramp time and all these things.
[00:15:51] Steve Watt: But you said, Irina, that there’s, there’s a missing piece in the middle there. That’s the behavior change. Give us an example of the sort of behavior [00:16:00] change that is going to link this whole thing together and really drive those outcomes.
[00:16:04] Irina Soriano: Yeah, that’s pretty straightforward. So let’s say we’re implementing a new narrative in the organization, right?
[00:16:11] Irina Soriano: And we are enabling that is, we have live sessions and, you know, there’s maybe a certification and a couple of lessons. Um, there’s content and pages that we’re activating and that we’re providing the teams. That would be the engagement piece, right? So we would be looking at, are folks actually, are they looking at the content?
[00:16:30] Irina Soriano: Are they joining the session? Are they passing the certification? Et cetera. And if we would then go fast forward to the outcomes, like we know, for example, for us, we’ve always seen a significant increase in win rates. Right, when we implemented also a new narrative. So let’s say that’s the one outcome that we have settled on, right, win rates.
[00:16:49] Irina Soriano: Now the problem is, in between, we need to actually see that folks have done something with everything that we enabled them on. To be able to say that what we [00:17:00] did had an impact on the win rate, because there’s other things that could be impacting the win rate, might not be the narrative that we have put out that particular year.
[00:17:08] Irina Soriano: So that middle section could really then be anything from, has the content been used in conversation? Let’s say you are launching a new pitch deck, are the, are your reps or your CSMs are using the pitch deck in conversation? Um, Are they talking about the narrative the right way? Is this even popping up in conversation?
[00:17:28] Irina Soriano: Is new content related to your narrative shared with prospects and with customers externally? Have they been looking at the content and engaging with the content that has been shared? So, there’s many different areas that we can look into when it comes to behavior. But unless we have that piece, it’s very tough to say, Oh, because we did enablement, our win win went up.
[00:17:53] Irina Soriano: Right? And I think everybody knows it. A lot of folks are still doing it because that’s the only way to at least show [00:18:00] some shape or form of impact, but the behavior piece is really what ties it all together and ultimately, you know, having, having the, the right technology in place in order to measure that is, is key here, right?
[00:18:12] Amber Mellano: I always think of that as the back in the days when you had to do math homework, you had to show your work. I feel like that, that middle piece of being able to. Show that influenced, you know, behavior is really the key to showing the value, or maybe not the value, to understand where to pivot next.
[00:18:29] Meganne Brezina: Well, there are no shortcuts in enablement either, right?
[00:18:32] Meganne Brezina: We can’t go from point A, or from letter A to letter Z, right? You have to show your work, Amber. I love that analogy. I think that’s a great way to highlight the importance of, and it’s not just the enablement team who say, go do the behavior change. It requires deep cross functional support, belief, buy in.
[00:18:52] Meganne Brezina: It’s one thing for somebody to sign off on, you know, here’s how we’re going to be looking at behavior change, but it’s another thing for that leader to actually help activate that behavior change in [00:19:00] the organization. So cross functional effort for sure.
[00:19:03] Steve Watt: As you’ve matured the enablement capabilities at Seismic internally, your focus has changed.
[00:19:10] Steve Watt: Is that correct?
[00:19:12] Meganne Brezina: Oh, yes. I think that’s absolutely a fair assessment. Um, Steve, when we started this process, Irina had mentioned we had spent the four to six weeks heads down looking at all of this data. We were looking at an average engagement 65 percent ish, 65 to 70 percent, and we thought we can do so much better.
[00:19:29] Meganne Brezina: So we really poured our efforts into ensuring. That we were cranking out high quality content that was relevant to the field to push that engagement up. Our data at that time was also showing us that the people who were participating in the enablement activities were changing behavior, were getting that outcome.
[00:19:47] Meganne Brezina: Okay, so 65 70 percent were following that track. Now, fast forward, now we’re sitting in the neighborhood of like 90 92 percent engagement. So our original, [00:20:00] uh, approach of you attend the enablement, you achieve these goals, like, that’s changed a little bit. So as we evolve this and as we shift it, it’s less around, let’s get the people in the door.
[00:20:10] Meganne Brezina: Now the teams are more focused on, let’s actually change that behavior, lean into the practice, lean into those skills conversations, because those are the places that are going to really be making an impact. It’s not about how many people are in the door, it’s about how we’re changing that behavior.
[00:20:26] Steve Watt: Megan, let’s go deeper on activation. As you just said, the two of you have driven an interesting change in your team structure and in the way, the way you’re thinking about, delivering enablement, uh, with this idea and these teams built around field enablement versus field activation, which are not the same thing.
[00:20:46] Steve Watt: Uh, and I think it’s a really powerful concept and the way you’ve full on structured your teams to deliver on that, I think is a big part of your success. Megan, tell us what the difference is between field enablement and field activation [00:21:00] and why that difference is important.
[00:21:01] Meganne Brezina: Sure. If you think about a spear, field enablement is the tip of the spear.
[00:21:06] Meganne Brezina: Field activation is what’s happening when it actually is launching and it hits the ground on the other side. So what I mean by that, field enablement is the classic motion of, you know, we are enabling the teams, we are hosting practice labs, we are delivering certifications, we’re doing all of that regular enablement motion.
[00:21:23] Meganne Brezina: But like many practitioners, we were struggling with this idea of, okay, we’re doing all this really cool content, it’s great, it’s landing well. But then we’re not seeing any of the, the behavior change behind it. And so the idea of field activation was born to help take those core concepts, those strategic initiatives that we were focused on, and to help them land in the field where we were actually coaching them and teaching them on how to do it.
[00:21:47] Meganne Brezina: So it was landing. I think Irina has this great analogy of field enablement being the contractor for a house. Field enablement builds it. We put the walls up, the roof, all of that. But field activation are the folks that open the [00:22:00] door to that house, they bring the field inside, and they help them pick out paint colors for the walls.
[00:22:06] Meganne Brezina: They help them pick out the right, uh, pillows or blankets for the couches that are in there. We’re inviting them in for them to make that house their own. So those are the two primary differences between those two teams. The other thing that I would say is that the collaboration between those two teams, We’re more and more aware of it, the importance of the two teams collaborating.
[00:22:27] Meganne Brezina: This is not a, like two siloed functions. The planning process is done together. Field enablement goes out and does their thing, shares their learns. Then field activation is picking up that baton and ensuring that those behaviors are really sinking into the organization.
[00:22:43] Steve Watt: I love that way of looking at it.
[00:22:45] Steve Watt: I recall in the book, you sort of talked about the, the architects versus the interior decorators in that. The field enablement, people are going to make it, build a house. The field activation will make it your home [00:23:00] and make it work for each of the, your enablement consumers, which I, that, that stuck with me.
[00:23:06] Steve Watt: That was, that was, that was a powerful metaphor. How easy was it to, or how hard was it to change that way? You know, both, both in terms of your own team dynamics and also in terms of response. From the sales team and the customer success team and those that you serve, did people sort of immediately grasp the purpose of this and what different people were doing and why?
[00:23:31] Steve Watt: Or was there a, you know, was there a bit of a bumpy road there?
[00:23:35] Irina Soriano: I think there’s just a level of education that comes with those changes, right? Like Megan alluded to earlier, the field activation team. It’s also implementing a coaching program, right, where we can really lean into all of the things that field enablement has really put out, um, in the world.
[00:23:52] Irina Soriano: Um, and I think that, that comes with just a regular level of education to ensure folks understand why is this happening? Why am I [00:24:00] in this? You know, this is, this is good for me, like this is supportive for me in my role. So I think with anything new, that’s what it comes with. I think we had an interesting journey, just making sure field activation and field enablement work together in the right way.
[00:24:16] Irina Soriano: And that, for example, for us was the squeaky wheel in the beginning, where we said, okay, let’s look at what are the things that might not be working well, what’s the inter team collaboration and communication, where we had to make a couple of tweaks, maybe put in an additional meeting to ensure everybody is on Thinking the same way, we changed our strategic approach of how we’re tackling objectives and key results for the year to really have folks from each team involved across different initiatives.
[00:24:45] Irina Soriano: So I think as with anything new for us, this was also a journey to ensure those teams work well together, um, and ultimately do the education with the field so that they understand what are the benefits that we’re getting out of this. [00:25:00]
[00:25:00] Amber Mellano: I think in expanding that thought, we, we work really hard on the field enablement and field activation teams to ensure that we’re moving in sync or that our gears are actually turning each other.
[00:25:10] Amber Mellano: And I think that the, the last of the, the big points that we want to talk about is this concept of field councils. And I love that idea that we’re not only trying to make sure that we’re, we’re not enforcing essentially reinforcing silos in our own team. But we also have a great way of looping in all those other stakeholders and all the other people we’re talking with to ensure that we can be successful.
[00:25:31] Amber Mellano: Tell us a little bit more about these field councils and how those work.
[00:25:35] Meganne Brezina: The core impetus behind the field councils originated around sharing out the analytics report because data is something that doesn’t lie, right? So when we take the data to our cross functional partners, They’re going to come at it at a different angle than we will.
[00:25:50] Meganne Brezina: And that gives us the perfect opportunity to collaborate and start to map out some of these key action items that we can take. The way we look at field councils here at [00:26:00] Seismic is that we focus on our product marketing teammates and our teammates in operations, because those two teams are the ones that we partner with the most frequently.
[00:26:09] Meganne Brezina: Other organizations might have different cross functional teams that they, that they partner with. But in essence, we take that analytics report to our teammates. We review it. We come out with key action items where we’ve identified potentially a gap, but then we take that cohesive list of action items, and we take that to our senior field leaders.
[00:26:29] Meganne Brezina: So these are the ladies and gentlemen who are leading the, the core teams. They report into our CRO, and we say, okay, crew, here’s the analytics report. Here’s the list of all the potential solutions that we could take. But now we need your help in triaging and declaring what are the top, call it two things, three things, whatever the magic number is this particular go round, that we can activate to truly make an impact on the business.
[00:26:54] Meganne Brezina: And when we do that, we’re giving them the opportunity to share their perspective from their teams as well as [00:27:00] to what is most important. Maybe give a little bit more context as to why we’re seeing data in the way that we do. And then we’re able to take those, uh, data points and those feedback together to go out and activate it and do something with it.
[00:27:13] Irina Soriano: And I think to add to that, you know, we hold a lot of responsibility in the process, but ultimately, there are certain things where we also need the managers to come in and support, right? And bringing them the data and saying, here’s where we’re looking on engagement and behavior changes and outcomes.
[00:27:31] Irina Soriano: Like that helps them to also go and make a push with their teams. And that’s, that’s really critical for us, that support. And then also some of the findings that we’re getting there is a great mechanism for additional enablement that we’re doing, right? So if we’re publishing some of that data and we’re showing some of those successes through these internal case studies that we’re having to the field teams, that then makes people go, Ooh, maybe next time I should be a little bit more engaged.
[00:27:58] Irina Soriano: Clearly this is working out [00:28:00] for. Jenny and Johnny who are both hitting their attainment and they have also been highly engaged and we saw a lot of behavior changes, right? So just another critical factor here that comes into play.
[00:28:11] Amber Mellano: That’s a virtuous cycle where we’re able to show that engaging with the enablement is effective and it’s effective because they’re getting results.
[00:28:17] Amber Mellano: So we can show them that they’ll get results if they engage with our enablement. That’s a, that’s a fantastic story to tell from every angle.
[00:28:24] Steve Watt: This is a never ending learning journey for you both. And for all of us in the months since you published the book, I know you’ve both been very active in the enablement community.
[00:28:36] Steve Watt: You’re both very active with a wide range of seismic customers. You’re socializing this thinking you’re very. openly sharing your learnings, uh, you know, what you’re finding from running this sort of EVC machine within Seismic, but also helping many of our customers do it, what have you learned [00:29:00] since the book came out?
[00:29:02] Irina Soriano: Yeah, I think. The one big thing is there is a big need for education still out there. Everybody is in a different point in their enablement maturity. Either they’re still in the chaos phase, which, you know, a lot of practitioners are, or they’ve moved into the impact phase where things become a little bit more organized, or they’re already in the transformation phase, right, where they really figure it out and they can show the ROI.
[00:29:26] Irina Soriano: But no matter where they are, definitely a huge need for education across the U. S. But also in, in me, I recently spent a significant amount of time over there working with, um, with customers specifically around the, the things we’re talking about today. And I think what’s, what’s really the key is that often, like I said, some of the components are there, but sometimes it’s not fully clear how they all playing together and how they fitting together.
[00:29:53] Irina Soriano: And I think the other thing is also, you know, there’s a handful of us folks that have been doing this. For a long time, [00:30:00] but there’s still always the need for innovation. How can I do things differently? And it’s very hard to sometimes get to that. Information, right? So hence coming back to just the general need for education.
[00:30:13] Irina Soriano: I think this is, the timing was very good for us to pub, to publish the book when we published it. Um, because we were just reaching a point where folks are like, what else is there? Like a lot of folks were like, I’ve done all of it. Like, where’s the next best thing that I can implement in my practice? So I think for me, that was really, we knew there was a need, but it was even much bigger than we, you know, originally anticipated.
[00:30:38] Steve Watt: Was there any particular aspect of the book or of the EVC philosophy that just like every single time it lights people up and you’re like, wow, we knew this was important, but we didn’t know that this thing was, was going to be, was going to resonate so strongly with people. Is there any particular part of it that really fires [00:31:00] people up?
[00:31:00] Meganne Brezina: I think in my travels, what I have noticed is the concept of field activation is something that people really latch on to because for many teams, it’s a pipe dream, right? This idea of having a dedicated human resources, if you will, people behind this idea of reinforcement was something that they just were like, wow, we can’t believe that you put the, uh, the resources and the emphasis behind this.
[00:31:24] Meganne Brezina: That is something that’s really triggered a lot of conversations. In fact, I was doing an audit on my, my LinkedIn contributions this year, and that post by far and had like 10x more impressions than any other post I had done all around that concept of field activation. So it’s something that people really latch onto.
[00:31:40] Meganne Brezina: The other thing that I think people have Long recognized the importance of, but haven’t been able to tactically execute on it well, is the idea of the analytics report. I think it’s no secret that data is important. Like, everybody knows that. But I think where practitioners get hung up is, how do I package that and present it in such a way that’s going to [00:32:00] help me secure additional budget for technology, additional budget for that, that field activation team that I really, really need and want.
[00:32:07] Meganne Brezina: I So I think that those two pieces, in my experience at least, have been the ones that have driven the most conversation and the most engagement.
[00:32:15] Amber Mellano: All right, ladies, thank you for sharing all this great insight. We’re really excited to have had you on today. We want to close out our conversation with some rapid fire questions for you.
[00:32:25] Amber Mellano: Megan, I’m going to start with you. I’m going to ask you, give us a sense of your crystal ball vision into what do you think is going to change about our life in, in enablement or anywhere in the next. 18 to 24 months.
[00:32:39] Meganne Brezina: Well, barring the obvious answer of AI, I think the other area that practitioners will be exploring more, or at least putting more of an emphasis on, is around this idea of change management.
[00:32:51] Meganne Brezina: And it’s, it’s something that is, has always been part of an enablement practice. But I think, due to the high velocity that many [00:33:00] organizations are experiencing, the rapid growth, this theory of change management is becoming more and more important. It’s important in the way that we’re communicating with the field, it’s important in the way that we’re managing our own enablement initiatives and how we’re, Uh, really rolling them out.
[00:33:13] Meganne Brezina: How are we doing this in an effective way that truly drives the behavior changes? And I think that all starts in the way that we manage that strategy up front. Love that.
[00:33:24] Amber Mellano: Irina, I’m going to come to you for the flip side. What do you think is going to stay the same as we move into the future?
[00:33:31] Irina Soriano: Yeah, I think we spoke about it a little bit today, the, just the fact of enablement, um, having to show ROI, having to show their impact on tangible results for the business.
[00:33:45] Irina Soriano: If you’re brand new in the role, you might have six to 12 months of a honeymoon period, but this is gonna come, it’s gonna come. And the, the problem is anybody in enablement wants to have access to budget. We want to bring in more people. We want [00:34:00] to buy technology, right? We want to expand our practice. And that’s only possible if we’re actually showing our impact on the bottom line as well.
[00:34:08] Irina Soriano: So I think that is the one thing, it’s always been there and it will never go away and it’s only going to intensify with, with time. So this is, um, yeah, I think that’s my answer.
[00:34:22] Steve Watt: Final question for each of you. Megan, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
[00:34:30] Meganne Brezina: Best piece of advice. It’s something I use both professionally and personally, and my team will laugh when I say this because they hear it all the time.
[00:34:39] Meganne Brezina: But it’s this concept of nail it, then scale it. So, clearly that is contained to an enablement perspective as we think about piloting things or getting feedback before we launch something. But also in my personal life, I think about that, nail it and then scale it. So think about what, what, like for my hobbies, what I need to do really, really well in order [00:35:00] to do something bigger and better.
[00:35:02] Meganne Brezina: So nail it and scale it.
[00:35:03] Steve Watt: Love it. Irina, same question.
[00:35:06] Meganne Brezina: Yeah.
[00:35:07] Irina Soriano: Mine came from, um, a CEO of a major, uh, bank, uh, that, uh, is a family friend, and he said to me, push, but be patient. Then the first time he said that to me, I’m like, that doesn’t make sense. It’s like, okay, push, but then wait. And he’s like, yeah, like make consistently sure that you’re pushing for.
[00:35:30] Irina Soriano: You know, what, what you want, like in your personal life, right, with my personal goals, but also in a professional setting with things that we want to achieve, but then make sure and let the timing align and have the patience to wait until it’s there. And I always found that to be so powerful and it works in so many settings as well.
[00:35:51] Irina Soriano: Um, so this is something that I often think about.
[00:35:55] Steve Watt: Yeah, that’s great advice. It brings to mind something that I’ve read. I have no [00:36:00] idea. Who first said it or who first wrote it, but we tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a matter of months. And we underestimate what we can accomplish in a matter of years.
[00:36:12] Steve Watt: And it sounds like it’s a very similar sentiment. You know, we’ve got to be strong. We’ve got to be bold. We’ve got to push, but we also. Can’t burn bridges and expect miracles to happen in an extremely short timeframe. We’ve got to maintain the energy, the motivation, the collaboration, and more. What a wonderful way to end things.
[00:36:31] Steve Watt: Uh, Irina, Megan, thanks so much for joining us today and continued success as you get out there and you evangelize and socialize this concept and, and really share these learnings with the rest of the enablement community and Go to market community as well.
[00:36:51] Meganne Brezina: Thank you so much for having us. Thank you.
[00:36:55] Steve Watt: Thanks for joining us on The Enablement Edge. We’re on YouTube and [00:37:00] 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. Seismic is the global leader in enablement, keeping organizations on the cutting edge of engaging customers, enabling teams and igniting revenue growth.
[00:37:17] Voiceover: You can learn more at seismic.com.
In this week’s episode of The Enablement Edge, hosts Amber Mellano and Steve Watt talk with enablement experts Irina Soriano and Meganne Brezina.
The conversation revolves around their must-read book, “Tomorrow’s Enablement for Today’s Leaders,” which introduces the transformative Enablement Value Chain (EVC) framework. The EVC approach underscores the criticality of integrating analytics, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and distinguishing between field enablement and field activation to drive tangible business outcomes.
Irina and Meganne share valuable insights about field activation and its role in bolstering traditional enablement efforts. They share practical advice for leaders on measuring and demonstrating the impact of enablement programs in driving engagement, behavior change, and business outcomes. This methodical approach ensures enablement professionals can tangibly link their initiatives to organizational success, securing much-needed buy-in from leadership for continual investment in enablement activities.
A recurring theme is the importance of adaptability and continuous learning in the rapidly evolving world of enablement. Irina and Meganne stress the need for a methodological yet flexible strategy that can scale as the organization grows, encouraging practitioners to push for innovation while exercising patience for outcomes. By sharing their experiences and actionable insights, the duo aims to equip fellow enablers with the knowledge and tools needed to advance their careers and significantly impact their organizations.
Jump into the conversation:
00:00 Episode Start
04:38 Meganne and Irina’s key to enablement
05:39 Tomorrow’s Enablement for Today’s Leaders
09:58 What is different in the Enablement Value Chain (EVC)
13:40 Identifying the analytics that really matter
21:02 Field Enablement vs. Field Activation
25:10 What are field councils?
29:00 The state of enablement in 2024
32:20 On the Edge
Irina is Seismic’s VP of Strategic Enablement Consulting and has over a decade of global enablement leadership experience. She joined Seismic in 2019, taking on the challenge of establishing the company’s enablement department from the ground up. With diverse experience across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the US, Irina possesses a deep understanding of varied markets and a successful track record in building enablement teams.
Beyond her role, she’s an active contributor to industry organizations, leading the New York Women in Sales Enablement (WiSE) chapter and she has been recognized as a Top 20 Enablement Influencer. Irina is committed to gender equality, published her first book, “Generation Brand,” in 2021, and empowers individuals through TEDx talks and mentoring.
She also founded SISTERLY with her sister Jo to create a community for women to liberate limiting beliefs and grow into their full potential in business. Irina resides in NYC with her husband, Chris, and is a stepmother to twins.
Meganne is an active participant in the enablement community and has been a practitioner for over ten years. She was named a 2023 Enablement Legend Award winner by the Enablement Squad for her frequent contributions.
She is a member of the Revenue Enablement Society and its Indianapolis chapter, and she founded and currently leads the Indianapolis chapter of Women in Sales Enablement. For WiSE, she also serves on their global board of directors as a global lead. Recently, she was invited to be an Enablement Advisor for RISE, a new organization conducting research and providing strategic insights to advance the profession of enablement.
She earned her Certified Change Management Practitioner designation last year from ACMP and published a book with Irina Soriano called “Tomorrow’s Enablement for Today’s Leaders,” which articulates an innovative approach to strategic enablement with the Enablement Value Chain.
“There’s a handful of us that have been doing this kind of thing for a long time, but there’s still always the need for innovation. And it’s very hard to sometimes get that information. We were just reaching a point where folks are like, ‘What else is there? I’ve done all of it. Where’s the next best thing that I can implement in my practice?’ So we knew there was a need, but it was even much bigger than we originally anticipated.” – Irina Soriano
“Due to the high velocity that many organizations are experiencing, this theory of change management is becoming more and more important. It’s important in the way that we’re communicating with the field. It’s important in the way that we’re managing our own enablement initiatives and how we’re really rolling them out. ‘How are we doing this in an effective way that truly drives the behavior changes?’ And I think that all starts in the way that we manage that strategy up front.” – Meganne Brezina
AI can scale enablement—but it can't replace empathy, context, or connection. This blog explores how modern leaders can strike the right balance between tech and the human touch to build trust and drive performance.
Confused by enablement? You're not alone. This book breaks it all down—from strategy to execution — so you can build programs that actually move the needle. Practical, clear, and zero fluff.
Ready to make your case to the C-suite? This quick-read guide gives you five proven ways to position enablement as a business-critical function—not a nice-to-have.
When we create content we think you’d like, we’d love to share it with you! By clicking subscribe, you agree to receive content from Seismic by email. You can unsubscribe at any time. Seismic's privacy practices are covered by its Privacy Policy.
