ISEs3 Ep13: Meganne Brezina CCMP™ - Seismic

Erich Starrett: 00:00:00

Hello everyone and welcome to Inside Sales Enablement

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Season three Enablement History

we have in the studios today.

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A person that started out selling

tractors in my neck of the woods,

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Salina, Kansas, even knew the place.

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John Deere tractors to be exact,

which is cool in and of itself.

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You still have any of

those hats laying around?

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I'd love one.

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I'm just, maybe you could have a

giveaway for our audience, such a

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hip brand for might be the only cool

thing about my childhood was being

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associated with John Deere, but she's

been a lot of places since then.

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She actually was on the customer

advisory board for Lessonly

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before that Salesforce.

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And then Lessonly, as I'm sure

everyone in the listening audience

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knows, was acquired by Seismic.

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And so she's gone on a journey from

salesperson to being salesperson.

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As senior director of enablement

at one of the enablement platforms.

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So with that, Meganne, I'd love to

hand it over to you to fill in any

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gaps and just say hello to the crew

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Meganne Brezina: Thanks, Erich.

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And I appreciate the opportunity

to be here and have a

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conversation with you today.

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The enablement community is such

a special place and I'm so proud

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to be a part of it and to share

a little bit of my story today.

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It's a very unlikely story.

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I had completed a postgraduate

certificate at the university of

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Louisville in equine business.

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And through those networking opportunities

found my way to the national thoroughbred

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Racing Association who has a very

deep partnership with John Deere.

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And so as a seller for the NTRA,

I had my territories across

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the United States and Canada.

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In fact, lived in three

different cities as I moved with

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them as my territory changed.

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And it was my responsibility to promote

this program and sell the equipment

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to racetracks and horse farms.

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What I learned very quickly in that time

when I was traveling to these places was I

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hit my quota a lot faster when instead of

going to 50 farms over a two day period,

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I would hit four or five dealerships

and educate those salespeople in those

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dealerships how to sell to horse people.

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I've been riding horses since I

was six years old and I have a very

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deep affinity for the industry, the

community, I know these people very well.

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I know what use cases they have and

how the John Deere equipment could

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help solve those problems for them.

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So it's very much a solution sale

approach, which has really served me

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well in my capacity here at Seismic.

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I frankly got tired of

traveling my last trip.

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I took with them I was on the road for

three weeks Living out of a suitcase and

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it was a lot and I was at a time in my

life where I needed And wanted to be home.

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I was newly married wanting to start a

family And so I came back to indianapolis,

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which is my hometown And there was

a little digital marketing company.

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You may have heard of called Exact Target.

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And they were in the throes

of the acquisition process

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with Salesforce already.

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I jumped on board in an account

support role, which was great.

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I was customer facing.

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I really got into the, or dip my toe

rather into what the software industry

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was, because coming from a sale,

which was a tangible, hard product,

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making that transition to a cloud

software company was an adjustment.

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And so this role really enabled me

to learn the intricacies of what

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that buying process and what the

customer life cycle looked like.

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So I rode the wave with Salesforce

for a while did an operations role for

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them for a little bit and eventually

found my way to the enablement space.

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Erich Starrett: So when did you

first hear sales enablement?

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What do those words mean to you?

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And was it when you were out educating

folks about the finer equestrian

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arts or when along the journey?

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Meganne Brezina: I think at that time,

Erich, I didn't know what enablement was.

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I was doing enablement things when

you think about educating on personas,

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educating on that solution sale,

but I didn't know what that was.

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When I was at Salesforce in an operations

role, they had rolled out something

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called a customer data warehouse,

which was great, super helpful.

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I was interested in how all of the

tools work together in the data,

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but my first thought was, we have

to teach people how to use this.

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And so I brought that idea to my

manager at the time and she got me

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a spot on the sales kickoff agenda.

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And so I got up in front of 300 or 400

people and talked about how they could

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use this CDW for their uses as their,

researching account planning, whatever.

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Went great.

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I had a good time.

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I came off of the stage and

Meganne Gendelman, she might

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not even remember this.

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She's now a marketing leader at

Salesforce, but she came up to me and she

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said, what are you doing in operations?

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You need to be in enablement.

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And I'm thinking, what

the heck is enablement?

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I don't even know what this is.

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And I came back to the office the

following week and I typed in enablement

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into our company directory and up popped

Brian Noss and Nina LaRouche, who I

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am both in very close contact with to

this day, Brian and I meet for coffee

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every month and Nina and I Co lead

the wise chapter here in Indianapolis.

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But I went to go to them and I

said, what is this enablement thing?

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And so they really educated me on

what it was about the purpose of it.

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And I remember talking

to Brian's, especially.

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Him talking was like that is my jam.

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That is where I need to be.

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That is my world.

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And so my career then

progressed from there.

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And that's really where I have

found my calling and where my

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skillset has really thrived.

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Erich Starrett: What a great story.

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So you learned about sales

enablement and what I would

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argue is the piece of software or

not software it's in the cloud.

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I remember when that was a big deal

and Salesforce changed everything.

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You learned about it in the mothership.

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Meganne Brezina: I suppose I did.

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Yes.

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Erich Starrett: That's awesome.

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Love that history.

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So what about the society itself?

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I know WiSE, which is awesome.

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And thank you for your service

in Women in Sales Enablement.

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What about the sales enablement society?

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When did you first hear of the

Sales Enablement Society or did you?

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Meganne Brezina: I did.

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In fact, I did.

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In fact, I just looked this week

preparing for this conversation.

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I joined the sales enablement

society in April of: 2018

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So it's just about six years.

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And I was a very frequent,

shall I call it a lurker?

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I read everything I could get my

hands on in those community boards

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and I would post occasionally.

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But what I found really interesting

in that experience, Erich, and

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this will come back later in the

conversation that I would post.

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But the first people that would respond

to it would be people who are trying

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to sell me something and that was,

that has changed that has evolved.

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Erich Starrett: Interesting.

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That's important.

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Meganne Brezina: it is important

because I remember what those emotions

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and what those feelings looked like.

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And I'm very intentional about

how I engage with other people.

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Practitioners in my current role because

I remember what that was like when

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you're really just trying to get to

the heart of I have a problem to solve.

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How do I put together a

mutual action plan template?

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For example, how do I figure

out the negotiation levers I

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need to educate my teammates on?

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All of those things, and it

was not the response that I

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was looking to get originally.

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However, the community

has evolved so much.

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I attended where I met you last fall,

the conference in San Diego, and it's

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just, it's such an incredible community.

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And we've been so fortunate to

see the enablement community

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blossom and grow in these past.

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To call it 6, 10, 12 years with the

advent of groups like Women in Sales

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Enablement, which I'm heavily involved

in Sales Enablement Collective, the

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Enablement Squad, you name it, it's a

wonderful community where people can

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really find their find their community.

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Erich Starrett: I think you were

even doing something a little bit

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with Sales Assembly as well, right?

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Meganne Brezina: I am.

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Yes.

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They reached out so I can connect

with practitioners who are very much

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in their early stages and to help

them scale and grow their practice

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and paint the picture of what that

transformational practice can look like.

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Erich Starrett: That's awesome.

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You're serving on all fronts.

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So , you missed the early days of

the Sales Enablement Society when

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they founded in 2016, but you were

there pretty close to the beginning.

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It's interesting, the original

founding positions of the Sales and

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Enablement Society, aren't even

listed on the Revenue Enablement

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Society site at this point.

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So I'm curious, I know you had a

little bit of a time to look at

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those three, , do any of those

resonate with you still today?

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Meganne Brezina: Absolutely.

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Number two.

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two was really what attracts

me to the enablement space.

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And there are three things in that

statement, Erich, that really get me.

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Number one is this idea of

the needs to be chartered.

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And I think about that charter

as the mission statement, as the

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grounding for any enablement practice.

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I'm consistently amazed at the

number of people that I speak

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to that don't have a charter, or

they say, Oh, I'm just too busy.

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I can't get to it.

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And 9 times out of 10, dare I say 10

times out of 10, these are often the

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practices that are in the business

of having to put the fires out, as

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opposed to proactively preventing the

fire from starting in the first place.

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The second piece of this is all around

the cross functional business aspect.

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Enablement is a team sport.

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Enablement takes a village.

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Any enabler who's going to go off the

reservation and do their own thing will

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not be successful because it requires the

orchestration of so many pieces within

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an organization to bring it to life.

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The third piece that's really

compelling here is this idea of

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a business within a business.

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So just as you said about the charter

being that North Star or that piece,

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it's really driving the practice forward.

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I have to control what I can

control within my business.

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And if I am doing a good job of that,

we should be seeing the business

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outcomes on the other side in the

larger context of that organization.

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So this second position is something

that intrigued me to even enter

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into the enablement society

or the enablement community.

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And it's something that continues to

motivate me even today after now, I've

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been in the space now for over 10 years.

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So it's something that's really

critical and really important.

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Erich Starrett: And if I may, if

anyone has proven their passion for the

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space, it's someone who has actually

written a book about it, right?

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And so you are officially a

part of enablement history.

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It's on the library shelf.

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So really exciting.

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That's only in the last

really, what, three months.

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Meganne Brezina: It is.

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And in fact, I just got my paperback

copy in the mail for final review.

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So we'll be publishing the physical

book here in the next couple of weeks.

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But I appreciate you saying that.

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I think when Irina and I sat down to

write this book, there were only, dare

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I say, 10 or 11 books on the market that

had the word enablement in the title.

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So we're very happy to contribute

and add to that lineage.

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Erich Starrett: That's awesome.

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That concept, the enablement value chain

diagram that you have . I'm excited to

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explore that further, because I think

in that lies a lot of the DNA of exactly

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what we're talking about in position two.

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Can you unpack maybe just

that a little bit further?

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Meganne Brezina: Absolutely.

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So Irina and I sat down.

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This was about, gosh, this has to

have been almost three years ago.

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We sat down and we were about to go

in front of our executives to give

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a quarterly or semi annual report.

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And we were looking at it and said,

man, we have done so much great work.

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But we were really struggling to

connect the dot with here was the

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business outcome that we drove.

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We had documentation of the metrics

that had improved, but it was really

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hard for us to hang our hat on and

say, we were the ones that did this.

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And I think many practitioners

struggle with us.

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And it was through that

experience that the EVC was born.

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So essentially what we were able

to do over the past three years was

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take that experience, build out a

robust analytics program that we now

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use to drive all of our decisions.

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We also use it to drive a lot of our

cross functional partnerships because

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the data is something that everybody

in the business can align behind.

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It doesn't matter if we're talking

to field leaders, if we're talking

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to operations, teammates, product

marketing, it doesn't matter.

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That data is truly that central force that

all of us can align to and unpack what the

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gaps are and align action items behind it.

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The next step is being able

to secure executive buy in.

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Using this data and analytics report to

help us secure the necessary resourcing

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that we need in the organization.

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Erich Starrett: If I'm hearing

you correctly, all of the verbiage

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you're using is, this is what

we built to do what we do.

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This is our Seismic champagne on

how Seismic does Seismic on Seismic.

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Meganne Brezina: Yep.

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That's exactly right.

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Erich Starrett: There seems to be

such a great opportunity for you to

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tell that story clearly in the book,

but there's a difference between that

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and actually getting out and walking

alongside some of these practitioners.

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How are you bringing that

book to life in the community?

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And how might folks be able

to engage you in that aspect?

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Meganne Brezina: Sure.

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Absolutely.

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So this book is really

about enablement strategy.

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We are extremely fortunate to have

the Seismic enablement cloud backing

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us in our enablement practice.

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And so we are able to do

everything that we need to do.

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I can look at how the initial

enablement engagement translates to

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behavior change that then translates

to business outcomes fluidly.

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Very easy for us to get there.

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So this book is really about

the enablement strategy piece.

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Does it come to life with Seismic?

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100 percent.

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Is our door always open to talk to other

practitioners about how they too can

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bring this reality to life, no matter

what they have in their tech stack.

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Absolutely.

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This book is really also about giving

back to the community, Erich as well.

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Erich Starrett: I love that.

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So back to being informed by your

first experience at the sales

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enablement society, as you shared

was a full on vendor assault, right?

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Meganne Brezina: That's exactly right!

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Erich Starrett: You're like,

I'm making the world better.

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If there's a vendor in the space Seismic

among the top of them, but I'm not

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coming at you with my logo on my chest.

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Yeah, it's there.

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But what we're here to talk about

is elevating the profession.

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I love that approach and I

applaud it wholeheartedly.

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So is that also then, is part of

your model, some of the approach

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to training as well, or is it

more about that core blueprint?

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Meganne Brezina: This is

really about the strategy.

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We do get into the tactics in terms

of the how there is plenty of content

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available out there on how to facilitate

best virtually or how to create a

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content governance process or whatever.

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So we don't really go there.

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In fact, In this book, we talk about that

there is a bit of pre work that needs to

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happen before you crack open this cover.

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We assume that you have the

necessary business acumen to have

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conversations at the executive level.

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We are assuming that you have been

in the enablement space for a while

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and you understand the importance of

things like a customer life cycle.

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For example, so it is very, it's

much more of a strategic focus,

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but we do get into the tactics.

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In fact, we have 26 downloadable

templates and pamphlets and

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outlines and everything to literally

take this EVC and implement it.

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If a reader goes through this chapter

by chapter, there should be no excuses

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for not implementing the EVC in the book

because we even provide things like a

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gap analysis to give you the roadmap of

where you need to begin this journey.

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Erich Starrett: Outstanding.

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What a great service.

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I'm looking forward to

digging into it more deeply.

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I believe that folks can go to

the Seismic site or even from your

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linkedin profile, download the ebook.

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Can you tell us a little bit about that?

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And also when can people get

their hands on a hard copy?

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Meganne Brezina: I'm

so glad you're asking.

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So in order to get the current

book, it is available digitally.

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You can go to Seismic.

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com and download it for free.

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Or if you prefer to have it on

your Kindle, you can also go to

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Amazon and purchase it there for

the ebook, the digital version.

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If you are old fashioned like me, and

you like to have paperback books that

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you can highlight and, fold, dog ear the

corners, that is going to be coming out.

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I believe in the month of May.

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I'm sure that Irina and I will be blowing

up LinkedIn when it does come out because

308

: 00:15:47

we are so excited and so proud to share

this story with the enablement community.

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: 00:15:52

Erich Starrett: Outstanding.

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: 00:15:53

We'll be shouting from the rooftops

here on the podcast as well.

311

: 00:15:56

So keep us in the loop.

312

: 00:15:57

If you would.

313

: 00:15:57

Recently, and we touched on this a little

bit earlier, but it was a pretty big deal.

314

: 00:16:01

And last October, I believe we

were darkening the same hallways,

315

: 00:16:05

brightening the same hallways.

316

: 00:16:07

I've never liked that phrase.

317

: 00:16:09

I'm like, what about brightening?

318

: 00:16:10

When the announcement came out that we

as a society, sales enablement society,

319

: 00:16:14

we're moving to revenue enablement.

320

: 00:16:16

Again, notice that you have

just enablement on your profile.

321

: 00:16:20

What are your thoughts and maybe even

some experiences around your clients

322

: 00:16:24

and some of the folks that you're

consulting agnostically outside of the

323

: 00:16:28

platform and what you're seeing in sales

enablement versus revenue enablement.

324

: 00:16:33

Meganne Brezina: Erich, last October

on the last day of the conference,

325

: 00:16:36

I was sitting on the second row

in the front, second seat in.

326

: 00:16:40

And when Paul announced that they were

changing from sales enablement into

327

: 00:16:43

revenue enablement, I literally jumped

out of my seat and threw my hands in

328

: 00:16:47

the air because it was so validating.

329

: 00:16:51

There, yes, there have been a lot of us

in this space that have been servicing

330

: 00:16:56

the full go to market team for years.

331

: 00:16:59

And it always felt alienating for it

to be sales enablement because there's

332

: 00:17:04

so much more to do in the enablement

space than simply focus on our

333

: 00:17:07

teams who are in the buying journey.

334

: 00:17:09

So I was thrilled to see that evolution.

335

: 00:17:12

Absolutely thrilled.

336

: 00:17:13

Erich Starrett: And so by the

way, I was right behind you.

337

: 00:17:15

You're the lady that was

jumping up in front of me.

338

: 00:17:18

I was

339

: 00:17:18

Meganne Brezina: That was me.

340

: 00:17:20

Erich Starrett: It's awesome.

341

: 00:17:21

Now we've connected the dots officially,

but along those same lines, what I

342

: 00:17:25

heard was, Hey, Erich, I jumped for joy

because it's not just a sales focus.

343

: 00:17:31

Now we can encompass these

other areas of the business.

344

: 00:17:34

What are those other areas of the

business that you've been thinking

345

: 00:17:37

about for a long time hey, y'all, when

we say revenue enablement, we're also

346

: 00:17:41

talking about groups, A, B, C, D, E

what, who are those groups in your mind?

347

: 00:17:45

Maybe some of the folks in sales

enablement are still missing them.

348

: 00:17:49

Meganne Brezina: So I view the idea

of enablement as anybody who is

349

: 00:17:53

customer facing, anybody who is customer

facing deserves to be included in an

350

: 00:18:00

enablement strategy because we are

here to service the events that are

351

: 00:18:05

happening along the customer lifecycle.

352

: 00:18:08

Customer lifecycle does not start

and end with the buying journey.

353

: 00:18:11

It doesn't stop at the first signature.

354

: 00:18:13

In fact, that's the first of many

milestones that you should be

355

: 00:18:16

expecting from your customers.

356

: 00:18:19

And so the validation of moving from

sales enablement society to revenue

357

: 00:18:23

enablement society is what I hope will

be a good nudge for folks who might

358

: 00:18:27

be still practicing buying journey

only to be expanding their horizons,

359

: 00:18:31

to looking at the value journey.

360

: 00:18:33

I think it was Gartner that talked

about how teams who have enablement

361

: 00:18:37

support on the value journey are

something like 70 or 80 percent more

362

: 00:18:41

likely to hit their cross sell targets.

363

: 00:18:44

And in a world where it's, we all

know that it's more beneficial from

364

: 00:18:47

an economics perspective to retain

the customers you have, as opposed to

365

: 00:18:51

acquiring a new company or a new customer.

366

: 00:18:54

So why aren't we enabling those

teams who are servicing customers?

367

: 00:18:58

Like it doesn't make any

economic sense either.

368

: 00:19:01

So the evolution of the space,

and I've seen this in my time too,

369

: 00:19:04

I started with SDR enablement.

370

: 00:19:06

That was my little narrow remit.

371

: 00:19:09

And now here we are, my team is servicing

everybody who's customer facing.

372

: 00:19:14

So there, there certainly is an evolution.

373

: 00:19:16

There certainly is a reason behind it.

374

: 00:19:18

And it does drive business outcomes.

375

: 00:19:21

Erich Starrett: Great take.

376

: 00:19:22

So this is where we generally

shift into the present, which

377

: 00:19:25

were already there, right?

378

: 00:19:27

You're talking a lot.

379

: 00:19:28

And in fact, a little bit about the

future when the hard copy comes out.

380

: 00:19:32

Anything else in this moment in time

where we have this revenue enablement

381

: 00:19:38

move, what are the, maybe top couple

of things that you think Enablement

382

: 00:19:44

folks listening to the podcast

should really be taking advantage

383

: 00:19:47

of and leaning into in the present.

384

: 00:19:50

Meganne Brezina: Great question.

385

: 00:19:51

So there are a few things that I

think people need to be leaning into.

386

: 00:19:54

Number one is this idea of strategy.

387

: 00:19:57

I talked to my team a lot about

the difference between being

388

: 00:20:00

tactical and being strategic.

389

: 00:20:02

Both have a purpose in an enablement

practice, and you can't have all

390

: 00:20:06

strategy people or all tactical people.

391

: 00:20:08

You've got to have a good mix.

392

: 00:20:09

But I think this idea of truly putting

forth a proper enablement strategy.

393

: 00:20:14

We are way past random

acts of sales enablement.

394

: 00:20:17

A lot of people are living that reality,

but in order for this industry to really

395

: 00:20:22

thrive, more and more practitioners have

to step behind this role of building

396

: 00:20:27

out a proper enablement strategy,

getting the executive buy in for it,

397

: 00:20:31

doing their socialization across the

business, and then start to execute on it.

398

: 00:20:35

That is the only way we're going to

get out of the fire department world

399

: 00:20:39

and into the fire prevention world.

400

: 00:20:41

That's what it means.

401

: 00:20:42

Erich Starrett: Going from in case

of emergency break the enablement

402

: 00:20:46

glass to bring enablement in early and

often, So there isn't an emergency.

403

: 00:20:51

Meganne Brezina: That's exactly right.

404

: 00:20:52

That's exactly right.

405

: 00:20:53

And give us the autonomy to say no

or to say yes, but you need to wait

406

: 00:20:57

six months for these reasons, right?

407

: 00:21:00

The other thing I think people

really need to start focusing on

408

: 00:21:03

is this idea of change management.

409

: 00:21:05

I am very interested in this field.

410

: 00:21:07

I earned my CCMP last year,

so I'm a certified change

411

: 00:21:11

management professional now.

412

: 00:21:13

I was so curious about this

space, I wanted to learn more.

413

: 00:21:17

This is something that is becoming

more and more of a conversation piece.

414

: 00:21:21

Del Nakai and I talk about

this on a regular basis.

415

: 00:21:23

Hi Del.

416

: 00:21:24

Where we, it's really important that

The enablement team are the ones driving

417

: 00:21:28

transformation in the organization.

418

: 00:21:30

And whether that's something tactical,

like a new field in Salesforce, or that's

419

: 00:21:34

something more robust, like a product

launch, if a practice does not have a

420

: 00:21:39

dedicated approach to the way that they

manage change, It's going to fail or it's

421

: 00:21:44

not going to be as good as it could be.

422

: 00:21:47

And so I think this idea of focusing

on a change management strategy,

423

: 00:21:50

which frankly is probably going to

look a little bit different at every

424

: 00:21:54

organization, depending on your players,

the size, the maturity, there are

425

: 00:21:57

a lot of factors that go into that.

426

: 00:21:59

But I think focusing there in concert

with your enablement strategy will

427

: 00:22:03

pay dividends if it's done correctly.

428

: 00:22:06

Erich Starrett: great.

429

: 00:22:06

And all founded in having that

baseline blueprint and charter, right?

430

: 00:22:10

Meganne Brezina: That's correct.

431

: 00:22:11

Erich Starrett: One of the things that's

come up a good bit of late is in fact,

432

: 00:22:15

coming out of, I was a digital now last

week in Chicago land this whole idea that

433

: 00:22:21

we need to elevate the value conversation.

434

: 00:22:24

And one of my big a-ha's is if you,

as an enablement practitioner, don't

435

: 00:22:31

have a seat at the executive table,

which I think you and I would agree

436

: 00:22:34

that a big conduit that is building

and getting that executive sponsor,

437

: 00:22:39

the business, but what your experience.

438

: 00:22:43

What's the percentage of enablement

folks that you feel like really have

439

: 00:22:47

the gravitas borrowing from Sheevaun

of a seat at the executive table

440

: 00:22:53

and maybe in general as well, the

opportunity for sales to address.

441

: 00:22:57

That same issue and how they're

approaching the C suite out in the

442

: 00:23:02

real world, because a lot of those same

Forrester, Gartner, you name it reports

443

: 00:23:06

are coming back and saying the executives

don't feel like the folks that are

444

: 00:23:10

showing up are speaking their language.

445

: 00:23:12

Meganne Brezina: Let's unpack

that one a little bit, Erich.

446

: 00:23:14

I think from an enablement perspective,

the number of practitioners who have

447

: 00:23:18

the gravitas or have the credibility

to really have that seat at the

448

: 00:23:22

table, it has grown in recent years.

449

: 00:23:24

I'm really happy to say that.

450

: 00:23:26

However, I do think that there is A

large opportunity to bring up the rest

451

: 00:23:32

of the 80, 90 percent of the community

to be able to activate in that way.

452

: 00:23:38

Sadly, when you look around with the way

the market conditions have been, many

453

: 00:23:42

people have been affected by layoffs

and that kind of thing in recent months.

454

: 00:23:47

And that is that's hard.

455

: 00:23:49

That's really hard for all of us to

see, but I do think that there are

456

: 00:23:53

more resources available to help people

lift their enablement practice up,

457

: 00:23:58

but it's not just on the shoulders

of the enablement practitioner.

458

: 00:24:02

It's also a responsibility of the CRO.

459

: 00:24:05

The CEO to understand truly what a

functional enablement practice can look

460

: 00:24:10

like and to know the value it can drive.

461

: 00:24:12

I think there's still some education

that needs to happen there.

462

: 00:24:15

And the second part of your

question was around how we can

463

: 00:24:18

level up our field teammates to

speak that executive language.

464

: 00:24:23

And I think Sheevaun has actually done

some work on this as well with Dr.

465

: 00:24:26

Steven Timmy.

466

: 00:24:27

Around financial acumen and educating

sellers on how they can take advantage of

467

: 00:24:31

the available resources that they have to

develop a point of view to bring insight

468

: 00:24:36

to that executive level conversation.

469

: 00:24:38

No executive will show up

and have a conversation about

470

: 00:24:41

a feature dump or, Hey, Mr.

471

: 00:24:43

Erich CEO, tell me what your

top priority is this year.

472

: 00:24:46

They're not going to sit around for

those conversations, but they will

473

: 00:24:49

stick around for those conversations

when a seller can come to them

474

: 00:24:52

and say, here is my observation.

475

: 00:24:54

Here is my hypothesis.

476

: 00:24:56

Can you gut check me on that?

477

: 00:24:58

Can you correct me on that?

478

: 00:24:59

What is your perspective?

479

: 00:25:00

They're much more likely

to engage in that way.

480

: 00:25:03

And I do think that there is a big

opportunity for our selling teammates,

481

: 00:25:07

anybody who is customer facing to have

that ability to have those conversations.

482

: 00:25:12

Erich Starrett: Couldn't agree more.

483

: 00:25:12

So we've covered the past, we've

spent some good time in the present,

484

: 00:25:18

and we've peeked into the future.

485

: 00:25:20

But let's maybe open it up to

land on, what do you see the

486

: 00:25:24

biggest opportunity going forward?

487

: 00:25:27

And if it doesn't involve AI in some

way, shape, or form, I think the

488

: 00:25:31

listening audience might be disappointed.

489

: 00:25:33

Meganne Brezina: That's a

subtle hint to talk about AI.

490

: 00:25:35

Erich Starrett: It's just, it's

funny, the future, and it's that's

491

: 00:25:38

actually the present, right?

492

: 00:25:40

Meganne Brezina: Yes it is.

493

: 00:25:41

Isn't it amazing?

494

: 00:25:42

The productivity gains are

just it's just phenomenal.

495

: 00:25:45

I was actually listening to

a call with our VP product.

496

: 00:25:49

One of our product VPs here at

Seismic, who's focused on the

497

: 00:25:52

development of AI and he made the most

interesting comment where he said.

498

: 00:25:56

I don't even go to Google.

499

: 00:25:58

I never go to Google anymore.

500

: 00:25:59

Everything I do is in an AI tool

because where I used to go to Google

501

: 00:26:04

to get code and I, I'd put it in and

I'd have to sift through content.

502

: 00:26:08

Now I ask, name your AI tool.

503

: 00:26:11

Now I ask AI the code and I have it

right away without all of that sifting.

504

: 00:26:16

And just organically in that one single

example, the productivity gains that

505

: 00:26:20

just, Go through the roof on that.

506

: 00:26:22

I think we're in a moment now where

we're trying to figure out how to

507

: 00:26:25

harness those productivity gains.

508

: 00:26:26

We're still in education

mode, no doubt about it.

509

: 00:26:29

I think about my sellers and the simple

prompts of what you can use when you're

510

: 00:26:32

just preparing for your initial call

with a prospect, for example, like

511

: 00:26:37

harnessing what that needs to look like.

512

: 00:26:39

But then also teaching people

what is the best use of your time.

513

: 00:26:42

After you have gained that

time back, what are those other

514

: 00:26:45

revenue generating activities

that you should be leaning into?

515

: 00:26:49

I think it's that moment of

education that we're in now.

516

: 00:26:52

But when I think about enablement,

enablers and the leaders in the

517

: 00:26:56

space, AI will, it'll fundamentally

change everything that we do.

518

: 00:27:01

But.

519

: 00:27:02

I think some of the things that we already

have in place, like this idea of an

520

: 00:27:05

enablement value chain, only get enhanced

and further evolved with the use of AI.

521

: 00:27:12

So I think there are already some

things in place that are scalable,

522

: 00:27:15

that are standard, that can adapt

and evolve with the expectations

523

: 00:27:20

that are in the space now.

524

: 00:27:22

It'll just further be enhanced by AI.

525

: 00:27:24

Erich Starrett: 10 years from

now, what are your thoughts

526

: 00:27:27

on the enablement profession?

527

: 00:27:29

And what will it take us as

a community to get there?

528

: 00:27:35

And maybe we can land on that.

529

: 00:27:38

Meganne Brezina: 10 years.

530

: 00:27:39

Boy, you're really asking me to

get the crystal ball out here.

531

: 00:27:41

Erich Starrett: You know what?

532

: 00:27:42

The pace we're going two and a half,

533

: 00:27:46

Meganne Brezina: Thank you.

534

: 00:27:46

Yep.

535

: 00:27:46

I was just going to say that,

10 years ago, I don't even know

536

: 00:27:49

that you and I would have been

having this conversation, right?

537

: 00:27:51

So who knows what will happen in 2034?

538

: 00:27:54

But I think in the next couple of years,

I think we will start to see practices

539

: 00:27:58

really leaning into data and analytics

much more than they have in the past to

540

: 00:28:02

drive their decision making processes.

541

: 00:28:05

Layered with that, this idea of AI

to make those data driven decisions,

542

: 00:28:09

A, much faster than they have been

before, but B, also having the ability

543

: 00:28:14

to make decisions in real time.

544

: 00:28:17

This idea of launching a campaign,

launching a program, and then

545

: 00:28:20

waiting six months to see if

anything's happened with it?

546

: 00:28:23

Done and gone and dusted.

547

: 00:28:25

As we think about the future of a I

practitioners are going to have the

548

: 00:28:28

ability and frankly, they already do today

to make these decisions in real time so

549

: 00:28:33

that they can course correct in real time

and make those adjustments to gain more

550

: 00:28:37

progress against the goals that they have.

551

: 00:28:39

Erich Starrett: And your book all the

stuff you're giving back to the community.

552

: 00:28:44

I like our chances in two and a half to

10 years on out there, Meganne, for sure.

553

: 00:28:49

Meganne Brezina: I'd say say so!

554

: 00:28:51

Erich Starrett: To everyone in

the audience, make sure you like

555

: 00:28:53

and follow and get the book.

556

: 00:28:56

Whether your penchant be PDF or

Kindle or Dead Tree coming soon

557

: 00:29:02

to a distributor near you, right?

558

: 00:29:06

Final word, Meganne, it's yours.

559

: 00:29:08

Meganne Brezina: Oh, Erich.

560

: 00:29:09

Thank you for the opportunity

to be here to all of my fellow

561

: 00:29:12

enablement practitioners.

562

: 00:29:13

One of my favorite things to do in life

is to brainstorm challenges and figure

563

: 00:29:18

out solutions to those challenges.

564

: 00:29:20

So please reach out.

565

: 00:29:21

You can always find me on LinkedIn

and I hope to see everybody at the RES

566

: 00:29:25

conference in Chicagoland this October.

567

: 00:29:28

Erich Starrett: Great

way to land the plane.

568

: 00:29:29

That's awesome.

569

: 00:29:30

Thanks so much for your time,

Meganne, for your service in the

570

: 00:29:33

RES, and in WISE, and for the book.

571

: 00:29:36

And for giving back to the

community in all of those ways.

572

: 00:29:38

So great to have you on the show.

573

: 00:29:40

Hope to see you again soon in Chicago.

574

: 00:29:43

If not before

575

: 00:29:44

Meganne Brezina: Thanks, Erich.

576

: 00:29:45

That was fun!