Ugly Babies: A Case for Sales Enablement

Most organizations have an amazing illusion of superiority and believe they are above average. And so, even though this is statistically impossible, organizations continue to embrace the illusion of superiority.

No matter how large or small the company, you will find the above average, beautiful baby alter. If you don’t believe me, try walking through any organization's lobby without tripping over pictures, press clippings and awards about how wonderful they are and highlights of their best moments.  I’m not implying pride is not important, but if taken too far, it will lead to a fall.

The mindset of superiority is frightening and one of the primary reasons more than 40% of sales teams miss their quota any given year, regardless of the economy.When sales and marketing teams try to expose the ugly baby in the form of requesting sales and marketing enablement tools , they are often ridiculed, belittled and criticized; ultimately told to go sell/market or else. 

You should enable sales and marketing as though they are selling an ugly baby and stop trying to hide your ugly baby.

Businesses, like people, are not perfect. You need to guard yourself against blind emotion and be cautious of placing unreasonable expectations on sales and marketing without enabling them to be effective for the worst case scenario. 

Common “I don’t have an ugly baby” symptoms: 

1. The companies pricing strategy is rarely examined by objective, customer-centric external stakeholders.
2. You’re amazing product is not "flying off the shelves" and the primary focal point of blame is the sales organization.
3. When you’re pricing is challenged in the market and your “silver-bullet” response is some version of we don’t sell on price we sell on value.
4. You’ve gone more than one quarter (head in the sand) without soliciting feedback from customers and / or employees relative to the perceived value of your product or service.
5. Thinking about enabling sales and marketing to sell a “ugly baby” is daunting and doing nothing is modus operandi.
6. There is not a line item for sales enablement on the profit and loss statement. I.e. sales play books, CRM, marketing automation, asset management, sales enablement videos, consulting.

There are many other symptoms you can look for and we have a great diagnostic tool where you can take a deeper dive. 

Embracing  the I have an ugly baby  mindset puts your sales and marketing team in a much better position. This mindset will create a culture of intensity, effort and challenge your team to play to win vs. play not to lose. You can visit Mindmatrix to find out more about sales enablement and how to sell your ugly baby.