Telling Your Enablement Story

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  Hi, I'm Dave Lichtman.

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  I'm the founder of Company called Enable Match Were a

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  boutique recruiting firm that specializes in sales Name Look, professionals

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  with the basically means is we help companies find the

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  best sales enablement Focht out there for their jobs.

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  And in doing so, I've had literally hundreds of conversations

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  over the past couple years with sales enabled professionals and

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  those trying to hire them.

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  And what I would tell you is, after all those

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  conversations, certain patterns started to emerge from all the conversations.

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  I would say those patterns aren't always good.

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  And there's some things that I've observed I want to

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  share with you here today that are hurting people as

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  they try and get a promotion within their own company

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  or get a job outside at a new company.

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  And those tweets that you can make here will make

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  an immediate difference on your prospects of getting his job.

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  So my hope is that you can take these with

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  you and make those tweaks starting today, so let's dive

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  right in.

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  I first want to tell you that people in sales

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  neighborhood are not getting credit for their work, and what

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  I mean by that is, people might be doing great

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  enabling programs and driving great results, but they're not getting

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  credit for them.

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  They're not able to chaia tell those stories in such

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  a way that's making people take notice and make them

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  want to hire them.

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  And that has to change.

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  That's we're talking about.

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  I want to start with this idea.

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  That epic accomplishments are memorable.

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  An average accomplishments are forgettable.

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  Epic wins memorable, average, forgettable.

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  And that is the crux is How can you make

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  your stories epic?

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  How can you make them memorable?

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  Because that is what matters.

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  And what I'll tell you is the idea is how

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  you tell your story matter.

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  So it's yes, it's important what you did so lets

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  us all assume that you all did great work.

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  If you didn't, that's a that's a separate conversation, But

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  so let's assume you built some great programs, did some

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  amazing things.

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  But how you tell those stories is material that will

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  tell you as I talked to companies, they hang up

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  the phone with cannons, and they're not that impressed sometimes

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  or they don't really understand what they did, or they

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  didn't really talk about them in such a way that

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  made them feel like I want that person to run

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  my program.

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  So how do you tell your story matters?

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  And so let me let me take you back and

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  tell a different story for a minute here.

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  So I want to take it back to 1996 the

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  Summer Olympics and specifically, women's gymnastics.

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  And if you remember back in the day, this sport

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  was dominated by the Russian women's gymnastics team.

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  This was their sport, always a favorite going into the

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  Olympics and expected to dominate.

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  But this year was a little bit different.

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  The US assembled what was called the Dream Team.

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  It was thes girls who were just phenomenal, and they

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  were gonna be contenders this year.

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  And I want to focus on one of them.

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  This woman Carry Struck.

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  She was one of one to emerge from the Olympics

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  as one who did some amazing stuff, and that's what

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  we're talking about.

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  So, uh, Carrie Strug, she basically was going into what

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  was one of the final events to win the women's

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  gymnastics team of it, and basically it came down to

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  the vault, the final event and the Russians were, uh,

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  basically trailing right behind the Americans and carry through her

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  last vault.

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  If she did, she does well enough.

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  She can eliminate the Russians mathematically from winning, then take

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  home the gold for the American team.

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  So it's a big opportunity to win it for the

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  team. And so carry goes back.

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  It's our final ball, and she has got to go

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  to the start line and run a sprint as fast

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  as she can.

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  Hit the vault, spin in the air and stick the

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  landing. That's what she's got to do and do it

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  well enough to eliminate the Russians.

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  So to do this, it's It's a big deal.

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  So it kind of all comes down to hurry and

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  getting this this fault, right?

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  There's a lot of pressure, and so she goes up,

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  she runs up and she does this fault.

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  She spends in their tucks a little bit too much,

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  and she lands.

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  But when she lands on her feet, she hears a

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  snap. The kind of snap that ends gymnastics careers like

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  it. It is not good, and she stumbled and see

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  her. Her score was not great.

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  She didn't do what she had to do.

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  The Russians were not eliminated, but she had a second

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  chance to go back and involved again.

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  But she's no, she can.

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  So she looks to her coach belt, probably, And she's

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  about what?

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  What do you need me to do?

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  And he said, I need you to go again This

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  poor girl, literally limping to the start line and she's

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  got about has to run and sprint again.

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  She kind of stumbles up there, especially.

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  She can limping, she goes.

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  It there takes a very deep breath and no, she's

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  got to land on this ankle.

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  That is more than compromise.

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  It's injured, so she runs up as much as fast

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  as she can gets.

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  That sprint going spins throughout the air.

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  And if you watch this on YouTube and you can

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  and you should and you see her landing, she comes

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  round, spins around and she lands.

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  But she lands basically on one foot, which is unheard

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  of and you look at her face.

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  You can see how much pain she's in, and she's

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  holding it together as best as she can.

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  You know she's got to get this score.

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  You gotta stick landing and you're looking her.

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  And then I was in the score.

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  Start to come across from the judges.

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  9.712 She did it.

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  She scored just high enough to eliminate the Russians and

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  and win.

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  And so Belloc carries her off the things that she

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  is injured.

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  She she has hurt, and then the women's team gets

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  the gold.

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  They all win the gold because of carries.

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  Second vault on that injured angle.

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  It is an epic moment, and it's one of ones

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  that just just you get goose bumps when you watch

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  it. And so why?

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  Why do I tell you this story?

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  I don't care about women's gymnastics at all.

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  I don't frankly don't care that much about the Olympics,

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  But that story is etched in my brain from 25

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  plus years ago.

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  I can't forget I still get goose bumps.

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  It was such an epic story that I can't forget

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  it, and it's It's one of the most amazing things,

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  because epic accomplishments are memorable.

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  Carries. Vault was epic, right?

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  She had injured her ankle.

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  They weren't the favor to win.

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  All these things happened, and she's still nailed it.

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  That makes it seared in my brain in a way

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  that I can't forget it, and that is what you

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  want to do.

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  So what I want to do is give you some

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  suggestions about making your stories epic as well.

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  We're not all winning the gold medal, not all on

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  injured ankles.

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  But I think there are things we can highlight in

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  our stories and our programs that will increase the epic

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  nous of what we do.

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  Because here's what I hear all the time.

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  I'll talkto enablement person and ask him about a program

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  that they, Iran or that they built and will be

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  something like this.

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  I joined the company, the on boarding program when I,

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  when I was important, was just terrible.

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  And so I basically spent the next three months made

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  it world class.

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  It has a rule place and e learning and all

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  the stuff The people's mentors would always great things and

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  everyone loved it, got tons of kudos and it was

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  much better than it ever was before.

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  And that's my story.

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  And what I will tell you is that is not

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  epic. The program may have been amazing and may have

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  been world class, but how you told that story did

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  not have its epic nous.

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  And here's what I want you to do to 20.

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  Change that.

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  So here's a couple tweaks.

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  First start to talk like a C R O.

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  That means crisp a language that me means being terse

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  and concise and how you describe what you're describing and

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  use words with precision.

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  So talk like a C R O.

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  And part of that means this and this is a

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  key part.

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  Here is speak in outcomes, not activities.

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  What results did this program tried?

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  How did you make things better and talk about outcomes,

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  not activities.

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  So you built a new our morning program.

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  So what?

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  Why does it zero care?

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  Why is the CEO care?

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  Why does that matter?

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  And if you're not talking about outcomes and metrics and

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  KP eyes, you're framing it in the wrong way.

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  You got to start to talk about outcomes.

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  What was he out?

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  What was the baseline before you started?

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  And what was the outcome after?

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  That is how Ciro's talk that is, how people think,

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  and that's how you need a frame.

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  Your experiences related, that is, you need to have a

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  story arc.

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  Before you started a program, what was the baseline?

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  What was going on?

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  What was the pain?

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  What did you do?

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  And what happened as a result, and having a proper

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  arc is important.

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  And I have here you can see on the diagram

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  here that the upward slope is long.

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  And that's where you really need to delve into the

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  problems or the pain.

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  Or why this why things in the status quo were

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  not so good because rather than saying with the on

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  boarding programming, it was terrible that that doesn't make anything

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  seem epic.

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  But if you were to say, actually know what like

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  when? When people started, they go through boot camp before

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  I got there and they would start on their job

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  and all this and they realize they're not ready for

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  the phones.

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  They're not customer facing ready.

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  They didn't know her pitch is.

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  Therefore they weren't getting their second meeting.

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  They weren't able to talk about in prospect, cause they

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  don't know our customer stories.

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  They weren't building pipeline and we found, was the overall

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  team productivity which used to be historically around 80%.

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  We only had, like 45% people heading quota like people's

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  jobs. Wrong the line, like people were leaving the company

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  cause they weren't making money and are Syria was about

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  to lose his job and like it was a big

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  problem for the company, like we were under some severe

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  revenue pressure and like heads, we're going to roll all

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  because we weren't on boarding people properly.

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  When we're going through a massive hiring spurt like that's

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  that has some specificity, you can kind of feel the

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  pain, right?

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  I get on the front lines, I can't tell my

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  story. I can't prospect like you.

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  Can you understand the details and there in lies feels

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  a little bit more of a bigger So then when

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  you say And so what I did was in my

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  program, I major, every person knew the messaging.

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  We did role plays.

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  We've practiced.

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  We certified.

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  Then we recorded their pitches with all these things.

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  And now, as a result, although some people now when

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  they leave boot camp, are ready for the front lines

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  there right ago, and now we're seeing attainment starting to

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  tick up very rapidly over the past several classes.

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  So, like you're telling a story, but you can feel

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  the arc of it in that ark is where the

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  payoff is.

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  Intel's why it was bad before what you did and

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  what you what happened.

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  As a result, if you don't dive in the details

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  of why it was bad, it's just not going to

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  feel epic.

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  And there in lies the part you've got to get.

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  So you gotta dwell on that stuff.

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  Um, so my takeaways for you, number one again epic

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  accomplishments are memorable for every story that you have have

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  where every accomplishment, every program you've run, you need to

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  understand. Is it noteworthy?

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  Can you talk about a baseline and then a result?

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  And if it is, you gotta practice telling the story

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  and telling it in such a way that you're hiding

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  the parts that make it epic.

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  Highlight the parts that make people sit back into like,

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  Whoa! That was like landing on an injured ankle.

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  That was an impressive program.

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  Like I, I see what you did, and that's impressive.

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  If you don't do that, then it's just not going

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  to be memorable, and that's that's a miss.

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  So think about your programs and focus on highlighting the

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  parts of them that make him epic.

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  And I'm a big believer in practice telling these stories.

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  Record yourself.

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  Listen yourself.

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  It's talk like a zero, make it really concise and

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  know how to do it.

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  Because when you get into these conversations for interviews or

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  even we're talking your CEO in the elevator or somebody

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  you're passing by, you want a toe.

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  Have I what you've done because this is the currency

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  with which you get promoted.

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  So I hope you all had a couple of good

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  takeaways from this.

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  And please start using this immediately.

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  It is.

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  It is the stuff that's gonna help your career both

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  now and in the future.

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  Good luck, everybody.