Colin Emerson

What is sales readiness? And why should you care about it even if you're not in sales? Making sure your sales reps are prepared to have thoughtful conversations with customers is essential, especially now that customers have a lower tolerance for inauthentic, rote buying experiences. Customers want to leave a conversation not only with a smile on their face, but with confidence that your company is right fit for them, for both the present and the future. And EVERYONE has a stake in that. So you need to make sure, in whichever way you can contribute, that your sales reps are ready to give customers that secure feeling. How are you contributing to your sellers' readiness? #salesreadiness #salesenablement #buyingexperience #guidedselling

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🎙️ I had a great time with Alex Mislan during Spekit 🐙's first 'Enablement Therapy' webinar series last week! 💡 We covered so many great topics like the clip below about how Enablement balances the art of pushing down to Reps AND pushing up to leadership to be that strategic partner and advocate to and for both groups. 👇🏼 Definitely give the full chat a listen - link in the comments! #salesenablement #enablement #revenueenablement

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The past week, I’ve been reflecting as 2024 comes to a close. This year has been filled with highs and lows, a lot of changes (like joining an amazing team at Zendesk!), and excitement for what’s ahead. My reflections led me to three powerful goals that are going to define our Partner program journey in 2025: 🏎️ Acceleration: We’re not just moving forward; we’re picking up speed. ✔️ Accountability: We’re owning our commitments and pushing boundaries. 🤝 Alliances: We’re building connections that transform how businesses connect with customers. I’m so excited to dig into these themes more at SKO in just a few weeks. It’s more than an event – it’s a launchpad for our shared vision. We’ll explore cutting-edge strategies, dive into #AI-driven innovations, and strengthen the connections that make our community extraordinary. Let’s make 2025 a year of exceptional service and success together.

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Josh & I get to have insightful discussions with RevOps leaders each week. We want to give back by sharing this wisdom more broadly. We are launching our webinar series, Aim for Excellence (see what we did there?). Each episode is an interview with RevOps and GTM leaders we admire about their advice on GTM ops, strategy, and career paths. We had the great pleasure to kick this off with Katherine Zhang recently. Katherine has led RevOps teams at sizable companies like Project44, Relativity, Cognex, and Dell EMC. A few of my favorite highlights from our conversation: - A clarifying definition of RevOps that helps teams ensure they are always working on impactful initiatives - How to turn RevOps from being “order takers” into a strategic function - The importance of trusted (but not perfect!) data - How to get a seat at the table as a RevOps leader Take a listen to our discussion (links in comments) and let us know what you think!

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With enrollment and financial pressures in higher ed, how are colleges and universities preparing to address the headwinds? Check out the interview with McKinsey and Company. on how Generative AI and automation helps. #TeamWDAY

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HR is undergoing a transformation, with 2025 set to be a crucial year. This Forbes article outlines major forecasts for the future of performance management and HR, featuring perspectives from Betterworks CEO Doug Dennerline and VP of HR Transformation Jamie Aitken. Learn how ongoing performance enablement and data-driven approaches will revolutionize our work practices. https://gag.gl/Fmvwzl

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#NACDA2024 Advice: If you have "Athletic Director" in your title, ignore any topic that doesn't align with the following... - New Revenue from Existing Assets: The key here is "existing." Across all leagues, we're seeing (1) the use of LLMs to drive low-risk, high-yield campaigns and (2) content monetization as the low-hanging fruit in this space. This year, you're not adding toys to the garage - you're figuring out how to run the best possible garage sale. - Personalization: Stakeholder trust and perception of clarity with departments are historically low. Learn everything you can about improving specific touchpoints with Athletes, Sponsors, Donors, and Fans. Then do it. That's it. That's the list.

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The #1 question we get asked: what exactly is a Revenue Cadence? Revenue Cadences can seem complex. But they’re essential to keeping your team aligned. Watch John Queally, Clari's Director of RevOps, explain what a Revenue Cadence is and why it’s critical for driving predictable revenue.

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If you're a RevOps leader charged with moving your GTM execution faster -- this thought-leadership session is for you. Join us on May 30th in San Diego at the RevOps Co-op conference. We are bringing a panel of top-notch speakers to share their insights and success playbooks. Here's the session line-up for "Blood, Sweat & Sales People: Confessions from the RevOps Frontline": Eyal Orgil, DealHub's CRO, dives deep into the heart of the action with RevOps experts Ayelet Germanski (PlexTrac) and Amie Weizer (Zensai), revealing their unfiltered secrets to GTM mastery. Gain 3 crucial insights: Scale with Speed: Master the art of GTM scaling – launching AND maintaining growth momentum. Discover how to thrive in a resource-constrained market through smart process streamlining and efficient workflows. Adapt to Conquer: Learn how to react quickly to market shifts and build resilience for the unexpected. Uncover expert tactics for achieving growth even with limited resources. RevOps Revolution: Optimize your RevOps journey. Identify the signs that you need a reboot, foster seamless collaboration across departments, and ensure your entire RevOps process aligns perfectly with your organization's goals. Let's meet in person - secure a time to chat here >>> https://okt.to/Fb7rxE Use the discount code 'RAFDealHub10' to get 10% off your event ticket! #GTM #revops #thoughtleadership

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Awesome SaaStock workshops yesterday led by Kevin "KD" Dorsey on how he operationalizes his sales teams and keep them up to date, Rita Jhaveri on the importance of customer onboarding with a fun workshop (Team Monkey FTW!), and Jake Dunlap for new insights on creating a effective buying experience. My biggest take aways from the sessions were: Our buyers' environment is changing and how they buy is changing. Are your internal processes staying up to date to meet your buyers where they're at? At startups I think of my sales org processes within a constant loop -> What's our.... TAM -> SAM -> SOM -> ICP -> Buyer Persona -> Pain Points for said personas within the ICP -> Does our product solve those pains points -> relevant messaging for marketing + disco + demo -> win customer -> case studies -> renew -> apply case studies and stories to new business sales cycle -> repeat The challenge I hear often is that people don't know what their ICP should be and so everything after that falls flat. But why is this so hard to figure this out? It's going to sound ridiculously simple..but it's your industry tags. Read more on why and how to fix it in the comments below and if you’re attending SaaStock today let’s meet up! #saastockusa2024

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Ditch the L&D spreadsheets! (No really, ditch them).  Building an effective capability-led strategy with spreadsheets is almost impossible. You can’t scale them with your business, you end up with version control issues, and you can’t effectively analyze learning and performance data spread over multiple locations.  It’s better to use software to build a capability framework. It streamlines the whole process, from defining objectives and capabilities to implementing a capability-led program.  Check out the full blog here: https://hubs.ly/Q02LRxZ10  #capabilityframework #capabilitybuilding #PLMS 

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"We were starting to get more people to buy in and more people to see, 'Wow, this is not just a learning management system. This is not just a content repository. There's so much that we can do from a communication perspective, enablement perspective, learning perspective, sales perspective.'" How can you utilize enablement innovations like AI and coaching to make enablement a must-have? Listen to Chris Herter's Win Win episode to see how he and his team are leading the charge at Paycor.

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Performance reviews are one of the most important activities for a company however, it has become status quo to complete these reviews in an unacceptable and uninspiring manner. The results are costly and depressing. Don't agree? Agree? Want to talk about it? Join us tomorrow in the discussion on connecting learning and performance in a meaningful way.

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Users don’t care about your particular product or service; they care about getting their job done. That’s one of the core beliefs that Donna Weber shared in a recent Gainsight webinar on developing #humanfirst learning content using the "jobs to be done" approach. It’s an important if somewhat humbling perspective for those of us in #customereducation. It means we need to develop training with the customer’s persona and job in mind, as well as ensure our training addresses the value the learner will get from it and the product. Donna presents a succinct and actionable 6-step framework to developing human-first learning content aligned to the #jobstobedone approach and leverages a familiar framework: who, what, why, when & where, and how, plus deliver content at the right time and place to the right user. Check out the webinar recording to learn more! https://lnkd.in/gSQj5XgC

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Join the debate: Can we align objectives and key results to performance$$ Sept 26 at 12edt. In just 45 minutes, you’ll learn: 💡 How to align compensation with performance for better results 💡 Expert analysis of John Doerr's insights from "Measure What Matters" 💡 Insights to implement the right approach for your organization 💡 Real-world examples of successful OKR-compensation alignment #johndoerr #whatmatters #kleinerperkins #okrstraining #okrs #performancemanagement

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Operational planning is dreadful - period. In our second episode of The Ops Drop, we’re talking all things planning with Julia Kim. Julia is a seasoned RevOps leader and an adjunct instructor at Columbia, so you know she’s bringing the good stuff! We dive into: - The role of RevOps in leading planning - How to know when it’s time to adjust your plans - Making operational planning more agile and less... painful Check out the highlights below and the full episode is here: https://lnkd.in/ghyQbhd7

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I had a great conversation with Steve Watt and Heather Cole on The Enablement Edge podcast! We discuss the essentials of building a strategic enablement team and how to navigate the complexities organizations face today. It's all about aligning tactics with strategy. Check it out...lots of great tips for ensuring your team is providing measurable revenue impact!  #EnablementEdge #SalesEnablement #Podcast #Leadership

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💜 Gainsight + Champion 💜 We just released a killer new eBook together on how to drive growth through your hidden customer champions. With many of us in the midst of 2025 planning, this book dives into the incredible growth engine right in front of us: our customers. The ebook has practical insights on empowering champions and learnings from top brands using Gainsight and Champion. I just re-read it myself, and it's giving me all sorts of light bulb moments (yes my phone just happened to take a 100% organic photo right when I finished reading it. And yes that is my thinking pose.) Check it out 👇

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"Virtuous helps us focus on meaningful work, not menial work." - Mic-drop review from a Virtuous customer So there's a misconception around fundraising automation. It's not meant to replace but rather reinforce human interaction in the fundraising process. Automation Maturity simultaneously eliminates and illuminates. ⛔️ Eliminates the obstacles of time to provide personalized donor journeys to every donors. 💡Illuminates the most fruitful opportunities human fundraisers should interact with. DM me if you're curious how to get started towards Automation Maturity. Virtuous #ResponsiveNonprofitSummit #RNS2024

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