Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Bridging the Gap: How Enablement Transforms Sales Success with Penny Springer
27 Plays23 days ago
In this episode of Women in Revenue, host Kaycn Goranson sits down with Penny Springer, sales and strategy consultant and former VP of Sales at Federato to explore the transformative role of enablement across the revenue engine. Penny shares her unconventional career path—from scientist to sales leader to enablement expert—and the pivotal moments that shaped her passion for helping sellers learn, internalize, and take meaningful action. She discusses what truly drives revenue impact, the importance of adult learning theory, and how frontline sales leadership acts as the critical “bridge” between training and execution. Penny also opens up about taking career risks, creating measurable pipeline impact, and cultivating resilience in a fast-paced revenue world.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Resilient Revenue'
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Resilient Revenue, a Women in Revenue podcast series designed to magnify the voices, victories, and valuable insights of trailblazing women in revenue-generating roles.
00:00:13
Speaker
Each episode will showcase stories of resilience, mentorship, and self-advocacy. You'll learn exactly how these remarkable women are breaking barriers, redefining success, and showing us the transformative power of unity within the tech industry.
00:00:31
Speaker
So join us as we embark on this enlightening journey toward equality and empowerment in the world of resilient revenue.
00:00:43
Speaker
Hey, y'all. Welcome back for another episode with Women in Revenue.
Introduction of Guest: Penny Springer
00:00:48
Speaker
I'm your host, Kacen Goranson, and today we have Penny Springer from Federato joining us. We're really going to dig into all things enablement and a little splash of sale. So, Penny, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:01:01
Speaker
Oh, super excited to be here. Thank you, Kacen. Absolutely. So to start first, would love a high level introduced introduction and also your career path.
Penny Springer's Career Transition
00:01:13
Speaker
Sure. So it's very interesting. I started off very technical. Coming out of college, I had chemistry, physics, and math degrees. And after a couple years of being in the technical world, I got tapped on the shoulder by my manager. And he says, you know, You have a lot of energy and you're scaring the other scientists.
00:01:30
Speaker
I think you should go into sales based on your communication skills. So I did and was successful working in sales. And then, you know, got a couple of master's degrees and found out that, you know what, with family friendliness, I needed to do something different than be on the road with sales.
00:01:46
Speaker
So I pivoted and taught high school chemistry and physics for nine years. And then there's this thing after I went back into sales called training enablement, sales enablement, revenue enablement that came up.
00:01:58
Speaker
And that's where I have ah ah just a wealth of knowledge and experience. And that's where I'm at today. Now back into the sales world. Love that. So after you got tapped to kind of move into sales and you started doing more enablement, how did you really start building your passion for it?
The Passion for Enablement
00:02:17
Speaker
Well, it's for me, the passion for enablement comes back to learning. I'm a lifelong learner. And i've and know you know it's like that epiphany moment or that light bulb moment that comes on when you see somebody within your realm that you're doing some enablement, you're trying to change your behavior in sales that they go, oh my gosh.
00:02:36
Speaker
That is going to help me be successful. I'm going to be able to put this into action and make an impact in my career or what I'm doing in my day-to-day job. So for me, the enablement, the passion is all about that epiphany, the light bulb moment that they go, this is important to me. But I also go back to enablement has to be meaningful, memorable, and motivational.
00:02:59
Speaker
ah I love that. I always talk about the light bulb moment, especially in with direct reports. So I love that you feel the same way and call it a light bulb moment. Absolutely.
00:03:10
Speaker
So given your transition into sales or even in the enablement side, take this however you want, would love to hear how ah maybe a recent story on how you've impacted pipeline and revenue.
Successful Enablement Initiative
00:03:22
Speaker
Well, and that's the most important part about enablement. It's having impact within the organization. It's one thing to train people, but you're changing behaviors that make an impact on the organization. So what we just rolled out at my last organization was an enablement program about some of our new service offerings. so brand new, something that we needed to go immediately talk to customers about.
00:03:45
Speaker
So part of my enablement I always have is like a call to action. What are you going to do And then i also talked to my first-line sales leaders about coaching to that action. So what they had to do at the end of the enablement, what they had to put into, here are the two or three customers that I'm going to talk to about some of these new service offerings.
00:04:06
Speaker
So then we talked to the first-line sales leaders and said, now you need to coach this to action. Are you following up to make sure that they actually are talking to those customers. Well, the great thing, 45 days post the enablement, we had 31 new opportunities in Salesforce for about $4 million. dollars So amazing pipeline creation because of the ah the enablement. Now, who knows the long-term comeback, how many of those?
00:04:31
Speaker
There's multiple factors, but we created impact on revenue and pipeline, well, pipeline specifically right from that enablement. So that's a really good example.
00:04:43
Speaker
That extremely impressive. I think a lot of our listeners are probably going to have questions on how did you do that? What exactly did you enable on? So I would expect to follow up from some of them after this. Clarence.
00:04:56
Speaker
cleric Yeah, absolutely. Have the, especially one, we've already talked about you transitioning to sales more, either in sales or previously, have you ever had to personally try out your own kind of an enablement methods?
Taking Career Risks
00:05:11
Speaker
Actually, this is what led to my current role too. So I talk about taking risks in your career. I'm a strong believer in taking risks and believing for yourself. So I got from my chief revenue officer in Europe.
00:05:24
Speaker
I got Slack message one day last year and he said, I got a crazy idea. And you know me, i go back and say, I like crazy. We get on a call and he dead. i and unable to hire a new EMEA frontline sales leader. So regional vice president because of timing and things like this too. He said, I got a crazy idea.
00:05:43
Speaker
Would you come over and then virtually manage this team for a quarter. I'm like, love to, because now I get the opportunity to be a leader and see how the enablement's working and how, what is needed to bridge the gap. And I talk about this one is kind of like the, you know, the little ah a Mario character, stuff like this goes from one mountain to the next mountain.
00:06:07
Speaker
Well, that gap in between from what the enablement is to put it into action, coach to action, the first line sales leader is that bridge. So to give an example, we you know we launched my team, my enablement team launched a new messaging. ok So I got on the call with my next team meeting when I was a frontline sales leader and I said, let's walk through this. Let's practice this messaging a little bit.
00:06:30
Speaker
They've all completed the enablement, completed a meeting, they clicked through it. But they did they actually internalize it? Are they ready to actually talk to customers? Because they got crickets.
00:06:42
Speaker
So that's where that first-line sales leader coach to action is so important. That bridge that goes, okay, let's talk about it. Let's practice it in a team meeting. Let's do some role play. it That kind of thing. That is when I learned what is needed between enablement.
00:06:58
Speaker
and first-line sales leaders to get the success. So that's been really a great experience for me, which f led me to my role of now being able to run us a team at Federata.
00:07:09
Speaker
That's amazing. So one question about that, especially from my experience in working with sales and in with enablement teams, a lot of times, to your point, they just click through the enablement material or the new marketing material, whatever it is, and they don't really take time to internalize it.
00:07:26
Speaker
In the world that we're in, prioritizing opportunities and closing, how do you make sure that carving out time to really let that enablement set in and role play or practice it how do you make sure that's priority?
Prioritizing Enablement Within Organizations
00:07:42
Speaker
Well, that is a comes from a higher up in the organization. You have to have buy-in from your CEO, your CRO, your sales leadership, and things like this too. But it's also, like you said, carving out of a specific time. We just talked on my new team meeting and we said, okay, here's the cadence. You're going to do forecast calls. We're going to do one-on-ones. We're going to do a business team meeting.
00:08:02
Speaker
However, we're also going to do ah you know a knowledge skills weekly coaching or biweekly coaching where we're goingnna we're going to... work on this. We're going to work on it together. We're going to role play. So it is prioritizing it, but it has to be prioritized higher up in the organization.
00:08:20
Speaker
We talk about but another thing is too, is when they do have enablement, instead of sending them off into a silo to do it, I use kind of the analogy when you used to go into the library or so a coffee shop and you'd meet with other people in a university course and you'd all do it together, kind of that social learning, which is so important too. So we'll get on a call and we'll actually all do the enablement together, but we'll talk through it and we'll highlight things and stuff like that too.
00:08:45
Speaker
So that's making it more meaningful, motivational, that type of thing also. But prioritization like anything else. But do you want your players, your A, B, C players to continue to grow and develop? Or do you want kind of be stagnant? That's what I always, I want to move those B players up to A and my C players up to B players or A players.
00:09:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's exactly it. How do you keep learning, growing and making everyone better? Because there's always room to improve. Absolutely. Perfect. I love that. OK, so for anyone listening today or anyone out there who maybe they might talk to and pass advice on, if they wanted to move into enablement or maybe take a risk that could lead them into sale, what advice would you have for them?
Advice on Adult Learning and Sales Process
00:09:28
Speaker
Well, there's a couple of things that are really important. First of all, understanding adult learning. Now I have, you know, knowledge and experience and background from degrees and spending time with, you know, in the classroom, which is 17, 18 year olds is, you know, where I taught, which is very similar to adults, but spending time learning about adult learning because, and it's absolutely changing because of what we're doing with internet, micro learning, YouTube videos and everything I guess too, but understanding what adult learning is.
00:09:56
Speaker
But the really other critical part is understand the business. Understand how deals are won and lost. I spend a tremendous amount of time in my organization listening to recorded sales calls. And learn so much from that too.
00:10:11
Speaker
And then understand and help coach. So ride along on one of these opportunities or two of the opportunities. Understand how It evolved and win or lost.
00:10:21
Speaker
And then be able to, you know, spend some time with first line sales leaders and see how they coach to action. You know, you're going to understand your first line sales leaders are successful in your organization.
00:10:32
Speaker
Spend time to them, pick their brain, learn. But it's understanding, learning. It's also understanding the business, be able to speak about the business and then understanding the sales price process and the the products or solutions that you're selling.
00:10:46
Speaker
ah Wonderful. That's great advice. Thank you for sharing it. Okay. As always on this show, we end our podcast with a question kind of tied back to the title Resilient Revenue.
Defining Resilience
00:10:58
Speaker
So we'd love to know what does resilience mean to you? For me, it's like having a shield and being able to to deflect things when things get difficult.
00:11:10
Speaker
It's so important as a leader to protect your team, but it's also important to protect yourself. So you're gonna get on calls and you're gonna get chewed on, or you're gonna see initiatives that come at you like swords and things like this too. But resilience mean you can protect yourself and you can deflect the things and then you can move on when things get difficult.
00:11:31
Speaker
And I say move on is like move on in a positive direction. Don't go backwards, but go positive. So resilience to me is really about having that tough, strong shield. And especially women and in revenue, we really have to have that shield.
00:11:48
Speaker
Yes, we do. I love that. Well, thank you so much for sharing more about Enablement and also transitioning to sale with all of us today. If anyone in the audience wants to connect with you, I would recommend LinkedIn.
00:12:00
Speaker
Absolutely. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for your time today and have a great rest of the week. It was a pleasure. Thank you so much. Absolutely.
Invitation to Women in Revenue Community
00:12:12
Speaker
And that wraps up another episode of Resilient Revenue. These narratives are more than just personal triumphs. They embody the collective journey that we undertake as we strive for a future where every woman, no matter her career stage, location, industry, or demographic profile, has the opportunity to excel in her chosen field.
00:12:33
Speaker
Women in Revenue exists because we know amazing things can happen when driven, talented, bottom line oriented women are fired up and collaborating to grow their careers and organizations.
00:12:45
Speaker
We invite you to join our amazing community of 7,000 plus members. If you'd like to become a member for free, head on over to womeninrevenue.org to join today.
00:12:56
Speaker
See you next time on Resilient Revenue.