One of the biggest challenges businesses face when they grow is scaling effective, autonomous and quick decision-making. What worked with 30 employees will start creaking at 300, and break well before you hit the 3,000-mark.

One of the most significant trends over the past decade has been the explosion in the number of companies in the software as a service (SaaS) industry. Today, there’s SaaS products to support virtually every business function, and increasingly for specific segments too.

Retention truly is the foundation of growth for software as a service (SaaS) companies, but oftentimes, it is overlooked and undervalued. This is always a huge mistake. High SaaS churn is a corollary of poor retention - but it can creep up unannounced, and rather than deal a single fatal blow, it causes death by a thousand small cuts.

Everybody likes to win. And while you undoubtedly learn much about your skills, attributes and character from losses, there’s nothing quite like that sense of satisfaction when your team secures a hard earned victory.

One of the questions I get asked most frequently is around building a sales enablement strategy and what that might look like. While each company, context and industry is different, I believe that there are some fundamentals that should form the blueprint of any sales enablement strategy.

I’ve been working within the software as a service (SaaS) industry for more than five years now. During this period I’ve learnt more than I ever thought possible about the SaaS business and my personal growth has accelerated with each passing year.

Today, everyone working in and around sales and marketing knows that bots are hot, in vogue and quite simply, of the moment. That’s no secret. After years of dreaming about what might just be possible, over the past 12-18 months numerous software as a service (SaaS) companies from around the globe have taken their respective bot offerings to market.

One of the exciting aspects of working in an emerging area like sales enablement is that, today, nobody knows or indeed, has all the right answers. In many respects we’re “building the plane while flying it”, as we collectively figure out what good looks like. There’s no defined sales enablement best practices.

For the most part, sales enablement is poorly defined and often misunderstood. Across the world conversations take place, day in, day out between business leaders as they decide the part that sales enablement can, should and will play within their organisation.

I consider myself fortunate to work at HubSpot, where day in, day out, I partner with over 100 B2B sales reps that are at the top of the game, and only want to get better. It’s a truly inspiring place to ply my trade. Unlike other parts of the business, it’s relatively uncommon for sales enablement to share learnings, best practices and successes with the outside world.

To me, there’s never been a better time to be a sales enablement professional. It’s a rapidly growing area and while there’s a lack of publicly available sales enablement statistics or indeed, widely adopted best practices and standards, this is due, largely to the fact, that many of us are figuring out exactly what sales enablement is, means and does.

At the beginning of each year I like to reflect on where I’m investing my time - this exercise helps me evaluate whether or not it’s being used in the most valuable, productive and impactful way. In my mind, that’s the best way to set myself up for success.

Without doubt, one of the most exciting parts of being a marketer today is the perpetual challenge of finding new channels and tactics to leverage. There’s a whole host of marketing arbitrage opportunities out there - if you know where to look and spend your time.

The more I think about it, the clearer it becomes - strategic communication is an integral part of successful sales enablement. Communication matters in business. And the success (or failure) of a sales enablement function is intertwined with its ability to influence a sales organisation and change behaviour.

The sales enablement industry has taken tremendous strides in recent years, but by most measures, it's still a relatively immature function. While there’s a talented and growing body of practitioners that are doing sterling work to advance the industry and sales performance, for the most part, there’s a distinct lack of standardised sales enablement best practices, planning models and frameworks. This can, must and will change.

Over the past 12 months I’ve invested considerable time thinking about, experimenting with and optimising my daily routine. I relish the challenge of figuring out new ways to become more efficient and better at my work. 

In my sales enablement role at HubSpot I'm truly privileged to partner with over 100 sales professionals that are at the top of their game and only want to get better. Working with sales reps that want to succeed and push each other to do better is a joy.

I’m privileged to have the role I do at HubSpot. Leading sales enablement programmes for over 100 sales professionals is challenging, rewarding and lots of fun. No two days are the same and at any given moment I play the role of coach, advocate and advisor.

In today’s world of data-driven marketing, it’s easy to get fixated on what’s measurable. While leveraging data is both important and smart, I increasingly find myself wondering if we, as SaaS marketers are overlooking the human dimension of marketing in favour of what’s easy to track, analyse and optimise.