Ben Cotton
Sales Enablement, SaaS & Growth Blog
I’m privileged to lead sales enablement for HubSpot out of EMEA and as part of my role I get to set the direction, goals and KPIs of the team. Helping our rapidly expanding sales team in Dublin, Ireland to succeed is challenging, rewarding and lots of fun. But selecting the right metrics to gauge the impact of sales enablement is tough.
The inherent predictability of the software as a service (SaaS) business model makes it attractive to business leaders, customers and investors alike. Predictable costs and revenue can and should lead to predictable growth. You also need to build a sales and marketing engine that generates enough high quality leads for your sales team to close each month.
I commute for 90 minutes each day, which adds up to seven and a half hours each week, and a staggering 360 hours a year. This is time that I could be doing something (anything) productive. Before I start, this is certainly not a complaint about my commute. I love where I live in Sandycove and enjoy my journey along the south Dublin coastline, especially on a warm, sunny or clear day.
On the flight to Seattle for the festive period I read A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young. The author, one of the original ad men of the 50s and 60s and contemporary of David Ogilvy, shares the processes he employed to create ideas throughout his glittering career. As its name suggests the book contains creativity lessons and techniques readers can follow, regardless of their role, title or industry to become more creative.
On the flight home from INBOUND 16 I read Managing Oneself by renowned management consultant and academic Peter F. Drucker. Drucker is rightly considered the founder of modern management and many of his prescient ideas on management theory and practice, such as decentralisation, the rise of the knowledge worker and outsourcing have come to pass.
