Layoffs happen in B2B organizations too often and too regularly. For revenue enablement managers who want to be seen as leaders, you might as well be prepared for if, and when, the next one impacts your team. Here are five suggestions to simultaneously come to the aid of your internal customers and to up your enablement game for the long term.
Lead Through The Moment With Professional Change Management
While revenue enablement teams typically cover a wide range of responsibilities, now is the moment to emphasize the human element within your revenue enablement toolkit. After all, enablement staff are increasingly being populated by professionals with skills in change management. During a time when the emotional upheaval that accompanies layoffs is raw, help your colleagues near and far understand the answers to the following questions: Why is this happening, what does it mean for me, and what should I be doing about it? Your internal customers and colleagues will remember your support efforts when the stress diminishes later on and be more attuned to your ongoing efforts to prop up their successes, represent calm during the storm, and be the adult in the room when you …
Help Sellers With Stable, Streamlined Communication
The three questions above are generic reactions to change that should be interpreted more specifically for the revenue team. Follow the lead of the corporate communications and HR folks, by adapting their internal messaging to what matters most to sellers: impact on current deals, territories, accounts, and quotas. Work with HR and sales leadership to rapidly publish an approved FAQ resource, curate relevant communications and assets in a central location, and ramp up your enablement help desk support capabilities to help folks out. Reach out to revenue operations friends, who are certainly mired in seller-specific needs. Consider how product marketing and other teams have been impacted, because now is the time when reps need you all to …
Double Down On Enablement That Uplifts Sellers And Helps Them Make The Next Cut
Without interpreting this recommendation as “push all the surviving reps to the LMS,” the fact is that many departed sellers likely represent folks who didn’t “find the cheese” around newer buyers, products, and selling motions or basically did not adapt their skills quickly enough over time. Most reps who are still on staff will naturally wonder if they have the right competencies to survive the next layoff, real or imagined. New manager/rep relationships need to quickly be built. Enablement teams can leverage the communications channels mentioned above to gently suggest learning experiences that are associated with ongoing, stable, and secure professional outcomes and to identify any tribal knowledge that walked out the door. Don’t imply that “the laid-off folks didn’t take this class, so you should” — focus on the most recently introduced new competencies that management has asked enablement to support. Don’t stop at suggesting; let them see you …
Get Your Hands Dirty With Sudden Coverage Gaps
If you’re like most successful revenue enablers, you’ve carried the bag in the past and also are reasonably familiar with your reps’ basic motions. Their customers and deals are top priority right now, so what’s stopping you from digging in at a time when their support system may have just been diminished? The help desk suggestion above is an ideal way to tangibly contribute during a difficult moment but turn the service from a pull function (responding) to a push mentality (proactive). Ask reps — and managers — what current deals are slowing down as a result of the current cuts or what territories suddenly need more support. If you’re already good or great at enablement, you’ll soon be flooded with grateful requests for short-term help, which lead to long-term value-add for your function. But never forget to …
Balance Short-Term Heroics With Long-Term Value Perception
Without a doubt, this is a moment for enablement teams to shine through the pain. You absolutely need to find ways to pitch in during moments of crisis — see the recommendations above — but conversely can’t risk giving other functions the impression that, until now, you were not delivering 100% effort. This may sound overtly political or shallow, but it’s wise to accompany your short-term support efforts by temporarily scaling back some other deliverables, if not overhauling your entire charter. If enablement itself experienced headcount loss, this is easier for others to understand; otherwise, be sure to communicate your adapted focus as we’ve indicated here.
