ISEs3 Ep9: Dr. Brian Lambert Pt 1 - Co-Founder, Orchestrator, and Value Architect

Erich Starrett hosts Dr. Brian Lambert - co-founder of OSC, SES, and co-host of Inside Sales Enablement seasons one and two, back in the Orchestrate Sales Studios, for part one of two. A treat to have the epitome of past, present, and future enablement back on the property.

And yes, of course he was there at the original founding and one of the ~hundred four founders I'm on a mission to interview over time was right there with @Scott Santucci and the other 99-ish.

And BOY has it grown! He did a Google search on Sales Enablement way back in 2008 and got a hundred hits. He just did it again in the pre show and ...how about six million!

Brian architected an early "PhD in Sales" building on an organizational behavior degree with an emphasis on sales in his dissertation, and multiple publications in academic journals. Having also been cited over 200 times he may just be on Dr. Rob Peterson and Howard Dover's heels.

He's been a salesperson with a quota. He's been a sales manager with a team. He's been a sales enablement manager with a team of ~20. And most recently he took on the role of Big Data Value Architect at Elastic, where he is in a marketing messaging role, messaging enablement.

Highlights from the first part of our interview

PAST...

⌛️ Brian's reaction when he first heard the word "Enablement." (hint: it wasn't positive)

⌛️ Brian first crossed paths with @Scott Santucci at a conference an heard him speak about his blueprint. That's where he originally heard Scott share the vision of value architects, communicating value and being orchestrators.

⌛️ When at Forrester, Scott had to do a lot of work to sell this idea that there were people doing "this thing called Enablement." That people where challenging the status quo siloed view and breaking down the walls among sales training, marketing, ops, and other functions.

PRESENT

⌛️ Since corporate silos were born of the industrial revolution, why are they still the status quo and such a massive challenge in a hyper connected digital world where technically silos shouldn't matter?

⌛️ What does it mean to be an #Orchestrator? Why is it important?

⌛️ What if Enablement is not the right home for orchestration?

⌛️ Of the "four flavors of Sales Enablement" set forth at the SES founding, what percentage of each flavor would most who identify as Sales / Revenue enablement be?

💰Pipeline Enablement?

📝 Message Enablement?

👥 Organizational Enablement?

🎓 Talent Enablement?

FUTURE

⌛️ Brian's take on whether or not Sales Enablement will ever become the vision that the SES founders had of a cross-functional strategic function.

⌛️ Was the opportunity Covid presented by accelerating a move from the status quo to digital economy one that has been missed or is there still a hero's call to adventure for enablement?

⌛️ Accountability is not prevalent in most Enablement, or marketing, or operations. Salespeople are grounded in data and accountability. They are the ones that get fired. When will there be more accountability for the support team?

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