Is your enablement program just a series of mandatory training sessions that reps rush through to get back to selling? You're not alone. Many enablement teams struggle with low engagement, poor adoption, and zero measurable business impact. But what if enablement could become a strategic function that directly drives revenue growth?
We sat down with Meganne Brezina, Head of Enablement at Zylo and a recognized 2023 Enablement Legend, who shared her proven framework for transforming enablement from a checkbox exercise into a strategic revenue driver. With over a decade of experience serving global B2B SaaS teams at companies like Seismic, Lessonly, and Salesforce, Meganne knows exactly what separates ineffective enablement programs from those that truly move the needle.
In this article, we'll break down the five critical shifts that can transform your enablement approach and start delivering real business outcomes.
Before we dive into solutions, let's acknowledge the elephant in the room. Many enablement programs today suffer from the same fundamental problems:
The result? Enablement becomes a checkbox exercise that dilutes its entire purpose. Programs are built because they "seem like a good idea" rather than because they solve real business problems. Success gets measured by how many people attended training rather than whether those people changed their behavior or improved their results.
But according to Meganne, there's a better way.
Most enablement professionals make a critical mistake: they only work internally with their teams. They focus on what sales leaders want, what product marketing says, and what the latest training request demands. But they miss the most important perspective - the customer.
Meganne's first shift challenges you to get out of your internal bubble and truly understand the people your sales team serves. This means:
Attend customer events and engage directly. Don't just read the sanitized case studies from marketing. Show up at customer conferences, user groups, and industry events where your customers gather. Listen to their conversations, understand their challenges, and observe what resonates with them.
Follow key customers on LinkedIn. Social listening provides invaluable insights into what your customers care about, what problems keep them up at night, and how they talk about solutions in their own words.
Partner with Product Marketing on win-loss interviews. These conversations reveal why customers chose you - or didn't. They expose gaps in your sales team's positioning, objection handling, and value articulation that no internal meeting will uncover.
As Meganne emphasizes, "If you don't understand customers, you can't enable teams to serve them."
This customer-centric approach ensures your enablement programs address real customer needs rather than internal assumptions about what matters.
Creating training because "it seems like a good idea" is one of the fastest ways to undermine your credibility as an enablement leader. Instead, Meganne advocates for a disciplined approach that starts with business outcomes and works backwards.
Here's how to make this shift:
Start with the business North Star. What's the overarching corporate objective? Is it a 10% revenue increase? Expanding into a new market segment? Improving net retention rates? Get crystal clear on what success looks like for the business.
Work backwards to required behaviors. Once you know the destination, identify the specific behavioral changes that will get you there. If the goal is revenue growth, what sales behaviors drive that outcome? Better discovery? Stronger objection handling? More effective positioning?
Get executive alignment before building anything. Before you invest time creating content or programs, validate your approach with leadership. Show them the clear line from their objectives to your enablement plan. As Meganne notes, "If you don't have that, you can't have strategic conversations."
This alignment transforms enablement from an order-taking function to a strategic partner. You're no longer responding to random training requests—you're designing programs that directly support business goals.
Here's a common scenario: An enablement leader proudly reports that "50 people took my training." But did those 50 people change their behavior? Did they improve their results? Training completion is a vanity metric that says nothing about business impact.
Meganne's third shift focuses on measuring what actually matters: behavioral changes that drive business outcomes. Instead of tracking attendance, track these indicators:
Discovery quality. Are sales reps asking better questions in their discovery calls? Are they uncovering deeper customer pain points? You can assess this through call reviews, AI coaching platforms, or manager observations.
Positioning effectiveness. Can sellers articulate value clearly in their own words? Do they connect product capabilities to specific customer outcomes? Test this through AI sales roleplay scenarios or live coaching sessions.
Objection handling. How do sales reps respond under pressure when customers push back? Are they prepared with confident, value-focused responses, or do they crumble at the first sign of resistance?
Most importantly, connect these behavior improvements to quota attainment. Show the correlation between better discovery skills and higher win rates, or between improved objection handling and larger deal sizes. This data transforms enablement from a cost center to a revenue driver.
The old enablement model forced everyone to attend the same training regardless of their skill level, experience, or role. High performers sat through basic concepts they mastered years ago. Struggling reps received generic training that didn't address their specific gaps. Nobody won.
Meganne's approach recognizes that one-size-fits-all training is one-size-fits-none. Instead, she builds alignment across all stakeholder levels:
Let top performers test out programs. Your A-players can provide invaluable feedback on what's practical, what's missing, and what will actually resonate with the sales team. They've lived the challenges your enablement program aims to solve.
Use A-players to teach their teammates. Nothing builds credibility faster than having respected peers share their approaches. When a top performer demonstrates how they handle a common objection, other reps pay attention in a way they never would with generic training.
Give managers input on who needs what training. Sales managers know their team members' strengths and weaknesses better than anyone. Leverage their insights to customize enablement by individual rather than forcing everyone through the same program.
Provide options with clear risk/benefit analysis. Present different paths and let teams choose based on their situation. Maybe one team pilots a new methodology while another sticks with the proven approach. Show the tradeoffs clearly and let stakeholders make informed decisions.
This customized, collaborative approach heavily increases buy-in and adoption. When people feel heard and see programs tailored to their needs, they engage willingly rather than checking a box.
As an enablement leader, you face an impossible challenge: you can't personally coach every sales rep who needs support. There simply aren't enough hours in the day. Meganne encountered this reality firsthand:
"I needed a tool to help me multiply myself. I would not be able to coach enough hours in the day."
This is where AI sales coaching like SellMeThisPen AI becomes transformative. Rather than trying to be everywhere at once, leverage technology to scale your impact:
Use AI role-play for a safe practice environment. Sales reps can practice handling objections, delivering pitches, and conducting discovery with AI buyers as many times as they need without burning valuable leads or waiting for a manager's availability.
Create competitive scoring systems. Gamification through AI coaching platforms motivates reps to practice more and improve faster. When people can see their scores improve and compare themselves to teammates, practice becomes engaging rather than a chore.
Democratize coaching availability. With an AI sales coach, every rep gets instant feedback whenever they need it - not just when their manager has time. This levels the playing field and ensures consistent coaching quality across the team.
Free up time for strategic initiatives. When AI handles repetitive practice and basic coaching, you can focus on high-impact activities like building stakeholder relationships, analyzing customer trends, and designing strategic programs.
The goal isn't to replace human coaching but rather extend your reach so that personalized support is available to everyone who needs it, whenever they need it.
At the heart of Meganne's approach is a simple but powerful principle: "Enablement should never be forced to be a checkbox exercise." When enablement becomes mandatory compliance, you lose credibility as a strategic partner and your revenue impact disappears.
The goal of enablement should be to provide mechanisms for people to drive revenue-generating activities. When you align programs to business objectives, measure behavioral changes, customize by audience, and leverage AI for scale, enablement becomes something sales teams want rather than something they're forced to endure.
Think of it this way: your daily metrics should be your early warning system. When you track the right behaviors and see concerning trends, you can intervene quickly with targeted coaching or training. But if you're only tracking training completion, you have no visibility into what's actually happening in the field until it's too late.
In this episode of SellMeThisPen Podcast, Michael and Meganne discuss how to transform sales enablement from mandatory training sessions into a strategic function that drives real revenue outcomes. They explore the critical shifts required to build credibility, measure what matters, and scale coaching impact across entire sales organizations.
Meganne Brezina is the Head of Enablement at Zylo and was recognized as a 2023 Enablement Legend by Enablement Squad. With over a decade of experience serving global B2B SaaS teams at companies like Seismic, Lessonly, and Salesforce, Meganne specializes in transforming enablement from a checkbox exercise into a strategic function that delivers measurable business impact.
