Sales Enablement Best Practices with Beebe Sanders from Liftoff
An Ex-Google PMM's take on product marketing.
Hi, I’m Henry, and today I’m excited to share insights from my conversation with Beebe Sanders, Senior Manager of Growth and Sales Enablement at Liftoff. Beebe’s unique perspective, having worked in both sales and enablement, allows her to seamlessly bridge the gap between teams. In our discussion, she explained how sales enablement supports growth, how to partner with sales teams, and the best practices for improving cross-functional collaboration.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf Scenario in Sales
One of the key challenges Beebe highlighted was the “boy who cried wolf” scenario that often occurs when sales teams push hard for a product update, only for it to be unused once released. Misalignment between sales and product happens when there’s a lack of shared priorities or an inefficient feedback loop. Beebe stressed the importance of gathering regular feedback and ensuring a proper commitment before making product changes. Without this alignment, product teams risk wasting resources building features that won’t be utilized.
How Sales Teams Are Structured and Motivated
Sales teams, as Beebe explained, are often segmented by specialty, region, or product line, and their motivations can range from financial goals to career development or a sense of community. A critical part of sales enablement is understanding these motivators and designing training programs that resonate with salespeople. Beebe emphasized that enablement teams must respect the time salespeople spend away from their main objective—generating new business.
Partnering with Sales for Success
When it comes to partnering with sales, listening to their challenges is crucial. Beebe works to relay this valuable feedback to product teams to keep the company competitive. She described the role of sales enablement as being a “translator” between the sales and product teams, helping both sides understand each other’s priorities and perspectives. On the enablement side, creating programs that increase productivity is key to supporting account executives (AEs) and customer success managers (CSMs) in growing the business.
Proving the Value of Sales Enablement
Beebe shared an important insight: Don’t just ask for feedback—prove that it matters. She advised documenting and communicating improvements that result from feedback, especially in metrics that highlight how it has influenced quota attainment or sales productivity. Additionally, making resources easy to find and navigate ensures their use. When tools are overly complex, time is wasted on both sides.
Success Stories in Sales Enablement
Beebe shared two standout examples from her time at Liftoff. First, she implemented a quarterly feedback aggregation process where sales teams' feedback was gathered and turned into themes to present to the product team. This resulted in a 50% increase in commercial-driven product roadmap items. Second, during a merger between Liftoff and another company, Beebe developed a series of training programs to quickly educate sales teams on both companies' products and processes, helping them operate smoothly as a unified team post-merger.
Collaborating with Product Marketing
At Liftoff, Beebe’s growth enablement team focuses on internal training, while the product marketing team manages external messaging. Beebe highlighted the importance of clear roles and regular communication to ensure alignment on customer-facing releases. For instance, when building internal training, Beebe works with product marketing to ensure that external communication and customer-facing materials are consistent and aligned.
Bridging the Gap with Product Teams
Beebe also acts as a translator between product and commercial teams, ensuring that sales teams understand product priorities and that product teams are aware of customer needs. This feedback loop is essential to make sure that new features and products resonate with customers. Beebe emphasized the importance of trust in this relationship—when sales enablement teams effectively represent product priorities, product managers can rely on them to handle internal communications.
Balancing Priorities Across Teams
Balancing priorities across different teams can be challenging, but Beebe’s approach is to focus on common company goals and maintain transparency across departments. A key element is the feedback loop between sales and product. Regular communication ensures that initiatives are well-aligned, driving both business impact and customer satisfaction.
Tools for Sales Enablement
Beebe’s team uses tools like Lessonly for hosting and tracking training materials, along with Google Docs and other shared workspaces. She also stays updated on industry trends by subscribing to various newsletters. Keeping a pulse on industry evolution helps her frame internal strategies in a way that aligns with the company's goals.
The Rewards and Challenges of Sales Enablement
Beebe enjoys the variety her role offers, from working on technical product features to collaborating with the machine learning and performance marketing teams. However, as the company grows, navigating bureaucracy and adapting to large-scale changes like privacy regulations and industry consolidation can be challenging. Despite these difficulties, the constant evolution of her role keeps it exciting.
Conclusion
My conversation with Beebe highlighted how effective sales enablement can significantly improve cross-functional collaboration and drive business success. By acting as a translator between teams, gathering and proving the impact of feedback, and focusing on shared goals, Beebe has built an enablement function that supports growth and aligns teams across the organization.
Thank you, Beebe, for sharing your insights! If you found this post helpful, feel free to leave a comment below or share your thoughts on what you’d like to hear more about. Until next time!
Ready to Break Into Product Marketing?
If you’re ready to break into product marketing, check out the Product Marketing School, where I’ll teach you everything you need to succeed. You’ll learn product marketing foundations, resume & interview prep, and product marketing skills to make a real business impact.
Plus, you’ll get 1:1 coaching with me and gain access to new and exclusive content not available on YouTube. Start your journey today and take your first step toward becoming the PMM every hiring manager is looking for!