Relentless change: can sales enablement keep up?

24th September 2018 |   Nick de Cent

Robert Racine Sales Enablement Talk

This article extracts some of the key points from a talk at this year’s Sales Educators’ Academy Conference at Aston Business School in Birmingham, and the debate that followed. The presentation on strategic sales enablement in the face of unrelenting change was given by Robert Racine, VP, Global Sales Enablement at Wipro. Racine ran a central sales enablement function today with a budget of some $6 million a year, which includes all salaries and infrastructure. His unit has been in place for approximately six years. The debate that followed centred on how academics should adapt their teaching programmes to prepare the next generation of salespeople for this demanding environment.

“Why was there no sales enablement ten years ago, and why is there suddenly a lot of sales enablement today? That’s a pretty fundamental question. The answer is because the rate of change today is exponentially larger than the rate of change five years ago. In our unit, we do 40 reorganizations a quarter – formation of new service lines, new products, retirement of products, mergers, and splits of units that have scaled and need more autonomy, acquisitions that are either being integrated or added on.

Nick de Cent

Founder of the International Journal of Sales Transformation | + posts

Nick de Cent is the founder and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Sales Transformation. A business journalist for over 35 years, he has been covering sales since the mid-1980s and has been a strong advocate of enhancing its professional status. He has freelanced for the Financial Times and edited the Sales Performance supplement in The Times. He also writes and edits extensively on behalf of corporate clients, including a Big 3 management consultancy and a top four global executive search firm.
Contact: editor@journalofsalestransformation.com.