It’s no secret mass layoffs have rocked the tech industry the past several months — and sales enablement is one of the departments that’s been hit the hardest across the board.
As sales enablement practitioners and providers, we know firsthand how important sales enablement is to every organization and how passionate enablement professionals are about the work we do.
In order to support our community, we compiled this field guide to finding and preparing for your next sales enablement role, consisting of job search tips from recruiters, HR professionals, and sales enablement leaders who have been in your shoes (very recently), as well as resources for expanding your skillset and connecting with your community.
You can use these resources to polish your resume, connect with influencers in the sales enablement community, and learn new skills during your job search so you step into your next role confident and ready to make an immediate impression.
Table of contents
Start your search on the right foot
Use your downtime to set yourself up for success
Tips from your fellow enablement practitioners
The sales enablement yellow pages
Start your search on the right foot
First things first — take a breather (more on that later). Then you’ll want to polish your resume.
Resume guidance
As a quick refresher, here are some general resume best practices from a professional recruiter:
- Have a clear, clean, concise resume.
- List skill sets at the top of the resume, right below name.
- Have a clear Objective (geared to the company you’re applying to).
- Create multiple, targeted resumes to send to different companies.
- Keep your resume classy. Class never goes out of style.
Keep in mind there are different approaches to resume writing and formatting, so be sure to review the many free resume writing resources available online to find the best way to highlight your achievements and skills, such as:
Free resume and cover letter resources from Harvard
Tips to Polish Your Sales Enablement Resume from Sales Enablement Pro
8 Resume Writing Tips for 2022 from Jessica Hernandez, CPBS, CDCS
Sales Enablement Manager Resume Example & Writing Guide from Climb
Examples of Sales Enablement Manager Resume Skills from Indeed
Senior Director of Sales Enablement Resume Example from LiveCareer
You may also want to consider adding a video element to your application, as it's the most common way people consume content and learn these days. You can share the video on your social media and/or include a link to it on your LinkedIn profile and digital resume or cover letter.
How to put together a compelling video to get attention:
- Keep it short and to the point.
- Again — keep it classy. Dress up like you would for an interview.
- Make sure you have good lighting, audio, and background to make a quality video. A simple, clean, bright background will do and most modern smartphones or laptops come with a high quality camera. Keep your face toward natural lighting if you don’t have any fancy lighting like a Ring Light.
- Practice before recording and do some test recordings before landing on the final video.
- Don’t be too scripted — be yourself. If you are your authentic self that will help the RIGHT employer find you and vice versa.
Build your network
Spend some time on LinkedIn.
It may have become more of a sales and marketing tool of late, but don’t forget its original purpose was to help people find jobs. And it still does.
Join different communities and groups and start posting and engaging.
Reach out to your past colleagues to see if they know of and can recommend you for any openings or if they can bolster your profile with endorsements and/or praises.
Look within (or adjacent to) your network and industry and you’ll find more than a few new job boards cropping up. The sobering frequency of layoff announcements the past several months has motivated many people to create role or industry-focused job boards.
Here’s a spreadsheet from Corporate Bro called “Who the Friggin’ Frig is Still Hiring RN” that lists a ton of open sales enablement positions, among other roles.
Other social media sites like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels are also packed with great advice from career coaches these days. Put in the right hashtags (#jobsearch, #interviewtips, #resumetips, etc.) and you’ll discover a wealth of short, handy videos to help with every stage of your search.
Use your downtime to set yourself up for success
After you’ve taken the time you need to rest, recover, and update your resume, you can start making the most of your downtime by advancing your skills or learning new ones.
Are you trying to move into a new industry? If so, which new skills, tool proficiencies, and/or certifications will you need? If learning new tools or software, check if there’s a free version you can experiment with or some free tutorials on YouTube. There’s also a ton of free and inexpensive self-directed learning and certification programs available online.
Attend webinars put out by sales enablement influencers, providers, or companies you’d like to apply to.
Another useful exercise is to consider why sales enablement has been put on the chopping block so often — and get ready to tackle the “ROI” argument head-on at your new organization by learning about attribution methods and tools you can easily implement.
Tips from your fellow enablement practitioners
Many of your colleagues and community members are or have been where you are — and come out on the other side even better than before! Here are their tips for landing a great, new role, based on their own successes:
Use MEDDPICC to leverage your job search (from Wendy Bissonette):
| JOB INTERVIEW DISCOVERY QUESTIONS GUIDE
|
| Use open-ended questions that foster conversation and listening and reinforce the issue, need, pain or problem the hiring manager/organization is trying to solve for. These guide you in how to frame/phrase the question. |
| METRICS |
| · Tell me about your growth strategy and how you see this role helping you achieve that objective or impact the outcome.
· Describe to me what metrics you would use to track the progress or success of this strategy. · How will your business be impacted if you do not hire for this position? · How will you measure the impacts of this role? What does success look like to you? |
| ECONOMIC BUYER |
| · Explain to me the problems you are trying to solve for and what your criteria are for this role?
· Describe for me why the tools, processes or systems you currently have in place will not help you achieve your business outcomes. · What are your criteria for defining success for this project? · Describe for me how this function is being funded. How is budget is allocated/approved? · What do you need in order to make a fully informed decision? |
| DECISION CRITERIA |
| · Tell me about who was involved in defining the role requirements and how it aligns with your business initiatives and problems.
· Explain how the decision criteria were developed when? Which if any role requirements are non-negotiable in your view? How many candidates are being considered? · How have you documented needs/requirements and the corresponding decision criteria/role requirements? · What do you need in order to make a fully informed decision? · Describe how you see the ideal candidate meeting the decision criteria/role requirements. |
| DECISION PROCESS |
| · Tell me about the people who are involved with hiring decision process. What are their roles in the process and what are the steps to reach the decision?
· Explain your timeline for making the hiring decision and who influences that timeline. · Tell me who from other departments/functions such as Rev Ops, Marketing, HR need to be involved and how we can engage sooner to keep to the decision timeline. · Describe for me or outline for me what precisely needs to happen for your organization to hire for this role and what you would need from me. · What is the typical length of time you need to make the final hiring decision and what kinds of events can impact that timeline? · What other departments will be involved in this process? How do we need to engage with them? |
| IDENTIFY PAIN |
| · Tell me about any compelling events or urgency that is driving the hiring decision. Describe any red flags that would make you put a decision on hold or stop a decision to hire all together.
· What impacts will the business experience if you don’t take action and hire for this position? · How good will it feel to solve these issues and move the organization forward to meet its objectives? |
| CHAMPION |
| · Explain to me how your business is organized in terms of people who will be involved in this decision?
· Tell me about your personal goals and what impact hiring for this role would have on those goals. · How do you contribute to the final decision? · Describe for me why you are considering me and how you feel I will help your organization meet the metrics outlined earlier. |
Tip from Thomas Cheriyan:
If possible, try to leverage a portfolio of your work. Future employers want to see your impact and seeing is believing.
The power move you can make during an interview is share your screen and show off some of the great content you have created which will help your employer truly understand the impact you can deliver.
Tips from Allison Sword:
Make a List of Your Non-Negotiables
Make a list of your non-negotiables, things you will not bend on. Tell the person on every call this is your list — if the company isn’t a fit, don’t be afraid to move on. Your non-negotiables can be anything: salary, work-life balance, programs you want to work on, titles, etc. You’ll be much happier in a role that fits exactly your needs.
Keep Normal Business Hours
We’ve heard it hundreds of times — searching for a job is a full-time job. I personally like to keep myself in work mode (I kept working 8a to 5p like I always had, even the day after I was laid off). If you do this, remember to take days off, too — finding a new job and being “on” 100 percent of the time can be draining (especially if you’re an introvert like me)
Keep Track of Your Calls and Compare
I keep an excel spreadsheet with multiple categories so I can keep track of my daily interviews — this helps me compare and have a good pulse on which opportunities are a fit for me and which opportunities have red flags. I use this excel to keep notes. I also keep a running list of questions handy broken out by industry so I can ask them during the interviews.
Here are the categories I keep track of:
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-
-
-
- Name
- Contact
- Title / Role
- Non-Negotiables – does this match them?
- What Programs Does the Role Manage?
- Pros
- Cons
- Salary / Bonus
- Next Steps
- Notes
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-
-
Celebrate Wins
Just like I used to tell my sellers in a long sales cycle, celebrate your small wins. Did you get a referral? Celebrate it! Did you schedule an interview with a company you’ve been excited about? Celebrate it! Moved on to the next stage in the interview? Celebrate! Keep your momentum going by celebrating you and your small wins — each celebration brings you closer to your next opportunity and your biggest celebration
Find a Mentor/Support Group
Being laid off has its ups and downs. You’re likely to have moments where you’re not feeling at the top of your game (it’s normal — we’ve all been there). Find a person or a group that you’re okay reaching out to and telling how you feel- listen to all the fantastic things they tell you about yourself and believe them. Your next opportunity is around the corner!
Be Transparent
If you like a job, tell them. If you have hesitations, tell them. Enablement is still new, and not all roles will be equal. Be fully transparent with everyone you interview — let them know you are talking with other companies and your timeline.
Be Vulnerable and Ask for Help
Don’t let a layoff affect your self-esteem and don’t be afraid to be vulnerable. If you’re comfortable openly posting about your layoff, do so. If you are not comfortable posting, make a list of people in your network and reach out one by one. Tell them what you’re looking for in your next opportunity, and don’t hesitate to ask for help
Ask for Referrals
Just like in sales, referrals are essential. Referrals can work wonders to get you in front of the right opportunity. See a role you like? Find someone who can refer you
Make Friends in the Community
The enablement community is small and so helpful! Even if someone else is looking for a job, odds are you don’t have the exact same background. I’ve always said you can put 100 enablers in a room, and we’ll have 100 different backgrounds. If one role isn’t suitable for another person, it may be right for you
Share the Jobs That Aren’t a Fit
This goes back to enablers having different backgrounds. If you have a call with someone and you’re not a fit, share it with the network. Tell the recruiter or hiring manager about your connections and offer to help them find the right one. Even if you don’t get the job, you’ll get the gratification of helping someone else.
How we can help
As you put your resume together, it's helpful to have different people review your resume and provide feedback. Bigtincan can be one set of eyes to assist you.
Our HR staff sees thousands of resumes, so they have good insights on best practices in resume writing.
If you’re interested in having our HR team review your resume, please send your resume to mike.toohey@bigtincan.com.
Bigtincan's HR team will provide you suggestions on your resume within 72-hours.
Be sure to connect with members of the Bigtincan team, too. We have a large network, so we can share your resume to help you get broader reach.
More resources
The sales enablement yellow pages
Repository of Sales Leaders to learn from
- John Barrows
- Jeff Hoffman
- Rana Salman
- Aaron Evans
- Andrew Barry
- Mike Kunkle
- George Pastidis
- Whitney Sieck
- Kyle Coleman
- Imogen McCourt
- Adam Weekes
- Steve Shorey
- Hannah Ajikawo
- Andrew MacAskill
- Marcus A Chan
- Jake Dunlap
- Scott Leese
- Amy Volas
Sales Enablement Practitioners with good influence
- Steffaney Zohrabyan
- Matt Schalsey
- Kristine McCrae McMullen
- Stefanie Middaugh
- Allison Sword
- Thomas Cheriyan
- Gayle Charach
- Shannon Hempel
- Petek Hawkins
- Sheryl Buscheck
- J Leigh Koritke
- Irina Soriano
- Jessica Melo
- Wendy Bissonnette
- Amanda Maddox
Sales Enablement Organization
What to read, do, and watch
Books to read to increase your knowledge
- The Blueprint to Sales Enablement Excellence by Roderick Jefferson
- The Building Blocks of Sales Enablement by Mike Kunkle
- Enablement Mastery by Elay Cohen
- Measure what Matters by John Doerr
- Never split the Difference by Chris Voss
Ways to keep sane and calm during your search
Be sure to bookmark this page to use as a resource throughout your journey and stay tuned as we develop more programs to support you. Best of luck to you!
