The Sales Enablement Specialist – A Day in the Life

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual contributors and do not reflect the official policy or position of their current or previous employers. This content is for informational purposes only.

Introduction

Due to its heterogeneous nature and the fact that there are so many different ways in which someone can positively influence sales or GTM teams, sales enablement as a discipline is and always will be welcoming to as many fresh perspectives as possible. 

Put differently, sales enablement only benefits when new people enter the field and bring with them their spectacularly varied experiences, skills, ideas, personalities, opinions, and perspectives. 

Some of the best enablement professionals I’ve had the pleasure of working with or talking to were riddled with apprehensions when they were first entering the field. 

I can only imagine how many people decide against it because they feel uneasy about what awaits them if they leap into the unknown. 

This is actually why I started collaborating with sales enablement professionals on a series of articles that are all about their careers, roles, and responsibilities.

I figured that hearing from people who are already in enablement might make people feel less nervous about doing it themselves. 

One thing is for sure: personal stories can paint a more complete picture than sales enablement statistics.

In this article, seven sales enablement specialists from around the globe share their responsibilities, how they got into enablement, and what an average workday looks like for them. 

They are:

Ben Straker

David Howard

Ebonie Glenn

Eimear Lowry-Hayes

Franziska Hahn

Marko Marjanovic

Zara-Ama Gyamfi-Smith

Hopefully, their stories will inspire some of you to pursue a sales enablement career.

What is a sales enablement specialist? 

Before introducing our contributors and their personal stories, let’s first briefly outline the role of the sales enablement specialist.  

The sales enablement specialist is a key activity-oriented role within the enablement function, focusing on directly supporting customer-facing teams by implementing and managing the training, coaching, content, tools, and processes that equip them to excel in their role and enhance sales performance. 

Sales enablement specialists work closely with the sales enablement manager and other stakeholders to enhance performance through various activities. These may include designing and delivering training programmes, creating sales content, implementing and managing sales enablement tools, and optimising sales processes. 

What does a sales enablement specialist do – contributors’ personal stories

For this section, I decided to let our contributors’ experiences speak for themselves.

I included their personal stories about how they entered the field, what they do on a daily basis, how they collaborate with other departments, what meetings they attend regularly, and everything else that will give you an inside look into a day in the life of a sales enablement specialist.

Ben Straker

As a sales enablement specialist, Ben’s responsibilities are diverse and dynamic. He serves as the point person, practitioner, contributor, sales coach and trainer, process auditor, and sharer of tribal knowledge. His role involves wearing many hats to ensure the sales team is well-equipped and aligned with the company’s goals.

Ben’s path to becoming a sales enablement specialist began with his background in sales.

Initially, he worked for a start-up that offered zero training and support, which turned out to be a challenging experience, to say the least.

This experience became his driving force and motivation to enter the field of enablement. Ben wanted to create a better environment for salespeople by providing them with the training and coaching he had missed.

Currently, Ben reports to the Director of Sales Enablement.

His typical workday begins by checking the sales ops inbox for any questions or requests. He then follows up with new hires for their one-on-one coaching sessions or assists them through new hire training.

Throughout the day, he works on additional sales ops projects and partners with Sales Engineering for workshops to help tenured members of the sales team.

Ben is always on the lookout for new job aids or learning content to create.

To ensure alignment with the sales teams and other GTM departments, Ben conducts quarterly workshops with sales teams in different regions, focusing on developing their activities around discovery, demos, or negotiation.

His afternoons often mirror his mornings, with a structured and predictable new hire programme, while new projects or tasks add variety to his day.

Ben participates in regular meetings with Sales Ops, Product Marketing, Product, Sales Engineering, and Customer Success teams.

At the end of each day, he reviews his running to-do list for the week, crossing off completed tasks and adding new ones as needed.

He prioritises tasks and projects by their importance and how quickly they can be completed, balancing sales enablement strategy and long-term projects with smaller tasks.

For his professional development, Ben engages with other professionals on LinkedIn and reads books on sales, training, performance management, and change management. 

Ben also shared an additional tip for people who might wish to enter the field:

“Sales Enablement and this role in particular can mean something different to each company. The objective, process, or style could be completely different at each company. I think it’s important to know that ‘Sales Enablement’ is more of a discipline than any individual role.”

David Howard

David is a dedicated sales enablement specialist, part of what his organisation calls the Revenue Enablement Team, which supports all go-to-market (GTM) teams, including Sales, Customer Success, Solutions Engineers, and Deal Desk.

Each team member has one or two core focuses or “swim-lanes” that define their responsibilities.

For David, this focus is on “Product Enablement,” specifically supporting the Solutions Engineers, who are part of the Sales Organisation at his company.

His projects range from new hire product training and continuing education to product roadmap training and team selling enablement.

David’s path to becoming a sales enablement specialist began in the culinary industry, where he worked as a chef specialising in catering and events.

Transitioning out of restaurants in 2018, he found his professional home in the hospitality tech industry.

His first role in a B2B SaaS company was at ZeroCater, where he managed a hybrid role between Sales and Vendor Account Management.

It was there that his manager introduced him to the concept of Sales Enablement.

Although ZeroCater didn’t have an enablement programme, a career coaching session planted the seed for his future career. 

After being laid off in early 2020 due to the pandemic, David joined BentoBox as an Outbound Sales Specialist in November 2020.

He excelled as an Account Executive before transitioning to a Sales Enablement Manager role in January 2022.

At his current company, David reports to the Director of Revenue Enablement, with the Enablement Team being part of the Rev Ops Team.

His workday varies greatly depending on GTM priorities, projects, and initiatives.

However, he always starts his day by blocking at least an hour to plan, organise, and set priorities, including checking and responding to emails and Slack messages.

His week typically begins with an Enablement Team meeting and a one-on-one with his manager.

David uses Monday to organise and prioritise his tasks, ensuring nothing gets lost and keeping himself accountable for deliverables.

To ensure alignment with sales teams and other GTM departments, David maintains close communication with his team and especially his Director.

They keep their project/task boards on Monday.com up-to-date for better visibility.

His director focuses on strategy and GTM leadership enablement, ensuring the team stays informed even when priorities shift.

David’s afternoons, like his mornings, are project-based and vary day-to-day.

His regular meetings include weekly Revenue Enablement Team meetings, one-on-ones with his Director, bi-weekly meetings with the Product Marketing Team for product roadmap planning and enablement, and individual product rollout planning meetings with various GTM stakeholders.

He also meets with Solutions Engineer Leaders and individual Solutions Engineers as needed.

David concludes his day by reviewing emails and Slack messages, ensuring all necessary responses have been sent.

He updates his Monday boards based on the day’s activities and uses his Outlook calendar to block off “Do Not Disturb” time for project work.

Before logging off, he reviews his calendar for the next day to ensure he has scheduled time for project work.

For professional development, David schedules time for it just like any other project.

He collaborates with his team on ideas for professional development and partners with his manager to incorporate these tasks and goals into their quarterly OKRs.

Ebonie Glenn

Ebonie’s path to becoming a sales enablement specialist was a serendipitous one. Initially working as an Administrative Assistant for a senior strategic enterprise AE at her current company, she handled various transactional responsibilities. 

She partnered with the AE to perfect prospecting strategies, create sales campaigns, generate customer quotes, and conduct account-based research using LinkedIn Sales Navigator and ZoomInfo.

Her first “enablement” task was to facilitate a training session on LinkedIn Sales Navigator for two new AEs on the Enterprise team. This experience caught the attention of the VP of Sales, who invited her to join the Enablement team.

From that moment, Ebonie flourished into a skilled enablement practitioner, finding the career path both challenging and rewarding.

Ebonie’s responsibilities as a sales enablement specialist can be summarised into several key focus areas.

She develops, maintains, and delivers onboarding and training resources to enhance sales team productivity and effectiveness.

She also creates innovative strategies to reinforce training content, improving performance and knowledge retention. 

Leading and managing projects from ideation to completion is a significant part of her role. 

Additionally, Ebonie partners with sales leaders and customer success enablement on special projects and team initiatives, refining collaboration between revenue enablement and cross-functional teams.

She actively seeks feedback and insights from stakeholders and subject matter experts during project collaboration.

Ebonie reports to the Sr. Manager of Sales Enablement, with the Enablement Team being part of the Go-to-Market Effectiveness (GTME) team within the GTM organisation, led by their CCO.

Her typical workday starts with taking 30 minutes for herself to journal, exercise, or reflect.

She then organises her day by checking her calendar, creating informal checklists in Slack, and setting task time blocks on her calendar to ensure she stays on track.

Her afternoons vary greatly, involving ad-hoc requests, content creation in Guru, and drafting microlearning courses for their skill development initiative.

If tasks and meetings are completed early, Ebonie takes time to explore LinkedIn for insightful content from enablement thought leaders, which she shares with her team.

To conclude her day, Ebonie creates a to-do checklist for the following day, checks Slack for any missed messages or announcements, and updates her team’s weekly digest.

She ensures alignment with sales teams and other GTM departments by conducting needs analyses to identify relevant problems and solutions.

Consistent communication with Sales Leaders and her Sales Enablement team is crucial to staying on the same page and adapting to shifting priorities.

Ebonie regularly attends 1:1 check-ins with her Manager, Strategic Enterprise sales team meetings, forecast calls, Sales Enablement team meetings, monthly USCAN team meetings, and biweekly Revenue Enablement calls with Customer Success Enablement.

She also participates in cross-functional meetings with Product Marketing, internal project managers, SalesOps, Order Management, and Customer Success Enablement when special projects arise.

Ebonie also takes her professional development extremely seriously.

She actively participates in enablement communities such as the Enablement Squad, Revenue Enablement Society, and WiSE.

She attends sales and enablement webinars, connects with industry practitioners for coffee chats, and has mentors in Enablement and Career Progression.

Ebonie completed the McKinsey Leadership Academy Program for Black Leaders to enhance her leadership skills and plans to obtain an E-Learning or General Instructional Design Professional Certification in Q1 of 2025 to strengthen her content development expertise.

Ebonie also shared two pieces of advice that she herself needed to hear when she first started and which she kindly shared with our readers:

“The first piece of advice I offer anyone interested in Enablement or starting as an enablement specialist is to give yourself grace. This role and career path are not the easiest, and we often face many challenges that we find ourselves leading revenue and the teams we collaborate with toward a solution. 

Mistakes are inevitable, but how you take those lessons and use them as stepping stones towards self-improvement in your development journey is what matters.

Embracing failure will open more doors than resistance will. 

The second nugget of wisdom I’ll share with newbies and seasoned enablers is the importance of consistent communication. We are always in the midst of change, whether it’s internal processes, our products, industry trends, or competitors – we must keep one another informed on any and everything that affects how the revenue team performs and interacts with customers in the field.

Even the smallest of detail changes should be reviewed by someone other than yourself. We are a team working together toward a common goal – we have to communicate frequently and effectively.

Otherwise, important details fall through the cracks, inefficiencies are not considered, and frustration is at an all-time high.”

Eimear Lowry-Hayes

Eimear’s responsibilities as a sales enablement specialist are multifaceted and dynamic, tailored to the specific needs of each commercial organisation she has worked with.

Throughout her career, she has focused on three main pillars of enablement: Product Knowledge, Tools & Systems, and Skills & Methodology. 

This involves presenting and delivering product, market, and industry knowledge in collaboration with Product Marketing; ensuring the adoption and best practices of GTM tools alongside Sales Ops; and creating and delivering e-learning, training, coaching, and performance measurement with HR and revenue intelligence teams.

Currently, her role centres on driving the performance of AEs and SDRs through training and coaching, requiring significant collaboration and alignment with various stakeholders and departments across the organisation.

Eimear’s journey into sales enablement began with her academic background in business and interdisciplinarity, studying how different functions can work together to solve business problems.

She started her career in a sales role, driven by a passion for sales, solving customer problems, and driving revenue performance.

While working in sales, she took on various Enablement/Operations-related projects, discovering a strong flair and greater interest in strategic aspects surrounding the sales function.

With sales experience and a focus on professional development and learning, transitioning into an Enablement role came naturally.

Eimear reports to the Director of Sales Enablement and the Director of Sales Excellence, encompassing enablement and operations.

Her typical workday starts with a hygiene and communications check – reviewing emails, Slack messages, and internal updates.

She then lists three priorities to accomplish for the day, ensuring she stays focused amidst the chaos and can filter out non-urgent, time-consuming tasks.

To ensure alignment with sales teams and other GTM departments, Eimear engages in activities such as weekly kick-offs, group call reviews, deal reviews, roleplays, specialised training on product updates and needed skills, onboarding, and manager alignment calls. 

Her afternoons are varied, involving tasks like instructor-led training for onboarding, working on initiatives like ramping launchpad programmes for SDRs transitioning to AE, improving competitive intelligence with Product Marketing Managers, preparing for Sales Kick-off (SKO) events, analysing calls in Chorus, and performing hygiene checks in Clari.

Eimear’s regular meetings include weekly commercial kick-offs, forecasting calls, enablement/product marketing/operations syncs, and one-on-ones with sales directors, sales managers, and SDR managers.

She concludes her day by wrapping up emails and Slack messages and attending team meetings with her enablement team based across US time zones.

For professional development, Eimear stays up-to-date on industry knowledge through podcasts, news, and industry events.

She applies learnings from the enablement community within her organisation, measures everything she can to track progress and feedback, and builds valuable relationships within the world of enablement and commercial organisations through networking.

Franziska Hahn

Franziska’s responsibilities as a sales enablement specialist focus on enhancing the skills and methodologies of Sales Development Representatives (SDRs).

Her role involves developing and implementing strategic methodologies to boost SDR performance.

Franziska started her career in a bank, where she worked as a salesperson and trainer for new employees.

This experience laid the groundwork for her transition to an SDR and later to an onboarding coach, where she structured onboarding processes and hosted daily training sessions.

Her passion for training and strategy eventually led her to a full-time role in sales enablement, focusing on the strategic aspects of sales methodologies.

Franziska reports to the team lead of sales enablement.

Her typical workday involves managing tasks using Google Tasks, Notion, Word, and calendar blockers.

She prioritises her activities by communicating with stakeholders, creating presentations, developing project plans to achieve goals, and hosting sales training sessions.

To ensure alignment with sales teams and other GTM departments, Franziska participates in weekly check-in meetings with different regions.

She also summarises and communicates key information about sales strategy and enablement in a weekly post.

Her regular meetings include POD meetings focused on various sales roles, project meetings for onboarding, SDR leader insights, and team meetings.

She concludes her day by attempting to finish her tasks and updating her project plans.

If she cannot complete everything, she reschedules tasks using calendar blockers to ensure efficient workflow management.

For her professional development, Franziska reads extensively, exploring books and LinkedIn content to stay updated on industry trends and best practices.

Marko Marjanovic

Marko began his career as an SDR and quickly moved into a team lead position.

As the company grew from a start-up, he developed an interest in ensuring that the unique approaches of different sales teams remained aligned with the company’s overall goals.

This interest naturally led him to his current role in sales enablement.

Marko’s responsibilities as a sales enablement specialist encompass a wide range of tasks designed to enhance the alignment, effectiveness, and efficiency of the sales organization.

His duties include onboarding and training new hires, expanding the company’s knowledge base, creating content for outreach efforts, optimising processes, utilising the tech stack, facilitating cross-departmental collaboration, and serving as a communication hub.

Initially, Marko reported to the Sales Operations Director, but his reporting line recently shifted to the HR Director.

His typical workday begins with checking his list of tasks and organizing his schedule for the day and week.

After checking emails, he ensures that ongoing project progress is up-to-date.

To maintain alignment with sales teams and other GTM departments, Marko participates in bi-weekly syncs and ensures that all changes are reflected in the Sales Enablement Newsletter, which is published internally once a month.

His afternoons are often spent conducting onboarding or training sessions and recording instructional videos as needed.

Marko regularly attends regional all-hands-on-deck weekly syncs and company town hall meetings.

He concludes his day by creating a list of tasks for the next day, ensuring he is prepared for what lies ahead.

For his professional development, Marko dedicates a portion of one day each week to learning and development, staying up-to-date with industry trends and best practices.

Zara-Ama Gyamfi-Smith

Zara-Ama’s primary responsibility as a sales enablement specialist is to facilitate effective and efficient business interactions between her company and its distribution partners.

Her role involves close collaboration with partners, ensuring that enablement efforts are visible and impactful to direct customers.

She delivers tailored training, develops training collateral, and optimises sales tools to enhance the overall sales order process and drive better outcomes for distribution partners.

Zara-Ama transitioned into sales enablement through her leadership work in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space at her company.

This role allowed her to collaborate with various stakeholders and demonstrate her ability to drive positive change.

Her success in these initiatives led to her recruitment into the sales enablement team.

Before this role, Zara-Ama studied medical biochemistry and worked in a finance position, which provided her with a diverse skill set and a unique perspective that she brings to her current role.

She reports to a manager in the sales operations department.

The dynamic nature of sales enablement means no two days are alike for Zara-Ama, but there are consistent elements.

She starts her day by checking and prioritising emails, focusing on those that require immediate attention.

She also reviews her dedicated inbox for external enablement audience inquiries to ensure timely responses.

If she has training sessions scheduled, she prepares by verifying the test environment and confirming stakeholder attendance.

Post-training, she handles follow-up actions such as data recording and responding to queries. 

Additionally, she prepares for monthly reporting and participates in team catch-ups and ad-hoc meetings.

Creating training collateral, including learning pathways, training videos, and guides, is a significant part of her work.

She prioritises tasks based on company objectives and urgency.

Zara-Ama’s afternoons are typically spent on various tasks including training and development, content creation, technology management, collaboration with different departments, and performance analysis.

She designs and delivers training programmes, develops enablement materials, manages sales enablement technology, works closely with marketing teams, product development, and sales teams, and monitors sales performance metrics to assess and improve enablement strategies.

Regular meetings in her schedule include training sessions, cross-functional meetings with marketing, product, and customer success teams, strategy and planning meetings with leadership, product reviews with product owners, and insight sessions with stakeholders to address queries raised during training.

To conclude her day, Zara-Ama reviews the tasks and goals she set for herself to ensure she has met her key objectives.

She prepares for the next day by prioritising her to-do list, setting clear and actionable goals, and reviewing scheduled meetings and training sessions to prepare necessary materials or agendas in advance.

This preparation helps her start each day with a clear focus and direction.

For her professional development, Zara-Ama participates in regular training sessions, engages in discussions with other enablement specialists, and conducts independent research to stay updated on industry trends and best practices. 

Zara-Ama offered some words of encouragement to people interested in a career in enablement:

“Sales enablement is a fantastic space to gain comprehensive insights into business transformation. If you’re interested in this function, I highly recommend pursuing it, as it offers immense opportunities for learning and growth.”

Summary – reporting structure and key responsibilities

One of the most noticeable differences between our contributors’ stories is the reporting structures in their respective companies:

• Director of Sales Enablement

• Director of Revenue Enablement

• Sr. Sales Enablement Manager

• Sales Enablement Lead

• HR Director

• Sales Operations Manager

If we go one level above, we encounter roles such as the Director of Sales Excellence, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), and Revenue C-suite.

Once again, this testifies to something we’ve discussed for a while now – the fact that enablement still hasn’t found a standardised “home” within most organisations.

There is also a great variety of responsibilities that our contributors take on, covering all six pillars of sales enablement, from sales training to sales process and methodology and everything in between:

• Sales coaching and training

• Developing, maintaining, and delivering onboarding and training resources (including recording instructional videos)

• Following up with new hires for one-on-one coaching sessions

• Designing micro-learning courses for skill development initiatives

• Employing innovative approaches to reinforce training content

• Collaborating with marketing, product development, and sales teams

• Developing enablement materials such as presentations, product information sheets, and competitive analysis documents

• Handling ad-hoc requests and content creation

• Auditing processes

• Developing and implementing strategic methodologies to boost SDR performance

• Monitoring and analysing sales performance metrics

• Conducting needs analyses to identify relevant problems and solutions

• Partnering with sales leaders and customer success enablement on special projects and team initiatives

• Partnering with Sales Engineering for workshops

• Collecting and organising feedback and insights from stakeholders and subject matter experts

• Working on various sales operations projects

• Conducting quarterly workshops with sales teams in different regions

• Summarising and communicating key information about sales strategy and enablement

• Managing and optimising sales enablement technology

It should be pointed out that I focused on a small number of sales enablement specialists for this article because I wanted to keep it personal without turning it into a novel.

As a result, their reporting lines and core responsibilities may not fully reflect the broader landscape of enablement specialists.

What are the key sales enablement specialist’s skills?

One of the questions we asked all of our contributors is which skills and aptitudes they feel are crucial for being successful in the sales enablement specialist role. Some of their answers included the following:

• Sales acumen: Understanding the sales process, buyer personas, and sales methodologies

• Communication skills: Clear and well-articulated written and verbal communication is crucial for creating training materials and playbooks, conducting training sessions and workshops, and collaborating with various stakeholders. 

• Content design: Having the ability to create engaging and informative content such as sales playbooks, training modules, and sales collateral. 

• Analytical skills: Analysing data to identify gaps in sales performance, track the effectiveness of training and coaching programmes, and make data-driven decisions. 

• Technology proficiency: Familiarity with sales enablement platforms, CRM systems, and other operational sales tools to optimise processes and workflows. 

• Project management skills: Organising and managing sales enablement initiatives, ensuring they are executed effectively and within expected timelines. 

• Agility: Sales enablement often involves working in a dynamic environment, so being adaptable to changes in strategy or market conditions is essential. 

• Empathy: Understanding the challenges faced by sales reps and their managers and being empathetic towards their needs can help tailor training and support programmes effectively.

• Collaboration skills: Working closely with teams like sales, marketing, customer success, product, and more to align strategies and resources towards common goals. 

• Sales experience: A plus but not a must

• Proactivity: Taking the initiative to identify and address potential issues before they become problems

• Stakeholder management skills: Building strong relationships and effectively managing communications with diverse stakeholders. 

Other skills that our contributors mentioned included:

• Directness

• Leadership skills

• A commercial mindset

• Common sense 

• Creativity

• Time management skills

• Having a sense of humour

I think these pretty much cover the field when it comes to skills that will help you in your sales enablement journey.

They are a good combination of hard and soft skills, as well as some personality traits that make it easier to meet the sales enablement challenges. 

Conclusion

Sales enablement specialists are on the very front line of the discipline and their contributions are immeasurable.

Depending on the organisation they work at, the layout and the size of their team, their responsibilities will vary greatly, as will their workdays. 

Hopefully, the stories shared by our contributors have given you at least a glimpse of what this looks like and their experiences will encourage you to take a leap and make sales enablement your new career. 

If you do decide to take the leap, I think these sales enablement interview tips may be of huge help.

Thank you Ben, David, Ebonie, Eimear, Franziska, Marko, and Zara–Ama for taking part and being the perfect advocates for sales enablement as a career choice.

PS: If you wish to continue to explore the role of the sales enablement specialist, you can check out my piece outlining a generalised sales enablement specialist job description.

PPS: You can also find my pieces on the day in the life of the director of sales enablement and sales enablement manager for similar insights on the more senior roles.