"Mercenaries" are transactional reps who perform well but leave when conditions change. "Patriots" are mission-driven team members who build a winning culture. While startups may need mercenaries for early traction, long-term success requires actively cultivating and hiring for patriot-like qualities.

To remain relevant and secure a strategic seat at the table, sales enablement professionals must evolve from content creators to data strategists. Their future power play is the ability to analyze performance data, identify meaningful patterns, and articulate how those insights impact the company's core business objectives.

The same marketing funnels used to acquire paying customers can be directly applied to attract and 'close' new employees. This reframes recruiting from a siloed HR function to a core marketing activity, allowing you to leverage skills you already have to build your team.

After losing clients due to HR budget cuts, Artist successfully pivoted from selling to central L&D teams to selling to sales enablement departments. These teams have budgets directly tied to revenue outcomes, making them a more resilient and motivated customer base, even without a fundamental product change.

Many companies mistakenly hire salespeople and then define their job and compensation. The correct sequence is to first determine the business need, then construct the specific job role to address it, and finally design a compensation plan that incentivizes the required activities before ever posting the job.

Average reps focus on product features. Top performers are "product agnostic"—they don't care about the specific product they're selling. Instead, they focus entirely on the customer's desired outcome. This allows them to craft bespoke solutions that deliver real value, leading to deeper trust and larger deals.

A one-size-fits-all sales role fails in consumption models. Success requires segmenting the team into specialized roles—new business acquisition, customer onboarding, and account management—each with distinct incentives aligned to their specific function, from initial sign-up to value realization and expansion.

Ethic's unique, consultative sales process didn't fit traditional molds. They couldn't hire typical SaaS salespeople or financial wholesalers. This created a talent challenge, forcing them to invent a new playbook and hire for a hybrid role combining technology setup and deep client discovery.

When evaluating sales leaders, prioritize their track record in recruiting above all else. Exceptional leaders are talent magnets who build scalable teams through strong hiring and enablement. Their ability to attract A-players is the foundation of a predictable revenue machine.