Troubleshooting Enablement with Ciara Byrne | Interview

Speaker A: Hello and welcome to Troubleshooting Enablement. I'm your host Devin McDermott and I'm also someone currently operating with about four windows and 43 browser tabs open. And yes, I do plan to get to all of them someday, but that is a great analogy for how enablement can feel. You've got a million priorities and they're all equally urgent. But the good news is that this podcast is your shortcut to enablement clarity. Each episode we dig into your biggest enablement challenges and bring in wise and brilliant minds to help you close tabs, set priorities, deploy high impact programs and keep your sanity intact. That's what makes Troubleshooting Enablement so powerful. We're all about finding unexpected solutions that lead to better outcomes and aha, light bulb moments along the way by tapping into a range of voices and real world expertise. Our goal is to turn enablement headaches into meaningful progress and moments of joy while helping you build stronger connections across your org in the process. All the questions we tackle come straight from the enablement community, LinkedIn threads, Slack groups, forums, and of course our anonymous submission form. If you have something you're wrestling with, send it my way at Devon at@troubleshootingenablement.com Today I am thrilled to welcome Kira Byrne to the show. Kira is the current Vice President of Revenue at Support Ninja where she's scaling global GTM functions and building revenue strategies that actually drive results. Kira's career spans sales, enablement, operations and executive leadership, including time as Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer where she led massive organization wide transformations at global scale. She's passionate about creating inclusive, high performing teams and isn't afraid to challenge the status quo when it comes to how we define and measure success in revenue orgs. Kira, uh, welcome to the show. We are so excited you're here. Can you kick us off by sharing a little bit about yourself and what drew you into the world of enablement and revenue leadership?

Speaker B: First of all, thanks for having me. Devin. Yes, excited to be here. It's great and I loved your intro. Yes, I have lots of tabs open myself and I will get to them at some point. Someday. Someday. Busy minds. I suppose a little bit about myself from my accent you could hear that I'm Irish and I work out of a beautiful spot in Ireland, West Cork. Really beautiful and I'm very lucky because the world of remote has opened up so many opportunities for me. I really love where I live and I love revenue enablement and in this role I get to do it out of Clana Kilchy West Cork, working with a really good organization, very progressive organization such as Support Ninja, which is we're a BPO and we work with many companies like yourselves and we help you with your outsourcing requirements. And I suppose my background has always been sales. Revenue started off in hotels, actually way back when, working in revenue management in hotels. And that was where I cut my teeth. And then I got into the tech world and I could see I needed to get some operational experience. So I cut my teeth, as we say here in Ireland in the BPO world, and loved it. I really loved it. Because what the BPO world allows you to do is it allows you to work with many organizations with the challenges that they have. You get to see a wide variety of verticals. You get to work across so many things and leading revenue in Support NINJA has really helped me kind of merge the two. Yeah, uh, that's my background in a nutshell.

Speaker A: Incredible. I love to hear that and I love the exposure to so many different types of organizations. Like from a strategy perspective, I want to spend way more time with you to pick your brain on everything you've learned. But we have questions to get to. Kira, are you ready for our first troubleshooting question?

Speaker B: 100%. Hit me up.

Speaker A: Okay. All right. So, dear troubleshooting Enablement, I manage a small enablement team at a rapidly growing tech company and we're struggling to scale our impact across global sales teams. We've been considering bringing in BPO support to help with some of our enablement functions instead of hiring more full time staff. I've heard mixed reviews about outsourcing enablement work, but our budget won't allow for the additional headcount we know we need. What should we do? Signed Frank and overwhelmed enablement leader. Now a super quick note for folks who aren't familiar with what BPO means. It stands for business process outsourcing and it refers to the practice of contracting specific business tasks or processes to an external service provider. Usually for things like Frank mentioned, like reducing costs, scaling quickly, or getting access to specialized expertise. So Kira, uh, uh, as somebody with extensive experience in both BPO operations and enablement leadership, what is your advice for Frank on effectively supplementing an in house enablement team with outsourced support?

Speaker B: First of all, Frank, I think it's very smart that you're asking this question to, um, the experts because it can be quite daunting, especially as you're scaling. So for, for me, I think supplementing an in house enablement team with an outsourced support can Be incredibly effective, but you need to do it intentional. And um, really the key thing is a clear delineation of roles. And again, as we enter this new era with all of the remote working and everything, the key is to view outsourcing not just as a cost saving measure, but as a strategic extension of your enablement capabilities. Like from my experience, that hybrid model works best when there's a clear split between what needs to stay internal. And by that I'd usually recommend you keep the strategic stuff internal. What can be handled externally, the more execution heavy tasks. Your internal team should stay very close to the business. Owning the vision, aligning, uh, with leadership, making sure everything ties back to company goals and culture. And then the outsource partners can be a huge asset for things like content creation, maintaining your enablement tools, coordinating onboarding sessions, and even managing logistics for training programs. What I mean by that is anything that's repeatable, process driven or can benefit from some extra bandwidth is fair game. And we've what I've seen that works best and the companies that we're most successful with, because it's a pure support ninja, we would be what I would consider a boutique outsourcer. It's not about cost, it's when the clients work with us and that we're a real extension to their team and that they share context, they loop us in early, they give us tools and feedbacks that we need to really deliver. Make us feel part of your organization. Because when done right, outsourcing doesn't just save time, it actually raises the bar for the whole function and gives you strategic insights into your company because it allows everybody to work in their lane. But also you've got this external partner who wants to consistently give you value.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's so interesting. And it sounds like enablement teams that are thinking about bringing in this additional support, they need to have their processes pretty well locked in. Are there any recommendations you have for enablement teams that are considering bringing in BPO support? Like what are the must haves for them to have in their organization from a strategy or let's say tool perspective to make sure that everyone can be really successful.

Speaker B: The good thing about support ninjas, we're too agnostic. So we uh, do is in like we, you can use whatever tool, whatever platform, whatever you like, we give you advice 100% and that's why you know someone like myself with as you know yourself, Devon, every company is different.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: Every company has different focuses and different areas. They might have an expert in this and they need Help in this. The key thing would be to really go in and look at the organization and then make recommendations based on that situation. But from my experience, what works really well to outsource are the repeatable process driven. But again, as you say, they need to have the processes mapped down. But um, working with an uh, enablement expert, they'd help them with that as well.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's really helpful when someone is managing global BPO teams. Let's say we have supplemented our team with additional support. Are there any recommendations you have for communication cadences or structures that could be really helpful in ensuring the team is collaborating effectively?

Speaker B: Yeah, no, I think it's one of the most effective cadences. And what I brought into Enabled is a tiered communication structure. So like you have your daily, weekly standups, these are the short 15 minute things and they're focused on your tactical check ins with the clear priorities and blockers and what they do for the BPO world. They help us with our operational rhythm. And um, then they work great in enablement. When you're doing Sprint planning, onboarding support or content updates, then you have a bi weekly retro or sync, depending on what you call it. And these are a little bit more strategic. These are used to gauge what's working, what's not, where do we need to adjust, are there tweaks we need to make? And it's a great cadence for aligning cross functional partners like sales ops, product marketing and then the frontline managers and then the monthly leadership reviews. And these are critical for both. We call these our mbrs and they're very, very critical for both the bpo but for also for the enablement to ensure that we're aligning with the top line business goals. And that's where you can really share the program impact, the adoption data and get feedback on what's resonating with people like in the BPO world, what we love to do a lot of the time because we're often the front line between you and your clients. Just the things we're hearing, the things we're seeing and we would on a monthly basis then say, you know that a lot of your clients are saying this now or do you know that we've noticed we're getting a lot more calls from this area or did you know that there's a lot more focus on that and that's, that's really valuable because that's someone that is outside your business taking a look at it and giving you a snapshot back. I love that. And then there's The Async updates, they're key. Like we all. I don't know what you use but a lot of people use Slack. We use gchat. That's probably my most used tool. But the I, I can't overemphasize the importance of a solid either. Slack summary loom video a notion doc and then I think is great especially because like my boss is in New Zealand, some of my team are in the Philippines, some are in the US and it's a great tool for bridging time zones and then again reducing what I call the meeting bloat. Yeah, well we all know what the meeting bloat is um, especially when you're launching new initiatives. So like I have two things that I say is predictability and clarity to drive trust and performance and I think they're the key things.

Speaker A: I love that and I love hearing how uh, your approach to engaging with global partners because it's true so many folks we work with are not even remotely close to our time zone and building in that strategy for how you're going to communicate expectations. SLAs is so important and I'm a huge fan of Slack and a great Slack strategy is important but it's really interesting. I, I rarely check my email these days because everything is happening on Slack which is so fantastic.

Speaker B: I am exactly the same like email as I might get to it by 11 o' clock the morning exactly. But I've been on chat all morning exactly ever. So yeah I think it's and it's just fast and then there's the little groups and there's the. I think it's really good just even to summarize you could have had a meeting and they say just remember guys, sometimes you'll give someone a will you do that? And then you go through the meeting and you'll nearly have forgotten. So it's a good thing. Just remember that. I just love it. I love it.

Speaker A: Oh same here. And then forget about with you mentioned G chat with Gemini and the capabilities there for note takers. That's even been so helpful for us just for meeting follow ups and alignment. So I uh could talk about tech

Speaker B: all day but actually gong is a

Speaker A: game changer like oh my gosh, that is my requirement whenever I'm joining an organization and building out enablement. We must have gong. Um it sounds bringing in BPO support can be really effective. It can allow your organization to scale allow you to do so much more predictably. How do you would you recommend folks evaluate whether a BPO partner really understands your company's value proposition and can authentically represent that in your enablement materials. Are there any key assessment points that you would recommend folks or someone like our friend Frank should do to make sure that they're getting off on the right foot and that the person they're bringing in is really becoming immersed in the organization?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's all about listening and translating what they listen. So it's how well do they listen and how well do they translate what you've told them? A, uh, key thing for us is we do a very intense sales process with our clients. We do a discovery call and then we do a scoping call. One of our solutions architect to really understand, really understand what our clients are looking for. And we all like, sometimes a client will be suitable for us. So what I think is if you've got a BPO partner that truly understands your value proposition, they're not just parroting back brand messaging. They're asking the right questions. They're really digging into your pain points and pushing for clarity on what makes you different, not just what you do. Like, we've all been on the call where you've had the guy or the salesperson person just finding out what you do, but they're not understanding why you're different. What are your pain points? And then during onboarding or early enablement planning, I, I watch closely on whether they're connecting the dots between our positioning and how that shows up in customer interactions. And then it's really key to see how they bring that to life in enablement material. Really, when you're going through the sales process, it's very important, um, that you feel that they understand you. Are they just regurgitating bullet points from your website, or are they weaving our voice, tone and mission into scripts, onboarding decks, and coaching guides? Um, the best partners can translate your value proposition into real frontline behavior. How the agents speak, how they handle objections, how they drive outcomes that align with your brand promise. Because for us, what we always say to our clients, and we do it really well, we want to know the voice that you speak in, and we'll speak in that voice. And it's really, again, when you have a BPO partner, it will take a while to bed it in. They're not going to get it immediately, but it's all about the review and the feedback loop. Like, I, uh, love clients that say to us, look, can you just tweak this a little bit? Can you tweak that? Because we really want to be a partner that adds value to our clients, that we're not just taking an admin heavy task and doing it. We're actually taking that task and looking at it strategically and seeing how we can improve it to make sure our business, their business grows. Because I feel like it's our business. And then the calibration over time is essential. Always calibrate.

Speaker A: I love it. Now you've, as we mentioned, have sat in a number of different roles. You've been in enablement for quite a while in the past few years, let's say, how have you seen the enablement function evolve within the VPO industry? Specifically, have you seen any trends there?

Speaker B: I think what's happened, so what I'm seeing a lot is that people are actually taking it seriously. Like enablement in the past was a, uh, nice to have. Yeah, it was a nice to have a lot of companies like, oh, we got a bit of money, I'm going to get it. But they didn't actually realize that enablement is probably one of the most. And I suppose we're a bit biased being in our role. I really do feel it. I really do feel that enablement is something that every company needs to, needs to actually invest in, get involved in outsource. But it can be the game changer in your business. It can really differentiate because this, these, the enablement professional will come in and really hone in on everything and understand ways that you can get your product out there more and more. And it's not just about one aspect of the sales, like from the buyer journey, it's the whole buyer journey and improving it, removing the friction points and then taking what you're learning and then putting that in. Because businesses change and evolve and that's why revenue enablement really helps and tracks and analyzes people. I think a lot of times people think it's the fluffy stuff that they call it, the training material and the handbooks and the playbooks, but it's so much more. It's the process, it's the analytics, it's the sales mentorship, it's every aspect of it and it can't be. And for me, I think that's what people are getting. They're investing in it, they're seeing the importance in it. And yes, people are saying, oh, AI can get rid of it or I know it cannot. Yeah, really, um, this is the stuff that I can't get rid of.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's so true. And the perception I think is starting to shift, but there's still a little bit of a disconnect so how have you approached, and I think what you just shared is really helpful, but how have you approached communicating that value to enablement in some of your roles throughout your career, where again, we never want to be relegated to just a training function, but how do you actually communicate that to leadership?

Speaker B: So for me, I'm all about. The proof is in the pudding. I am not someone that tells people, oh, I'm really good at this. I've done this. I am like, I am going to give you at least, uh, in the first year, you want to get an ROI of three, three to one. You're going to get an ROI three to one on my salary. It's the basics I'll give you, but. And then some. So I think what you have to do with somebody that's starting off new with this or someone that doesn't believe in it, it's to get in there and do the job and prove it. Because, you know, when you go into a company that hasn't have enablement and you put someone like you or me in there, we're going to fundamentally transform things. And I have done in every company I've worked for, within six months, the revenues increase, the, the team has gotten a better close rate, they're getting into a different market that's been more successful. So yes, if somebody is investing in it, they see the ability. The best thing is to the wins that we get, because there's always a win with enablement.

Speaker A: It's true. So you talked a little bit about sales processes and setting the foundation. What are some of the first things that you typically do when you're bringing in a brand new enablement strategy or enablement function? Like, what are the, what's the foundation that you set to set yourself and your team up for success?

Speaker B: So I think first of all, it's like the first thing I always do when I go in is look at what's there, analyze what's there. Because a lot of people go in and think, okay, I'm just going to change this. No, go in and look at what's there. And typically there's something that's not working. It could be the people. There's. It's either the people are the process, okay, or like the product. But typically you'd hope the product's okay. You'd hope Clarence, good. Because typically you can't do anything about that. But so let's assume everything's good with the product or the solution that you're selling, and then it's down to the people and the process. So by people are the right people in the right seats? Do you have the hunters in the new business? Do you have the farmers and the key account management or is it a hybrid model and if so is that working? So it's all about the people and then what's the process? Is the process there by process do you have. Are they when they're hired, are they onboarded correctly? Do they have the tools they need to do their job? Do we have HubSpot salesforce set up correctly so we can see the deals coming in? Are we doing an analysis on a win loss and then if so is that feeding the machine for bring everything else in. So the first thing I start with is the people and then m the process and I it's probably the people are always the most important thing because if you don't have the right people in the right seats for luck, you might as well go home.

Speaker A: You know, it's so true and you and I have talked a bit about this. Our your team is the most important thing in what you do. And just hearing the way you speak thoughtfully and in such a wonderful way about the people that you work with, I feel the exact same way. And enablement is a team sport and we are only as good as uh, the folks that are supporting our program that we get to partner with.

Speaker B: You're so right. And it's having people and also it's having. It's having people stay in their lane. I'm very lucky in this company is probably the best team I've ever worked with in the rev ops and I can really honestly say that my boss is exceptional. And then we have. I have two people on my level like two peers. One is our pricing and strategic revenue person. And then there's Monica's our process person. And we stay in our lane. Uh, and because we stay and like we, we advise each other. But if any of us tries to go over it because sometimes there's overlap, of course nudge the other one back over. And they want migui to help you with because I'm not the per. So I where I'm very strong is the people side. As you can tell from my personality. Yes, I'm all about the people and the motivation and the mentorship and the coaching and all that making sure the right people. My Monica then she is very good on the process and making sure HubSpot and the analytics and then we've got a strategic person who's very good in the pricing and the commercials. And we literally it just Hums like a well oiled machine because we've got the. I know we've got the fantastic sales team. It's taken us a while to build up this team and they're phenomenal. They're absolutely phenomenal. And that's. This is why this is probably the most high performing, best team I've ever worked with. Yeah, I love this.

Speaker A: You're getting me all jazzed up. But you said something before that, that you articulated really nicely through that example, which is like clarity, Clarity in what everyone is doing, clarity in our flying formation, how we get things done, and also knowing A, what your role is, B, what you're good at and what your weaknesses are and then really navigating the partnerships across the business. And I think the same is true when a company is preparing to bring in that BPO support is like, what do you have your flying formation? Do you have your strategy? Do you know exactly where you want to plug this person in so that you can all be incredibly successful? And that creates the speed and the efficiency that I think so many organizations look for. But it's. It takes time to set that foundation and to build that infrastructure. But it's. Clarity is key to allow for that speed and then that effectiveness.

Speaker B: So I'm a big fan of clarity. I don't. Ambiguity, um, is my enemy.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Really is my enemy because it just, I work like that. I'm very much okay, you're doing this, you're doing that. Of course, if everybody wants to learn different things, we'll do that. Yeah, your job. And let's do it well and let everybody do it well.

Speaker A: And I think that's such an enablement mindset as well. Because what we're doing in part of our role is to allow people to be even better at their jobs. And so that comes through providing them clarity. And what do they do every day? What does success look like? That's how you deliver fantastic enablement by understanding exactly what everybody needs to do and how they do that with excellence.

Speaker B: Exactly, exactly.

Speaker A: So enablement is an interesting profession, as we said. Like it includes a lot of things. There's a lot of misconceptions. What is something that you used to believe about enablement that you've completely changed your mind on? Has anything changed in the last few years?

Speaker B: Like it used to be the fluffy job. Oh, you do all the fluffies. That's a real. Because it I. People wouldn't invest in it before you write your sales or marketing. And then even marketing was seen as fluffy. Yeah, that Term I hate. Oh, you do all that fluffy stuff. And I'm like, the soft stuff. I said stuff is the hard stuff. It's the hard stuff. And a lot of people underestimate how hard it is to do this job. They look at what we do and think, oh, that must be easy. And then you give it to someone who doesn't do it. Like when I go on holiday or something, I say, can you? And I'll come back and they'll go, oh my God, I'm so glad you. That was not easy and I'm wonderful. It takes a lot of skill and art to do what we do. Because you're like the conductor of the orchestra and you're the person that's constantly looking at, is the machine working? Do I need to tweak the machine? Do I have to put it. And like, things change. You have to be always on top of your game, watching the orchestra. So yeah, I, I actually used to look at this thinking, oh my God, I'll do that job as a stepping stone to something. Yes, this is the job.

Speaker A: It really is. And every day, uh, we are learning new things. And I know you alluded to AI earlier, even that, okay, how do I shift my approach so that AI is actually helping me create that momentum and not slowing me down? And where do I need to be strategic and where can AI take over? And there's just been so much really, I think positive change, but also so much to learn in enablement.

Speaker B: So much.

Speaker A: A little bit earlier you mentioned when you join an organization, you want to prove your ROI right away. So for you, what are some of the metrics that you have found most meaningful when you're evaluating the effectiveness of the work you're doing, your enablement programs, especially when delivering it with, let's say a larger team or a number of moving parts.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think when you're looking at the effectiveness of any enablement program, especially in a high hybrid model where you've got the in house, the outsource, the metrics have to be very, you do very clear on the metrics. So I focus on both the input and the output to get a full picture. So some of the things, the engagement and the performance of the adoption rates if you're on a product, are, uh, the teams actively engaging with the materials and the tools? Uh, if they're not, then a, uh, low engagement could signal a need for better alignment. That's one thing. Performance metrics like win rates, quota attainment, CSAT and aht, they're like at the End of the day, like win rates, quota attainment, csat. They're fairly important metrics so they always have to be looked at. Knowledge retention, how well the teams retain and apply the training is key. Like sometimes new products are rolled out. We need the sales team to know what those products are in detail. Little quizzes, little assessments, little role plays I think are important. Yeah, I think a key thing with any new rep is their time to competency. How quickly, because that's a key metric for us. Like how quickly are our new hires hitting the performance targets faster, ramp up signals, active enablement, that's a very important goal. Feedback and satisfaction. And then the key one is the roi. You know when I went in, when I came in here first, I was brought in just for new business and like it was within a few months our sales figures went way up because of the fact that we had put some keep. They hadn't used enablement before and they had enablement but we really coming in, we really. I was able to come in and. Cause they had people doing the processes, had people doing all the strategic stuff. But the people side, they'd had three or four sales managers before I came in. So there was a bit of, I suppose the people weren't where they needed to. So I focused a lot on the people and helping them because we had the process and that really made the difference. Helping them, getting on calls with them, listening to their calls, giving them advice. I'm a big believer in what gets tracked, gets done every week, how much and I, I hate this metric but you have to bring it in is how like their activity metrics are important.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: I don't care what you say when you're a new business, it's a numbers game. They have to be working hard to hit their sales targets and sometimes were a bit complacent and they were just ending on inbound. No, you need to bit outbound as well and helping them with that. So there's all of these metrics you have to look at.

Speaker A: And I think what I'm hearing is like every organization is also so different in what they're tracking and what they're prioritizing. So I think there is no one silver bullet. Right. It's, it's your business model, it's how is your sales team compensated. All of that is going to factor into what you're tracking and how you're tracking it.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And set your incentives and um, a big. I think uh, one thing I love using and I use it in every company is Leaderboards.

Speaker A: Oh yeah.

Speaker B: They're so effective because salespeople are so competitive. They want to be on the top.

Speaker A: Yeah. And I love Slack has been great for that too. You have your wins channels, you get everybody really excited and then there's so much great tech as well that that allows you to see team leaderboards in real time. I, I get excited about that, especially virtually in an office. It's great to have those on the screens, but it's nice to be able to follow along with all of those wins in a remote environment.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Final question. You have such uh, great varied experience and you have been touching the enablement function or owning it in so many different ways as your career has progressed. What aspects of enablement have you found most rewarding and how has that influenced where you are focusing your team's efforts to today?

Speaker B: Oh for me like it's all about right now. So I suppose my, my, my uh, M approach enablement has definitely evolved with each rower because each position gave me a different lens. So like when I was pricing an rfp, I was deep in the weeds, focused on precision process and partnering with sales to win deals. I saw firsthand where the reps were struggling to connect the value to the pricing because pricing, I always find people blame that and why they didn't win the deal actually not pricing its value. They haven't connected the value to the price. But that was like my first taste of enablement. It wasn't called enablement then, it was pricing on the fees. Okay. Then I went to Director of Revenue enablement. I shifted gears to think more broadly. How do we scale knowledge onboarding tools like what kind of content do we need to support the go to market? And it became all about repeating consistency and aligning the efforts. It was all about moving the needle on ramp productivity and win rates. So it was all about that. I was very focused. But now where I'm at right now, the lens is even wider and enablement is part of a much larger ecosystem. It's all about aligning, uh, the people, the process and performance across the board. And it's about cross functional impact. How does enablement connect to product marketing operations, customer success, not isolated. And it might. I suppose where I've changed is my mindset has gone from tactical to programmatic to strategic. Um, and each step taught me how to zoom out and think more holistically about how to truly empower a revenue organization. Because for me, as I always say, it's all around the team and people are people and everybody's motivated differently. So a big part of what I do is understanding what makes people tick. I used to do this one thing when I was director of RevOps where I'd make everybody do a mood board. And the mood board was, why do you come to work? Why do you come to work? My mood board was my son and the beach. So I worked in this job because we were by the beach. So I knew that we finished early on a Friday so I could be on the beach at 5 o' clock on a Friday with my son. And that was on my mood board. Everybody, somebody else had a car, somebody else. And I got a big poster put up as you came into the office with everybody. So everybody as they walked in every day could see, this is why I come to work. And um, on the way out, then on the back, I said are you closer to your mood board or further? And so it was like as they

Speaker A: left today, it was like, did I

Speaker B: achieve more today or less? And coming in, that's what I'm here. So it would motivate them. Coming in and then going out, they think what could I have done better? And the bottom line was what could I have done? What could I have done better? So yeah, I still go back to that adage. I always try and figure out what makes people tick. Mhm. How can I get the best out of them for them to achieve their ticks, their goals. And yeah. And like you always know the young person that comes in that wants your job like you can, a mile away. You can mile away. So what I do is I build their trust like they'll always try and try and some people feel like to get ahead, they have to, especially in sales. Yeah. Competitive. So I'll always let them, I'll always give them some wins because at the end of the day I want the next Kira coming up, biting my heels. You know, I, I want to see who is ambitious. But what I always try and instill in people is do it with ethics and integrity.

Speaker A: Uh, exactly.

Speaker B: Because that's. There is a way to behave in business and always do everything professionally. And sometimes people can try things. But I always try and say, guys, if you can sleep at night, that's what you need to be able to say to yourself. Because sometimes in sales people try and do things that might be slightly outside the lines. Don't do it right away and always add value to your clients. And it's okay to walk away from a client. Not every client is suitable for us. I try to, I really try and teach people that's What I think, uh, my role is to teach them and help them. But, yeah, it's all about the people and making them get ahead so they're successful.

Speaker A: So, yeah, I love the focus on motivation. And something I say a lot as well is like, there's enough room for all of us. Right. And so it only helps me to help you to elevate people to grow you. Like, there's enough space for everybody to be successful and to get what they need. And, gosh, that's such a great approach.

Speaker B: I love when you've got someone, say Devon, that's trying to bite at your heels, and you know they are, and then a few months later, they come back to you and they're. They're. You're. You're their biggest ally because you've helped them get to where they need. And I love that. I really do. I love when you. I love when I see the penny drop or the light bulb moment.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And for me, I love when my reps hit their target. It's done it again. There's nothing better.

Speaker A: Oh, it's such a rush. It's fantastic. Okay, final question we ask all of our guests. What is the best enablement advice you've ever received?

Speaker B: The best? God, I've received a lot. Okay, again, um, I think so. I think what it is, is it was. I had an MD that I worked for when I was way back in audio conferencing, and he was just. I, uh, learned so much from them. So much. And I remember one time we lost a client, and it was a devastating client to lose. It was a huge. It was probably maybe 25% of our revenue in EMEA. It was really awful. And I remember being on a. I heard the news, and I remember being on a call with him the next day, and we were talking about. I said, oh, I'm so sorry. I heard about that client. And he said, yeah, it's unfortunate. And he was very Zen about it. And I said, chris, John, I can't believe how he said, kira, my job as a leader is to instill Cam in the company. What, uh, good would it be today if I was upset or panicked about that? What good would it be? Would that be? Would that make you feel comfortable going home? I said, no. So I think what I took from that is, no matter what's going on, just let your team, keep your team calm, because there's no point in your stress. It's all. Again, it's all about the people. And make sure that if you're having a bad day. It doesn't come across because then everybody's going to have a bad day. And I think that was, uh, that. I don't know if I'm articulating this well, but that was a really. When I saw that day, I was like, oh, my God, you're such. Because I was in another organization and the manager came running through the office one way in panic.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Like, oh my God, is the company going bust?

Speaker A: Oh, no.

Speaker B: Yeah, because he was so panicked about something and it was just because he couldn't. He was. His PA wasn't in and he didn't know how to use the photocopier and the client was arriving, but he was running up and down the office looking for someone to photocopy. And afterwards everybody was in a panic.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: What I'm trying to say, as a leader, it's your job to lead and

Speaker A: it's also knowing, like, where to create calm, where there's real urgency and. Yeah. Oh, no, I think that's fantastic. Kira, thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us. Always such a pleasure catching up with you.

Speaker B: Thank you too.

Speaker A: Oh, yeah, this was fantastic. Where can folks continue learning from you?

Speaker B: I'm, um, on LinkedIn. I'm on as Kira Byrne on LinkedIn and my email is Kira burn supportninja.com but usually I think the easiest way to find you is on LinkedIn.

Speaker A: It's the best. Thank you so much. And thank you everyone for tuning in to Troubleshooting Enablement. And remember, if you're struggling with a complex enablement challenge, you're not alone. Reach out and let us know what's on your mind and I'll see you all next time.

Speaker B: Sat m.