The line from Shakespeare, "What's past is prologue" has always resonated with me. History does have a funny way of repeating itself and people who can learn from what’s happened before have an advantage over those that don’t. As we celebrate Memorial Day here in the States, I thought I’d use the time to share some useful insights about one of America’s most successful generals and how they relate to sales enablement professionals today.

General George Patton’s unparalleled ability to execute in WWII sometimes gets overshadowed by his colorful (and stupid) public relations. Because of his quick strike abilities, the Axis leaders feared him more than any other Allied general. What made him truly unique, and someone still studied in military academies throughout the world today, was his formula for success. Patton had a voracious appetite for history and believed that humanity already had a master inventory of all of the strategies and tactics for winning a battle. All one had to do was apply that knowledge to a given situation. His success can be summed up by his ability to model, map, and match.

He was able to model the various elements of a particular battle (from tactics, troop movements, level of aggression of his opponent, terrain, initiative, strengths, weather patterns, etc.) to recognize patterns from an engagement of antiquity. Having identified patterns, he was able to associate (or map) the actions of the victorious general to his situation, giving him a powerful competitive advantage -- the trial-and-error wisdom of thousands of successful and failed tactics and strategies of the other generals of the ages. Armed with the best advisor (the collective wisdom of centuries of peers), Patton was able to rapidly and effectively match winning tactics from the past to his specific circumstances.

The vast majority of people who read this blog are undoubtedly involved in some aspect of sales enablement. I'm tempted to add, "Whether you like it or not," but most PMs enjoy that part of the job, even though they might do a little too much of it.

Therefore, we'd be grateful to hear what research we have planned for the future would be most helpful to you, the sales enablers...Er, the PMs who help enable sales. Forrester takes the "Client Choice" channel of communication with the outside world very seriously. We want to keep producing research that answers the most pressing questions on your mind. Click below to state your preferences.

NOTE:  SALES ENABLEMENT HAS ITS OWN BLOG NOW

I love the saying “you get delegated to the people you sound like” - especially when it comes to selling.

At the end of the day, all of the work that goes on to build and support a product comes down to the discrete conversations your sales people have with customers.

This parody video is both incredibly funny (especially if you’ve ever carried a bag before, or work in a company dominated by engineers) and drives home an outstanding point – “you-centric”, jargon filled presentations more or less all sound ike this one.

NOTE:  SALES ENABLEMENT HAS A NEW BLOG 

On November 7^th, I facilitated Forrester’s second sales enablement roundtable – this time in Foster City,California.  Joining us were sales and marketing executives from:  Intel, NetApp, Borland, Informatica, Sun, Interwoven, Microchip, Renesas, Juniper Networks, Trend Micro, and Thoughtworks. 

Overall, we had an extremely high energy session, even though I lost my voice the previous week.  It’s hard to summarize a whole day of intense discussion into a blog post, but I’ll give it a try.