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Field Enablement

  1. You are here:
  2. Handbook
  3. Sales
  4. Field Operations
  5. Field Enablement

Overview

The Field Enablement team's mission is to help customers successfully grow and evolve in their journey with GitLab to achieve positive business outcomes with effective enablement solutions aligned to Gitlab’s values. We do this by:

Please see our Key Programs to learn more. Want to communicate with us? Please Slack us at #field-enablement-team.

Strategy

Key Programs

Handbook-First Approach to GitLab Learning and Development Materials

Chat between David Somers (Sr. Director, Field Enablement) and Sid Sijbrandij (CEO)

Key Discussion Points
  • Our Mission is that Everyone Can Contribute, and our most important value is Results. Like we've extended that to the Handbook, we want to extend it to our Learning Materials.
  • We want to leverage the best of an e-learning platform, with the benefits of reminders, interactivity, and more but make sure the materials we produce are also available to those who aren't using an e-learning platform, while fulfilling our mission.
  • There are benefits to keeping our e-learning material handbook-first:
    • Folks who have already completed a formal training through an e-learning platform may want to return to the materials
    • Those who never go through the formal platform may also benefit from the materials
    • The handbook continues to be the SSOT, with the e-learning platform leveraging handbook materials through screenshots, embeds, and more

Six Critical Questions

Inspired by The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Lencioni

1. Why does the GitLab Field Enablement team exist?

See our team mission in the Overview section.

2. How do we behave?

On our best day, we show up with a positive attitude while demonstrating GitLab’s values along with the following behaviors to overcome the Five Dysfunctions:

  • Trust: Extend trust, actively listen, and assume noble intent; give and receive feedback with respect and solicit feedback often
  • Embrace Healthy Conflict: Engage in constructive conflict for the purpose of achieving shared goals & objectives; resolve personal issues, quickly and directly
  • Commitment: Support decisions once decisions are made with a GitLab team-first approach
  • Accountability: Hold ourselves and each other accountable while encouraging each other & celebrating successes
  • Results: Strong drive for results and a focus on the customer; demonstrate passion for continuous learning & improvement
3. What does the Field Enablement team do?
  • Define, coordinate, and/or lead the development and delivery of effective enablement solutions (training, technology, knowledge, content, process, and tools) for GitLab sales reps, Customer Success professionals, and partners
  • Lead facilitation of prioritized behavior change in the GitLab field organization
  • Serve as a champion for the field – ensure they are regularly informed about relevant business and organizational updates and have access to enablement materials necessary for day-to-day work
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with key stakeholders including Sales, Customer Success, Marketing, Sales Ops, Product, and PeopleOps
4. What does success look like?

The below is a work in progress as we define success measures across each stage of the customer journey:

  • Engage & Educate the Customer
    • Increase # of rep-sourced opps
    • Accelerate sales cycle time and improve conversion of MQLs to SAOs
    • Accelerate and improve predictability of new rep ramp time
  • Progress the Opportunity & Close the Deal
    • Increase # of closed deals per rep
    • Accelerate sales cycle time and improve conversion of SAOs to Closed/Won deals
    • Increase average sale price (inclusive of improved product mix to sell more Premium/Silver and Ultimate/Gold)
    • Accelerate and improve predictability of new rep ramp time
    • Improve forecasting accuracy
    • Improve win rates
  • Retain & Expand
    • Improve renewal rates (inclusive of up-sell and cross-sell)
    • Accelerate customer time to value
    • Increase breadth of stage adoption
5. What is most important right now (2HFY21)?
  1. Field certification program (Sales, CS & Partner audiences)
  2. Sales methodology & process
    • Command of the Message & MEDDPICC operationalization
  3. Functional onboarding training for Sales & Customer Success roles
    • Continued execution & ongoing iteration to accelerate time to productivity for new field team members
  4. Support launch & expansion of new GitLab channel partner program
    • Embrace partner enablement as an extension of GitLab Sales and Customer Success enablement
  5. Standard operating procedures for Sales & Customer Success
    • Sales process documentation
    • Sales enablement to reduce the dependence of SALs & AEs on SAs
  6. Improve learning experience via enhanced L&D tooling
    • LMS/LXP selection & implementation
  7. Launch sales/field communications strategy
  8. Continuous learning
    • CS Skills Exchange, Sales Enablement Level Up Webcast series
  9. Improve sales asset management (in collaboration with Marketing)
  10. Sales events support (SKO, QBRs)
6. Who must do what?

Field Enablement groups, projects, and labels

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