Our community members are at the heart of everything we do here at Sales Enablement Collective. That’s why we’re doing our part in giving back to the amazing enablers in our community with our SEC Monthly Member Spotlights, showcasing members’ stories and talents.
June’s spotlight focuses on Laila Labelle, Global Head of Sales Enablement at Ezra powered by LHH!
We chatted with Laila and dove into her:
We enjoyed hearing from Laila, and we’re sure you will too! 👇
Laila’s sales enablement journey
Laila began her career in marketing, but soon ended up in the world of sales as an SDR, plying her trade there before finding her way towards enablement.
“I had my degree in marketing, thinking that I wanted to do something that was social and outgoing, but after a year in marketing, I realized it wasn't the role for me.
I was presented with a SDR opportunity in a high growth SaaS company, and had a ton of success with it! I just loved the fact I could just connect with people, talk with them, and use it as conversation instead of a cold call.
“After crushing my numbers, I moved into leading a team of SDRs, and then went into a role as an account executive for new business, and then account management and expanding business.
That was about five or six years of my career where I was selling.”
“I had my daughter in 2007. After that, and coming from a world that was very hardcore on selling, with extreme quotas, I didn't want the pressure and I wanted to be able to have a work-life balance.
“I went into more of an operations role. Slowly that started to blend in that we saw enablement come into it too - it was like a dual role. You were operations and you were enablement.
“As enablement grew, there was finally an opportunity to separate the operations from the enablement - and I've never really loved the CRM Analytics report pulling, it was really the training and coaching stuff I loved, so I went into a full sales enablement role!”
What Laila enjoys about being an SEC member
SEC members can take advantage of a whole host of offerings, from mentorship, to discounted event tickets, exclusive webinars, and more.
Laila shared some of her favorite benefits of being in our community.
Mentorship program
“At one point, my favorite area of the membership was the OnDemand video section, but I have to say I've shifted and am loving the mentoring opportunities.
“I'm really interested in mentoring early- or mid-career, basically so we can have more voices out there and grow our community.
“When I saw that the Sales Enablement Collective had started its mentorship program, I thought: ‘This is my chance to give back’.
I’ve had a lot of mentors in my career, so I want to do the same.
“I actually signed up about two weeks ago, and I have three people that I’m mentoring over a 12 week period. We had a couple chemistry calls, and it matched us really well!”
Sales Enablement Summit Toronto
“The biggest success story for me to date was the Sales Enablement Summit Toronto. I gained so much from the amount of networking, friendships, support, and obscene pages of notes!
“It's hard to have a large network of enablers because it just hasn't been a profession for 25 or 50 years. I've come up with a really nice group of sales enablers, and from there, I joined the Slack channel.
It's just nice to have people to brainstorm with or even to vent to, knowing that they’re going through similar issues and that I'm not alone.
“The other thing that was big for me was that the event had a lot of speakers talk about the way that they've structured their enablement department or their RevOps department, and how they’re moving out of that siloed approach.
“It was nice to see four or five other people's approaches to enablement, and then take mine and then reflect on what I've done.”
Advice for fellow sales enablers
Laila was sure to share some advice for her fellow sales enablement professionals before we wrapped up our conversation.
Be authentic, and agile!
Sales enablement isn't the same for every organization, so be clear when defining sales enablement in your organization and be clear with your goals and metrics.
“And lastly, enjoy the ride! It's an extremely rewarding career with an amazing community of people.”
Want to join Laila as an SEC member?
SEC members like Laila have access to a bunch of awesome, exclusive benefits, including:
- OnDemand access to all SEC event replays
- Our mentorship program, both as a mentor and mentee
- Access to a curated selection of templates and frameworks
- Ungated access to SEC’s industry reports and playbooks
- Exclusive member-only discounts on various products including events and courses
And more!
Start your journey as an SEC member today. 👈
Just click here.
