sales enablement | sales training | sales playbook | onboarding new reps | knowledge base | performance review | ramp
What You Will Learn:
- Cut ramp time by building a preboarding and 30-60-90 day programme
- Extract what your best reps know before they leave and take it with them
- Design training backwards from the result instead of from the slide deck
- Build a playbook that lives in the workflow rather than in a folder
- Run a training room, including the group that arrived resistant
- Justify the enablement budget to a finance team in their language
- Set OKRs for reps and cascade them without inventing busywork
- Evaluate results four ways: MBO, KPIs, standards and critical incidents
- Turn a review outcome into a decision on pay, promotion or exit
- Learn alongside Mike’s 1.6 million students from 185 countries
As a seasoned hand in the tech trenches, I’ve seen my fair share of “game-changer” sales courses. Most are a lot of fluff, promising the moon but delivering little more than a slightly prettier PowerPoint. So, when I stumbled upon Mike’s Sales Enablement: Playbooks, Training and Ramp Time [EN], I was skeptical, to say the least. With over 1.6 million students already onboard, though, there’s clearly something resonating. I decided to dive in, armed with my usual healthy dose of pragmatism, and see if this course could actually deliver on its promise of truly enabling sales teams.
Overview
Forget the cookie-cutter approach you might expect. This course is a masterclass in strategic sales enablement, focusing on practical, actionable insights that directly impact the bottom line. Mike doesn’t just tell you *what* to do; he shows you *how* to do it, and more importantly, *why* it works. The emphasis on cutting ramp time isn’t just a buzzword here; it’s a core philosophy, driven by a deep understanding of how to extract critical knowledge from top performers and embed it seamlessly into the sales workflow. The idea of building a playbook that actually lives and breathes within the day-to-day tools your reps use, rather than gathering dust in a shared drive, is a revelation. Itβs about making enablement a natural extension of their jobs, not an add-on. The focus on designing training backward from the desired outcome, rather than starting with slide decks and hoping for the best, is a game-changer for ensuring job-ready skills are developed.
Prerequisites
This isn’t a course for absolute beginners to sales. While it doesn’t require advanced degrees, a foundational understanding of sales processes, common sales methodologies, and the typical sales cycle will be incredibly beneficial. If you’re already in a sales leadership, enablement, or management role, you’ll get the most out of it. Some familiarity with performance management concepts and basic business metrics is also helpful.
Skills & Tools
The course dives deep into practical skill-building. You’ll learn to meticulously design and implement 30-60-90 day programs that accelerate onboarding. You’ll gain the ability to structure and articulate a sales playbook that is intuitive and accessible, rather than a bureaucratic hurdle. A significant portion is dedicated to effective training design and delivery, including strategies for engaging even the most resistant participants. Beyond the conceptual, it touches on the practicalities of justifying budget by speaking the language of finance and setting clear, measurable OKRs for reps. While the course doesn’t explicitly teach specific software, the principles apply to a wide range of industry-standard tools and platforms used for CRM, knowledge management, and performance tracking. Itβs about building the framework, not just learning a single tool.
Career Benefits & Job Roles
For anyone looking to elevate their career in sales operations or enablement, this course is a significant asset. It equips you with the strategic thinking and tactical execution needed to excel in roles such as: Sales Enablement Manager, Sales Operations Specialist, Sales Trainer, Sales Manager, and even Account Executive roles that require proactive self-enablement. The focus on measurable results and budget justification will make you invaluable to any organization. It provides the insights needed for genuine career growth, moving beyond just hitting quotas to becoming a strategic driver of sales success.
Pros
- Actionable Frameworks: This course doesn’t just offer theories; it provides practical, step-by-step frameworks for building effective playbooks, designing impactful training, and managing ramp time, grounded in real-world application.
- Focus on ROI: The emphasis on justifying enablement budgets and evaluating results using multiple metrics (MBO, KPIs, standards, critical incidents) is incredibly valuable for demonstrating the impact of your initiatives.
- Strategic Thinking: It encourages a shift from reactive training to proactive, outcome-driven enablement, focusing on embedding knowledge and skills directly into the sales workflow.
- Real-World Relevance: The approach of extracting knowledge from top performers and applying it systematically ensures the training is directly relevant to what actually drives success.
Cons
My primary honest criticism is that while the course provides a robust strategic and tactical framework, it’s very much up to the individual learner to fill in the specific tool-based implementation details. For example, it’ll teach you *how* to build an amazing knowledge base, but you’ll need to figure out the best platforms and integrations for your specific tech stack. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it promotes adaptability, but it does mean that you might need to supplement with some hands-on platform training if you’re not already proficient with various sales tech.