Whew! 14 Years of Sales Enablement, Channel Marketing and More!

It was pointed out to me that today (Sept. 1) is my 14th anniversary with Launch International. Not bad for a 19+ year old company! (I was actually Employee #3…though we don’t really have badges or nametags!)

I realized that many of my co-workers (and clients!) were still in high school (or before), so I’m here to confirm that:

• Technology DID exist in 1997…and there was more to “high capacity storage” than just punch cards.
• The Internet DID exist…though AOL was the primary onramp, and Geocities was the only online community to speak of.
• Blogging, tweeting and social media were alive and well…though we called them “bulletin boards.”

 I’m not usually philosophical about these kinds of things, but this anniversary brings out a few thoughts:

• In new hire interviews over the past few years, my standard statement has been “Launch is what you make it.” I’ve always known that each of us at Launch has the ability to conceive, develop and manage our own direction at Launch, based on our strengths and desires. I was hired 14 years ago as “the newsletter writer,” while our company president and another staffer handled the sales guide business. But I’ve been able to grow my role based on my experience and ideas— high-level messaging and positioning, channel enablement and marketing, whiteboard selling conversations, and more.  Our company has significantly changed over the past years, but we’ve maintained the focus on providing content and assets to help salespeople sell more and move opportunities through the pipeline faster.
• The reseller channel has always been important, but in today’s environment, the channel is even more critical than ever. SMB/midmarket segments mean more quick-hit opportunities. And vendor channel organizations need these reseller partners to advance their solutions into many more markets and customers than they could reach themselves.  With our experience in vendor channel organizations and distribution, the opportunity for Launch is huge! This is why Launch is dedicating more resources to channel enablement and marketing in 2011 and beyond.
• Today’s sales enablement marketplace has finally caught up with Launch.  We’ve been doing “sales enablement” since before the term existed. Now clients, analysts, consultants and other agencies are dedicating entire departments to a segment that is completely in our wheelhouse…while sales enablement has actually been our complete reason for existence for 19+ years. That’s why you see and hear so much activity in the office around sales enablement…and why we’ve hired an SVP focused on growing our sales enablement business, and dedicated business to campaigns, events and relationships positioning Launch as a go-to sales enablement resource.

So in summary, it’s been a great 14 years.  But I am more excited about the future than ever before. The market has come to us…and our clients and prospects are realizing our value.

It’s an exciting time to be at Launch International. Our vision and expectations are clear…our team is ready…and our opportunity is endless.