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SGH Careers Month: Meet Paul Dean, Sales Enablement Program Manager!

amanda.k
Community Manager
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3 min 17 sec read

PaulDean.jpgHave you heard about careers in Sales Enablement before? Learn from Paul Dean, Sales Enablement Program Manager, Mid-Market ACS about not only what Sales Enablement is, but also why it might be a great fit for you.  Paul has been supporting Autodesk Sales in a variety of ways for three years. It’s not all work, all the time though – Paul has also lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA and has marched in several Mardi Gras parades!

 

Question: What degree did you graduate with, and how has it affected your career? Or, what education / training do you have that has helped with your role?

Paul: I graduated with a BA in English and followed that with an MFA in Creative Writing. I believe that clear communication, writing, and presentation skills are valuable in any role in a business. Despite not having a business background, liberal arts majors are valuable in the business world. I was also a teacher for college and high school as well before going into Sales and then Sales Enablement. These experiences helped me to understand an audience of different personalities and learning types, how to practice effective listening, organization, and time management.

 

Question: How would you describe your role at Autodesk? What does a typical workday look like? Which skills and qualities are important to be successful in your role?

Paul: As part of my roles in Sales Enablement at Autodesk, I’ve worked to onboard new Sales hires (both in -person and virtual), evaluated technology to use across our Sales Enablement team, created sales training programs in our LMS to distribute across our sales org, and delivered live classes of our value-based sales methodology. A lot of my typical days might involve managing projects in our project management software, Asana, and scoping out current training needs of our sales segments as well as future needs as our products and markets evolve. I think it’s important to practice curiosity and empathy to understand our Sales org and the needs that can help them do their job better.

 

Question: What do you find interesting about your role? What are the challenges? What do you find satisfying about your work? 

Paul: Occasionally, I’ll have some people ask me why I stopped teaching. My response to them is that I never really stopped. Despite moving away from a formal teaching and education career, I’m able to use the skills that I focused on as an undergrad and graduate student into a separate career that I didn’t know existed coming out of school. Largely, I think this what keeps me interested in my role in Sales Enablement: I see my success in the impact that I make to my peers, the sales reps. Their success is my success.

I think any role is going to be challenging, no matter the industry or company; however, challenges are what keep me engaged and motivated. Finding problems or training needs and seeing how I can best help bridge the gap in learning and translating that into action.

 

Question: What advice would you give to a student who is interested in pursuing a role like yours? Is there anything that you would have done differently before you graduated to prepare for your role? Is there a piece of advice you would give yourself back on day one in your role?

Paul: I would tell students that it’s ok to not know what you want to do right now, and it’s ok to try different internships, majors, or career interests to see what a good fit might be. Additionally, whatever industry or career you end up in, no skills or education are wasted. At the end of the day, you want to love what you’re doing, and that might take a few missteps or failures along the way to find that out.

 

Feeling inspired after that interview? Us too! Let Paul know below if you found it helpful. 

 

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