Companies invest millions in sales teams, technology, and processes; enablement serves as the essential safeguard for these expenditures. This critical function is sometimes deprioritized, leaving practitioners siloed in specific niches like training. Many professionals lack exposure to the broader skills required for leadership, such as ROI calculation, content management, and strategic planning. Strategy relies entirely on its connection to execution, and enablement ultimately makes business leaders successful.
In this podcast, I spoke with Christopher Kingman, Board of Directors & Founding Member of Revenue Enablement Society (RES), about the new Certified Revenue Enablement Professional (CREP) program from the Revenue Enablement Society (RES). An Academic Council of 15 diverse experts developed this curriculum over four years. The certification is built on field-tested standards and practitioner perspectives, providing practical applications directly for the field.
Artificial intelligence (AI) easily drafts a basic team charter, and it cannot replace the nuance required for relationship-building with a CEO. Strategies require human vetting to avoid becoming a generic methodology. Practitioners rely on the collective experience of seasoned leaders to identify common pitfalls. The CREP certification captures hundreds of years of this collective experience, and this ensures enablement strategies remain highly effective.
The CREP program is partnered with the Florida State University (FSU) Sales Institute. This academic backing ensures the curriculum meets strict criteria for corporate tuition reimbursement. Managers can confidently utilize existing company budgets to fund this training. The program goes beyond simple quizzes to include multiple case studies and a comprehensive capstone project. Students must apply these lessons directly to their own organizational strategy.
Professionals often handle tactical tasks like schedules and communications. A promotion into a leadership role without a prior framework leads to a predictable fumble. The CREP certification prepares practitioners to bridge this gap and drive overall revenue goals. Graduates learn to execute strategies effectively and elevate the entire enablement function. The long-term vision aims to evolve these standards into college-credit courses and a permanent fixture in MBA programs.
Ray Makela and Christopher Kingman discuss the evolution of the revenue enablement function, and they detail how the CREP certification prepares practitioners for strategic leadership.