Modern Sales Skills For a Digital Buyer/Elay Cohen - SalesHood, Enteprise, Taylor Swift ~ Spark of Ages Ep 34

Spark of Ages

Elay Cohen, CEO and co-founder of SalesHood, shares his journey from Salesforce to pioneering the sales enablement category through his AI-driven platform.
• Built SalesHood to address the unmet need for scalable sales enablement solutions
• Pioneered sales enablement at Salesforce, helping scale revenue from $300M to $3B
• Created a direct connection between sales ramp time and company performance
• Focus on leading indicators (meetings booked, pipeline created) vs lagging indicators (quota attainment)
• Essential modern sales skills: curiosity, storytelling, communications, and effective meeting management
• AI role-playing driving 231% more enablement activities with 45% fewer enablement staff
• Digital sales rooms and mutual action plans transforming strategic account management
• Building compelling events requires co-creation and understanding the sequence of events
• Trusted his gut to build SalesHood despite VCs claiming "sales tech isn't a big enough market"
• Draws inspiration from both Steve Jobs (minimalism, vision) and Taylor Swift (connection, community)
What happens when one of the architects behind Salesforce's explosive growth decides to revolutionize sales enablement for everyone? Elay Cohen, who helped scale Salesforce from $300M to $3B as SVP of Sales Productivity, takes us behind the scenes of his journey founding SalesHood, an AI-driven sales enablement platform transforming how companies prepare their teams for success.
The numbers are staggering - SalesHood customers are achieving 231% more enablement activities with 45% fewer staff, and seeing win rates jump from 57% to over 100% increases through AI-powered training. But this conversation goes deeper than metrics, revealing the fundamental shift happening in sales today.
We explore the critical distinction between leading and lagging indicators in sales performance, why the first five minutes of a customer meeting determines success, and how the best strategic account managers are co-creating compelling events with their champions. Eli shares practical frameworks like MEDDICC for managing complex deals and explains why digital sales rooms are becoming essential for modern selling.
Beyond the tactical insights, Eli takes us through his entrepreneurial journey - including the moment VCs told him "the sales tech market isn't big enough" (they were spectacularly wrong), and why trusting your gut sometimes trumps what the data tells you. His unexpected inspiration from both Steve Jobs and Taylor Swift reveals the perfect blend of minimalist precision and community-building that drives his approach to business.
Whether you're in sales, marketing, enablement, or leadership, this conversation offers a masterclass in how AI is transforming go-to-market execution while making the fundamental human elements of selling more important than ever. Ready to reimagine how your team prepares to win? This is your blueprint.
Email us with any feedback for the show: [email protected]
Find more great content like this at: https://www.position2.com/
If you like what you here, please drop us a comment!
SUBSCRIBE TO @Position2Inc FOR MORE EPISODES!
Rajiv Parikh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajivparikh/
Sandeep Parikh: https://www.instagram.com/sandeepparikh/
Elay Cohen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elaycohen
Elay is the CEO and co-founder of SalesHood, an AI-driven sales enablement platform. As CEO and co-found

Website: https://www.position2.com/podcast/
Rajiv Parikh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajivparikh/
Sandeep Parikh: https://www.instagram.com/sandeepparikh/

Email us with any feedback for the show: [email protected]

Chapters

1. Introduction to Eli Cohen (00:00:00)

2. Pioneering Sales Enablement at Salesforce (00:03:50)

3. Sales Enablement Framework and KPIs (00:08:42)

4. Key Skills for Modern Sales Success (00:13:53)

5. AI's Impact on Sales Efficiency (00:19:10)

6. Strategic Account Management Strategies (00:25:20)

7. Creating Compelling Events in Sales (00:31:58)

8. Eli's Entrepreneurial Journey (00:38:20)

9. Word Association Game with Eli (00:47:07)

10. Steve Jobs and Taylor Swift: Unexpected Inspirations (00:53:35)

11. Eli's Personal Moonshot and Closing Thoughts (01:00:10)