We chose the lead image for this year's Sales Enablement event to grab your attention because we believe you can truly be a HERO to your CEO. But it won't be an everyday task – it will take new skills and strong powers!

Vendor CEOs today are communicating strategies that depend on winning deeper relationships with customers. And that is putting pressure on sales teams to cross-sell at higher levels. So how is that working?

Our Buyer Insight study found that on 13% of executive buyers believe that a salesperson can clearly show they understand their business issues and articulate a way to solve them. And when we ask vendor CEOs, "Are you satisfied that your sales force is getting your company to its strategic objectives?" the answer is a resounding "No."

This is the strategy to execution gap that today is filled with well-intentioned but uncoordinated activity all intended to help sales sell.

From within that chaos, an emerging discipline is taking hold. Leaders assigned to "fix the broken things" and their teams are beginning to approach the gap with a new vision and some practical ideas. Making the move from random acts to purpose built plans, and shifting their focus from products and services to customer problems, they are making customer focus a new discipline, not just a catchphrase.

What we are seeing and saying is that it's not about how you go to market, it's about how you go to customer. And if you can get that right, you will be a HERO to your CEO.

This coming March 19-20 in San Francisco, at the iconic Palace Hotel, I hope you will join me, our entire analyst team, and your peers in practice, to dig deeply into new approaches, and practical insights, you can take back to your company and readily apply. With leaders like Carol Sustala of Symantec and Daniel West of Informatica making key note presentations, you will learn about the skills and strategies they used that you can too. And in the track sessions, we will focus on practical insights and tools to close the gap in strategic accounts, geographic sales, and with your indirect partners, all illustrated though the success of your peers.

See you in San Francisco.