The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that productiveness decreased by 2.7 % within the first quarter of 2023, however hours labored elevated by 3%. With productiveness needing to be high of thoughts for a lot of organizations making an attempt to do extra with much less, how can gross sales enablement scale what attractiveness prefer to drive productiveness?

Shawnna Sumaoang: Hello and welcome to the Win Win Podcast. I’m your host, Shawnna Sumaoang. Be part of us as we dive into altering tendencies within the office and tips on how to navigate them efficiently. Right here to debate this subject is Michal Sever, the senior director of product advertising & product training at Nayax. Thanks for becoming a member of Michal! I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your function. 

Michal Sever: Hello. It’s superb to be right here. Thanks for having me. I’m really working on this superb high-tech business for greater than 17 years, working towards innovation at superb corporations. I used to work at Amdocs, Microsoft, Gentrack, and now at Nayax. Nayax is definitely a FinTech firm, we’re specializing in funds addressing retails from all sizes, segments, and areas. We’re current in additional than 80 nations. 

Now, put up covid and with self-service on the rise, we’re positioned in an incredible place to serve our clients finest as we place cashless fee on the middle of our gravity, enabling our clients, the retailers, the retailers, the operators to give attention to their enterprise, whereas with out hardwired software program, they’ll neglect concerning the hardships of chip funds and simply guarantee that with our options they’ll enhance the revenues and cut back their operational bills. 

At Nayax, I’m main the product advertising and training group. I’ve an incredible group and we’re on the core of enterprise right here. We’re really the lacking hyperlink between advertising, market, gross sales, and product, and we’re holding every little thing aligned, tackling challenges as they arrive alongside, since challenges are inevitable. What drives us, Nayax and I, and my group are studying. We’re studying on a regular basis. We now have a studying ecosystem and coping with difficult conditions, we discover that studying is among the best methods to bridge these gaps. That is what drives me, and my group, and every day it’s a brand new day right here at Nayax we’re studying rather a lot. That’s me, my function, the corporate I work at. 

SS: Implausible. Nicely, one of many issues that I like about your background is you’ve gotten a variety of expertise in model advocacy and storytelling. How does that background assist affect your strategy to product advertising and product training?

MS: I’m very a robust believer in storytelling. I consider that behind each narrative there are a gazillion tales, but it surely actually relies on the particular person that you’re telling the story to. Ultimately, the idea of storytelling is knowing the narrative, and behind these narratives are feelings. Our capability as product entrepreneurs and product training leaders is to inform the narrative of our clients or let’s say our prospects or everybody that we need to ship a narrative to grasp their pains, the challenges of every particular person that’s standing in entrance of us. That is our superpower. The storytelling, understanding the narrative, understanding the ache behind every act. As soon as we construct the story round these narratives and pains, I feel it’s a terrific functionality for every product, marketeer, and product training chief.

SS: What does good product training appear like to you? Possibly stated one other manner, what are your finest practices for creating efficient product teaching programs? 

MS: I feel this fully pertains to the storytelling side and the emotional narrative, once more, and I’ll clarify. What we do at Nayaz, we’re consistently making an attempt to find out about our buyer’s journey. The journey doesn’t need to be confronting solely us. The journey can begin wherever and at any time. Our clients have their journey that they’re coping with their companies with their operations and typically even with us. They’ve a really complete day of their lives every day and to ensure that us to create the perfect practices and efficient product teaching programs, we have to actually know our clients and to grasp their journeys, let’s say throughout the board. 

As I stated at the start, it’s a studying ecosystem. Every day we study one thing new about our clients and about their journey. As soon as we understand how our clients are trying and what their journey is, solely then after we know them, we are able to set our program into motion. That is what we’re consistently doing and we name this whole framework the engagement cycle. That is our greatest follow. We’re ensuring that we’re partaking with our clients in each part of this journey and in each part, and it doesn’t matter whether it is at the start of the cycle earlier than he turns into our buyer, and he’s nonetheless within the advertising or pre-sale part, or if he’s shifting on to the order to activation course of after he stated, I do, and he determined, let’s say, to get married to us, or if it’s afterward when he desires to upscale or to get extra educated and perhaps even to upsell or, or to cross-sell. 

In each part of this engagement circle, we have to perceive his drawback, his pains, and his feelings with the intention to deal with him with the appropriate messaging, the appropriate story, and the appropriate content material, which could be very segmented. From pre-sale by means of activation to progress, we at all times have to guarantee that our clients are pleased. I feel that is just like the baseline or the foundation of finest follow in our area from the underside up and high down. Protecting a advertising umbrella additionally offers us air protection to stay high of thoughts of our clients and prospects, and ultimately sustaining transparency and information, on a regular basis, information about our clients and sustaining the information inside the buyer’s house is about us. It’s like a street from us to them and from them to us with the intention to keep transparency, information, and understanding of one another. I feel that is the idea of efficient product teaching programs. 

SS: I like that. I feel that’s improbable. Assist me tie that again to what we had been speaking about within the introduction round gross sales productiveness. How can efficient product advertising and training drive gross sales productiveness? 

MS: The idea of gross sales productiveness that’s being affected by our actions, the PMMs actions, first, it actually relies on the nice relationship between the gross sales and the advertising groups. Gross sales and advertising need to go collectively, particularly to make the PMM work. It has to go hand in hand. We have to dance nicely collectively with the intention to be efficient and productive. One of many foremost focus areas for advertising and product advertising and particularly is to create profitable and segmented gross sales enablement kits. By enabling gross sales in the appropriate method and with the appropriate content material, gross sales might be extra productive, save time, and efficiently drive closed-won alternatives. I’m going again to storytelling and emotion and connections. Product advertising managers are accountable for creating the gross sales kits that will probably be pushed by feelings and pushed by relevance when it comes to the section vertical and even the precise timeframe inside the touching level.

With a purpose to construct a productive gross sales equipment that may have an effect on productiveness inside gross sales, all of the collaterals, the presentation, the product guides, and different supplies need to equip gross sales in a segmented manner. They have to be successfully communicated to the gross sales from inside the PMM group. These supplies ultimately can empower the gross sales representatives to ship fixed and persuasive messages throughout their interactions with the prospects. 

I’ll give two examples. The primary instance in these, let’s say collaterals, that must be constructed is first is making a related worth proposition. One of many foremost focuses inside the gross sales enablement equipment is to speak a novel worth proposition and advantages of the precise product that the gross sales will need to take to its prospects. The gross sales groups have to articulate the worth place to potential clients as a result of when a buyer understands how a product can resolve their drawback or fulfill their wants, they’re extra prone to make a purchase order, which signifies that the gross sales course of or the cycle will probably be extra productive.

One other instance is, after all, the messaging. Product advertising can be certain that the gross sales group has focused and compelling messages that may resonate with particular buyer segments as a result of every message pertains to one other buyer. There aren’t two clients or two personas inside clients that may comply with the identical strategy or the identical tone of voice. The message might be created in some ways. Tailor-made messages can allow the gross sales consultant, once more, to attach with the shoppers in a extra deep emotional method or stage with the intention to drive extra productiveness to their actions. In fact, there may be the outbound perspective as nicely, which signifies that efficient product advertising may help construct a robust product or a model status, establishing the highest of thoughts and belief and credibility inside the buyer’s domains and naturally every little thing that has to do with lead era all through all the buyer journey. 

I feel to sum it up ultimately if product advertising and the gross sales neighborhood are working nicely collectively and dancing nicely collectively, as I stated earlier than, there are 4 foremost elements that may be decided as productive and in addition might be measured as a result of it’s actually essential to measure success on a regular basis. First, I feel by working collectively, we may give time again to gross sales that they’ll both use to strategy extra prospects or they’ll simply sip a espresso on the seashore, no matter they need to do extra. No, I’m simply joking. Second, every little thing has to do with a greater buyer expertise. If a buyer is pleased and glad and we’re approaching him with related messaging and the related tone of voice, he may buy extra. He may cross-purchase, et cetera. Third, pipeline creation. If we’re delivering the appropriate messaging and the appropriate worth proposition in the appropriate channels, we’d enlarge the pipeline. Final, we convey the next, sooner win charge, messaging, worth proposition, and correct gross sales kits. I feel all of them, whereas working with gross sales, can positively drive increased productiveness for each departments. 

SS: Now, previous to implementing Highspot, what challenges had been your reps going through because it pertains to gross sales productiveness, and the way have you ever been in a position to resolve these challenges since implementing Highspot?

MS: Nayax has massively grown within the final couple of years. We additionally skilled a really profitable IPO and our gross sales neighborhood grew rather a lot. We grew to become greater than we was once, and it grew to become a little bit bit arduous to handle from afar. Our headquarters is in Israel, and it was actually troublesome to take care of a single tone of voice for everybody. That was a very big problem with the intention to keep constant promoting. Now that we serve greater than 80 nations, simply take into consideration the implications of gross sales equipment creation and the necessity to create so many alternative messaging for various personas in numerous verticals, segments, and nations and, after all, languages, however nonetheless hold one distinctive worth proposition and comparable model status.

It grew to become messy and the necessity to bridge between what headquarters needed to say concerning the model and its product and the way it was translated to the sector grew to become difficult. We needed to discover some sort of an answer, not just for sustaining one tone of voice but additionally to have like a single supply of reality by which all of the content material resides, like a content material repository that’s on a regular basis up to date and true to what we’re promoting. What occurred is we noticed lots of people from the gross sales neighborhood simply utilizing content material from a few years in the past and never correct content material. We’re working in a really speedy atmosphere, every little thing right here is microservices, the ICD and we’re on a regular basis persevering with to speculate and develop, and promote. 

We noticed that persons are not using probably the most correct and related and newest content material, and subsequently not sustaining even the transparency and the information that’s required for patrons. It was an enormous drawback, so we had been really trying to find a platform that may resolve all of those conditions, a platform that may keep a single supply of reality for everyone that may talk in a single voice and ultimately, most significantly, resolve the content material chaos that we had. I do know that you just guys name it content material chaos at a Highspot, so we seek for it, after which we discover a Highspot. I feel the remaining is historical past as a result of the issue was solved virtually fully. 

One very last thing we additionally needed to seek for a platform that’s fully data-driven. It was actually essential for us now that now we have such a big gross sales neighborhood, to guarantee that all of the gross sales are working in the appropriate course. It’s not a matter of belief, it’s a matter of aligning and having productive gross sales cycles. We seek for a system that first will probably be fully linked to our CRM system, which is after all Salesforce, and that we’ll have the ability to join between the advertising collaterals or the product advertising collaterals to the alternatives or leads themselves. We additionally needed to save lots of time for our consultant. We didn’t need them to seek for the appropriate content material whereas they’re in a sale alternative whereas they’re on a name, we needed them to save lots of time and to seek out the collaterals they want swiftly and with out having the headache of messing round. 

SS: Nicely, I’m glad that Highspot may assist. I’d additionally love to grasp, we’ve been on this subject of gross sales productiveness, what’s an instance of an initiative or program that you just’ve carried out to drive gross sales productiveness, and the way have you ever leveraged Highspot to assist this?

MS: By the best way we name Highspot “Nayax Win”, we modified the identify with the intention to match our neighborhood as a result of we name our gross sales neighborhood winners, so we referred to as Highspot ‘Nayax Win’. Which all people loves. If I’m complicated and saying win as a substitute of Highspot, excuse me, but it surely’s burned to my head already. 

Regarding your query, we love the truth that Highspot is embedded into Salesforce you click on on one button after which it opens up and all SDRs and the gross sales neighborhood can see the advertising collaterals which might be related to a selected alternative. The truth that it’s simply in entrance of them with the collateral that they should use inside a selected name or inside a selected alternative is de facto useful, but it surely’s not sufficient. One of many foremost options that we love about Highspot is the flexibility to pitch from inside the system. We now have created many pitching templates in response to particular clients, particular verticals and segments, and naturally, referring to particular merchandise. The truth that you might be in Salesforce, engaged on a selected lead, for instance, for our product, after which seeing simply in entrance of you the related FAQs, steadily requested questions, or objection dealing with, after which the related one web page that may shut the deal.

When you end the dialog with the lead, you inform him I’ll ship an e mail with all of the related materials, and also you simply click on the pitch button, after which it opens up a display screen the place you may both file your self, or you may simply ship the collateral by means of to your clients. That’s superb. Ultimately, the client receives a really good touchdown web page by which they’ll see the collaterals, and the abstract of the dialog, and I feel for each methods, for gross sales representatives and in addition the shoppers, it creates a sense as in the event that they’re all engaged on the identical web page. 

For us, the flexibility to attach the CRM to our Highspot or Nayaz win to ease the journey for our clients on one hand and the work of our SDRs was superb. We see that it actually drives gross sales productiveness from the timesaving perspective, but it surely’s not sufficient. What we’re reaching to see, and I suppose we are able to speak about it afterward in additional element, however we need to see the correlation between Highspot utilization and the closed gained. I’m certain that there’s a excessive correlation between utilizing the appropriate messaging and the appropriate collaterals and proper messaging and it will definitely results in fewer touching factors.

For us, let’s say, a profitable program or to indicate full productiveness would be the capability to indicate increased numbers within the closed wons that our collaterals which might be pushed into Nayax Win, or Highspot, versus those that didn’t. We will see all of it as a result of Highspot is totally data-driven, so we are able to see the names of the reps who used it and who didn’t. Due to this fact we are able to positively see who’s driving productiveness using Win, and we see the distinction, which is superb. We’re solely three months into the method and we already see the distinction between a closed gained of reps which might be utilizing Highspot and people who aren’t.

SS: I like that. That’s improbable. Now, you additionally not too long ago hosted your organization gross sales kickoff occasion just a few months in the past. You talked about that your group exceeded your KPIs for engagement from the gross sales group. I’d like to study a little bit bit extra about that. I do know a few of us are heading into kickoff season midway by means of the 12 months, what had been a few of your finest practices for delivering an interesting occasion that basically motivated your sellers?

MS: We had an incredible SKO. Truly, at Nayax we don’t name it SKO, we name it Join as a result of our promoting mannequin is oblique and direct. It signifies that we’re promoting rather a lot by means of distributors and companions, so we name it join as a result of we join all of the teams collectively. We had a really profitable SKO in January after three years that we haven’t met one another nose to nose. It was actually emotional and pleased. It was actually superb to satisfy once more after so a few years, however after we introduced all people collectively, we had a variety of content material to ship.

I feel the 2 most partaking classes, one among them, by the best way, was pushed by a Highspot, however one of many two most partaking classes that we had was inspiring. The primary one was an expo. We created an exposition of every little thing that we promote. As I stated about Nayax, we’re specializing in fee as our middle of gravity, however the fee is definitely a part of a whole resolution that’s based mostly on {hardware} and software program. What now we have first is our built-in level of sale with software program that’s embedded inside the level of sale. Then now we have the administration suite behind it that may handle all of the operations with our providers, and naturally, all our loyalty and engagement applications for elevated income and recurring clients.

What we’ve completed at SKO, is we introduced a variety of our units which might be linked to the retail units themselves, the unattended machines, the retail machines, and we requested our gross sales to play with them and to see the way it works as in the event that they had been customers, the operators themselves which might be having the customers use their machines. I feel they realized rather a lot about new options and new capabilities, tips on how to use them, which issues happen, and in the event that they happen, and we had the product managers resolve on every resolution and product explaining to the gross sales neighborhood as soon as they’re working towards and using the machines as if they’re our operators or the customers of the operators to allow them to contact it themselves and really feel it themselves. It was a real engagement they usually cherished it. 

The second was really a task play by which we selected real-life examples of conditions by which our gross sales consultant wanted to promote one thing to operators and clarify the dear place and the advantages behind our options. We created 10 completely different conditions, which had been very difficult, and we had a panel of judges, which was our two CEOs, and our total c-suite. We requested the gross sales consultant to indicate how they’re planning to handle the sale. What number of touching factors, which content material do they need to ship in every touching level, and the way are they planning to handle it? Within the gross sales performs themselves, what we examined was not what they promote or how they promote the precise product, but additionally how they’re promoting when it comes to gross sales smooth expertise, which was a mix of coaching and training.

I feel the mix of teaching on high of the coaching on the options themselves was very partaking and profitable as a result of they realized rather a lot with regard to not solely the capabilities of the merchandise but additionally their capabilities as salespeople and gross sales representatives on tips on how to leverage their smooth expertise to raised locations. These two classes had been extremely profitable, however all the SKO was superb and it was a lot enjoyable. I can’t anticipate the following one. Significantly. 

SS: I like that. Now you even have a 92% lively learner charge in your coaching and training applications in Highspot. How have you ever leveraged Highspot’s coaching and training capabilities to actually develop partaking product training per applications, and the way has this motivated productiveness?

MS: I have to say it wasn’t straightforward and I really feel as if we solely began, however all the group was actually engaged. It’s the gross sales group and the product group, the product advertising group, and the advertising group. We had a hackathon to construct all of the supplies and we actually constructed all of it with the intention to guarantee that we aren’t neglecting any section, any vertical, any line of enterprise, any geographies. It’s nonetheless a piece in progress. I imply, it’s not finalized in any respect, and we nonetheless have a protracted method to go, however there are some things that we did that had been actually essential with the intention to obtain such a excessive rating in a decrease time frame. 

I feel the primary one is to have a gross sales enablement champion that may drive all the improvement and engagement and will probably be just like the lacking hyperlink between gross sales and product advertising, gross sales, and headquarters. I feel that is positively one thing that raised the bow for us. As soon as we had our gross sales enablement champ listening to gross sales pitches and A/B testing scripts and reviewing every little thing that we’ve completed, it actually leveraged our coaching and training capabilities. This particular person from my group actually bridged the hole, and as soon as she spoke with the gross sales groups, she got here again to us, to the advertising group on what to repair and what to do higher, and that is how we higher ourselves. I feel it was actually essential. 

With a purpose to encourage utilization and engagement, all people used the applications and system we would have liked to package deal it alongside gross sales enablement classes. We now have a group that we’re managing as if it was a WhatsApp group inside Microsoft Groups. We’re consistently sharing info with it. I feel ultimately, we’re solely at the start, we nonetheless have a protracted method to go to ensure that me to really feel that we’re fully bringing within the productiveness from the system, however we’re at first, we’re already saving time for reps. Let’s say the top sport will probably be to indicate the entire correlation between closed gained and the utilization of the collaterals, after which we are able to positively talk about full productiveness. We nonetheless have a protracted method to go, regardless of the excessive rating that you just gave us.

SS: Yeah. I like to listen to that although. Nicely, final query for you. What are some key enterprise outcomes that you’ve got been in a position to obtain since implementing Highspot, particularly because it pertains to gross sales productiveness? 

MS: Every month we see a rise within the utilization of salespeople inside the system, and we see a correlation between the utilization and the income from closed gained. The primary month that we began using the system, which was March, we had been standing on zero engagement. Now, within the gross sales neighborhood, now we have about 100 customers. We have already got 35% of engagement. From this 35% of engagement of lively customers which might be actively utilizing pitches and our gross sales performs and are visiting the assorted spots each day, we see a rise. I don’t need to state a quantity as a result of it’s consistently altering, however now we have a rise in there, let’s say closed-won capabilities.

I will probably be pleased to share the numbers, however solely in just a few weeks as a result of we’re nonetheless sharpening our analytics there. As I stated earlier than, it’s already starting and we did set up a single supply of reality, which is 100% success. We don’t see individuals utilizing any supplies from their desktops anymore, which signifies that this KPI was 100% achieved. By way of a single supply of reality achieved when it comes to one tone of voice. This was additionally, for my part, let’s say 90% or 95% achieved. 

We see that everyone is utilizing the messaging that we would like them to make use of. We see a transparent path within the change and the way persons are talking about Nayax in the identical messaging, as I stated at the start, the story that we needed them to talk about and to inform, we see it and we hear it throughout the globe from the USA, from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, all people is using the identical tone of voice, which is superb.

We nonetheless have a protracted method to go. There’s a saying, by the best way, which I like. I all of a sudden remembered from Robin Shama that he stated that change is difficult at first, messy within the center, and beautiful on the finish. I feel ultimately the adoption of Nayax win or Highspot, it’s all about behavioral change for the salespeople, and from that perspective, from that KPI of a behavioral change, I feel now we have at the least 85% completion as a result of we see the utilization and we see persons are adopting it.

It’s arduous to undertake a unique method to make the most of content material and to eat content material, and a unique method to pitch after 15 or 17 years that you’ve got been pitching in the identical manner all of a sudden to have someone are available and say, no, do that, try this. It’s arduous, however we’re on the best way and we need to affect the rise in closed gained with the system. I consider we’ll get there. I feel the top sport for us will probably be to see a whole correlation between Highspot utilization and closed gained. With a purpose to try this, we’ll hold pushing and it’s not straightforward, however ultimately, it’ll be beautiful, so now we have persistence. 

SS: I like that. Thanks a lot for sharing your story with us as we speak. I respect the time. 

MS: For certain. It was beautiful being right here and thanks for having me. 

SS: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Win Win podcast. Be sure you tune in subsequent time for extra insights on how one can maximize enablement success with Highspot.