Based on the Affiliation for Expertise Growth (ATD), firms that provide complete coaching packages have 218% greater earnings per worker than firms with out formalized coaching. It’s clear that organizations should be investing in coaching to extend productiveness inside their groups, however how can leaders do that in the best manner?
Shawnna Sumaoang: Hello and welcome to the Win Win Podcast. I’m your host, Shawnna Sumaoang. Be a part of us as we dive into altering traits within the office and the way to navigate them efficiently. Right here to debate this subject is Jim Jones, principal marketing consultant at Highspot. Thanks for becoming a member of, Jim! I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your function right here at Highspot.
Jim Jones: Thanks, Shawnna. It’s actually nice to be with you right now. As you stated, my title is Jim Jones. I’m a principal marketing consultant on our strategic enablement companies workforce. I’ve been at Highspot since October 2021. Earlier than that, I used to be a two-time Highspot buyer and I launched Highspot at two completely different organizations earlier than becoming a member of the corporate and have been in enablement for nearly a decade and a half. Earlier than that, I used to be a extremely horrible salesperson, however I realized what it meant to hold a bag and stay in a quota place.
SS: We’re excited to have you ever right here, Jim. I’ve the chance to work with you when you’re a buyer and we’re excited and glad to have you ever in-house at Highspot. Now, to dig into among the issues that we wished to speak about right now, Jim, in recent times, I believe we’ve all seen that the promoting panorama has gotten much more complicated and coaching is admittedly turning into extra vital than ever earlier than. Are you able to share why you suppose leaders ought to be prioritizing coaching and training, particularly in occasions of financial uncertainty?
JJ: It’s attention-grabbing to consider coaching over the spectrum of the years and the transfer to way more complicated promoting environments. Right this moment, particularly in occasions of financial uncertainty, our capacity to essentially drive gross sales productiveness on a per-head foundation is simply so vital to us. Gone are the times the place we are able to merely throw numbers at attainment numbers and hope that we’ve got sufficient our bodies on the pitch to cowl the unfold. Right this moment we’ve got to be way more considerate about driving productiveness and ensuring that the workforce that we’ve got on the sphere is delivering the forms of outcomes which are significant to the group. Our capacity to each prepare to these particular profitable promoting abilities in addition to the power for our frontline managers and management workforce to teach to these abilities is vital in delivering the kind of outcomes that we have to have on this.
SS: I couldn’t agree extra. Jim, out of your perspective, how can the Highspot coaching and training platform make it simpler for leaders to create coaching collateral to assist the reps be much more profitable and productive in right now’s occasions?
JJ: The one factor I like concerning the Highspot coaching and training platform is, from my perspective, it’s the primary coaching platform that’s purpose-built for income groups. One of many challenges that we face is the twofold dilemma in terms of coaching, which is that there’s a super mental burden merely getting reps up the ramp to know and know the ins and outs of the options we’re providing to {the marketplace}. That piece hasn’t gone away. We nonetheless have to coach for information.
One factor that I believe that we do in a different way is to very particularly prepare to what I ought to be doing, not simply what I ought to know. One of many issues that I believe is admittedly highly effective is inside Highspot we’ve got a factor known as the strategic enablement framework that a lot of you might have listened to the podcast on. One of many fascinating issues that I’ve seen is we did an inner coaching on Highspot coaching and training on strategic enablement framework, and related to that coaching was a hyperlink to the thought management piece on strategic enablement, and right now, that’s the third or fourth most used content material piece in our reps promoting actions.
By connecting content material throughout the scope of the coaching, we discover that there’s really a direct connection between what the reps are studying and what the reps are utilizing on a day-to-day foundation of their promoting efforts. I believe that’s a extremely distinctive perspective in that the reps are instantly given alternatives to place their coaching and motion in a promoting exercise, and I believe that’s actually highly effective.
SS: I couldn’t agree extra. Discuss to me just a little bit extra, Jim, about how coaching can influence productiveness, and I’d find it irresistible in case you have some finest practices for coaching strategies that you just’d suggest.
JJ: We might go for days on concepts of the way to finest activate your coaching packages, however I believe it goes again to that core piece inside our strategic enablement framework the place we discuss concerning the name to motion. Over the course of my profession, I’ve been concerned and labored for firms with tremendously complicated promoting options, and it looks like for an enormous portion of my profession, simply getting reps up the ramp to know the breadth and complexity of our merchandise appeared like a monumental process in and of itself, and it’s definitely not any much less right now than it was 10 or 15 years in the past.
What we actually have to start to concentrate on is the what to-dos, what we within the strategic enablement framework name the ‘name to motion’. What are these issues that our top-performing reps do persistently over the course of the promoting life cycle that set them other than the remainder of the gang? By actually focusing our coaching on these actions, like how I catalyze behaviors and the way I catalyze actions by way of my coaching. These are the kinds of issues that we actually have to begin to concentrate on. We will’t abandon the coaching for information, however we actually must make a tough pivot to say, what am I getting my reps to do higher or do extra of by way of my coaching efforts? These are the issues that may in the end drive the outcomes that we want for the enterprise.
From a finest practices perspective, I believe there’s actually beginning with this concept of what it’s that I would like reps to be doing. I see a lot of our coaching throughout a number of completely different organizations the place they don’t tie a selected name to motion to a coaching class. I at all times love to make use of the acronym TSWBAT, the scholar will be capable to… fill within the clean. If I begin with that and I really know what I would like the learner to do on the finish of the coaching, it makes it a lot simpler for me then to tie my coaching to a selected promoting exercise, which then hopefully will ship top-of-growth pipeline and gross sales income will increase. For me, that’s simply vital that we get to that time in our coaching growth.
SS: I like a few of these suggestions. Now, Jim, on LinkedIn, you shared that you just’re working to rework the conversations gross sales groups are having with clients. How do you drive this conduct change by way of coaching and what function does Highspot play in your coaching methods?
JJ: Years in the past I had our VP of Product Administration come to me and say, how are you aware that your coaching efforts are being profitable? I believe quite a lot of it facilities round this concept of what’s the worth dialog that we’re educating our reps to ship and that’s actually the transformational gross sales dialog. I like the truth that inside our platform, we’re educating reps the way to persistently ship that worth message and it must be vital. On the core of each coaching that we ship is how do I do know that you just’re delivering that?
Inside Highspot coaching and training, issues like submitting video pitches assist me then see, or hear, in all probability extra particularly that the reps are beginning to choose up that worth language and apply it to a day-to-day foundation. The factor that we learn about top-performing reps is that they’ve the agility to adapt to particular promoting conditions and ship probably the most highly effective worth message for that persona at a given time. We will measure that with issues inside our coaching and training platform, and we are able to additionally use it to be sure that our frontline managers are reinforcing that worth language with our sellers as nicely. One thing that makes a right away influence on our capacity to persuade prospects that our resolution will help them run a greater enterprise.
SS: Completely. Now, in the same vein to what that gross sales chief requested you, I really feel like quite a lot of enablement practitioners are additionally requested the same query to this. How does conduct change correlate to productiveness?
JJ: Nice query and I believe one of many issues that we, within the enablement world have lengthy debated on is what conduct change means and the way we really activate it. I consider it sort of in two other ways. Once we take into consideration gross sales productiveness, there are solely actually two issues that I can ask reps to do, do one thing higher, or do one thing extra. It’s actually round this concept that I can’t actually measure conduct change at a macro-level, however what I can do is start to see whether or not or not a vendor is extra engaged with the forms of promoting actions that I would like them to be doing on a constant foundation.
As an example, one of many issues that I like to do is that if a rep goes by way of a coaching course inside our coaching and training module, is that rep is now going and viewing issues on our content material aspect? Are they extra engaged with issues like gross sales performs and gross sales kits? Can I really start to see them pitching extra content material to prospects of their top-of-funnel growth? What that does then permits me to attract a direct connection from my coaching to promoting actions that claims this coaching catalyzed conduct change in the best way that I can really observe by way of the usage of additional engagement within the platform, sending out extra pitches, and extra prospect engagement. It’s not sort of the black field of coaching the place I simply run folks by way of a bunch of programs and hope for the perfect. That technique simply has by no means labored and by no means will.
SS: I agree. Smile sheets not depend fairly as a lot in terms of correlating your outcomes to influence. In that very same vein, what are among the key outcomes that you’d encourage leaders to be searching for and monitoring in terms of conduct change to see how coaching is touchdown with their reps? How has Highspot helped to collect a few of these insights?
JJ: It’s an awesome query and I believe that actually specializing in promoting actions is vital. So typically I see enablement groups battle with this concept of how do I really assess whether or not or not my coaching is making a distinction. I’m within the midst of writing a paper on the way to do assessments, and it’s an age-old drawback the place what we take a look at for is retention or recall, and what we actually have to then start to do is how we assess for improved exercise ranges or how can we search for the appropriate proof that the coaching that I’ve delivered has given me an uplift in productiveness.
As I stated earlier than, really having the ability to draw a direct connection to some sort of promoting exercise. In Highspot it’s very easy. One of many issues that I like is to go in and if I’ve finished coaching on a selected resolution or a launch or a product or a perspective that we’ve got as an organization, I can then start to see reps partaking their prospects with that worth language by way of issues like pitches or shared content material. Highspot permits us to attract these correlations in a manner that we’ve taken out the thriller.
If I’ve a rep undergo a coaching and I see no uplift in exercise, I see zero pitches despatched out to their prospects, then I do know one in every of two issues. A, both that rep is underperforming, or B, fairly truthfully, possibly my coaching missed the mark and I would like to return and have a look at the coaching that I’ve delivered. Not are we simply throwing issues towards the wall and hoping for higher outcomes. We’re really connecting these issues in a manner that’s extra concrete and significant and actionable. I believe that’s an enormous a part of what we convey to the market.
SS: I couldn’t agree extra. Final query for you, Jim. To shut, are you able to share your predictions for the way forward for coaching and the way gross sales enablement will proceed to play a key function in guaranteeing that we’re actually making ready our reps for the long run?
JJ: I believe if I have been gonna be a contrarian, I would say that we’d probably be in the identical place we’ve got been within the final 20 years the place coaching continues to muddle alongside in the identical manner, however I really suppose that this downturn has acted as a possibility for us to essentially take into consideration coaching in a way more centered method. I believe what we’ll start to see is coaching shifting round away from solely the what to know piece to the what to know and what to do half. If we are able to’t tie these two collectively in very concrete methods, we’re merely going to be doing the identical factor we’ve been doing for the previous 20 years.
We’ve typically talked concerning the Pareto distribution or the 80/20 rule the place 80% of our reps are mid performers and 10% are prime performers, and 10% are backside performers. We will not relaxation on that formulation. We have now to have the ability to transfer the frozen center in order that they’re really transferring in the direction of prime performers and the one manner we are able to do that’s to ensure our coaching has clear desired targets which are tied to rep actions that result in rep productiveness. I believe that on the earth of gross sales coaching, we’ve acquired to get to a spot the place we’re actually extra centered on what to do’s, and hopefully, these would be the issues that we are able to tie to particular promoting outcomes. Hopefully, that’s what the long run seems to be like. I’m anxious to see how that performs out within the coming months.
SS: Thanks a lot for becoming a member of us, Jim. I appreciated your insights on coaching and training. To our viewers, thanks for listening to this episode of the Win Win podcast. Remember to tune in subsequent time for extra insights on how one can maximize enablement success with Highspot.
