Analysis discovered that 84% of gross sales reps obtain their quotas when their employer incorporates a best-in-class gross sales enablement technique. So what does it truly take to construct an enablement technique? Right here to debate this matter is Kelly Lewis, the vp of income enablement right here at Highspot.

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 developments within the office and the way to navigate them efficiently. Thanks for becoming a member of, Kelly! I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your position right here at Highspot.

Kelly Lewis: Thanks a lot for having me, I’m excited to be right here. As you talked about, my title is Kelly Lewis, Vice President of Income Enablement, right here at Highspot. I even have a bit of little bit of a non-traditional background. I spent most of my profession, virtually 15 years, within the subject earlier than shifting into enablement. I hung out as a gross sales rep and as a gross sales chief, actually understanding what it’s like to hold a bag. I noticed a possibility for enablement at my final firm, Amwell, which is a high-tech telehealth group, and established the enablement apply there from the bottom up. I discovered lots by doing that. A number of what you’re going to listen to is that I’m coming to this dialog fairly humbly and that I’m nonetheless studying a ton from organizations like Gross sales Enablement PRO, in addition to our wonderful prospects, and, in fact, my wonderful staff and my wonderful friends in L&D. A number of what you’re going to listen to comes from that gross sales chief background with that enablement spin, as I’ve discovered over the previous couple of years.

SS: Nicely, we’re excited to have you ever right here, Kelly, and I’ve to say you’re a improbable enablement companion, and I get to talk from expertise.

KL: Thanks.

SS: Now, from a income perspective, I’d love to know from you, what ought to leaders remember when constructing an enablement technique that’s aligned to enterprise drive outcomes.

KL: I feel everyone knows this, however it’s important to change from being reactive to that basically proactive mindset. That’s simpler stated than completed. A part of it’s that the asks don’t cease coming. How I have a look at it’s it’s important to sit again and have a few of these actually exhausting conversations together with your collaborators, whether or not these are your stakeholders or the people you’re employed with very carefully like advertising and marketing or rev ops, and perceive what is definitely going to maneuver the needle. We all the time have a look at it from a rep productiveness standpoint, we’re all the time attempting to consider what we are able to do to get our reps extra productive. Is that talent? Is that course of? Is that messaging? The place do we have to focus? By doing that, and having these exhausting conversations upfront, we’re capable of align after which decide to what we wish to do, after which make certain we truly keep on track versus veering off, which is very easy to do. I’ve been there, I’ve completed it, however with the ability to actually say hey, we agreed to this originally of the quarter, and let’s see it via. We now have a whole lot of these conversations right here. Will we additionally ask if what we’re doing right here aligned with the larger initiatives of the corporate are the issues that we’re centered on right here, the identical issues that our CEO is targeted on?

SS: I feel that’s improbable recommendation. Kelly, given the present financial local weather, are you able to share why aligning your enablement technique with income objectives is important?

KL: Completely. I feel we’ve all heard the time period ‘random acts of enablement’ and everyone knows that enablement, at one time or one other in your group, has most likely tried to do an excessive amount of. While you align your objectives to income objectives, and when you’ve got the identical objective, it’s simple to just be sure you’re having the identical dialog and that you just don’t swerve out of your authentic plan. What I used to be saying earlier than is what you’re doing goes to maneuver the needle. The present financial local weather, it’s shifting on a regular basis, and so we proactively requested originally of 1 / 4, if one thing adjustments considerably within the financial system within the subsequent 90 days, does this transformation our technique, and if everybody within the room can say, not an excessive amount of, then we really feel like we’re doing the best factor. That’s how we’ve been dealing with at the least our Q1 technique as we have a look at it.

SS: I feel that’s a extremely agile method to enablement. Now, on the subject of setting objectives, what are a few of your finest practices for figuring out the best objectives which might be going that will help you drive the outcomes that you just wish to obtain via your enablement technique?

KL: First off, it begins with sensible objectives. I feel it’s very easy for enablement professionals or gross sales leaders to get in a room and assume {that a} change can occur in a single day. While you have a look at strategic enablement and the way you’re utilizing enablement, one of many issues that we contemplate as a core apply of how we do strategic enablement at Highspot is knowing how a lot change are we asking the reps to do and what’s the precise name to motion we’re going to ask them to do. We truly use a proficiency mannequin right here at Highspot that has 4 ranges and we shall be actually clear with everybody within the room that, hey, we’re attempting to get reps from a stage one to a stage two. For proper now, we’re centered on getting nearly all of our reps, we name our core reps, from stage three to stage 4, relying on the place they’re in that proficiency mannequin. I feel setting expectations on the place your reps are right this moment, and the place you need them to be by the top of 1 / 4, six months from now, actually helps individuals perceive that change does take time, it’s not going to occur in a single day and it enables you to set what the main indicators are going to be over time, what will present that we’re shifting the needle.

SS: These are some actually improbable finest practices. Now, Kelly, as I had talked about, I discover you to be a completely improbable and collaborative enablement companion. I do know that to you as an enablement chief, creating sturdy cross-functional relationships and coordination is a precedence for you. How does cross-functional collaboration affect the way you carry your enablement technique to life?

KL: I significantly recognize that. My staff actually has a robust objective of getting cross-functional coordination, however I additionally suppose we’ve got wonderful companions to work with. As everybody is aware of, enablement sits proper in the course of income groups, in addition to advertising and marketing. We’re all the time attempting to play that stability of the objectives that advertising and marketing has, and ensuring we’re translating that dialog into our sellers and what they want. With a view to try this, it’s important to converse their language. As I stated earlier, it’s lots about translating and ensuring that you just perceive the completely different objectives and have empathy for the completely different groups you’re working with. I discover that I and my staff spend simply as a lot time creating a technique as we do listening. A number of what we do is take heed to our stakeholders, or take heed to our collaborators, on what their objectives are and what they’re attempting to drive. That’s the reason it’s actually necessary. When you don’t perceive why you gained’t have the ability to translate it and ensure you create that bridge.

We at Highspot even have an idea right here that we name a bridge assembly, and that’s when advertising and marketing has an thought, a rev ops staff has an thought, and even considered one of our stakeholders has an concept that they wish to come to enablement with they usually wish to suggest that we do one thing otherwise or problem ourselves in a brand new approach. Throughout that bridge assembly, we ask a whole lot of these ‘why’ inquiries to be sure that we totally perceive what it’s they need us to roll out, and the way we are going to try this to make the largest influence.

I’ll say, being a former vendor and on that facet of the home, it’s actually clear when your management isn’t aligned. You are feeling it when advertising and marketing and gross sales leaders aren’t speaking. You are feeling it when gross sales management and enablement aren’t speaking. It’s not hidden, I feel being enablement professionals, generally we don’t know what the frontline is seeing, however they really feel it. It’s tremendous necessary that whatever the choice you make on what the enablement technique goes to be that everybody within the room aligns and agrees. One factor we do right here at Highspot is we even have approval conferences the place we get in a room and we are saying that is the technique, does everybody agree? We don’t go away till everybody’s agreed after which primarily based on that all of us, regardless of what occurs throughout the quarter, proceed to align to that preliminary technique as a result of all of us agreed, and all of us wish to present a single one-team method to our subject.

SS: I like that. What recommendation do you’ve got for the way you go about driving the adoption of the technique and getting buy-in from key stakeholders?

KL: It’s all concerning the frontline supervisor. We’ve truly been making a giant shift during the last six months which might be going to proceed as we head into the subsequent fiscal yr, fascinated about how we empower our frontline managers. They’re so important to enablement’s success. A frontline particular person, a rep, isn’t going to make a change until they really feel prefer it’s supported by their supervisor, and so we’ve got shifted our method to drive virtually all the things we’re doing via the supervisor. That appears like empowering the supervisor with teaching, so we make teaching performs the place we truly information the supervisor to the steps, right here’s the dialog it’s good to have, listed below are the objections as a supervisor that you’re most likely going to get, right here’s the way you deal with these objections. We additionally do life teaching. We’ll pull up Gong calls, or we’ll pull up our pre-call planners in a gaggle setting, and we’ll have completely different managers have a look at these guides and calls and speak with one another about how they might coach, how would they rating these, what suggestions would they provide, and I feel by giving them a protected area to apply their teaching, they’re arrange for achievement. It’s actually about getting managers purchased in early after which ensuring they’ve all the things they must be profitable on the subject of truly rolling that out. We contemplate these frontline managers to be companions in crime.

SS: I like that. Now, I like your recommendation on this. How can groups preserve form of the large image of the technique and the way it aligns with firm objectives in thoughts once they’re additionally juggling executing the plan all year long?

KL: It’s actually exhausting, and we wrestle with it too. I feel how we do that’s we create some agility in our plan. I talked lots originally of this podcast, about how we’ve got a quarterly technique the place we carry everybody collectively and we get alignment, however what I didn’t discuss was we go away some wiggle room. We’re executing, issues do change, and issues come up. We have to be sure that we’ve got that constructed into what we’re creating in our technique. Relying on the quarter, we like to depart up anyplace from 20 to 40% in order that we’ve got that agility and skill to regulate as wanted and take some enter within the quarter. It’s not a ton, however it provides us that wiggle room to be sure that we’re persevering with to align with the corporate objectives and that we might be agile sufficient to listen to what the sector is scuffling with and adapt.

We even have this idea of obtainable versus accountable. I feel that is distinctive to Highspot, however it’s this idea of throughout any given quarter, we give reps two or three issues that we wish them to vary in behaviors. We’re actually concise on what these calls to motion are, and people are our accountable themes. We additionally do a whole lot of enablement that isn’t accountable, we’re not going to examine it, we’re not essentially going to educate it, we’re not going to carry individuals accountable to it. These issues we name accessible. Obtainable issues are like a play that we create that may assist somebody given a sure state of affairs that may be industry-specific, however we’re not doing a ton of stay enablement round it, we’re positively not certifying it, we would simply advertise through e-newsletter.

Having this idea of obtainable versus accountable helps us have actually sturdy conversations with our stakeholders and our collaborators as a result of they know after we say it’s accountable, they know we’re taking it actually critically and we’re going to create teaching applications. After they understand it’s accessible, we’re all in settlement that hey, we’re not going to take a look at the scorecard for the progress or what number of reps have considered this potential play. As an alternative, we’re going to see the way it does. We’d make it accountable subsequent quarter, it’d simply be accessible within the present quarter. This idea of obtainable versus accountable has actually translated right into a language all of us align on and ensure everybody feels actually comfy with our method.

SS: I’ve to say it has labored very well for us right here at Highspot. Kelly, I’m loving this dialog. I’ve two remaining questions for you. I don’t suppose there’s going to be any form of shock to those questions as a result of I feel we’re all attempting to know within the coming yr, how we drive extra influence. That is very true for enablement. What are a few of your finest practices for correlating your enablement efforts with income influence, and the way have you ever truly leveraged Highspot to assist with this?

KL: Such a tough query, in that it’s exhausting for enablement professionals to all the time present their influence. It isn’t as simple as it’s in different roles, and so we spend a whole lot of time fascinated about this, frankly, not solely as an organization however as an enablement staff at an enablement firm. We all the time take into consideration how we’re influencing income, and the way we’re influencing enterprise outcomes. We consider it a few methods. First is gross sales productiveness, after which it’s constant execution and participation price. From gross sales, productiveness is the timing of the issues that we’re rolling out aligned to the timing of will increase in gross sales productiveness. We hope, and that’s the objective, and so we have a look at that reporting. We additionally have a look at constant execution. That is tougher to take a look at, we use instruments like Gong, and we’re companions with Groove, so we have a look at our e-mail consistency, to see are the reps taking the enablement and making use of it and if are they doing it in a constant vogue. Then we have a look at the participation charges of these two. Are our core performers within the class of constant execution, and have they got excessive gross sales productiveness?

At Highspot we use a few alternative ways to take a look at main indicators. Main indicators are large for my staff. Will we have a look at issues like did individuals take the coaching? So we’ll leap into Highspot and see, did they take the course? Then, we are going to have a look at in the event that they reviewed the gross sales play. That is tremendous necessary. In the event that they’re not studying the gross sales play, they’re positively not going to make the motion. It’s an enormous main indicator for us, how a lot time they’re spending on the gross sales play. Then, are managers trying on the teaching play? For each gross sales play that’s accountable, utilizing the time period I discussed earlier than, we additionally create a training play. Is the supervisor taking a look at that teaching play? Do they know the way to coach to no matter we’re attempting to drive? We then have a look at the motion they’re taking. Are they participating with our prospects within the right approach? We use Highspot to know if they’re pitching the content material that’s a part of this marketing campaign or this technique, after which are our prospects and our prospects participating with that content material. These are actually key indicators that assist us present our affect and influence in a very easy approach. Undoubtedly helps these enterprise evaluations that I do know are so exhausting to place collectively, however simply with the ability to take some screenshots from Highspot actually helps that dialog.

SS: I like that. Final query for you, Kelly, as we get underway with 2023, what are a number of the high developments that you just suppose enablement leaders must be being attentive to this yr, and the way are you leveraging Highspot to assist tackle a few of these?

KL: Completely. I stated it earlier than, managers are your unlock. We’re spending a whole lot of time fascinated about supervisor teaching enablement. We’re truly going to be placing on a management summit for all of our leaders right here on the finish of February that’s going to be centered on teaching. What does good teaching seem like, and how will you apply that to your day-to-day as a go-to-market chief? I feel the subsequent pattern we’re going to see and issues that we’re leveraging at Highspot is considering via how we sort out formal coaching. Formal coaching might be put into completely different buckets and we’re attempting to rethink what formal coaching seems wish to make it really feel gentle. My companion in crime, Annie Lizenbergs, in our L&D division all the time talks about how we make coursework really feel gentle and interesting in order that reps know that we’re being actually environment friendly with our time. We’re going to be rethinking lots about what our formal coursework seems wish to make it really feel gentle.

The subsequent is we’re going to have a giant deal with our core performers. A number of instances your stakeholders are going to come back to you with data and suggestions about your low performers. That’s actually regular. They are typically the loudest, they usually are inclined to spin up gross sales leaders as a result of gross sales leaders need them profitable. We’ve created a slide and we use it in virtually each assembly the place we are saying, hey, this program goes to be centered on the core performers. These are the core performers that we’re attempting to make high performers, and we’re going to make use of our high performers to indicate our core performers what attractiveness like. We’re going to make use of our high performers to champion this. We’re going to make use of our high performers to assist us train. These high performers are going to get higher as a result of whenever you train one thing, you get higher at it. Our core performers are going to study from these high performers. That approach, we’re not centered on these low performers, who will hopefully get one thing out of the core performer coaching, however we’re actually leaving these decrease performers as much as managers to work with and coach.

Then, I’d say, the very last thing that we’re altering this yr is one SKO a yr isn’t sufficient. You want stable enablement moments all year long, that basically make sure that your reps are getting the reinforcement, and are taken out of the sector in a approach that separates them from the busyness and lets them actually deal with studying. We began this final yr, and we’re going to proceed it this yr. We name it camp momentum in the summertime, however we’re going to have a number of touchpoints all year long, one simply with managers and three with all go-to-market groups the place we be sure that there’s put aside studying time for everybody to study to cease the busyness to cease the calls and to essentially deal with the large initiatives that we’re attempting to drive after which in fact, giving them a protected area to apply.

SS: I like these developments. Thanks, Kelly, a lot for becoming a member of us right this moment.

KL: Completely. Blissful to be right here.

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