Analysis from Gross sales Enablement PRO discovered that firms with a consolidated tech stack see a 19 proportion level greater common quota attainment than groups with a number of disconnected instruments.
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 find out how to navigate them efficiently.
How will you enhance rep productiveness with a unified gross sales enablement platform? Right here to debate this subject is Andrea Holzworth, the vp of gross sales enablement and buyer operations at Undertaking Lead The Method. Thanks for becoming a member of us, Andrea. I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your position.
Andrea Holzwarth: Thanks for having me right now. I’m Andrea Holzwarth, as you talked about serving because the vp of gross sales enablement and buyer operations for Undertaking Lead The Method. I’ve been with Undertaking Lead The Method for eight years now served in quite a lot of roles. Totally on our gross sales workforce, so I served on our faculty success workforce, our new district engagement workforce, and our strategic accounts workforce. I not too long ago transitioned over to our buyer operations workforce in July, and actually on this position I function the chief of our gross sales enablement, so offering our gross sales workforce with all of the sources that they want, all of the skilled improvement teaching coaching they want, whereas additionally fixing a few of these operational challenges that we might have. Whether or not these are inside or exterior, simply making it simpler for our buyer to implement Undertaking Lead The Method.
SS: I like that. Now, previous to Highspot, you have been leveraging a special platform for enablement, together with a separate studying administration system. Are you able to inform us about that have and in the end what led you to resolve to actually consolidate your enablement tech stack?
AH: As you talked about, we have been utilizing quite a lot of sources, and as you may think about with quite a lot of sources, there’s actually no supply of fact of the place the correct useful resource is, or the place that studying is. And so, Highspot actually was chosen by Undertaking Lead The Method as our gross sales enablement device due to its capability to be the supply of fact but additionally its capability to combine into Salesforce. It’s an easy-to-build studying administration system for us.
A few the opposite issues that we actually appreciated about Highspot was the power to offer gross sales performs to our workforce. So, the “know, say, present, and do” to actually equip our workforce with the correct useful resource on the proper time to the correct viewers. After which we additionally actually appreciated the event of discuss tracks and the way we will present workforce members the chance to take heed to their friends and a few of these role-play conversations round focused matters or particular PLTW applications.
SS: I like that. What have you ever seen because the impression of getting a unified answer relatively than separate siloed instruments?
AH: We’ve seen fairly a little bit of impression to this point, however I’ll say that Highspot actually supplied our workforce a unified vocabulary and once more, that single supply of fact. And it additionally allowed our gross sales workforce to be actually extra environment friendly and efficient within the discipline. As a substitute of digging round looking for that one useful resource, they have been capable of finding every thing in a single spot.
And it was additionally tagged appropriately. And I say “spot” a bit little bit of pun meant there, however it allowed them to search out every thing they wanted. I discussed this earlier, however we do prefer to say the correct useful resource, proper time for that proper viewers.
SS: I like that. And also you guys are literally driving improbable adoption throughout the board, so kudos to you and the workforce. I imagine you guys have a 95% pitch adoption fee and 68% play adoption. What have been your greatest practices for making certain a profitable launch if you first rolled out Highspot?
AH: Yeah, we’re very excited and inspired about our preliminary implementation, positively some early wins for us, which has been simply phenomenal for our gross sales enablement workforce, but additionally for our gross sales workforce as effectively. We took two approaches and I’ll say that we began growing our implementation plan far earlier than our launch date. We wished to actually take a two particular approaches. The primary method is the “do with, not do to” mentality. And the second was to go sluggish to go quick later. Clearly, these sound very corny, however that’s what we stored going again to each time we have been growing our implementation plan.
We wished our workforce to really feel these small victories alongside the best way. So we began off with actually small month-to-month studying. I’ll give an instance: our launch date was truly October fifth, and we shared just one expectation for the month of October for our full workforce. Ship 5 pitches. That appears type of small and a few individuals bought it accomplished inside hours and the others took a few days or perhaps weeks. And that’s okay as a result of that’s all they should do is ship 5 pitches. We wished to carry everybody alongside us and have an effect on that early timeline.
We wished them to get comfy. The opposite piece that we did too develop a suggestions group earlier than our launch date and this has helped us to pre-identify some workforce members that we thought can be early adopters. And most of them are, and in order that has helped us acquire suggestions from our, from these utilizing it. So once more, do with, not do to.
SS: I like that motto. Alongside these strains, as you talked about, a kind of issues that you simply did to assist construct that momentum was get suggestions and create a brilliant consumer group. Inform us extra about that. How did that make it easier to drive adoption?
AH: Yeah, so we developed that tremendous consumer group or we name it our engagement workforce suggestions group – and only for reference our gross sales workforce at Undertaking Lead The Method is referenced as our engagement workforce – we wished them to be people who have been driving the adoption So we didn’t need it to be one thing that was occurring.
From the operations workforce, you could do that. It’s actually like I’m doing with them and we wished them to be leaders inside their teams, so we requested for a few commitments straight away from these workforce members and people commitments have been one: commit for an entire group, an entire yr to be in that group, and to not prioritize conferences. We all know that there’s a lot of conferences, a lot of conflicts, however to prioritize attendance.
And the second was actually laid out fairly clearly was we wish to present Brene Brown’s “clear is form” suggestions, which means we didn’t need it to only say, “Hey, that is nice.” “No, it’s all going effectively.” What wasn’t going effectively, how might we be taught that? Earlier than we took that studying to our full gross sales workforce, we will work out a few of these kinks. After which the opposite factor that we’ve actually seen success with is that this group has continued to offer that suggestions alongside the best way, however they’ve additionally taken their learnings and expertise and shared it with their house groups.
And that wasn’t a requirement and one thing we even stated it’s simply they have been recognized by their leaders as being tremendous customers And so it was a pleasant approach for them to have a few of that peer-to-peer studying Versus you realize, the client operations workforce coming in and sharing so we host these month-to-month learnings as a full workforce After which our tremendous consumer group goes and shares of their particular person groups, which in addition they type of share a few of their suggestions or tips find out how to do one thing a bit quicker or a workaround which is simply enjoyable to see as effectively.
SS: I actually love that method. I hope a few of our different clients can reap the benefits of that and implement that inside their very own organizations. Now, rolling out a brand new device and driving adoption may require some habits change. What are a few of your greatest practices for motivating that habits change?
AH: Everyone knows change is tough. It doesn’t matter what change you’re going via, your private, skilled, change goes to be laborious. Everybody has a sure threshold of change that they will take earlier than it turns into uncomfortable. We actually wished to sit down there and determine and produce everybody alongside us in that change, so we wished them perhaps to really feel pushed a bit exterior consolation zone, however by no means to go previous that threshold. We wished them to really feel profitable. I believe that’s one greatest follow. Not going once more too quick, sustaining a few of that sluggish momentum. So that you’re bringing everybody with you.
The factor that we’ve liked to see over the past couple of months, their implementation is we’ve got some that aren’t essentially the tremendous customers, however but they nonetheless need extra. They wish to continue to learn extra. They need some extra nuggets the place we’ve got one other group who’s simply type of staying alongside proper alongside our studying. So it’s been a very nice factor there. One other greatest follow I discussed earlier, however once more, it’s. Do with, not do to – so how can we carry everybody with us on this studying? How can we make everybody really feel part of our implementation? It’s not one thing that they need to do, it’s one thing they’re attending to do.
The opposite factor that we actually did to start with was share the top consequence. Highspot was a change and our workforce could be very mission-driven at Undertaking Lead The Method, so we wished to showcase to them how using Highspot was going to really feel higher to our clients. One in every of PLTW’s core values is buyer centricity. Our clients are on the heart of all that we do. And we actually imagine that Highspot as a useful resource makes a extra buyer, seamless buyer expertise. And so we shared that with our workforce and showcased that to the workforce so that they knew that, “hey, I’m not solely doing this as a result of we’re altering over to this, however it’s additionally higher for my clients that I’m serving.”
Lastly, I’d say information helps. So we’re now capable of showcase to our groups how efficient their outreach is. In some methods earlier than, let’s imagine if somebody was opening an electronic mail, however now we will present in the event that they’ve opened it, how lengthy they seen it, did they share it. And we have been simply considerably at nighttime earlier than. Empowering our workforce with information, simply serving to them to wish to personal a few of their very own studying and Highspot, too.
SS: I believe that’s improbable. And also you guys even have a really distinctive and specialised gross sales workforce at Undertaking Lead The Method. Loads of them truly come from a educating background relatively than a standard gross sales background, which is wonderful.
What are a few of the distinctive concerns you could have for driving habits change amongst a barely lower than conventional gross sales workforce, and the way does Highspot assist?
AH: At Undertaking Lead The Method, we see a robust worth of workforce members who’ve that have from our buyer base inside our PLTW community. Lots of our workforce members do come from our community previous to becoming a member of us. I’m going to return to what I discussed earlier, however Highspot supplied us with that frequent vocabulary. It additionally gave us consistency throughout the board, and we might share that there was one thing that if a college was contacting us in California and even in Florida, they have been having that very same buyer expertise due to Highspot, we have been capable of showcase that consistency.
It’s additionally supplied a straightforward button for our account homeowners and so they don’t need to seek for issues. They don’t need to perhaps assume that somebody wants one thing or, you realize, attempt to put themselves in these, the footwear of that buyer. We actually have accomplished that legwork for them by placing issues particularly spots and showcasing or tying them to the right alternative stage. We’ve made the simple button, so there’s not a variety of different extra pondering. They’ll simply construct the connection, which is what our accountants are so good at; constructing relationships with our faculty districts.
SS: I like that. Coaching applications play a extremely huge position in with the ability to drive habits change. One in every of your key initiatives for the yr forward is to construct out sturdy onboarding and coaching applications. How are you designing these applications and leveraging Highspot to assist ship them?
AH: We imagine that onboarding for a brand new workforce member is likely one of the most important occasions if you’re bringing on a brand new workforce member throughout their tenure. We would like each workforce member to get that greatest elementary begin. We would like them to be foundationally sound but additionally see the buy-in and perceive the place we’re going as a corporation, and we imagine we had a fairly robust onboarding expertise earlier than. However, a variety of our onboarding was constructed in-house, and it was a variety of conferences with different people, and we try to take down the quantity of conferences that we might have, and we’re making an attempt to outline, but additionally resolve what’s one of the best ways for a few of that studying.
Highspot’s studying administration has helped us try this as a result of we will construct programs. We will additionally test for understanding alongside the best way. It’s not going to exchange each assembly. We imagine, once more, these first 4 weeks are actually essential. We would like that new workforce member to really feel interplay, to really feel a relationship constructing with Undertaking Lead The Method. However a few of these issues are very operational or very administrative. How can we take a few of these and put them into Highspot that they will do on their very own time? As a substitute of getting to schedule some conferences, we’re nonetheless dipping our toe into what that appears like. We’re excited to transition a few of that studying into Highspot
SS: I like that. What are a few of the early wins that you simply’ve began to see because you launched Highspot and the way are you measuring success?
AH: That’s an amazing query. There’s a lot of methods. I believe I used to be speaking to somebody the opposite day – Highspot offers you a variety of information and there’s a lot of it to take a look at, you don’t need to determine which information that you simply’re .
One in every of our early wins: I discussed our October studying, so our November studying was that every one of our lead outreach would transfer over to Highspot and would use pitch templates. Once more, create consistency for us. We had by no means had a constant lead outreach expertise earlier than. We moved all of that to Highspot, and the most important win that we acquired from our gross sales workforce was that we might present to them by the top of the month that we had a 71% open fee for all of our sales-qualified lead outreach. We might by no means share that information with them earlier than as a result of we didn’t have it and it wasn’t constant once more a college in California might have been getting a special electronic mail than a college in Connecticut. We wished them to have that and seeing that information helped them get once more extra adoption and buy-in. That was one of many huge issues.
Then, I’ll simply say, we preserve listening to anecdotal suggestions too, from totally different workforce members alongside the best way. My favourite is when workforce members will attain out to me by way of groups and simply share their experiences. The opposite day, certainly one of our high performers messaged me and stated, “Oh my gosh, Highspot, such a recreation changer for my lead work. I used to be capable of get via 30 leads in 20 minutes.” And it was like, “Wow, that’s superior.” That’s extra time for them to be out within the discipline, for them to be supporting clients as a substitute of, you realize, simply sending an electronic mail type of factor. So a lot of alternative ways to see success, however that’s actually the place we’re beginning with.
SS: I like these. These are some nice early wins, Andrea. It’s the brand new yr. So, my final query for you: how do you intend to proceed to optimize your enablement technique with Highspot within the yr forward?
AH: Yeah, we did develop a year-long implementation plan. I type of talked about this earlier, however we wished our workforce to really feel assured, to really feel comfy with Highspot this yr.
Our full first yr of implementation was simply what we thought success can be if we have been adopting, comfy, and assured. So what we’ve accomplished is beginning in October of this yr, we recognized one month-to-month studying every month, after which we construct upon that every month as effectively.
And in order that’s our plan, to proceed constructing on. We put a few of these larger nuggets, the thrilling issues, a bit bit later within the yr as a result of we wished the workforce to be operationally sound with Highspot. However for instance, our digital rooms are going to be arising quickly. That’s the place we’ll be sharing with the workforce.
Additionally, extra gross sales performs might be concerned with the workforce. And so we’ve shared that calendar with the total workforce. We wish to be clear on this. We do have an asterisk, “topic to alter”. Issues might change alongside the best way, however we’ve got shared with them what that studying goes to be, and in addition what that expectation of what to do with that studying.
So, we’re all in with it, we’re going to maintain rolling, and we’re excited to see how far our workforce goes. We have already got some workforce members who we haven’t shared a digital room with simply but, however they’ve accomplished it on their very own as a result of they’ve accomplished some self-learning and we’re enthusiastic about that. They’ve been in there.
They’re those early adopting. So we see some early success and we’re excited to see the remainder of the yr with it.
SS: I like that, I’m too. I’m excited to see the way you guys succeed within the yr forward. Effectively, Andrea, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us. I actually admire it.
AH: Thanks for having me.
SS: To our viewers, thanks for listening to this episode of the Win Win Podcast. You should definitely tune in subsequent time for extra insights on how one can maximize enablement success with Highspot.
