In response to analysis from Salesforce, 94% of gross sales organizations plan to consolidate their tech stacks to spice up productiveness. So how are you going to construct an environment friendly tech stack to help sellers and drive success in your staff?

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 tendencies within the office and learn how to navigate them efficiently.

Right here to debate this matter is Concord Johnston-Grant, the principal technique and program lead at Medtronic. Thanks for becoming a member of us, Concord. I’d love so that you can inform us a little bit bit about your self, your background, and your function. 

Concord Johnston-Grant: Thanks for having me immediately on the podcast. So sure, I’m Concord. I’ve been at Medtronic throughout the diabetes group for about six and a half years now.

It’s gone in a short time. My essential tasks are actually how we drive technique by to execution by utilizing Enablement techniques and frameworks, equivalent to Highspot, Salesforce, and actually driving that collaboration between all of our cross features so we are able to shortly translate the wants of our subject drive and our advertising technique into our wider packages.

SS: We’re excited to have you ever right here, Concord. Given your expertise within the life sciences business, what are among the distinctive challenges that reps within the business face and the way can enablement assist overcome these? 

HJ: Undoubtedly. So we have to exhibit confirmed medical outcomes of how know-how can enhance the usual of care.

And the med-tech panorama is altering and advancing fairly shortly, in addition to being extremely regulated. So there are a variety of differing elements by nation, could possibly be as a consequence of product availability, healthcare fashions, regulatory necessities. So all of those can sort of have an effect on how we go to market. So it’s actually essential as a staff that we’re agile and capable of adapt to carry technique by to execution shortly.

And that is actually the place enablement is available in to help our groups all through their entire journey. So issues like their onboarding, um, maintaining on top of things with market tendencies, expertise they want. How we allow and help them to go to market. So bringing sort of cross practical groups collectively to make sure the alignment after which additionally guaranteeing that our competencies and key outcomes and metrics are actually aligned to our wider strategic objectives and targets.

SS: I believe that’s phenomenal. And also you really take a consultative strategy to understanding and addressing what your reps want. I’d love to know, how do you go about sort of gathering and incorporating rep suggestions into your enablement packages? 

HJ: Undoubtedly. So I’m a really massive advocate for steady enchancment and I believe suggestions is mostly a essential a part of enablement.

So we use a couple of totally different fashions and mechanisms to seize suggestions. So one sort of being that we have now a subject advisory board. So that is the place we’ve acquired representatives from every of our international locations and areas that we seek the advice of with for any new methods or packages. So it could be that we run pilots with them, for instance, and it is a actually nice approach to validate our insights and get that subject suggestions.

One other couple of strategies are sort of surveys to seize the broader organizational suggestions. So that they’re actually nice. For pre and post-program surveys to so you may sort of quantify how issues are progressing after which additionally any new packages that we launch, we make it possible for we’ve acquired that basically key foundational help and suggestions mannequin in place.

So we have now like native champions, for instance, who preserve us in that shut contact. So we all know how issues are going. And as we’ve acquired a variety of international locations and markets, it’s actually good to have that native information and that well-structured cadence of suggestions as a result of what may go in a single market could not work in one other.

I’ll really share with you later a narrative about how we use sort of that consultative strategy that led us to truly implement Highspot. 

SS: Superb. I believe that’s phenomenal recommendation. Now, as I discussed within the introduction, a variety of organizations are actually fascinated by learn how to drive effectivity and effectiveness by sort of the consolidation of their tech stack.

And I do know one among your key focus areas is the creation and administration of the gross sales tech stack. What are a few of your greatest practices for constructing an environment friendly tech stack that also meets the wants of your sellers? . 

HJ: So there’s a variety of tech available on the market. It may be fairly onerous to maintain up, however I believe it sort of comes down to a couple issues that you actually need to sort of think about.

So I believe one is how one can preserve issues so simple as potential in your staff. So I’m positive many different enablement professionals have heard this. We’ve acquired too many feeds, too many instruments, too many techniques. So how are you going to actually drive that simplicity in your finish customers? I believe that’s actually so simple as listening to the boundaries, their wants.

How will you carry all these options and insights into one place and embed them into their workflow or an current system in order that they don’t need to swivel chair between a number of platforms. Actually drive these insights into motion and produce worth. I believe one other side is admittedly what’s the strategic route of your tech stack and what are your online business objectives and how are you going to align the 2.

In order that’s the place it’s actually vital that you’ve got that inside alignment and imaginative and prescient with your entire prospects. Useful groups and IT to know actually, okay, how can we embed our enterprise objectives into our tech stack and the way our techniques can combine collectively. After which lastly, I might say, how are you going to truly operationally help the tech stack and what does success appear to be?

So you may have an important system, but when it’s not carried out and supported appropriately, you’re going to lose a buy-in. So fascinated by issues like how are you going to coach your groups?What doess the help mannequin appear to be? And tech is consistently evolving, so how are you going to make sure that any new developments together with your tech are additionally cascaded to these groups and everybody’s sort of stored updated?

After which the way you align your success metrics with your online business objectives to essentially drive that technique by? 

SS: What would you say is the distinctive worth of getting an enablement platform to help your go-to-market initiatives? 

HJ: Yeah, undoubtedly. So I’ll share the story I discussed earlier. So beforehand we had been utilizing two separate instruments.

So one was our content material device after which our CRM. And what we observed was the adoption wasn’t actually sort of trending the place we anticipated it to be. So we initiated a deep dive course of into this. And so we actually use that consultative strategy to look into the important thing tendencies and perceive why. So for instance, we ran a survey, and we actually had sort of one dialog with our subject boss and native advertising to essentially get that contextualization as to what was occurring.

And what we discovered was that conceptually, the thought of the instruments was there, however the worth wasn’t being realized as a consequence of sure boundaries. So for instance, the content material device wasn’t embedded into their workflow and their CRM. Sure international locations hadn’t seen sure items of content material and native advertising couldn’t see the visibility of what content material was getting used and the way it was touchdown.

So we sort of took this We took all this suggestions and we labored collectively cross-functionally to essentially consider the instruments that we had been utilizing. And we recognized that we actually wanted a unified and built-in platform. Use throughout all units, actually sort of structured the cadence of content material and steerage, giving us these insights again as to how issues are working.

So that is the place Highspot got here into play. So we investigated a couple of totally different instruments, and validated Highspot on the pilot, once more, utilizing that sort of suggestions strategy. After which. So this enabled a extra streamlined cadence between all of our groups, ensuring we’re talking the identical language, delivering the identical message constantly, and that the sector drive actually has every thing in a single place inside their workflow.

So I’d say undoubtedly the distinctive worth for us being such a big group is admittedly having that collaboration inside one unified embedded platform. 

SS: I really like that. What are, I do know one of many key GTM initiatives your staff has been specializing in can be supporting the rollout of latest know-how.

Are you able to inform us extra about this initiative and among the ways in which you’re serving to reps higher execute? 

HJ: So earlier this 12 months, we launched a brand new product throughout a number of international locations, which packs us in a number of various things. So timings, languages, we even have free languages in sure international locations. So there’s rather a lot to contemplate and a variety of totally different groups concerned.

So product, medical, schooling, advertising, gross sales, the checklist goes on. In order an enablement staff, we actually introduced everybody collectively and labored with all of these inside stakeholders to usher in these property. Construct a gross sales play. So this lined every thing from strategic targets to messaging for our exterior stakeholders consistent with our gross sales methodology, bringing in collectively the content material that the groups wanted to make use of and the way they need to go to marketplace for their respective international locations.

So what they wanted to essentially do to achieve success with that launch? After which I believe a further profit of getting this consolidated into actually one place is that native groups had been capable of shortly and effectively then alter into the native language and add in these native dynamics as properly. 

SS: Superb. I really like that strategy. What are among the outcomes that you simply’ve seen from these efforts and do you’ve got any early wins you may share? 

HJ: Yeah, undoubtedly. So I might say really simply having every thing in a single place for our subject drive has been actually helpful. After which I might say our velocity as to how we cadence info in a way more streamlined manner.

So for instance, with that product launch gross sales play, that may have been a number of items of steerage and content material from a number of groups. And now we’ve acquired one aligned message to help our subject drive and allow them to go to market. After which lastly, it’s actually having that visibility on how our content material and steerage is touchdown.

So using these insights to make enhancements and that suggestions to have that steady, I suppose, digital cycle of insights into actions. So it’s undoubtedly a staff effort and alter administration however it could carry a variety of insights and worth. 

SS: I really like that. I really like that. Now, on that notice, we talked about how rep suggestions performs an enormous function within the improvement of your packages.

On the opposite facet, how do you leverage information to judge and optimize the impression of your packages? 

HJ: Using insights for knowledgeable determination making is admittedly embedded into our firm tradition and I believe this actually goes hand in hand with suggestions since you want that contextualization to make sense of it.

So, for instance, we use the OKR and A3 methodology throughout our diabetes group. So this ensures that we’ve acquired key outcomes and success metrics for every of our strategic targets. So we’re capable of see if one thing isn’t progressing precisely how we anticipate it to. Now we have these common check-ins, however then we are able to additionally deep dive into the why.

So like that instance I shared with you earlier. We use that information, we use these insights to know and deep dive into why as to issues that aren’t working after which adapt our strategy. And I believe it’s actually vital to have and instill this mindset of data-driven insights throughout your group as measures ought to be designed to tug folks in direction of your total imaginative and prescient.

SS: Final query for you, Concord. As you’re trying forward, how do you envision leveraging improvements like AI to boost your enablement program and proceed to optimize your tech stack? 

HJ: The potential with AI and know-how could be very thrilling, however I believe it’s additionally simple to get misplaced in all the chances or bounce straight into resolution mode.

There was a Gartner podcast and so they mentioned 72 p.c of sellers are overwhelmed by the variety of expertise required for his or her job. And 50 p.c are overwhelmed by the quantity of know-how that’s wanted. So I believe that is the place it’s actually key that our function as enablement is to make sure that our groups are supported and upskilled to make use of know-how and AI.

So the best way that we’ve been approaching AI inside our staff is Actually trying into these sort of particular use instances, doing a little proof of ideas inside our packages and utilizing that consultative strategy with our subject advisory board. So we are able to actually validate these use instances and understand the worth of them.

So for instance, these days we’ve been trying into sort of AI gross sales teaching and adaptive studying, and we’ve run that by our subject advisory board to essentially perceive with them, is that this going so as to add worth. Is that this going to drive that simplification? After which utilizing these insights to form which route we’ll go.

I believe the final side as properly is being in such a regulated business, what’s actually essential is that AI and know-how are actually underpinned by belief. So utilizing that information in an moral and compliant manner. So it’s additionally actually vital to look into these nontechnical issues together with your AI technique as properly.

SS: Phenomenal recommendation, Concord. And I’m excited to see what you guys do on that entrance. Thanks once more a lot for becoming a member of us on this podcast. I actually recognize the time. 

HJ: Thanks a lot for having me. It’s been pretty. 

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