In response to the State of Gross sales Enablement 2024, 31% of trade leaders see constant pipeline era as a key precedence. So how are you going to successfully leverage your tech stack to drive pipeline development and maximize income era?
Riley Rogers: Hello, and welcome to the Win-Win podcast. I’m your host, Riley Rogers. Right here to debate this subject is Alyssa Sigafus, gross sales enablement and host B2B advertising supervisor at Lifetouch. Thanks a lot for becoming a member of us, Alyssa. As we get began, I’d love in case you may simply inform us just a little bit about your self, your background, and your position at Lifetouch immediately.
Alyssa Sigafus: Sounds good. Thanks Riley. Tremendous excited to be right here. So my identify’s Alyssa Fuss. I’ve been at Lifetouch for the previous three years as our gross sales enablement advertising supervisor specializing in the host facet, which is like our colleges and B2B facet of the enterprise. Personally, I’ve one daughter, two canines, my husband and I, we reside in central, Northern Minnesota.
So we love the winter within the chilly. One thing I love to do in my free time, I make loads of sourdough bread. However I’ve been in gross sales enablement for the previous little over a decade now, and gross sales help is sort of the factor that I simply actually have beloved and have beloved working with the entire instruments and issues like that, and simply seeing groups succeed from help.
RR: Wonderful. Nicely, we’re so excited to have you ever immediately due to that have and due to that zeal for simply serving to individuals succeed, we wanna know the way you’re doing it. So we’ve received so much to speak about beginning perhaps with a number of the priorities which are high of thoughts for you immediately. So in your work at Lifetouch, what are a few of these key go-to-market initiatives that you just’re centered on driving for the enterprise?
AS: Superior. Yeah. At Lifetouch, a few of my go-to market focus is all about driving development and equipping our gross sales group to primarily, you already know, win. This implies arming sellers with proper instruments, messaging, and utilizing knowledge to high-quality tune our strategy, protecting our gross sales, advertising and operations like tightly aligned and pulled collectively.
This has actually helped us construct that go to market movement that’s actually quick focus and most significantly, buyer pushed.
RR: Superior. I believe, you already know, you ask anybody in a go-to-market position about their priorities and issues like development, pipeline income, these are the issues which are gonna come up. It’s inevitable.
They’re core to the enterprise they usually’re what’s gonna be high of thoughts for you. So figuring out that, in fact these are high of thoughts for you, what are perhaps a few of these frequent recurring challenges that organizations like yours perhaps face when attempting to realize these targets?
AS: Good query. I believe the true problem isn’t essentially producing leads.
It’s persistently attracting the precise ones and transferring them to shut rapidly. So constructing on this, for our enterprise, particularly Lifetouch faculty images, we have now an outlined set of leads. For instance, there are solely so many faculties in US and Canada, so we have now centered on creating like e-mail templates, content material that assist sellers establish what content material the leads are fascinated about that assist that transfer rapidly by way of their gross sales cycle and to shut.
RR: Yeah, I believe that’s actually fascinating figuring out that you just’re, you already know, you’re sort of constrained in a method that some companies aren’t, so you might want to work just a little bit extra strategically and just a little bit smarter to seek out these proper candidates, primarily. Out of your expertise, what are a number of the techniques that you just’ve seen work to beat these challenges and allow reps to create extra alternatives and obtain these targets that, you already know, everybody is considering?
AS: Hmm, yeah, to assist reps create extra of these alternatives after which enhance these conversion charges. I actually give attention to just a few key practices. The primary one’s focused collateral. We actually attempt to make sure that our reps have UpToDate advertising aligned supplies that help their conversations by persona, by trade and stage of the funnel.
For us, it’s really simply, you already know, training colleges, that sort of factor. The second is peer studying. I’ve sort of name it our month-to-month stage up that we do each month with our sellers. And we sort of share greatest practices. We discuss what’s working, we share what instruments have come out or items of collateral which have come out within the final month, what we’re wanting ahead to.
Um, typically we carry different operations members or different advertising members in to speak about a number of the issues which are persevering with to assist help them. After which the final half I actually give attention to is content material alignment. So we usually audit. Replace our gross sales content material to make sure consistency with present messaging and our marketing campaign priorities.
RR: Nicely, it looks like you guys are sort of checking the field on the entire key issues to construct that basically purposeful engine. We attempt. It’s at all times a course of and it’s at all times that by no means really feel like we’re doing sufficient, however we have now heard that you just guys are doing a little actually cool issues and we’re gonna dig into that in a second, however one factor I did wanna contact on is one thing that you just talked about earlier of one of many issues that drew you to enablement and that you just take pleasure in is the tooling and determining what works. So with regards to enablement know-how, what would you say is that strategic benefit of a unified platform in the entire work that you just simply talked us by way of?
AS: Unified enablement platform accelerates income by placing the precise content material, instruments and insights within the rep’s palms once they want them. So actually equipping them on the proper instances, on the proper supplies. It ensures like constant messaging, driving that effectivity and offers groups the information, which is one thing that lots of people miss, uh, the very best worth alternatives that they’ve.
It additionally provides us a constant solution to measure their success that reps have. The content material that we’re utilizing to greatest share these practices amongst the leaders within the areas so everybody can profit.
RR: I believe that every one sounds nice. I do know one factor that you’re doing particularly is utilizing digital rooms to scale your outreach.
We’ve heard that your reps have, and these are some sort of loopy numbers, simply to preface for our listeners, we’ve heard that your reps have created over 2, 600 digital rooms and seen over 100 thousand exterior views. Two issues there that I’d like to know. How has this technique sort of impacted your outreach after which for individuals who would wanna replicate it, how did you do it?
How’d you make that occur?
AS: Oh, properly, utilizing digital rooms have scaled our personalised outreach, driving that larger engagement and sooner pipeline motion. Key greatest practices for us embody that tailoring content material, protecting our messaging clear, and utilizing analytics to spice up outcomes and information the sellers conversations and timing of their outreach.
For an instance, we discovered a few of our sellers. Will share a digital room earlier than they’ve a presentation with a buyer, after which the vendor will look to see the content material that’s being considered, after which they’ll tailor their presentation to see what that buyer has been . Principally to verify of their presentation that they’re speaking about these factors that they’re actually digging into.
RR: Wonderful. I’d simply like to know, how did you construct that top adoption? How did you get reps purchased in? I do know it’s by no means straightforward to drive that habits change, however how did you get them seeing the worth of this?
AS: I believe actually the best way that we did coaching is we actually constructed these steps of beginning at pitching, transferring to a few of these different larger like video recording and speaking about that basically personalised strategy.
After which we sort of ended with the coaching a part of digital rooms as just like the crown jewel of the issues that they’ve entry to they usually actually received enthusiastic about it having these months. Like connections, actually taking the time to fulfill with them usually. After we first carried out this to our whole gross sales group, we met with them each single week for, you already know, an hour with every chin of the us, which we break up it into three.
In order that they received an hour with the enablement group each single week, after which continued to fulfill, we nonetheless continued to fulfill month-to-month with the entire groups, um, and exhibiting these issues. However the digital rooms, they had been so enthusiastic about. It’s private. They will, you already know. Co-brand them with the college and have these logos on there and auto allow function that you’ve got the place if we replace a chunk of content material, it’ll mechanically simply push by way of as we replace the model.
It’s been such a sport changer for them. They like it.
RR: Nicely, it sounds such as you’ve actually achieved an excellent job then of. Constructing that confidence. They noticed the worth, however you’ve taught them to make use of it properly, and also you’ve put loads of work into doing so, and also you’re seeing that sort of affect now. And that sort of feeds into the subsequent query I had for you, which is that one thing that underlies profitable purchaser engagement is rep confidence.
And also you’ve shared that you just’ve seen a. 77% improve in rep confidence after leveraging Highspot. So may you stroll us by way of the way you achieved that after which perhaps how that enhance in confidence helps reps carry out higher once they’re having these conversations with colleges.
AS: So by giving them that prompt entry to the precise content material and steering by way of Highspot, that is actually simply.
Resulted in additional of that efficient purchaser interactions, that sooner pipeline development, and which strikes to the upper conversion charges. Once they see that somebody has opened their e-mail they usually’re already that content material with that pitch, or they’ve already gone into that digital room, it actually simply makes them excited.
In order that they’re simply extra wanting to proceed to leap in. They will immediately have that prompt gratification and you already know. Enthusiastic about and hold going.
RR: Superior. Nicely, I believe that’s a kind of issues that tends to work proper on your gross sales people is you’re doing the precise factor. It’s serving to you obtain what you wish to, and now you already know that you may go run and proceed pursuing it. And so they see it.
AS: They see it in motion. It’s been actually enjoyable.
RR: Yeah. I imply, I do know once I share my digital rooms, you get that ping and also you’re like, ah, I can go do the factor. It’s wonderful, proper? I believe that, you already know, extra assured reps is sort of what all people is attempting to realize. Higher purchaser engagement.
They’re all key targets. It looks like you guys are making progress towards these targets, however I’d be curious to know the way you’re utilizing knowledge insights, the entire issues that Highspot means that you can do to tell and perhaps enhance these packages that you just’re main.
AS: The insights have led us observe engagement, optimize our messaging and focus reps on the alternatives that matter probably the most, turning knowledge into sooner pipeline development and better conversions.
So we had mentioned, I mentioned earlier, we do these month-to-month stage ups. So not solely can we join on the content material and items which are, you already know, working and never working, we additionally join on the information and work with our gross sales group to verify everybody understands their efficiency. How the content material is performing, what’s working, what’s not, after which moreover seeing the issues that aren’t working to assist tailor their strategy and assist enhance and form the best way that they’re utilizing their Digital Rooms and simply pitching on the whole with the content material that we offer.
RR: Okay, so pondering then of, of. Information and these month-to-month syncs that you just do to sort of verify, Hey, what are we doing properly? What do we have to sort of pull again on? I’d like to know, since implementing Highspot and as you’ve been doing these continuous intestine checks, what outcomes have you ever seen? What successes have you ever encountered and perhaps any wins you can share or achievements that you just’re significantly happy with?
AS: So there’s a few sides to this. So there’s clearly the bodily knowledge facet, proper? After which the emotional facet of it for our sellers, the primary one we’ve actually been digging into our gross sales power and sort of evaluating and attempting to get some extra deeper knowledge. Highspot has actually helped with a few of these items.
The primary factor I believe has been most fun is seeing that gross sales cycle shorten, lower it in half is the commonest that we’ve seen, however. There’s been instances it’s gone all the way down to even from begin to end inside 48 hours, and that’s not each single gross sales, however I’ve really watched it gone out and achieved my very own ride-alongs and seen they’ve despatched the digital room within the pitch and it goes to love, we’re speaking about this and we’ve received a contract in your hand.
So it’s been actually thrilling for them to have that. Gross sales cycle, shorten, they’ll use their time extra successfully and issues like that. After which the emotional facet, you simply actually see them, the morale of it, the improved morale. It’s serving to them really feel supported by their operations, advertising, gross sales enablement groups, and, and it simply actually helps us be actually nice teamwork collectively and transfer ahead sooner.
RR: I like that sort of twofold breakdown of what are we really seeing after which how are we feeling with it? I’m so comfortable to listen to that either side are constructive. The info’s serving to you observe up and all people’s feeling just a little bit extra assured of their work. So for different enablement and advertising leaders that need to use digital rooms in the best way that life touches, to streamline that outreach, create extra alternatives, drive higher pipeline development, what’s one, two items of recommendation you’d give them to essentially assist them achieve success?
AS: My recommendation is to essentially take the time to completely discover the platform, help your group all through the rollout, after which considerate deployment and constructing person confidence will drive adoption and affect common check-ins. Sharing greatest practices will result in that long-term success.
RR: Wonderful recommendation. Tidy, quick, to the purpose. Be considerate, be intentional. It’s gonna lead you to success each time. Nicely, I’ve to, earlier than we shut this out, simply once more say thanks a lot for becoming a member of us. This can be a actually nice dialog. You guys are doing such unimaginable work and I’m actually comfortable we received to dig into it just a little bit.
AS: Nicely, thanks, Riley, we have now been so excited to have Highspot and it’s been actually a sport changer for us. So thanks guys.
RR: Unbelievable. To our viewers, thanks a lot 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.
