Latest Highspot analysis of greater than 500 world organizations revealed that by having a scientific strategy to conduct change, you might be 34% extra more likely to have enablement actions which are aligned with key enterprise priorities. So how are you going to create a scientific strategy to drive outcomes by means of enablement?
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 methods to navigate them efficiently. Right here to debate this subject is Alexa Barden, development enablement at Rapid7. Thanks for becoming a member of, Alexa! I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your function.
Alexa Barden: Thanks a lot, I’m comfortable to be right here. My title is Alexa Barden. I’ve served in a number of totally different roles and fields post-college. I began out my profession extra within the particular schooling realm. I’ve at all times had that knack for studying and enablement. Then I moved into numerous sorts of assist, and account administration roles, adopted by coaching and growth, after which lastly the place I’m now, gross sales enablement.
From my instructional background and my present enablement function, as I stated, I’ve at all times had that deep ardour and curiosity within the learner’s journey and their expertise from begin to end. Having the ability to implement applications and see that full circle and full spectrum of the learners actually having the ability to grasp that materials and the content material and the ideas behind it’s all actually tremendous rewarding to me.
Particularly, my function at Rapid7 has additionally seen a number of totally different faces, just like my profession. I started having a hand extra so in our onboarding. by means of new rent facilitation, actually serving to to construct out a world gross sales institute program, after which it moved into extra of an ongoing challenge and program administration sort of function, the place I’ll work with totally different stakeholders throughout the enterprise to assist higher perceive their wants throughout their segments and assist to deliver these to life.
Then the third a part of my function which is sort of the place Highspot actually comes into play is targeted round our enablement tooling and likewise lots of the information in analytics that sort of dwell in these. I hope to extract that knowledge from numerous sources and distill that down right into a extra digestible format for our management for my boss, for our group as an entire, to assist sort of paint that full image into, no matter that initiative is and the way it’s doing and ensuring it’s profitable.
SS: I really like that. You talked about the important thing parts of your enablement technique at Rapid7 and also you talked just a little bit about how Highspot helps you deliver a few of that to life, however are there different ways in which Highspot helps you deliver that technique to life?
AB: Yeah, positively. I might say past simply being a content material repository, and I feel we’ll most likely get into this as nicely, we’re new clients of the Coaching and Teaching portion. Utilizing now for a studying administration system in addition to content material administration, our reps are absolutely geared up and enabled and in a position to see every little thing in that single pane of glass view. They’re in a position to now have coaching blended in with the on a regular basis content material that they’re .
They will dive in and study extra about no matter that given subject is perhaps pertaining to our merchandise or our options. It’s actually cool that our sellers are in a position to have that full integrative expertise.
SS: Let’s speak about your personal journey in enablement at Rapid7, since you touched on it once more in your introduction, however you turned the answer proprietor of Highspot a few 12 months in the past. Are you able to share just a little bit about your journey over the previous 12 months?
AB: Yeah, positively. I might say it wasn’t essentially deliberate, however Highspot type of fell in my lap and I’m very comfortable about it. It was beforehand beneath one other group member who was dealing with totally different features of onboarding and our business section. Actually having a devoted and centered proprietor has been nice since we focus on particularly the wants inside Highspot, enhancing the expertise for our sellers, and actually cleansing up that system.
Nobody had traditionally had the time to give attention to it, in order that turned my focus. It’s actually led me to kind a ardour and virtually craft now for all issues Highspot. I work with every little thing from the UX design, the spot and tagging construction, and doing deep dives into that analytics piece, so getting actually detailed info on how our sellers are doing, what they’re , what they’re clicking on, what they’re sending to prospects and clients, it’s been an enormous assist to our group to have a devoted particular person actually taking the time to give attention to that.
SS: As an answer proprietor, you’ve made lots of vital modifications, together with, as you talked about a second in the past, implementing Coaching and Teaching and actually reorganizing your Highspot occasion. Are you able to inform us extra about this evolution of your enablement journey with Highspot?
AB: It began out with lots of points being surfaced once I moved over to essentially proudly owning the system. One of many largest ones I used to be seeing amongst our sellers was content material findability, and to be candid, our system was just a little messy. There have been lots of outdated supplies in there. There was only a surplus of spots. There have been an entire bunch of tags that weren’t essentially getting used. There weren’t actually any governance insurance policies in place. It did make it tough for sellers to search out what they wanted each shortly and effectively.
On high of this, there wasn’t essentially a constant feel and appear throughout our spots, throughout our touchdown pages. It made it just a little messy wanting and overwhelming virtually as if just a little on our homepage and like I stated, there wasn’t lots of consistency there. All of the banners seemed just a little bit totally different, headers and issues like that. I might say the cohesion was additionally just a little bit missing. That was sort of what began me on my journey. How can we handle a few of these issues to make the system, initially, make us use it to its full potential and likewise make it a extra pivotal and demanding a part of our vendor’s day-to-day duties?
The primary steps that I decided have been wanted was beginning with basically from a clean slate and doing an entire revamp of the system, that means beginning out with discovering all of that outdated, low-value content material that lots of people weren’t , and dealing to clear that out, get that muddle out of the best way. That was step one there, after which from there, it was a phased strategy by way of as soon as every little thing was cleaned up ensuring that we condensed it down, so it decreased the quantity of spots, tags, and so forth and so forth.
SS: Simply to drill in just a little bit on the way you revamped your occasion, I do know that you just guys went from having, as you talked about, a considerable variety of spots to a choose few, which helped to enhance findability. Actually, I feel you guys now have 87% content material findability, which is implausible. How did this transformation enable you enhance the effectivity of your group?
AB: That discount was an enormous assist as a result of now it actually comes down to a few core areas that our sellers can go to search out content material, that are content material associated to any of our answer choices, content material associated to our individuals and our processes, so the groups that our gross sales group would possibly interface with, after which additionally our newest sort of information, updates, recordings from our all fingers classes. Should you’re searching for something now, it’s solely going to be in a type of three sections.
That actually helped to eradicate that trial and error, that guessing. It’s making our reps much less reliant on that aimless looking, simply popping in any sort of phrase and seeing what comes up. Now that we’ve applied these easy three spots, we’ve decreased our tags considerably.
We’re seeing that our reps are literally utilizing these tags extra in the event that they’re searching for a selected product, they’ll simply go click on into that product tag and both go to a sure curated touchdown web page or overview web page for that tag, or they’ll simply see that generic content material view of every little thing pertaining to that particular tag. We’re seeing rather a lot much less aimless or doom-searching, no matter you sort of need to name it, which is strictly what we have been searching for. That’s one of many largest enhancements we’ve seen.
SS: That’s implausible. We’ve talked about this a number of instances. I do know that you just not too long ago applied Highspot’s Coaching and Teaching capabilities. How are you planning on incorporating Highspot Coaching and Teaching into your onboarding and ongoing coaching applications?
AB: That is one thing we’re tremendous enthusiastic about. We’re shifting previous that transitional part of shifting all of our content material over and constructing out all of these studying pathways within the Coaching and Teaching occasion. One of many drivers and issues we’re most enthusiastic about is what I discussed just a little bit earlier, that full integrative expertise and having the ability to floor key coaching proper subsequent to no matter collateral or gross sales deck or one pager it is perhaps. They will simply go from studying about X on this one-pager to letting me go forward and take this studying path about this as nicely to additional my data on the subject.
We’re additionally excited in regards to the degree of visibility we’ll be capable of get now utilizing Coaching and Teaching. With issues like, scorecards arising on the horizon, completion charges, progress, and issues like that, we’re actually wanting ahead to getting that full image in one in every of every little thing collectively the place you possibly can see issues like completion charges click on quantity, issues like that on any specific web page or piece of content material to digital promoting metrics, multi functional single house.
We are able to actually assist to focus our managers and practice them to allow them to use this info with their sellers to assist them with teaching, and likewise so our group could make extra knowledgeable selections about what coaching is sweet and what we should always subject extra of, and possibly what coaching isn’t so nice and we might in the reduction of on. It’s actually sort of a double-edged sword there the place we can assist out from a supervisor teaching standpoint and likewise as an enablement group to raised inform our technique shifting ahead.
That’s what we’re most enthusiastic about by way of Coaching and Teaching after which particularly with our onboarding as nicely. One of many issues that we’ve been engaged on particularly is to create studying paths for every of our roles now as a result of the scope of enablement contains not solely sellers however buyer success, our assist group, and our gross sales engineers.
Serving to to construct out these extra individualized or customized pathways for all of these individuals in a single unified, simply accessible location. That’s additionally what we’re actually enthusiastic about to have that studying web page and you may simply leap shortly into your role-specific studying path, and I feel that’s one thing we’re actually excited to begin constructing out by way of our onboarding.
SS: Sounds wonderful. You all have already got an 89% recurring utilization fee of the platform, which is unimaginable, and it reveals that you just guys are already seeing nice outcomes from the entire work that you just’re doing to optimize your use of Highspot. Are you able to share some finest practices for the way you’ve pushed adoption?
AB: I might say sort of the largest driver for us at Rapid7 has been having very clear and concise communication with our go-to buyer group sort of all through the method from begin to end. Working to maintain sellers within the loop about modifications and likewise taking that point to coach and practice on these modifications and finest practices actually goes a good distance, I discovered, versus sort of simply placing out an announcement in a e-newsletter or an e-mail possibly having some breakout classes or section based mostly sections to coach up our customers and ensure they’re additionally utilizing the system most effectively.
One other facet I discovered that’s big is having that govt buy-in from our management and having that trickle down and having them additionally actually clarify the why behind the significance of a instrument reminiscent of Highspot. In our case, we’ve been getting our groups tremendous enthusiastic about the entire AI capabilities popping out with Highspot, and we’ve been coining it as ‘expertise as our teammate’. What which means to us is getting the instruments to give you the results you want, which is strictly what Highspot does. This permits us to unlock time, unlock sources, and as extra capabilities come out with Highspot Copilot, we all know there’s an enormous alternative to get managers extra intertwined of their group’s day-to-day. Additionally doubtlessly strengthen the relationships between not solely supervisor to vendor, but additionally enablement to the sellers as nicely.
In a long-winded reply that’s sort of how we work to drive adoption in these three areas is having that clear, concise communication having that govt buy-in, after which additionally phrasing it as one thing that’s new and thrilling. Let’s speak about the entire new AI capabilities. Let’s speak about digital promoting. Let’s speak about auto-generating descriptions and Highspot having the ability to reply your questions. I feel serving to to construct that pleasure is tremendous vital additionally.
SS: Expertise as a teammate, that’s good. What enterprise outcomes have you ever seen since implementing Highspot?
AB: We’ve touched on a few these, however as you talked about, we’ve seen super enhancements in findability charges, as you famous, however simply general higher consumer expertise. Serious about how our reps are literally going into the system, discovering issues and since our spots and our tags have been narrowed down so considerably, this simply left little room for guessing by way of the place one thing would possibly dwell within the system. Our click on paths are tremendous easy. As I stated, in the event you’re searching for one thing pertaining to a type of three subjects, our answer choices, our individuals in our course of, or our newest information, there are solely three areas you possibly can go to.
It leaves little room for interpretation, for guessing and I discovered that limiting down in our occasion and for our firm and creating simplicity has been what’s pushed these outcomes probably the most. Preserving it easy, maintaining it concise, ensuring that we’ve got a constant governance coverage in place, so there’s at all times stakeholders that we’re working with which are getting into and reviewing issues on a sure cadence to ensure that they’re nonetheless getting used, that they’re nonetheless useful, and in the event that they’re outdated, ensuring that they’re sort of simply eliminating them in order that they’re not cluttering up the system.
SS: Inform me, Alexa, what’s subsequent for you and your group as you proceed to evolve your enablement journey with Highspot?
AB: Subsequent for us is working fairly carefully with our product entrepreneurs and what we’re actually working to do is assist to create virtually a e book or a selected space the place we will have a ton of digital promoting templates. Relating to each our merchandise and components of our gross sales course of. There are simply accessible fast templates that our sellers can simply seize on the prepared and pop in no matter they should customise to make the shopper or prospect really feel seen, really feel heard, and make it an actual curated expertise for them whereas additionally nonetheless having these templates within the again finish. It’s only a fast grab-and-go. If we’re within the discovery part, let me go forward and seize that discovery template.
That’s sort of the place we’re headed. We’ll be doing a full launch of all of this collectively, so Coaching and Teaching finest practices use circumstances. We have already got some smaller cohorts in there proper now, and we’re seeing nice success with that, however once we roll out to the broader group arising at our gross sales kickoff, we’re actually excited to do this in tandem with our new digital promoting templates and likewise finest practices with these. It may be sort of an enormous bundle the place we will create the hype for it and get individuals prepared for this new age of digital promoting.
SS: I really like that, Alexa. Simply since you introduced up your SKO, how are you guys leveraging Highspot to assist your gross sales kickoff?
AB: We at all times have a devoted and curated touchdown web page expertise. Our kickoff so not just for scheduling, to have that outlined for folk as a result of we’re a world group figuring out when every little thing goes to be occurring is tremendous vital, but additionally as a useful resource for every little thing kickoff. It’s the place all of our recordings can dwell. We are able to create totally different pathways for every sort of subject that’s mentioned or for every day, reasonably, and we’ve organized it in numerous methods up to now, however we at all times prefer to have that be our hub for all issues kickoff and Highspot.
That’s simply the place our sellers know to go, the place our stakeholders know to go. and it actually creates that ease of use only for our customers to really feel assured in figuring out what’s going to be mentioned, getting that recording in the event that they weren’t in a position to attend and likewise sort of extra sources as nicely, and sort of what’s up subsequent, what’s to come back. Having that every one outlined in a curated hub has been tremendous useful for us and we’re trying to proceed that shifting ahead as nicely.
SS: I do know SKO is high of thoughts for lots of oldsters proper now.
AB: It’s that point of 12 months for certain.
SS: Final query for you, Alexa, what recommendation do you’ve for others who need to improve their enablement maturity journey with Highspot?
AB: I might say the largest factor is to maintain asking questions. I’m certain my account group, I’ve pushed them nuts a handful of instances, however that’s okay. Simply maintain asking. The extra you realize, the extra you’re going to have the ability to enhance the expertise. Whether or not that be about reporting, finest practices, utilizing the system, in regards to the visible consumer expertise no matter you and your group are hoping to study extra about, don’t be afraid to ask.
The extra you study in regards to the system and the extra geared up you might be, the higher you’ll be at coaching your personal groups on it as nicely. I can’t essentially communicate for the entire Highspot employees, as I discussed, however my particular account group has been completely unimaginable all through our Coaching and Teaching implementation. We’ve been assembly twice weekly, typically thrice weekly, no matter it takes to sort of get the questions answered. They’re at all times there for us, and so they’re superior.
In the event that they don’t know the reply, they’re discovering it for us inside a really brief time window, which is nice. That’s actually what it’s. It at all times simply retains asking questions as a result of there’s by no means going to be an excessive amount of data you possibly can have. It’s at all times going to assist higher put together you. So at all times be studying.
SS: Thanks a lot for becoming a member of us. I actually recognize it.
AB: Thanks a lot for taking the time to talk with me. I really like speaking about Highspot. I might do all of it day, so anytime you let me know.
SS: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Win Win podcast. You’ll want to tune in subsequent time for extra insights on how one can maximize enablement success with Highspot.
