Analysis from Highspot discovered that greater than half of CROs report a 5X return on funding from their gross sales enablement platform. So, how can an enablement platform be used successfully to raise your technique?

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 subject is Julie Wolfe, the director of worldwide income enablement at Glassdoor. Thanks for becoming a member of, Julie! I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your function. 

Julie Wolfe: Thanks a lot, Shawnna. I’m thrilled to be right here with you as we speak. As you talked about, I direct the enablement staff at Glassdoor. I’ve been at Glassdoor for nearly two years now, and I’ve a tremendous staff. We name ourselves Income Enablement as a result of we’re the engine that helps the go-to-market group drive pace to income. We actually are specializing in not simply our gross sales companions, however our buyer success companions, our enterprise improvement reps, and all of our go-to-market group.

SS: I really like that. I’d like to start out with just a few context setting. Out of your perspective, what does good enablement appear to be? Perhaps if I reframe that or say that barely otherwise, what are the important thing parts of an efficient enablement technique at Glassdoor? 

JW: Shawnna, enablement is about three issues to me, and people three issues are serving to your reps perceive your merchandise, your processes, and your methods and doing so in a method that’s entertaining and that helps them be taught. In the end our finish purpose is driving pace to income that helps them try this quicker. To me, these are the three issues we concentrate on when it comes to enablement. We additionally discuss simplifying for our customers and our gross sales staff. Our buyer success staff are our customers and we wish it to be probably the most easy-to-use expertise for them doable. 

SS: I really like that. To the latter two factors on the methods and processes entrance, what function does an enablement platform play in serving to you carry your enablement technique to life? 

JW: I really like that query. It performs an enormous function. To me, the enablement platform is our single supply of fact. I’ll most likely say that once more throughout the course of our dialog. If it’s in Highspot, that’s the only supply of fact. That’s the right place. 

Course of Change, for instance, we rolled out an enormous compensation plan change for this Q3 that we’re in and did an entire web page in Highspot round all the pieces that you’d must know. What we discovered is that once we talk with varied paperwork, it’s simple for issues to get misplaced, but when we put it in Highspot, that is the only supply of fact. That is your reply. Go there. 

SS: I really like that. What had been a few of the challenges that you simply had been possibly dealing with that Highspot has helped to resolve and the way does it go about fixing a few of these challenges?

JW: Among the finest issues about working at Glassdoor, and Glassdoor is a tremendous firm, is that we actually have a knowledge-sharing tradition. At Glassdoor, persons are very prepared to share what they learn about a product, a course of, and a system. Now we have sturdy Slack channels, and what typically occurs when you’ve gotten a knowledge-sharing tradition is individuals share data that hasn’t been permitted by authorized and hasn’t been permitted by advertising, which, you understand, it’s nice when somebody asks does anybody has a case research about one thing that may assist me shut this deal? Like, that’s precisely what you need your groups to be doing, to help one another. On the identical time, advertising and authorized exist for a motive, and so we wish to guarantee that we’re being good stewards and good residents as Glassdorians. 

Highspot, for us, solves a few of these challenges. After I see somebody in Slack sharing issues, I say, Hey, right here’s the Highspot web page. Go right here for this product replace. Hey, right here’s the Highspot web page, go right here to learn to do that new course of in Salesforce, for instance. We’re actually pushing individuals again to the supply in Highspot to know that that’s the one which’s been permitted by advertising, permitted by authorized, and is the precise doc to be sharing.

SS: One other factor that I actually liked about your LinkedIn profile, you really talked about that the main focus of the enablement staff at Glassdoor is to simplify and ship. Inform us extra about this mantra and the way you infuse it into your enablement technique. 

JW: One of many issues we all know is that folks can solely retain a lot data. The ‘simplifying’ is taking numerous dense content material and boiling it right down to the nuggets that folks really want. If I inform you, Shawnna, these are the 2 issues we’re going to speak about as we speak, that’s a lot simpler to comply with than sending you a 15-page doc and saying, might you pre-read this and like share your ideas with me?

All of us work asynchronously rather a lot now, however what our purpose is in simplifying is to take advanced data that comes throughout the group and actually condense it down for our gross sales and CSS groups in order that they know precisely what they should do and it’s possibly one or two steps. That’s the simplification. Additionally simplifies their consumer expertise. Now we have achieved rather a lot in Highspot to make it extra user-friendly, and to make it extra clear the place you go for what. We’ve achieved rather a lot to tag our content material in order that while you’re looking, you might be discovering the precise content material. Once more, that’s simplifying that consumer expertise.

For ‘ship’, there’s an outdated phrase, a adequate one thing is healthier than an ideal nothing. We wish to have the ability to ship issues to our reps which can be good. We’d love them to all be good, however we’d relatively them be adequate and assist them get the place they’re, or the place they should go as rapidly as doable. In the end, supply for us helps our groups. We use a hashtag at Glassdoor rather a lot, #oneteam. As one staff, our purpose is to assist pace up income. I’ve mentioned it earlier than, and I’ll most likely say it once more, that’s why if it’s revenue-driving, that’s a part of what now we have to help. That’s the supply. Simplify the consumer expertise, simplify the content material, simplify the asks, after which assist our groups ship.

SS: How do you go about leveraging Highspot? I do know you already gave some nice examples of the way you’re tapping Highspot to assist simplify issues. How do you leverage Highspot to simplify and ship initiatives?

JW: I really like that query, Shawnna. We did an audit of our Highspot content material about 18 months in the past, and we did an enormous archive of issues that had been outdated. We seemed and began enhancing governance as a result of we had not likely had lots of governance across the content material that went into Highspot. We’ve been enhancing our governance round the entire supplies that we put into Highspot. We restructured Highspot in order that while you open the homepage it’s very clear, irrespective of who you might be, the place you’re purported to go.

There’s a product button and there’s a methods button, and so you’ll be able to click on on both one, after which there’s a button for every of the groups, so that you click on on that button, and that opens up a web page, which then has playbooks, it has expectations, it has roles and tasks. It’s very sensible and tactical with the concept that we wish our reps to have the ability to self-service and use Highspot as that software to bolster the issues that we’ve educated them on in onboarding and everboarding and all of the issues we do. After they click on into Highspot, primarily, they’re getting a really well-crafted, narrated expertise of the place to go to seek out all the data that they want. 

SS: I do know we’ve, we’ve chatted about this, what you’re doing is clearly working. You guys have an 81% recurring utilization of Highspot, which is nice. What are your finest practices for driving adoption on your reps along with simply making it actually easy for them? 

JW: One of many issues that we do is we do a weekly publication that we use by means of Highspot. When individuals open the publication, they’ve to return into Highspot, so there’s a technique concerned in that as effectively. That’s a part of their technique. Once more, making it the only supply of fact and realizing in case you go to Highspot, we’ve achieved the audit, we’ve cleaned it up just like the content material is there, it’s simple to seek out, it’s correct. 

That’s one other factor, now we have been making it visually interesting. We’ve included images that we’ve taken when now we have on-site and when now we have occasions. We’ve added memes, issues that simply make the content material come to life. We’re including extra movies as a brand new factor we’re doing this yr and extra fast tutorial movies as a result of all of us wrestle with the TLDR.

We use wiki rather a lot, and in a wiki, typically there are 50 pages to elucidate a course of. I don’t learn about you, but when I wish to work out learn how to do my hair, like in seashore waves, I am going to YouTube. I’ll watch a tutorial on learn how to curl my hair in seashore waves. Our reps are the identical. Now we have to consider that as enablement professionals. Our reps don’t have time to learn a protracted doc, a tome stuffed with processes, they want a fast video that explains issues. It sits proper on the web page that explains the product. If I’m getting in they usually’re speaking a couple of product, I can watch a fast video and all the pieces’s proper in the identical place. Once more, this simplifies the consumer expertise for our groups.

SS: I do love that instance, by the best way, I’ve to say. What are a few of the enterprise outcomes you’ve achieved since leveraging Highspot? 

JW: We’re engaged on form of an general well being rating. Our purpose is to have a look at what our groups are doing, like what instruments are they leveraging. Are they leveraging our content material administration system, after all, which is Highspot? We use different instruments and wouldn’t have a way of what they’re utilizing, after which tie that to outcomes. The place I wish to go together with that is saying reps who use Highspot are two occasions extra more likely to fill within the clean. What I wish to say is like, hey quota, or, you understand, one thing that’s very tied particularly to the enterprise final result. 

What I can say is that I feel Highspot makes us extra organized and makes us assume in a extra organized method, which helps us be higher cross-functional companions. In Highspot, now we have a lot of access-only licenses. Our purpose with that’s to let executives and cross-functional companions have entry and have the ability to see all the pieces that we’re doing within the go-to-market group. Once more, in some methods, that’s a part of our communication technique. There’s lots of visibility with what we’ve created in Highspot when it comes to course of, product, methods, and compensation that’s shared with the broader group.

SS: I really like that. And to your level, these are primarily effectivity and finally seemingly productiveness positive factors on your subject groups as effectively. Doing that correlation over the fullness of time, I feel could be a extremely fascinating information level to have a look at for the enterprise when it comes to what enablement helps to drive.

JW: I feel you’re proper, Shawnna. I feel if I can add yet another thought there, I can inform you personally that if it’s not in Highspot, and I do know it’s elsewhere, I most likely spend 20 minutes searching by means of issues to seek out the doc. I undoubtedly personally see a productiveness achieve in utilizing Highspot after I’m like, the place is that doc? It’s proper right here. I can search by title. 

SS: I really like to listen to that. Final query for you, Julie. Wanting forward, what do you envision as the way forward for enablement at Glassdoor and the way do you propose to leverage Highspot to help that imaginative and prescient? 

JW: I really like this query. One of many issues we’re is whether or not can we incorporate extra of the training administration options that Highspot has into our present platform. We at the moment use a special studying administration system, however we’re exploring how we will actually use Highspot with all of the options that it gives. One thing that we’re doing that we simply began and launched actually final week in Highspot is a supervisor teaching web page. Certainly one of our targets was to create a single supply of fact for our managers and administrators, in addition to for the remainder of the go-to-market group.

What we discovered was we had not employed our personal finest practices for our managers and administrators. We had been speaking with them with lots of Slack and emails and shared paperwork and we mentioned, you understand what? We have to create a web page in Highspot only for them that has all of their issues. We mentioned right here’s all of the details about onboarding, right here’s learn how to take heed to name recordings and use scorecards, and we’ve included tutorial movies. Right here’s the entire coaching details about the brand new compensation plan, however only for managers solely. We modified the permissions so solely the managers are in a position to see it. I feel that it was one thing we had not achieved beforehand and I’m so blissful we’re as a result of it appears to be like beautiful, it’s simple for them to make use of, and once more, it simplifies that have for them. 

Pitches are additionally one thing we actually wish to get our staff beginning to use extra. I noticed our QBR for Highspot simply this previous month and I feel we had been up like 15% in pitches. Don’t quote me precisely on that quantity, however I feel that’s what it was and the purpose with pitches is after all, for our groups to have the ability to monitor what persons are doing with the content material that they ship, I would like us to lean in additional on that. I feel that’s an extremely precious software and it’s extremely precious information to our gross sales groups. I’d like us to do much more round that. I simply need us to maintain exploring all of the myriad capabilities that Highspot has. 

Once more, for true enablement, it’s not only a content material administration system. We consider it as our CMS, prefer it holds the content material, and I just lately had an govt ask me like, effectively, how is that any completely different than, like, the wiki? I used to be like, oh, it’s so completely different from a wiki. I needed to clarify it, and after I was achieved, after I might present all of the statistics about our utilization and the entire content material and simply the design and the feel and appear, I had transformed that individual. That’s the place I would like us to maintain going. Actually fascinated by how we will take all the pieces that Highspot can do and actually be absolutely using it. 

SS: Completely. I imply, a platform must be reinforcing your income enablement technique, which to your level is about ensuring you’re growing productiveness to hit these income targets. Julie, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us as we speak. I enormously loved this dialog. 

JW: Shawnna, thanks a lot. I used to be thrilled to be right here and actually recognize your time. 

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.