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 developments within the office and the way to navigate them efficiently.

Right here to debate this matter is Kathleen Kohl, the gross sales enablement supervisor at ManpowerGroup. Thanks for becoming a member of us, Kathleen. I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your position.

Kathleen Kohl: Thanks a lot for having me. I’ve been working at ManpowerGroup, which is a world workforce-based options firm for almost 12 years. My experience lies inside gross sales excellence as most of my profession has been spent in gross sales operations and enablement. At the moment, I lead gross sales enablement at ManpowerGroup supporting all six of our traces of enterprise, notably our gross sales tech stack. What I really like most about my job is collaborating with gross sales and advertising and marketing management groups, and exhibiting them what all of our gross sales instruments have to supply.

SS: Wonderful. Kathleen, we’re excited to have you ever on the podcast at the moment. One of many issues that I seen, notably on LinkedIn, is you talked about how you’re employed to generate alternatives for gross sales to win by way of information, instruments, know-how, and coaching. I’d like to study extra about this strategy. How would you say every of those elements performs a task in your enablement technique at ManpowerGroup? 

KK: Everyone seems to be speaking about information, whether or not by way of AI or inside information methods to coach AI fashions. We train our sellers the way to use our tech stack successfully in order that they will create extra leads and alternatives To drive income for the group.

Our gross sales tech stack helps sellers perceive their audience and ship their pitches uniquely and professionally making us stand out. You’ll want to differentiate your self from the competitors as of late and with the proper tech stack and information, you are able to do that, and Highspot Digital Gross sales Rooms have been instrumental in that strategy.

SS: I really like to listen to that. And I’d love to know among the key precedence enterprise initiatives that you simply’re specializing in supporting by way of your enablement technique this 12 months. 

KK: Yeah, so we’re actually centered on automation. That has been high of thoughts alongside measuring the effectiveness and utilization of our gross sales tech stack.

One in every of my workforce’s objectives has been to search out content material in Highspot in lower than 5 seconds. And we’re doing that by way of instrument governance, audits, and Spot coverage. Moreover, we intention to extend our digital gross sales room utilization by coaching our sellers and showcasing the facility that DSRs or Digital Gross sales Rooms can punch.

We’re additionally exploring the educational teaching platform with our charge administration model, which can assist to streamline that strategy. 

SS: That’s superb. At ManpowerGroup, your workforce is chargeable for enablement throughout, I imagine, a number of distinctive manufacturers. What are a few of your finest practices for managing all the varied stakeholders with various enablement wants?

KK: So we’ve a singular alternative, as you talked about, and that we’ve visibility throughout all six of our manufacturers and all of our traces of enterprise on their gross sales priorities. The perfect observe that we all know is necessary is to make sure we’ve sturdy relationships with our gross sales workforce. Gross sales management groups who handle our sellers throughout their manufacturers.

We’ve realized that constructing relationships with gross sales management is extraordinarily necessary as they maintain the facility inside their gross sales groups to implement enablement methods that my workforce facilitates. 

SS: I need to dig again into the instruments and know-how facet of your technique. How do you leverage your enablement platform that will help you execute your strategic enterprise initiatives?

KK: We make the most of our tech stack all through each facet of the gross sales life cycle. A principal driver is at all times main our gross sales workforce again to a centralized place the place they will discover data and how-to’s for all the instruments. Highspot has been extraordinarily useful to us with this as we host all our gross sales kits and gross sales performs right here which provides our sellers a prescriptive strategy to what to know, say, present, and do, to create a standardized course of for the way we promote at ManpowerGroup. Highspot is the place we talk and drive our sellers to as a one-stop store for data. It helps us to facilitate new advertising and marketing campaigns and enablement methods for the sector. 

SS: You talked about in your intro you might have loads of expertise in gross sales operations and enablement know-how roles at ManpowerGroup, and you’ve got loads of experience in curating an efficient enablement tech stack. In your opinion, what’s the worth of getting a unified platform like Highspot? 

KK: I might say one of the vital important points of Highspot is that it integrates with our CRM system and a number of different gross sales texts that we use. This actually helps our sellers monitor their pitches and their effectiveness and seamlessly monitor that ROI.

Moreover, our adoption charge at Highspot is, I might say, exceptionally excessive. And actually, that’s our central place for gross sales to go to, to search out what they want and perceive the way to promote and make the most of our gross sales kits. 

SS: You touched on coaching a bit bit earlier, and I do know you latterly started to make use of the coaching and training capabilities with considered one of your manufacturers, Proper Administration. What are your finest practices for designing efficient coaching packages and the way are you planning to leverage Highspot to assist?

KK: Yeah. So once more, relationships are important with all of our stakeholders. For Proper Administration particularly, we’ve a robust relationship with the product proprietor and the gross sales management workforce to construct the coaching content material and implement and create adoption.

It’s essential actually that we work intently with our product administration workforce and perceive what’s important for the gross sales workforce to know. Then we will create coaching that can be utilized day by day and applied in actual time. We will additionally measure that progress primarily based on how sellers did in that coaching after which coach accordingly.

SS: I really like that you simply’re enthusiastic about that layered strategy. One other space the place I feel you’ve confirmed you’re seeing loads of success. In serving to gross sales is with digital rooms, and also you shared an instance the place they helped transfer stalled offers ahead. Are you able to inform us extra about your finest practices for leveraging digital rooms and their influence on that initiative?

KK: We’ve used Digital Gross sales Rooms all through our enterprise. The gross sales life cycle as talked about earlier, provides our purchasers a singular really feel for the way we ship and tailor our options to their wants. What’s actually nice about these is that we will put all of our paperwork associated to that shopper and all through the deal phases into that digital gross sales room for them to return to and have an ongoing relationship constructed the place it’s a centralized place.

SS: I feel that’s a improbable approach to up-level your purchaser engagement and it provides you loads of information. In terms of information, what are a few of your finest practices for measuring the influence of your packages and the way are you leveraging Highspot to assist proper now? 

KK: Our sellers love seeing information on Highspot, seeing if their content material is being seen, and realizing what may be most necessary to their purchasers by way of this engagement. So this helps our sellers to higher cater to their shopper’s wants and supply them one of the best resolution doable by way of engagement metrics. 

SS: Since implementing Highspot, I do know that you’ve got seen a rise in deal measurement, sooner gross sales cycles, and even a rise in quota attainment. Are you able to inform us extra in regards to the influence you’ve achieved? 

KK: We’ve tracked vital enterprise wins primarily based on a personalized strategy utilizing Digital Gross sales Rooms. Moreover, discovering content material rapidly is essential. Having Highspot assist us navigate this and mechanically archive outdated content material makes it simpler for sellers to search out what they want. This potential to see what a shopper is most curious about helps us create distinctive options primarily based on their workforce wants. 

SS: I’ve to say you’re doing a tremendous job there, Kathleen. Final query, wanting forward, how do you propose to proceed to develop the influence of enablement in your strategic initiatives at ManpowerGroup?

KK: So we’ve a giant push on my workforce to extend that Digital Gross sales Room utilization. We do an awesome job proper now using it, however it will possibly at all times be higher. We’ve seen an actual influence by way of Digital Gross sales Rooms and a aim is to extend This fall for our gross sales groups. We’re additionally wanting on the pilot for Proper Administration, of studying and training.

And we need to perceive how efficient it will likely be and scale, doubtlessly, when you see these outcomes come by way of. 

SS: Wonderful. Like I mentioned, improbable work at ManpowerGroup, Kathleen, and thanks a lot for becoming a member of us on this podcast at the moment.

KK: Thanks for having me.

SS: To our viewers, 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.