Shawnna Sumaoang: Hello, and welcome to the Win Win  Podcast. I’m your host, Shawnna Sumaoang. Be part of us as we dive into altering traits within the office and the best way to navigate them efficiently.

Right here to debate this subject is Tiffany Jones, the vp of gross sales technique and discipline operations at HackerOne. Thanks for becoming a member of us, Tiffany. I’d love so that you can inform us a bit of bit about your self, your background, and your position.

Tiffany Jones: Thanks for having me. I’m Tiffany Jones, I’m at HackerOne. I lead technique operations and the enablement group at HackerOne. However I’ve been within the house for nearly 15 years now. Earlier than HackerOne, I used to be at DocuSign main operations there from 100 million by IPO to properly over a billion in income.

SS: I’m excited to have you ever right here right this moment and also you clearly have intensive expertise as a frontrunner in go-to-market technique and operations. Primarily based on that have, are you able to inform us about among the challenges dealing with go-to-market groups right this moment? 

TJ: Yeah, I feel one of many largest challenges that we face from a go-to-market group perspective is how we take into consideration development on this new economic system. Pre-COVID it was a fairly commonplace path that we have been rising quarter over quarter, yr over yr. COVID had a ton of disruptions to that course of. There have been some large ups for some corporations and a few large downs for others. Actually within the tech SaaS house, there was a whole lot of ups. And so proper now, from a go-to-market perspective, we’re all simply struggling to determine, like, how do you repeat that year-over-year development and get again to that very same equilibrium.

SS: Completely. And inform us concerning the position of income operations on this present panorama. How can RevOps groups assist organizations actually overcome a few of these new challenges that we’re seeing, notably within the development sector?

TJ: Yeah, it’s an important query. I feel a whole lot of occasions the income operations a part of the group will get swept underneath the rug with regards to fascinated about the options for this, however, in my expertise, we’re entrance and middle, and we play a task in how we take into consideration the groups being organized and the way they’re incentivized and constructing out these constructions in order that we will get again to that development degree, in addition to with the tech stack that’s vital, and the gross sales course of that goes together with that to amp up the productiveness of the gross sales group so we will get well-oiled machines with the best individuals in seat in the best roles to attain these outcomes.

SS: I really like that. And I feel, as you said, a key focus for lots of operations leaders is de facto driving gross sales productiveness. What are among the key ways in which RevOps may help companies actually optimize gross sales productiveness? 

TJ: Yeah, the one which at all times involves thoughts is methods. However there are a variety of issues for me that basically assist optimize productiveness. There’s the territory design that you find yourself deploying in your group. There’s the gross sales course of that you simply ask every of your particular person sellers inside your group to undergo. After which there’s the tech employees that they really function in for that gross sales course of. Aligning all three of these issues that you’ve got, once you say productiveness, you’re not simply speaking about squeezing as many {dollars} out of a person particular person as humanly attainable and treating individuals extra like machines day-after-day, however actually like how do you optimize their expertise as sellers so that you simply’re asking them to do what’s most helpful for not solely themselves, however the firm with the best instruments on the proper time, like actually optimizing their expertise? I discover it to be actually, actually necessary. 

SS: Completely. And, clearly one in every of our core audiences is enablement and gross sales productiveness is totally high of thoughts for a lot of enablement leaders as properly. In your opinion, how can income operations and enablement companion collectively to enhance gross sales productiveness?

TJ: I feel all of it actually begins with the gross sales course of, considering by what you really need your gross sales group to do on a day-to-day foundation, like the best way that you really want them to work together with clients, with different individuals internally, and together with your instruments in Dash Heart, and that’s one thing that the operations and enablement groups have to companion on to ensure that that to be one thing that you simply roll out and the gross sales group adopts, since you want it to not solely work from a theoretical perspective, however you want the backend structure of these methods to work collectively to ship that have for them to function in.

I’ve the profit in my present position of Managing each an enablement group and operations group. And it’s been wonderful this quarter as we put collectively our key initiatives for the yr to see how these are intertwined from a course of go-to-market methods perspective and the gross sales course of that we need to layer on high of that and the way these challenge plans actually are on high of one another.

It’s not, A waterfall impact the place somebody’s engaged on this and the following group takes it over. They very a lot are partnered hand in hand to ship an optimized answer for the gross sales group. 

SS: And also you talked rather a lot concerning the course of element however there’s additionally a whole lot of form of joint shared possession across the tech stack. I feel that’s a extremely essential space of partnership between enablement and income operations. They, I, Not less than in my expertise, are sometimes making an attempt to be sure that they’re constructing and optimizing that for his or her go-to-market groups. What are among the key parts out of your perspective of an efficient tech stack in right this moment’s gross sales panorama?

TJ: Oh, it’s a troublesome query. I really feel just like the panorama is ever-changing proper now. There’s a lot consolidation happening that there’s a relentless analysis, no less than in my group, from my perspective of: are we utilizing the best instruments for the best functions? I feel after we discuss evaluating the tech stack, it’s not all a consolidation recreation.

I don’t suppose the top objective is to get to at least one or two methods that restrict the variety of clicks or logins they’ve, however basically utilizing the perfect of each product in a means that is sensible from a methods structure perspective. And I preserve saying structure as a result of I feel it’s such an necessary a part of when you’ve got a profitable gross sales system working. So, how are you clicking by to a few of your instruments? Are you doing it out of a house base or are you asking individuals to return right into a single sign-on software and navigate between totally different tabs at totally different factors within the day? I feel you get the enablement side, which is listed below are the perfect of those instruments.

Right here’s how I would like you to ship emails, or to document calls, or to comply with up on, and ship out materials to your finish clients. However with out the operations group, these can turn out to be very siloed occasions. And also you want that operations group within the background, fascinated about how they tie all of that info and information collectively in order that the gross sales group is experiencing a way more optimized means that they’re working with the instruments

SS: Completely. And this would possibly result in. Lead into the following query a bit of bit, however I’d love to grasp, what are a few of your greatest practices for evaluating options to determine the best ones that additionally help your overarching go-to-market technique? 

TJ: Yeah, in an ideal world, I’d like to do an RFP on every little thing that we need to do and take a broad swath take a look at what’s actually on the market out there.

It’s not often what occurs. Typically we attempt to pull again and perform a little little bit of that, however from a greatest apply perspective, at any time when we’re introduced with a necessity for one thing, I ask two questions. The primary one is, do I’ve an present software that solves this and at what degree does it resolve it? And does that answer meet my sellers the place they’re at and what they’re making an attempt to do?

And the second query is so necessary. It’s very simple to reply the primary one. Once more, there’s a whole lot of consolidation happening within the tech stack world for gross sales, and so that you in all probability have a software that does no matter your group is asking to go take a look at proper now. However is it assembly the sellers the place they’re at?

Is it within the house that they need to try this exercise at? Does it match into that gross sales course of movement appropriately? And I feel that key a part of the analysis actually helps to construct an optimum textual content stack for everybody to make use of. And so it may be that they want to try this whereas they’re sitting inside their CRM.

And so as a result of that’s the place they’re at all times doing it, it is sensible to have one thing that both is embedded there or is a software that the CRM already provides, however maybe it doesn’t matter. They’re doing it on their telephone or one-off or in Slack or Groups. And assembly them the place they’re at, I feel, is the, is a extremely necessary side of constructing positive that you’ve got a toolset that your group is definitely utilizing.

SS: Oh, completely. And the way does an enablement platform like Highspot strategically match into your gross sales tech stack? 

TJ: For us, it’s a central level of data, proper? We’re utilizing it to gather info, distribute info, each internally in addition to externally, in addition to utilizing the educational module to check that info.

So it’s very a lot an info hub for us. We use it to once more, leak out to different instruments that we now have or convey issues from these instruments in as that central level. However we want that, repository is the unsuitable phrase as a result of it’s a lot greater than that, however we want that centralized level.

For a very long time, CRM was purported to be that centralized level. And that was the place the trade was actually going from a tech perspective. However it’s simply not the place our salespeople are. The CRM is an afterthought of filling in info. So increasingly we’re discovering. That pane of glass that’s extra like Highspot the place the data itself is the place our salespeople need to be.

And that’s the place we see it as a part of our tech stack right this moment. 

SS: I really like that. How do you measure the impression of your expertise investments in your strategic enterprise initiatives? 

TJ: The measurement one is at all times so tough for me. I don’t have an important reply for that as a result of it’s not as easy after I purchase tech stack items, there’s at all times an ROI calculator everybody has and so they take a look at, and so they present me all of the metrics of the time saved by my gross sales group and or like I’ll take away this software and so forth total cheaper prices and all of these are true and so they’re a great way to measure.

That’s the ROI that we’re getting and it’s nice for speaking with my procurement group on. However the actuality of the measurement is how a lot is my group in it. How a lot are they really utilizing it? What number of logins are they doing? What number of edits are they making within the software? Are they doing it as a result of I’m forcing them into it?

As a result of I put a compulsory course in? Or are they doing it as a result of it’s the place they need to be? And once more, an important instance is increasingly for our tradition at HackerOne, Slack is the place everybody needs to be. And so I do know that if I put issues in that medium, that I’ll have the next use of it. And that’s what I imply when evaluating, like, the place individuals are at.

I’m solely going to get the ROI on that software that I’m shopping for if somebody’s utilizing it. And I do know that they’re utilizing it if it’s built-in in Slack as a result of that’s the place they’re at day-after-day. And in order that utilization is de facto what’s an important metric for me when fascinated about, am I shopping for, or are you? Do I’ve usable instruments on the system?

SS: Completely. And that’s undoubtedly a standard thread that we’ve heard after we speak to different operations leaders, for positive. Final query for you, Tiffany, how do you suppose expertise improvements like AI will proceed to impression the gross sales panorama? And do you’ve got any recommendation for different leaders on the best way to preserve tempo with these improvements?

TJ: AI may be the loss of life of me and my position sooner reasonably than later. It’s fascinating. Everybody has a copilot, everyone seems to be utilizing AI, there are some which can be fast in entrance of it, and a few are higher than others, but it surely’s simply the truth of each software that we’re utilizing, and 90 % of the emails that I get on tech stack associated issues are round how this AI goes to make my group a lot smarter, they’re going to spend much less time doing analysis, they’re going to have these actually personable emails which can be despatched out.

The truth is that if everybody’s utilizing the identical AI instruments for a similar issues, they’re not like envelope emails are going to begin to look the identical. And it’d work for a bit of bit, but it surely’s not going to be, it’s not gonna be the long-term profit we see of AI. And so after I take into consideration AI and the way it’s popping up in all of our software units, what I’m actually targeted on is what every software’s AI does for my gross sales group and thru, once more, just like Tech Stack, like how do I would like them utilizing it?

At what level within the gross sales course of is that the. The well-thought-through AI has the perfect recommendation or info to assist help them. And being actually intentional about which AIs they’re utilizing at what cut-off date. And nonetheless pushing them to have that personable impression on what they’re doing.

If it’s sending an e mail let it write a few of that for you. However then don’t absolve them of doing the work of the analysis and double checking. As a result of I feel that’s the place it’s going to begin to fail a whole lot of corporations and a whole lot of leaders the place they rely too closely on it. Insult. I feel within the subsequent two years, individuals are going to have an operations group, like a full-time Co-pilot administration position, or analyst position, simply to ensure you’re curating these Co-pilots to not battle with one another and to have the best solutions.

I feel recommendation for different leaders exterior of possibly getting in entrance of a task like that open is to be considerate about why is your group utilizing that AI element. What worth is it giving them at that cut-off date? And do you’ve got one other AI some other place that you must take into consideration?

Is it going to offer conflicting info or might somebody use them in another way? Or two totally different roles use them and find yourself in a spot the place you’re now, at odds with one another inside your individual group. So I do suppose you must begin to take a look at these AIs as virtually their very own tech stack throughout the tech stack and be actually considerate about your strategy.

SS: Very fascinating and wonderful recommendation for our viewers. Tiffany, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us right this moment. I actually appreciated it.

TJ: Yeah, this was nice. Thanks a lot.

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