Analysis from LinkedIn discovered that 47% of gross sales professionals declare that they use know-how in gross sales a minimum of as soon as a day. So how can enablement groups guarantee they’re giving their reps the correct instruments to optimize productiveness?

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 methods to navigate them efficiently. Right here to debate this subject is Jesse Potter, the Director of Discipline Enablement at Docusign. Thanks for becoming a member of, Jesse! I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your function. 

Jesse Potter: Thanks for having me. I began out my profession in gross sales, each in {hardware} and SaaS gross sales. I spent numerous years at Apple after which after that, I did a quick stint at a extremely small startup, form of seed-level startup, after which got here to DocuSign about seven years in the past. I began out in gross sales right here at DocuSign after which rapidly moved into enablement. Throughout my time right here I’ve worn nearly each hat throughout the enablement perform. Now, I at the moment handle the workforce that’s centered on any of the worldwide packages that we do right here at DocuSign that basically have an effect on everybody within the discipline. It could possibly be all the things from product enablement to course of and know-how, new rent onboarding, and all the things in between. We even have an in-house tutorial design workforce inside my group and we deal with enablement platform administration, reminiscent of Highspot. 

SS: Thanks a lot for giving us a bit of little bit of that perception in your background, Jesse. I’d love to start out with simply understanding how Highspot has helped your reps with their productiveness, particularly within the present financial local weather the place groups are actually wanted to do extra with much less.

JP: Effectively, you’re spot on about effectivity. That’s actually the secret, particularly proper now. It’s been an enormous focus for us for some time, particularly throughout Covid. Actually, all the things that we do as enablement must be attempting to assist the sector spend extra time with their prospects and fewer time on non-revenue producing exercise. 

I feel from the attitude of how we will attempt to resolve that, it’s essential to have that single supply of reality the place folks go to seek out info, coaching, content material, and all the things that they want, and attempt to floor it for them within the locations that they’re doing their work. How will we get our reps to seek out that content material extra effectively with out them having to seek for it, navigate to it, bookmark it, obtain it, etcetera. 

We’re actually centered on issues like focusing on the correct content material in Salesforce in order that I can provide a rep the precise aggressive battle card that they want for his or her alternative primarily based on the product they’re promoting, the business that they’re promoting into, the competitor they’re up towards and so they can floor the precise proper content material for them, so long as the rep retains Salesforce up to date. With that, we’ve been capable of shave over two hours per week off of the common period of time {that a} rep has needed to spend trying to find content material or info, which is a large win and clearly that could be a large focus for us proper now. Within the present local weather, the main focus is on ensuring that we’re making our reps as productive and environment friendly as attainable.

SS: Earlier than highspot, what had been some widespread obstacles your reps had been experiencing when it got here to discovering and sharing the correct content material and the way has Highspot helped to resolve this to enhance your gross sales workforce’s productiveness?

JP: I feel we had the identical challenges that almost all corporations have. The content material was in so many alternative locations, and reps had been by no means positive what was actually updated or if it was the official model. This results in the reps having to determine it out themselves, and typically meaning they make their very own content material or use stuff that they’ve saved to their desktop. They’d no concept of the model or how up-to-date it’s. Extra importantly, that they had no engagement or understanding of how the shoppers are viewing or utilizing that content material. Actually it’s simply form of a black field.

Advertising is working laborious to create actually compelling supplies and enablement is working actually laborious to construct the coaching and the knowledge that they want, however with no software like Highspot, or the power to measure that, it’s limiting. That’s actually been the massive factor for us, is attempting to standardize that single supply of reality.

I’d say the opposite factor that’s actually past simply being that repository and that central supply is then including within the pitching and with the ability to observe the engagement and truly making it a gross sales engagement platform. An amazing instance is we’ve quite a lot of SMB sellers. They clearly don’t have the sources of our enterprise workforce to have the proposal writers construct out customized proposal decks for every deal. One of many large wins with Highspot has been standardizing our proposal template, making it simple for reps to clone that, add within the particulars for his or her buyer, after which pitch it out and get real-time information on how a buyer is interacting with their proposal. 

We had an amazing testimonial from a rep who closed the deal proper on the finish of the yr, a real-time crunch situation. He despatched over the shopper a proposal with just a few choices, possibility A, possibility B, and possibility C. He was capable of see that the shopper spent only a few seconds actually possibility A and possibility C, however over an hour possibility B over a number of classes of viewing. That enabled the rep to know precisely which approach the shopper was leaning and speed up the deal cycle by truly having the quotes accepted, the order kind generated, and able to go for possibility B earlier than they even obtained on the decision with the shoppers. That form of acceleration and effectivity has been an enormous win for us.

SS: I like that. You and your workforce at DocuSign actually have interaction your executives, which I feel is one thing that our viewers would like to get some greatest practices round. How have you ever gone about making certain that the enablement workforce stays vital within the eyes of the executives at DocuSign?

JP: That’s a great query. It’s a relentless course of and I wouldn’t say that we’re even masters of it ourselves always. I feel that’s the true danger that enablement groups can face. You can begin and set up actually nice relationships and partnerships along with your executives and particularly your gross sales leaders, however like several relationship, it’s worthwhile to preserve investing in it and it’s worthwhile to preserve checking in recurrently to see how issues are going. We will’t simply assume that as a result of we aligned with the top of gross sales in the beginning of the yr that we’re nonetheless on the identical web page in Q2 and Q3. 

Generally, I feel for enablement, we’re hesitant or a bit of afraid to examine in with these executives and see if we’re nonetheless on the identical web page, possibly as a result of we’re afraid of the reply or possibly as a result of we simply don’t give it some thought. That fixed realignment is actually necessary. On prime of that, I feel particularly in these loopy instances, there’s all the time quite a lot of turnover and alter from new leaders coming in or altering their function, remit, or technique. It’s actually all about attempting to determine that belief and partnership early on. That’s primary, getting your foot within the door with a brand new govt as early as attainable and serving to them perceive that they’ll depend on you, then backing that up with confirmed success, even when it’s not flashy metrics on how a lot income you assist herald, are you able to even simply present that you simply’re capable of ship for them once they come to you with a necessity? That’s a great belief builder and an effective way to determine that relationship and partnership. 

Lastly, particularly in relation to executives, consistency is vital. Delivering high quality packages persistently, speaking persistently, checking in persistently, and even simply asking them the identical inquiries to make it possible for they know what to anticipate from you and what you’re anticipating from them to just remember to’re all the time aligned. 

SS: These are some unbelievable items of recommendation, Jesse. Now, a method that groups can enhance productiveness is by leveraging integrations within the tech stack and one which your workforce has discovered quite a lot of worth in is the mixing between Salesforce, your CRM, and Highspot. I’d love to grasp from you, what are some key ways in which you utilize the salesforce integration in your day-to-day function. 

JP: From my perspective, the Salesforce integration is big as a result of it permits me to actually tie a number of the actions that the reps are finishing inside Highspot with outcomes. I can truly look and see the a whole lot or hundreds of alternatives that had been positively influenced by a number of the content material or coaching that we floor to them by the Highspot and Salesforce integration. That information element is actually enormous and with the ability to tie again pitch exercise or coaching completion or content material utilization to closed income or exercise in Salesforce and issues like that. 

Salesforce is that single supply of reality. We all the time say, if it doesn’t occur in Salesforce, it didn’t occur. Something that we’re doing on a platform like Highspot or every other software is put into Salesforce in order that integration is primary to us. What’s most crucial for me is that degree of knowledge after which, once more, with the ability to floor the correct supplies to the reps on the proper time is actually highly effective and implies that my workforce might be extra environment friendly and efficient and never need to construct all the things always. It means the menu of choices is usually a bit extra tailor-made as a result of we all know precisely what reps want primarily based on what’s coming to us from Salesforce. 

SS: To drill in a bit of bit extra, what worth does the salesforce integration convey to you and your reps, particularly because it pertains to productiveness? What particular outcomes have you ever seen? 

JP: I feel for the reps one large factor is simply with the ability to keep in Salesforce and with the ability to entry all that content material and coaching that Highspot supplies inside Salesforce is big. Which means there’s one much less tab open that they need to have and there’s one much less window that they should go to. One other enormous factor by the Salesforce integration is that now once they ship out a pitch, it’s going to routinely relate that pitch to the correct account and the correct alternative.

For us, we’ve a reasonably large account workforce and clearly when we’ve territories and inherit new accounts, with the ability to return and see the exercise and content material that has been shared with that buyer beforehand is big and permits a rep to rapidly stand up to hurry on that account. 

I feel when it comes to outcomes, it does come right down to that effectivity and velocity of with the ability to get to know a brand new buyer which we’ve seen simply dramatically reduces the time that it takes for a rep to inherit a brand new account after which be capable of rapidly see what’s occurred beforehand, and even go and discover the content material in Highspot that they’ve seen and see if it must be up to date or something like that. 

SS: Incredible. Out of your perspective, how have Highspot and Salesforce built-in additionally helped with a greater understanding of which offers to go after and delivering the correct content material to reps on the proper time?

JP: For us, that’s one thing that we’re simply beginning to scratch the floor of. Figuring out now, primarily based on the information that we’re getting again, what content material is best and what content material is probably the most worthwhile to focus on to a rep. I feel once we began out, most likely like quite a lot of prospects do, we tried to throw quite a lot of stuff at a rep throughout the context of a chance and it was like, right here’s all the things that you simply would possibly want for this chance primarily based on all the information we’ve out there. We discovered that wasn’t the simplest strategy to go about it, which was truly about looking for probably the most particular piece of content material that’s going to be crucial for them and delivering that to them on the proper time and the correct stage of their deal cycle and issues like that. We’re simply beginning to make strides there with our focusing on in Salesforce. 

By way of what offers to go after, with the ability to see like, hey, , X variety of alternatives usually tend to shut once we share this demo video versus this white paper actually has been an enormous increase for our advertising and marketing workforce to grasp like, okay, that is the kind of content material that’s resonating and whether or not it’s a video versus a white paper or extra concerning the message that it’s attempting to convey, we will say, all proper, this video right here talks loads about mitigating danger for patrons that appears to be resonating, so let’s lean extra into that. Then we all know, when we’ve prospects coming to us with that form of drawback that they’re attempting to resolve, we all know that that’s one thing we’ve nice materials for and we will most likely win extra successfully.

SS: Thanks for sharing your story on the way you leverage Highspot and Salesforce collectively. One other key approach that your workforce leverages Highspot to drive productiveness is thru gross sales performs. Since implementing gross sales performs that DocuSign, what direct outcomes have you ever seen when it comes to confidence and productiveness for reps once they’re speaking to prospects? 

JP: I feel one of many large wins for us as we launched gross sales performs on the peak of Covid and we had quite a lot of new and rising use circumstances that had been popping out for DocuSign merchandise on account of Covid. These had been issues that we simply would by no means have been capable of anticipate had been going to be priorities, together with issues like vaccine testing and testing web site administration. These weren’t issues that we regarded as apparent DocuSign use circumstances till they grew to become crucial factor. We had been capable of launch gross sales performs particularly focused for these use circumstances which can be allowed and geared up reps to talk with confidence with the correct content material to again it up on one thing that they wouldn’t have acquired quite a lot of coaching on and possibly don’t have quite a lot of earlier expertise promoting to those totally different industries or personas that they’re speaking to now. 

That was actually enormous for us as a result of we had been digital and dealing from dwelling, so it’s not like we might pull everyone collectively essentially and do a bunch of coaching. Highspot allowed us to maneuver in a short time and instill that confidence as a result of we might construct a play, construct some content material, get it on the market, and get folks talking extra comfortably about these new situations. We’ve tried to proceed to copy that with our gross sales performs and use it as a strategy to each allow the sector and get extra confidence, however then additionally be capable of observe and see like, okay, these performs are being efficient and these aren’t so we will goal extra of that materials. 

SS: I like that. DocuSign can also be at the moment piloting Highspot’s coaching and training. What advantages have you ever seen from having a single platform for reps to work and study from and the way has that additionally impacted the way in which that you simply observe productiveness? 

JP: This has been enormous for us. Like quite a lot of corporations proper now, we’re attempting to consolidate and make it possible for we’re making the most effective use of the tech that we’ve, reasonably than attempting to have totally different apps for each totally different factor. If we will have a single platform that permits us to do all the things that the enablement workforce would wish and supply all the things {that a} rep would wish, that’s going to be an enormous win. 

What we had beforehand was quite a lot of the content material in Highspot and that being the supply of reality, after which, from there, in the event you wanted to finish a coaching module or a course, you’d click on on a hyperlink and it might take you out to a different app. Perhaps you’d come again, possibly you wouldn’t, however even simply that easy piece of not having to click on out and go to a special expertise in a special place is big for us. It implies that we’re extra more likely to get engagement with that materials. The opposite piece that we’re actually enthusiastic about with coaching teaching is with the ability to do extra microlearning. Historically we’ve achieved quite a lot of our studying programs and issues like that in form of pretty giant, monolithic occasions, reminiscent of a 30, 60, 90-minute course that it’s worthwhile to take. For reps, it seems like this large endeavor to finish and that they should carve a while out. Whereas as an alternative, the coaching and training will permit us to create bite-sized micro-learning throughout the context of the place they could already be going to seek out out a few new product. 

For instance, if we’ve the product demo video and the pitch deck, and a number of the messaging tips all proper there on the web page in Highspot, we will even have a bit of studying expertise proper there inside that very same surroundings. It’s much more intuitive and we will break issues up extra simply. We’re enthusiastic about that and with the ability to make extra of that bite-sized, digestible studying occur throughout the platform that we’re already utilizing.

By way of monitoring productiveness, I feel that’s going to be enormous as a result of we’ve already constructed the pipes and feeds from Highspot into our information warehouse and have the dashboards already aligned, so now it’s simply including within the coaching component in order that we don’t need to have a content material utilization dashboard and a gross sales efficiency dashboard and a coaching completion dashboard. We will attempt to convey all these issues collectively, which is gonna permit us to avoid wasting time and sources and construct all that, in addition to inform tighter narratives round whenever you full this coaching and use this deck that we offer, which leads to this end result, which is thrilling. 

SS: In an identical vein, how do you leverage analytics in Highspot to collect insights on the effectivity and effectiveness of your groups to proceed to evolve future enablement packages primarily based on the areas of most want? What are a number of the advantages of monitoring these metrics in Highspot?

JP: I feel, once more I’ve been speaking loads about information and measurement right here, however it’s a large focus for us and I feel for many enablement groups, proper now, we try to do a greater job of quantifying the influence and the return from our efforts and the coaching that we offer. I feel doing that in Highspot has quite a lot of advantages as a result of primary, once more, we’ve already obtained it built-in with our core methods, which is big, so it’s linked to Salesforce. It’s linked to our SSO platform and all of that, so quite a lot of automation is occurring simply by utilizing a single platform once more reasonably than a number of.

One of many good issues about Highspot is it provides us a predefined strategy to share that information. All of our frontline managers can log in and think about the information that they want for his or her particular person groups. We will roll up that information to extra of an govt degree or if advertising and marketing desires to view all of that, all of them have that entry. We’re not doing as a lot guide reporting and information dumps out of the system as we needed to do beforehand with different platforms, we’re capable of pre-build the correct experiences throughout the software. Then we nonetheless have another dashboards that we construct, the place we’re combining totally different information units. The connection there within the integration is so tight and the information could be very clear and dependable. We’re capable of like work actually simply with that information set to construct out customized dashboards and tie it up with Salesforce information and issues like that.

SS: Thanks, Jesse. Final query for you. How do you count on your group to proceed to evolve with Highspot? 

JP: We’re actually excited concerning the partnership. We’re actually excited concerning the concept of a real enablement platform. Being the enablement workforce, we love the imaginative and prescient that Highspot set about being the most effective enablement resolution. With the longer term innovation that you simply all are engaged on, it’s actually thrilling for us to have the ability to really feel like we’ve made the correct alternative. Understanding that we’ve obtained a associate that we will actually work with has been nice. 

I feel only for our discipline and for our reps of their day-to-day, the extra that we will proceed to construct that. We’ve achieved a great job of claiming, Highspot is now your supply of reality, that’s the place you go for all the things. It’s like, come for the one repository and the trusted content material that is updated, keep for the shopper engagement information that you simply get and the benefit of pitching out content material by way of Gmail or outreach or issues like that. The power to create touchdown pages and microsites to your prospects, and the power to collaborate along with your friends on pitches and content material, prefer it retains opening up extra alternatives for our workforce to speed up their gross sales cycle and be extra environment friendly and efficient. 

For us, it’s nearly persevering with to drive that since you see the outcomes develop exponentially the longer you’ve had an answer in place the extra that persons are adopting it and shopping for into it. We’re simply excited to see it proceed to evolve. We’re excited concerning the future innovation that’s on the roadmap. We’ve additionally had an amazing partnership and the workforce at Highspot has been actually nice to work with, so we’re excited to see what’s sooner or later. 

SS: I respect you sharing your insights, Jesse. Thanks a lot for becoming a member of us. 

JP: Thanks. It’s nice speaking with you 

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.