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 matter is Gail Behun, the director of income enablement at LivePerson. Thanks for becoming a member of us, Gail. I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your position.

Gail Behun: Thanks for having me. So I’ve been right here at LivePerson solely a few months, however I’ve been in income enablement for about ten years. I began off as a vendor and have become a gross sales chief, after which actually discovered the influence of gross sales enablement to be so highly effective on the complete org. And I’m extremely keen about empowering salespeople and related groups to be as environment friendly, and as efficient as attainable.

SS: I like that. On that word, I feel one of many issues that stood out on LinkedIn, you additionally talked about your ardour is round constructing actually scalable and repeatable gross sales success. In your opinion, what position does enablement play in driving that for the enterprise?

GB: I feel now we have to be the cheerleaders for scalable and repeatable. I feel our gross sales leaders are superb at fixing particular person issues, particular person quota points, and particular person offers, however enablement is properly suited to look large image on the processes and instruments that now we have in place that make that course of repeatable. Income enablement has the chance to essentially streamline the effectiveness of our sellers by way of our instruments, our discuss tracks, and our coaching. And we’re uniquely positioned to do this as a result of we’re not concerned in a deal. We’re concerned in each deal on some stage.

SS:  Completely. Now, I do know you all simply applied Highspot, however previous to that, your staff had a number of separate instruments to ship enablement packages. What had been a few of the challenges that your group confronted with that strategy?

GB: I feel each group is confronted with the dreaded G-drive scope creep, the place there are ten variations of this, and 9 variations of this, and one lives on this drive, and this rep has downloaded the deck, and now they’re making adjustments on their very own, and there simply wasn’t tight governance. And as organizations grew, particularly radically throughout COVID, it simply acquired uncontrolled.

Having a unified software turned a must have as we and loads of different firms have taken a slowdown in hiring and a possibility to reset our methods transferring ahead.

SS: Completely. Out of your perspective, how does having a unified enablement platform aid you to beat a few of the challenges to your earlier level round with the ability to drive scalable and repeatable gross sales success?

GB:  My goodness, the period of time sellers spend not promoting is upwards of 70%. It’s simply loopy the period of time that they spend getting offers by way of the method and in search of supplies and the place we are able to lower that point down and make them extra environment friendly. Provides them that point again to be extra personalized of their engagements with their prospects and be capable to broaden their enterprise choices and worth relatively than working by way of cumbersome methods. And so a single supply of reality is essential to that. And that’s what a unified tech stack supplies. It was one of many largest causes for us transferring to Highspot, however the greater purpose is the client’s expertise and the Digital Gross sales Rooms, and having these each beneath one firm umbrella made it a win for us.

SS: I like that. Now, one other key purpose your staff determined to implement Highspot was to bolster the worth of enablement as actually a strategic tenant for the enterprise. What are a few of the strategic initiatives that enablement helps at LivePerson and the way will you leverage Highspot to assist?

GB: Our staff is comparatively new. LivePerson went by way of an enablement reset. As a result of a lot of our gross sales movement is grounded within the growth part, a lot of our initiatives this 12 months are round account growth. And, as I stated, Digital Gross sales Rooms are a sport changer in terms of interacting with present prospects and exhibiting ongoing worth.

And so the continuing worth metric is extremely vital for us as we double down on that side of our enterprise. It additionally helps us dramatically if you’re speaking about multi-threading and stepping into further stakeholders as a result of with present accounts it’s very straightforward to have one nice champion however not go deeper than that, and Digital Gross sales Rooms and the engagements now we have by way of Highspot will permit us to have extra highly effective multi-threading and extra alternatives to open extra doorways inside our shopper account.

SS: I like that. I feel that’s an ideal initiative and a means for Highspot to assist help that. Now, I do know one in all your objectives in implementing Highspot was additionally to make sure a extremely robust alignment with advertising and marketing. What are a few of your finest practices for collaborating with advertising and marketing and the way are you driving robust alignment by way of Highspot?

GB: Yeah, I don’t suppose there’s something extra vital than ensuring our sellers are up on these advertising and marketing messages as a result of these advertising and marketing messages, that’s what advertising and marketing is speaking to our accounts and our prospects out within the house about, it’s what we’re recognized for being thought leaders: having nice analytics and data. So, having a single level for that info inside Highspot is extremely vital.

Our advertising and marketing staff and our discipline advertising and marketing staff every have their very own sections: discipline advertising and marketing, particularly as a result of we do a ton of customer-facing occasions, and so for them to prepare that for the entire sellers to see the place they’re going to be out reside and in particular person, “What kind of occasions? What are the speaking factors?” Turn out to be essential as properly. Sellers, even earlier than pre-COVID once we had been all at residence, however particularly now, now we have to have the ability to inform one another’s tales. And so advertising and marketing is nice at accumulating these tales. They’re telling buyer tales by way of case research. Enablement, we’re telling buyer tales by way of what we name win tales, that are extra behind the scenes.

So we’re creating win tales that permit us interview a vendor, inform the nice, dangerous, the ugly, after which we are able to tie these to these case research. And so it offers the sellers the data they should exit to market, but in addition to have the conversations behind the scenes.

SS: Implausible. Now, as we talked about early on, you’ve got began the work of creating an ideal basis in your implementation, and I do know that you simply’ve simply launched Highspot to your groups. What had been a few of your finest practices to make sure a profitable launch? And the way are you measuring success?

GB: We had an incredible CSM implementation supervisor on the Highspot aspect who gave us some nice recommendation, and we did loads of ramp-up actions. We had a cheerleading squad with inner leaders who had been making movies that had been hosted on the Highspot web page, speaking to our potential customers, saying, “Right here’s what you’re going to like about it, listed below are some methods you’re going to make use of it.”

We wrangled in our frontline managers and our leaders to talk to why we made this transfer, ensuring that they didn’t really feel prefer it was simply one other piece of software program we bought, and that this was essential to the way in which that they did their jobs. Our senior venture supervisor on the venture gamified a substantial amount of the onboarding.

And so you would get factors for various actions and she or he would put up out the winners. And we’re not finished. We’re going to proceed to share these movies over the following couple of weeks. We launched Highspot on the similar time, proper earlier than our gross sales kickoff. And so our gross sales kickoff pre-work was truly to create a video and host it on Highspot.

I acquired everyone in and utilizing the software. And now now we have these nice movies individuals have made that we’re scoring and we’re going to offer prizes out over the following couple of weeks. So we’re going to proceed to hype this. We’re going to do some, sharing and awards for an ideal Digital Gross sales Room or an ideal engagement that any individual’s utilized the location for, to indicate these finest practices.

After which persevering with schooling. We simply need to proceed to have workplace hours, see what sort of questions individuals are asking, and ensure the location is answering these in order that we are able to be certain we proceed to construct it out. We’ve launched it, however actually, I feel we’re in all probability 30 to 40 p.c finished, which means now we have much more to do, and that subsequent part goes to be pushed by extra interactive content material, extra video content material, and extra user-driven content material as they push us so as to add and make extra precious for the location.

SS: And one space particularly, since you’ve talked about it early on within the dialog the place I do know you goal to attain robust adoption is in the usage of digital rooms. As you’ve talked about, it’s an effective way to get deeper into the accounts that your staff’s going after. How do you propose on driving adoption of Digital Rooms along with your revenue-facing groups?

GB: That’s an ideal query. Partially by cheerleading it by way of their front-line managers, ensuring their front-line managers are asking, Hey, right here’s this deal you’ve got in play. Let’s have a look at your Digital Gross sales Room. Let’s have a look at it collectively. Let’s see the place you’re getting engagement. As I stated, the post-sale movement is an enormous a part of what we do.

So working with our CSMs. Have you ever launched a room? What’s the engagement you’re getting? Not good earlier than your QBR, however on an annual foundation. And so actually working with our frontline managers to be our champions in these areas, I feel goes to be the largest push. After which once more, showcasing good successes, with the ability to present, “Hey, this account has a really excessive stage of utilization of their room.”

We’ve acquired a large number of downloads. We’re seeing loads of a number of individuals logging in and present that as a finest case in order that we are able to proceed to say, “Hey, don’t you need to have that engagement to your accounts?”

SS:  I like that. Now, once more, I do know that LivePerson is simply at first of its enablement journey with Highspot, however what are a few of your key objectives for enablement within the 12 months forward? And the way do you propose to leverage Highspot that will help you get there?

GB: Considered one of our key objectives I’ll communicate to is simply what I’d name a model unification. LivePerson went by way of loads of twists and turns over the past couple of years. And so having a robust unified message goes to be extremely vital.

So working with our advertising and marketing staff to have an ideal unified message for our model to have the ability to gamify that by way of some gross sales contests the place we are able to have individuals add elevator pitches and viewpoint decks and issues like that, the place they’re speaking to the model, they’re saying the phrases that we want them to say in the way in which that we want them to say it’s going to be one in all our key objectives. Engagement inside our accounts going deeper and wider, and we’ll be capable to measure that by way of the Digital Gross sales Rooms and the adoption in these areas. After which account retention is one in all our largest objectives – retention and growth. And so once more, we’re pushing residence on the bottom of utilization, whether or not it’s for QBRs and past, to make it possible for now we have as a lot engagement as attainable year-round.

So how will we make it possible for a Digital Gross sales Room isn’t opened after which now we have a shopper login, they do their QBR after which they don’t have a look at it for six, seven months? So, constant engagement goes to be vital as a result of that’s the movement of promoting twelve months a 12 months is what makes a distinction. If you come as much as renewal with an account, have you ever added worth all 12 months? And utilizing these rooms goes to allow us to see that we’re giving that worth out to our prospects in a tangible means.

SS: I like that. Gail, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us at the moment. I actually respect the time.

GB: Thanks.

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