Driving Enablement Adoption By way of a Unified Tech Stack

Analysis from Gross sales Enablement PRO discovered that firms with a consolidated tech stack see a 19 proportion level greater common quota attainment than groups with a number of disconnected instruments.

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 right way to navigate them efficiently. 

How are you going to increase rep productiveness with a unified gross sales enablement platform? Right here to debate this matter is Andrea Holzworth, the vp of gross sales enablement and buyer operations at Venture Lead The Approach. Thanks for becoming a member of us, Andrea. I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your function.

Andrea Holzwarth: Thanks for having me right now. I’m Andrea Holzwarth, as you talked about serving because the vp of gross sales enablement and buyer operations for Venture Lead The Approach. I’ve been with Venture Lead The Approach for eight years now served in a wide range of roles. Totally on our gross sales workforce, so I served on our faculty success workforce, our new district engagement workforce, and our strategic accounts workforce. I not too long ago transitioned over to our buyer operations workforce in July, and actually on this function I function the chief of our gross sales enablement, so offering our gross sales workforce with all of the assets that they want, all of the skilled growth teaching coaching they want, whereas additionally fixing a few of these operational challenges that we could have. Whether or not these are inner or exterior, simply making it simpler for our buyer to implement Venture Lead The Approach.

SS: I like that. Now, previous to Highspot, you had been leveraging a distinct platform for enablement, together with a separate studying administration system. Are you able to inform us about that have and finally what led you to determine to essentially consolidate your enablement tech stack?

AH: As you talked about, we had been utilizing a wide range of assets, and as you possibly can think about with a wide range of assets, there’s actually no supply of fact of the place the precise useful resource is, or the place that studying is. And so, Highspot actually was chosen by Venture Lead The Approach as our gross sales enablement software due to its capacity to be the supply of fact but additionally its capacity to combine into Salesforce. It’s an easy-to-build studying administration system for us. 

A few the opposite issues that we actually appreciated about Highspot was the power to supply gross sales performs to our workforce. So, the “know, say, present, and do” to essentially equip our workforce with the precise useful resource on the proper time to the precise viewers. After which we additionally actually appreciated the event of speak tracks and the way we will present workforce members the chance to take heed to their friends and a few of these role-play conversations round focused matters or particular PLTW applications. 

SS: I like that. What have you ever seen because the influence of getting a unified resolution fairly than separate siloed instruments?

AH: We’ve seen fairly a little bit of influence to this point, however I’ll say that Highspot actually supplied our workforce a unified vocabulary and once more, that single supply of fact. And it additionally allowed our gross sales workforce to be actually extra environment friendly and efficient within the discipline. As a substitute of digging round looking for that one useful resource, they had been capable of finding every thing in a single spot.

And it was additionally tagged accurately. And I say “spot” a little bit little bit of pun supposed there, but it surely allowed them to seek out every thing they wanted. I discussed this earlier, however we do prefer to say the precise useful resource, proper time for that proper viewers. 

SS: I like that. And also you guys are literally driving improbable adoption throughout the board, so kudos to you and the workforce. I consider you guys have a 95% pitch adoption fee and 68% play adoption. What had been your finest practices for guaranteeing a profitable launch if you first rolled out Highspot? 

AH: Yeah, we’re very excited and inspired about our preliminary implementation, positively some early wins for us, which has been simply phenomenal for our gross sales enablement workforce, but additionally for our gross sales workforce as properly. We took two approaches and I’ll say that we began growing our implementation plan far earlier than our launch date. We wished to essentially take a two particular approaches. The primary method is the “do with, not do to” mentality. And the second was to go gradual to go quick later. Clearly, these sound very corny, however that’s what we saved going again to each time we had been growing our implementation plan.

We wished our workforce to really feel these small victories alongside the way in which. So we began off with actually small month-to-month studying. I’ll give an instance: our launch date was truly October fifth, and we shared just one expectation for the month of October for our full workforce. Ship 5 pitches. That appears sort of small and a few individuals received it completed inside hours and the others took a few days or even weeks. And that’s okay as a result of that’s all they should do is ship 5 pitches. We wished to carry everybody alongside us and have an effect on that early timeline.

We wished them to get comfy. The opposite piece that we did too develop a suggestions group earlier than our launch date and this has helped us to pre-identify some workforce members that we thought can be early adopters. And most of them are, and in order that has helped us acquire suggestions from our, from these utilizing it. So once more, do with, not do to. 

SS: I like that motto. Alongside these strains, as you talked about, a type of issues that you just did to assist construct that momentum was get suggestions and create an excellent person group. Inform us extra about that. How did that enable you drive adoption?

AH: Yeah, so we developed that tremendous person group or we name it our engagement workforce suggestions group – and only for reference our gross sales workforce at Venture Lead The Approach is referenced as our engagement workforce – we wished them to be those who had been driving the adoption So we didn’t need it to be one thing that was taking place.

From the operations workforce, you could do that. It’s actually like I’m doing with them and we wished them to be leaders inside their teams, so we requested for a few commitments immediately from these workforce members and people commitments had been one: commit for a complete group, a complete yr to be in that group, and to not prioritize conferences. We all know that there’s a lot of conferences, a lot of conflicts, however to prioritize attendance. 

And the second was actually laid out fairly clearly was we need to present Brene Brown’s “clear is type” suggestions, which means we didn’t need it to only say, “Hey, that is nice.” “No, it’s all going properly.” What wasn’t going properly, how may we be taught that? Earlier than we took that studying to our full gross sales workforce, we will work out a few of these kinks. After which the opposite factor that we’ve actually seen success with is that this group has continued to supply that suggestions alongside the way in which, however they’ve additionally taken their learnings and expertise and shared it with their house groups.

And that wasn’t a requirement and one thing we even stated it’s simply they had been recognized by their leaders as being tremendous customers And so it was a pleasant method for them to have a few of that peer-to-peer studying Versus you understand, the shopper operations workforce coming in and sharing so we host these month-to-month learnings as a full workforce After which our tremendous person group goes and shares of their particular person groups, which additionally they sort of share a few of their ideas or methods the right way to do one thing a little bit sooner or a workaround which is simply enjoyable to see as properly.

SS: I actually love that method. I hope a few of our different prospects can make the most of that and implement that inside their very own organizations. Now, rolling out a brand new software and driving adoption can even require some habits change. What are a few of your finest practices for motivating that habits change? 

AH: Everyone knows change is difficult. It doesn’t matter what change you’re going by means of, your private, skilled, change goes to be laborious. Everybody has a sure threshold of change that they’ll take earlier than it turns into uncomfortable. We actually wished to sit down there and determine and convey everybody alongside us in that change, so we wished them perhaps to really feel pushed a bit exterior consolation zone, however by no means to go previous that threshold. We wished them to really feel profitable. I feel that’s one finest observe. Not going once more too quick, sustaining a few of that gradual momentum. So that you’re bringing everybody with you. 

The factor that we’ve liked to see during the last couple of months, their implementation is now we have some that aren’t essentially the tremendous customers, however but they nonetheless need extra. They need to continue to learn extra. They need some extra nuggets the place now we have one other group who’s simply sort of staying alongside proper alongside our studying. So it’s been a very nice factor there. One other finest observe I discussed earlier, however once more, it’s. Do with, not do to – so how can we carry everybody with us on this studying? How will we make everybody really feel part of our implementation? It’s not one thing that they must do, it’s one thing they’re attending to do. 

The opposite factor that we actually did to start with was share the tip outcome. Highspot was a change and our workforce could be very mission-driven at Venture Lead The Approach, so we wished to showcase to them how using Highspot was going to really feel higher to our prospects. One in every of PLTW’s core values is buyer centricity. Our prospects are on the heart of all that we do. And we actually consider that Highspot as a useful resource makes a extra buyer, seamless buyer expertise. And so we shared that with our workforce and showcased that to the workforce so that they knew that, “hey, I’m not solely doing this as a result of we’re altering over to this, but it surely’s additionally higher for my prospects that I’m serving.”

Lastly, I’d say knowledge helps. So we’re now in a position to showcase to our groups how efficient their outreach is. In some methods earlier than, let’s imagine if somebody was opening an e-mail, however now we will present in the event that they’ve opened it, how lengthy they considered it, did they share it. And we had been simply considerably at the hours of darkness earlier than. Empowering our workforce with knowledge, simply serving to them to need to personal a few of their very own studying and Highspot, too. 

SS: I feel that’s improbable. And also you guys even have a really distinctive and specialised gross sales workforce at Venture Lead The Approach. Lots of them truly come from a educating background fairly than a standard gross sales background, which is superb.

What are a few of the distinctive concerns you’ve got for driving habits change amongst a barely lower than conventional gross sales workforce, and the way does Highspot assist? 

AH: At Venture Lead The Approach, we see a robust worth of workforce members who’ve that have from our buyer base inside our PLTW community. A lot of our workforce members do come from our community previous to becoming a member of us. I’m going to return to what I discussed earlier, however Highspot supplied us with that widespread vocabulary. It additionally gave us consistency throughout the board, and we may share that there was one thing that if a faculty was contacting us in California and even in Florida, they had been having that very same buyer expertise due to Highspot, we had been in a position to showcase that consistency.

It’s additionally supplied a simple button for our account homeowners and so they don’t must seek for issues. They don’t must perhaps assume that somebody wants one thing or, you understand, attempt to put themselves in these, the sneakers of that buyer. We actually have completed that legwork for them by placing issues particularly spots and showcasing or tying them to the proper alternative stage. We’ve made the straightforward button, so there’s not a number of different further pondering. They’ll simply construct the connection, which is what our accountants are so good at; constructing relationships with our faculty districts. 

SS: I like that. Coaching applications play a extremely huge function in with the ability to drive habits change. One in every of your key initiatives for the yr forward is to construct out sturdy onboarding and coaching applications. How are you designing these applications and leveraging Highspot to assist ship them? 

AH: We consider that onboarding for a brand new workforce member is among the most important occasions if you’re bringing on a brand new workforce member throughout their tenure. We wish each workforce member to get that finest basic begin. We wish them to be foundationally sound but additionally see the buy-in and perceive the place we’re going as a company, and we consider we had a reasonably robust onboarding expertise earlier than. However, a number of our onboarding was constructed in-house, and it was a number of conferences with different people, and we are attempting to take down the quantity of conferences that we could have, and we’re attempting to outline, but additionally determine what’s one of the simplest ways for a few of that studying.

Highspot’s studying administration has helped us do this as a result of we will construct programs. We are able to additionally verify for understanding alongside the way in which. It’s not going to switch each assembly. We consider, once more, these first 4 weeks are actually essential. We wish that new workforce member to really feel interplay, to really feel a relationship constructing with Venture Lead The Approach. However a few of these issues are very operational or very administrative. How can we take a few of these and put them into Highspot that they’ll do on their very own time? As a substitute of getting to schedule some conferences, we’re nonetheless dipping our toe into what that appears like. We’re excited to transition a few of that studying into Highspot

SS: I like that. What are a few of the early wins that you just’ve began to see because you launched Highspot and the way are you measuring success? 

AH: That’s an awesome query. There’s a lot of methods. I feel I used to be speaking to somebody the opposite day – Highspot offers you a number of knowledge and there’s a lot of it to take a look at, you don’t must determine which knowledge that you just’re taking a look at.

One in every of our early wins: I discussed our October studying, so our November studying was that each one of our lead outreach would transfer over to Highspot and would use pitch templates. Once more, create consistency for us. We had by no means had a constant lead outreach expertise earlier than. We moved all of that to Highspot, and the largest win that we acquired from our gross sales workforce was that we may present to them by the tip of the month that we had a 71% open fee for all of our sales-qualified lead outreach. We may by no means share that knowledge with them earlier than as a result of we didn’t have it and it wasn’t constant once more a faculty in California could have been getting a distinct e-mail than a faculty in Connecticut. We wished them to have that and seeing that knowledge helped them get once more further adoption and buy-in. That was one of many huge issues. 

Then, I’ll simply say, we maintain listening to anecdotal suggestions too, from completely different workforce members alongside the way in which. My favourite is when workforce members will attain out to me by way of groups and simply share their experiences. The opposite day, certainly one of our high performers messaged me and stated, “Oh my gosh, Highspot, such a recreation changer for my lead work. I used to be in a position to get by means of 30 leads in 20 minutes.” And it was like, “Wow, that’s superior.” That’s extra time for them to be out within the discipline, for them to be supporting prospects as an alternative of, you understand, simply sending an e-mail sort of factor. So a lot of alternative ways to see success, however that’s actually the place we’re beginning with. 

SS: I like these. These are some nice early wins, Andrea. It’s the brand new yr. So, my final query for you: how do you propose to proceed to optimize your enablement technique with Highspot within the yr forward? 

AH: Yeah, we did develop a year-long implementation plan. I sort of talked about this earlier, however we wished our workforce to really feel assured, to really feel comfy with Highspot this yr.

Our full first yr of implementation was simply what we thought success can be if we had been adopting, comfy, and assured. So what we’ve completed is beginning in October of this yr, we recognized one month-to-month studying every month, after which we construct upon that every month as properly.

And in order that’s our plan, to proceed constructing on. We put a few of these greater nuggets, the thrilling issues, a little bit bit later within the yr as a result of we wished the workforce to be operationally sound with Highspot. However for instance, our digital rooms are going to be arising quickly. That’s the place we’ll be sharing with the workforce.

Additionally, extra gross sales performs will likely be concerned with the workforce. And so we’ve shared that calendar with the complete workforce. We need to be clear on this. We do have an asterisk, “topic to vary”. Issues could change alongside the way in which, however now we have shared with them what that studying goes to be, and in addition what that expectation of what to do with that studying.

So, we’re all in with it, we’re going to maintain rolling, and we’re excited to see how far our workforce goes. We have already got some workforce members who we haven’t shared a digital room with simply but, however they’ve completed it on their very own as a result of they’ve completed some self-learning and we’re enthusiastic about that. They’ve been in there.

They’re those early adopting. So we see some early success and we’re excited to see the remainder of the yr with it.

SS: I like that, I’m too. I’m excited to see the way you guys succeed within the yr forward. Effectively, Andrea, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us. I actually admire it. 

AH: Thanks for having me.

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