Scaling Enablement to Enhance Purchaser Engagement

Analysis from McKinsey discovered that solely 22% of recent companies launched prior to now ten years have efficiently scaled. So, how are you going to efficiently scale with enablement?

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 traits within the office and find out how to navigate them efficiently. Right here to debate this subject is Gracey Cantalupo, chief advertising and marketing officer at MentorcliQ, Inc. Thanks for becoming a member of, Gracey! I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your position. 

Gracey Cantalupo: Thanks a lot for having me, Shawnna. I really like this subject and I really like serving to different advertising and marketing leaders perceive find out how to handle their content material, allow their gross sales workforce, and finally assist us all get extra income and assist us scale. 

As you mentioned, my title is Gracey Cantalupo. I’ve been in advertising and marketing for over 15 years. Some B2C, some B2B, so I’ve had each. I’ve been at startups and I’ve been at giant firms as nicely. I’ve been within the magnificence trade, leisure, industrial actual property, and now SaaS, Software program as a Service. All this expertise offers me a really distinctive perspective. I really like infusing all of the enjoyable from my B2C days at MTV and Viacom with the results-driven B2B expertise of my SaaS roles. I actually attempt to create a human-to-human method to advertising and marketing, in order that it’s efficient and likewise enjoyable as a result of, on the finish of the day, we’re advertising and marketing to people.

In my position as CMO at MentorcliQ, we assist make worker mentoring and ERG administration straightforward for enterprise firms. We assist workers at these firms develop their careers, hone their craft, and develop a group at work. We consider that each worker deserves an awesome mentor to assist them thrive of their profession and to assist them discover group and belonging of their office. I get to infuse all of that enjoyable and helpfulness from my B2C days to assist enterprises make a greater office expertise. 

SS: That’s implausible. I really like the mission of what you guys try to do there. Now, I wish to focus somewhat bit on enablement. Pondering again to whenever you had been first evaluating enablement platforms, what had been among the key causes you chose Highspot, particularly compared to your present answer and possibly different platforms that you just evaluated?

GC: Completely. At MentorcliQ, we didn’t have a complete advertising and marketing tech stack once I joined. I joined MentorcliQ six years in the past, so I used to be in a position to see loads and assist the workforce construct out lots of issues. When it grew to become time for us to search for a gross sales enablement answer, it actually got here down to a few issues.

Primary, is that this going to be straightforward for our reps? Nice salespeople are lazy and we wish to be certain that it’s as straightforward as attainable for them or else they received’t use it. We additionally wished to verify it was straightforward for prospects and shoppers as nicely. We didn’t wish to need to do a password or make them signal into LinkedIn. We wished to make it very easy for them to see our content material. 

Subsequent, we wished to verify we may monitor what the gross sales workforce was utilizing and what the prospects had been . Final, however actually not least, we would have liked some dang model management. I imply, we had some reps that, I swear, will need to have damaged into an outdated storage unit, scanned outdated ass PDFs of actually dangerous content material, and we would have liked to make that cease for positive. Making it straightforward, monitoring what’s getting used, and model management had been actually the three issues we had been searching for. 

SS: I really like that. And I’ve positively lived by means of these experiences. Now, whenever you had been first rolling out Highspot, your gross sales workforce was additionally within the midst of almost doubling in dimension. Are you able to inform us somewhat bit extra about how implementing Highspot helped you navigate that change when you had been additionally scaling?

GC: I began MentorcliQ once more, six years in the past, they had been a couple of years in. They’d an awesome product advertising and marketing match they usually had been trying to scale and over time, the gross sales workforce grew from founder promoting to actual enterprise B2B SaaS salespeople promoting. They want construction. They will’t simply determine it out. They’re used to sources, they’re used to playbooks, they usually’re used to having a course of and a gross sales methodology in place for them to execute flawlessly. We simply didn’t have that. 

Consistency ended up being the important thing for us to assist us get these reps onboarded as shortly as attainable and Highspot was so nice for that. We had been in a position to begin to construct that blueprint of a playbook. Within the first name, you do your discovery, and also you ship this Highspot pitch with this content material. Cool. Within the second name, you do your demo, you ship this follow-up. Okay, the third name, after you do your proposal, you ship this content material.

We actually formulated it out for them and helped them be constant. That was the important thing to having the ability to scale whereas we had been launching this gross sales enablement program, and likewise whereas we had been rising our workforce on the similar time. 

SS: I really like that. That’s implausible. Not solely had been you guys scaling when you applied Highspot, however you additionally had a very quick implementation. How did you make sure that you had been in a position to each implement shortly and successfully? 

GC: That is what we name a compelling occasion, or in our case, a number of compelling occasions. Good Hyperlinks, which was a product by Gross sales Navigator, was being sundown and it was purported to be sundown in January of that yr. We wished to verify there wasn’t a giant hole for our gross sales reps, and we had offers that may’ve began in This autumn, however aren’t going to shut till Q1 or Q2. We wished to verify there was a easy transition there. So a giant, compelling occasion there. 

The second massive, compelling occasion is This autumn. For many firms and B2B SaaS, This autumn is large, and we didn’t wish to distract our salespeople. These two compelling occasions actually motivated us to maneuver shortly and make it as straightforward as attainable for the gross sales of us.

SS: Now you’ve already seen some nice outcomes since implementation. I believe you guys are at about 86 % recurring utilization of the Highspot platform. What finest practices are you able to share that helped you drive such excessive adoption from the onset?

GC: There are actually two keys for us. Primary, once more, is making it straightforward for reps. Our reps are engaged on offers in numerous phases. They’re getting new offers coming within the door on a regular basis. We simply have to make it straightforward, plug and play. Like I mentioned, nice gross sales reps are type of lazy so we would have liked to make it possible for this was very straightforward for them.

One of many issues I actually beloved about Highspot is its integration with Salesforce and inside Gmail. It simply made it very easy for the salespeople to make use of it in their very own stream of labor. I believe I’m really stealing that from the gross sales pitch from Highspot, however that basically resonated with me to get the salespeople to undertake it. It simply wanted to be the place they already had been. I didn’t wish to ship them to a different place. It’s proper there for them and Salesforce, all of the actions in Salesforce, and likewise there’s that plugin for them in Gmail, they will seize a pitch and ship it immediately. So primary is simply to make it straightforward on your reps.

Quantity two, it’s a repeatable, very clear course of. After the primary assembly, ship this pitch. After the second assembly, you get a demo, you add this content material to the identical pitch. That additionally makes it straightforward on your prospects and your shoppers. They’re simply going again to 1 hyperlink and one pitch and that’s the place the magic actually occurs. How do you make it straightforward? It’s a repeatable course of and our prospects really love our Highspot pitches they usually touch upon it on a regular basis as nicely. 

SS: On that very word, one other space the place you guys have seen wonderful adoption is leveraging Highspot to interact patrons, as you mentioned, and also you guys are at an 80 % pitch adoption fee. How are your groups extra successfully participating patrons with Highspot? 

GC: They ship it they usually hold sending the prospects again to the Highspot pitch. I hear our reps on the cellphone, oh yeah, so I’m going so as to add it to the hyperlink I despatched after our first name in order that’ll be there for you whenever you want it. The proposal will probably be proper there. The whole lot you want is true there. That actually makes it straightforward for the prospect has be tremendous useful. 

The opposite factor, I believe, that has been useful for the gross sales workforce particularly, is that they get notified anytime anybody engages with a pitch. Perhaps that deal went chilly. Perhaps that deal ghosted us, or they mentioned, oh, it’s budgeting season, I’ll come again to you after we get our funds numbers in This autumn. The gross sales reps can see folks participating with the Highspot pitch and that’s an excellent flag for them to succeed in out early and see if they are often useful. That has actually helped the salespeople undertake it not solely within the entrance finish of the gross sales course of however utilizing it as a instrument to do well timed engagement again out to prospects which have gone chilly in the event that they’re participating with Highspots pitches.

SS: I really like that method. Now, your group additionally lately launched a brand new product for a brand new purchaser kind, so getting your reps up to the mark was important to participating these new patrons. Are you able to inform us the way you had been in a position to certify your reps to promote this new product utilizing Highspot? 

GC: We acquired an organization known as Diversed. That’s our ERG administration platform. We wanted to shortly prepare our reps and ensure they understood what the product did, what the worth proposition is, and what’s the mixed worth proposition of MentorcliQ and ERGs. 

Most worker useful resource teams have mentoring occurring organically. Let’s bridge these two issues collectively and supply mentoring to these ERGs in addition to easy administration. For them to grasp shortly the mixed worth proposition and the way it labored was key. 

We did coaching on that and we had our reps get licensed. They really needed to cross a check do an interview and talk the worth prop again to sure senior leaders within the firm. This was all tracked in Highspot utilizing the entire pitches we constructed for Diversed in addition to all of the content material. To make it simpler for reps, the entire Highspot occasion of ours was constructed with spots, which we type of consider them not as file folders, however as isles of content material you possibly can stroll down. We have now a particular spot for Various, which is our new product. We make it very easy for the reps. They don’t have to hunt round within the product options and features drawback options or any of the client tales. Something associated to that new product is in a single singular spot, one content material aisle they get to stroll down. That additionally made it very easy for the reps to shortly go in, seize content material, or create a pitch that’s particular to Diversed and ship that out as nicely. 

They didn’t get entry to that content material, although, till they handed the certification, which was a cool a part of it. We had it locked till they handed after which they received entry. 

SS: I really like that. Use that as an incentive to get them to get by means of that. That’s implausible. Simply shifting gears somewhat bit, what metrics or key Highspot to type of actually optimize lots of these packages you’re operating? 

GC: I’ve been in advertising and marketing my complete profession. I began as a graphic designer. I labored for many totally different firms, and whether or not it was an actual property firm, a magnificence firm, or actuality TV, MTV, there was by no means sufficient content material. Gross sales groups at all times need extra content material. They’re a bottomless pit of want. They at all times assume their prospect wants this factor and their want is particular. If it really works for them, then everybody ought to have the factor. 

This record is large, proper? There are by no means sufficient sources and there’s by no means sufficient time to supply the entire asks that gross sales assume are actually essential. The factor that I really like a lot about Highspot is it lets us monitor what’s really getting used, what’s really being engaged with by the prospects, and what’s really influencing income. That influenced income metric was a recreation changer for us after our first yr of utilizing Highspot. 

What we did is we appeared on the affect income report, after which I narrowed it all the way down to, okay, there are 5 key items of content material which might be influencing essentially the most income. It’s our demo spotlight video, it’s our one pager, we’ve received a spotlight deck, there’s this one shopper testimonial montage, after which we’ve received this one very highly effective mentoring affect report that talks about mentoring and the Fortune 500. It’s these 5. So, don’t F these 5 up was what I got here again with.

It’s like, okay, these need to be good. We’re going to assessment them each quarter. We’re going to verify they’re updated. We’re going to verify these are wonderful as a result of these are what’s driving essentially the most affect. You don’t have to get all the pieces good, however that helps us concentrate on the highest 5 most impactful items, be certain that they’re glitzy, be certain that they’re shiny and ensure they’re getting used. 

Positive, there are going to be one-off requests or somebody’s going to wish a selected case examine for one deal they’re making an attempt to shut. It received’t kill these requests, but it surely does provide help to slim these requests to a really manageable 5 that our workforce can concentrate on. That’s been the sport changer for us, is the concentrate on the highest 5 and the way that influences income. 

SS: Fantastic. Final query for you, Gracey. Simply as a advertising and marketing chief, what has been the affect of Highspot in your prime enterprise priorities? Do you’ve gotten any wins or key outcomes you possibly can share?

GC: I’m a designer at coronary heart. That’s how I began as a graphic designer. I really like how versatile the pitches are. I’ve a graphic designer on my workforce, so I’m very fortunate in that respect. One of many issues that we’ve been in a position to do isn’t just have a PDF hooked up to an electronic mail that goes to a prospect, however you possibly can design this beautiful pitch that has your branding on it, it has your messaging and that’s not simply within the header. 

In every part, we will type of wrap our messaging into the background of the pitch in order that there’s nice context round all the good content material, type of like a pleasant contextual hug round all of that nice content material that we produce. That’s been extraordinarily impactful from a branding perspective and set us aside out there.

Generally folks simply open that factor they usually would possibly see that messaging over and over. Perhaps they don’t go to web page 5 and your slide deck the place you want at all times hit on these messaging factors. For me, it’s been wrapping all of that messaging and that worth advert into the precise pitch itself. I really consider it helps us grow to be the seller of alternative sooner as a result of we’ve received that branding alternative. 

So for me, it’s having that model management, having the ability to get throughout that messaging, in addition to the factor we talked about earlier, which is having the ability to monitor not content material that I’m in love with, or that the salespeople are in love with, however the content material that really influences the income. These two issues have been essentially the most impactful for us.

SS: I really like listening to that. Gracey, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us right this moment. 

GC: Completely. Thanks. 

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