In the re-airing of this episode of our podcast, we sat down with Eric Sikola, COO of Qualified, to explore how he stays innovative in sales, winning serves as a powerful motivator for the entire organization, driving product development, customer success, and sales performance.
Here are some the key takeaways from our conversation with Eric:
Winning is a crucial catalyst for success in sales. It motivates the entire organization and builds a winning culture.
Building trust and genuine relationships with customers is essential in sales. Being transparent, empathetic, and humble can create lasting connections.
To navigate the fast pace of digital innovation, businesses need to adopt a sophisticated tech stack and data-driven strategies for pipeline generation and revenue intelligence.
Maintaining a humanistic element in sales is crucial, even with advanced technologies.
Personalized interactions and quick response times are key to capturing buyer interest.
The top productivity hack is investing in quality sales tools and not hesitating to say “no” when necessary.
Waiting is not a part of the sales process, and time is critical in closing deals.
Overall, Eric highlighted the importance of winning, building trust, embracing digital tools and AI, and staying human in the sales world.
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Reps and other customer-facing roles are constantly seeking ways to improve their efficiency and productivity.
Enter AI and Generative AI.
AI empowers sales reps, account managers, customer success teams, and presales in their day-to-day work, leading to better customer interactions and improved business outcomes.
But let’s first define AI and generative AI before diving into how they can help customer-facing teams be more productive and effective.
Understanding AI and generative AI
Artificial Intelligence refers to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks that would typically require human intelligence, such as visual perception, natural language processing, and decision-making. Generative AI, a subset of AI, focuses on generating new content or data that possess similar characteristics to existing data sets, enabling creative and adaptive problem-solving.
Practical AI applications for customer-facing roles
Artificial intelligence is transforming customer-facing positions in various sectors. Chatbots and virtual assistants are elevating customer support through rapid and personalized responses. AI-driven sentiment analysis aids in assessing customer emotions, facilitating deeper comprehension and customized engagements. Recommender systems suggest products or services aligned with customer preferences, fostering opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. Additionally, AI streamlines mundane tasks, allowing sales representatives to concentrate on relationship-building. AI-powered customer analytics delivers valuable insights for precision-targeted marketing campaigns. These are just a few examples of how AI is revolutionizing the operations of revenue teams.
AI-powered tools can analyze customer data, previous interactions, and publicly available information to provide sales reps with valuable insights before making a call. By leveraging AI, reps can better understand customer needs, preferences, and pain points, enabling them to tailor their approach and deliver a personalized pitch that resonates with prospects.
Following up with customers is critical to maintaining relationships and moving deals forward. AI can streamline this process by automating personalized follow-up emails or messages based on previous interactions. By analyzing the content and context of previous conversations, AI can suggest appropriate responses, saving time and ensuring consistent communication.
Researching customers and prospects can be time-consuming. AI-powered algorithms can swiftly gather and analyze vast amounts of data from various sources, including social media profiles, company websites, and news articles. This information can provide sales reps with a comprehensive understanding of the customer’s industry, recent developments, and pain points, enabling them to have more informed and meaningful conversations.
Generating customized content for each prospect can be challenging and resource-intensive. AI and Generative AI can assist by analyzing customer data and preferences to create personalized proposals, presentations, and marketing collateral. This technology can help sales reps deliver compelling and tailored content that addresses the specific needs of each prospect, enhancing their chances of closing deals.
AI can also benefit customer success teams by helping them prepare for upsell and renewal conversations. By analyzing customer usage patterns, buying behavior, and satisfaction metrics, AI can provide insights into potential upsell opportunities or churn risk. Armed with this information, customer success teams can proactively address customer needs, offer relevant solutions, and nurture long-term relationships.
AI can also help practice pitches for upsell and renewals prior to calls with customers. By using AI roleplay capabilities, CSMs can give their pitch and get instant feedback from AI on how to improve and land the upsell opportunity.
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) like presales and technical resources can practice new demo flows and technical or security conversations prior to their pitch and get AI-powered feedback on how to improve. Giving the opportunity to practice before conversations with customers and prospects ensures SMEs are prepped and ready to deliver their best messaging for every call.
Crafting effective messaging is crucial for sales reps. AI can assist in testing different messaging strategies by analyzing customer responses and engagement data. By leveraging AI algorithms, reps can identify the most resonant messages, optimize their approach, and increase the likelihood of capturing customer interest and closing deals.
Security and compliance considerations
AI tools offer significant benefits to sales reps and customer-facing roles, but it’s crucial to address security and compliance concerns to protect sensitive customer data and adhere to regulations. Here are key considerations:
Data privacy: Ensure compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Implement encryption, access controls, and anonymization techniques to safeguard customer data.
Data security: AI platforms handle sensitive customer data, so work with IT and security teams to ensure strong security measures like encryption, secure storage, and access controls. Conduct regular security audits and vulnerability assessments.
Ethical use of AI: Use AI tools ethically and transparently. Remember that AI algorithms have limitations and should augment human capabilities, not replace them. Apply critical thinking and human judgment.
Training and awareness: Provide training to sales reps and customer-facing teams about AI risks and best practices. Educate them on data privacy, security protocols, and ethical considerations. Ensure they understand the AI tools they use.
Vendor due diligence: Conduct due diligence for third-party AI vendors. Evaluate their data handling practices, security measures, and compliance commitments. Establish contractual agreements for data ownership and protection.
Transparent communication: Maintain open communication with customers regarding AI use. Inform them about data usage, AI-driven insights, and privacy implications. Obtain customer consent for data processing.
By addressing these considerations, organizations can harness AI’s benefits while protecting customer data, complying with regulations, and upholding ethical standards in sales and customer-facing roles.
The rise of AI and Generative AI has brought about remarkable advancements in sales, customer success, and presales roles. By leveraging these technologies, professionals in customer-facing positions can enhance their call preparation, provide faster and more contextual follow-ups, conduct thorough customer research, create custom content, optimize upsell and renewal conversations, and test new messaging strategies. By embracing AI as a powerful ally, sales reps and customer-facing teams can unlock their full potential, drive customer satisfaction, and achieve impressive business results in today’s competitive landscape.
Interested in how to harness the power of AI for your customer-facing roles? Register for our live demo webinar of Mindtickle’s generative AI capabilities.
Introducing Mindtickle Copilot
Join us on Thursday, September 7, 9am PT/12pm ET to see a live demo of Copilot.
In Okta’s search for a sales tool, they quickly realized that it wasn’t just the sales features that mattered; usability was equally crucial. The ability to have visibility into the backend operations, monitor user activities, and have control over features and functionality became paramount for Ariel Elliott and the Okta team. They found value in seemingly simple aspects like the ability to modify completion criteria and customize quizzes and assessments, which are often overlooked but are essential for optimizing the learning experience.
This focus on usability and customization set Mindtickle apart from typical solutions. Ariel adapts and tailors the tool to meet their specific needs and has been a key differentiator. The team tracks completion metrics and closely monitors the time it takes for users to complete the sales onboarding process and subsequently ramp up their performance. By analyzing these metrics, Okta gains valuable insights into user engagement and the effectiveness of the tool.
Since migrating from older platforms, Okta observed a significant increase in tool adoption. This migration has not only improved their ability to track and control sales activities but has also resulted in higher user acceptance and utilization. The positive response from the Okta team reinforces the value of their emphasis on usability and customization.
Key highlights
Usability is a crucial factor: Ariel said their choice of sales tool was not solely based on its sales features, but also on its usability. She highlighted the importance of being able to easily navigate the backend, track user activities, and have control over features and functionality.
Attention to learner needs: Okta modifies quizzes and assessments to cater to the needs of learners. They acknowledge that these aspects are sometimes overlooked but consider them essential for effective learning experiences.
Focus on completion and adoption: Okta’s current focus is on completion metrics, particularly the time it takes for users to complete onboarding and ramp up afterward. They also note that since migrating from older platforms, they have observed a higher adoption rate of the tool.
Video transcription
For us, it wasn’t just the sales features. It was the usability. The ability to see what’s going on in the backend, see who’s doing what, when they’re doing it being able to control those features and functionality.
The simple things like changing completion. Being able to kind of modify the quizzes and the assessments, those learner things that are sometimes overlooked. And the control of that I think, is really what differentiates Mindtickle.
I can say, right now we’re really just looking at completion, more than anything, how long it takes for them to complete onboarding, how long it takes them to ramp after onboarding. Those are the biggest things that we are looking at. We’re definitely seeing higher adoption of the tool since we migrated from older platforms.
How Customers Use Mindtickle
See how other sales enablement and RevOps orgs are using Mindtickle to drive more revenue and productivity in their selling orgs.
Managing your sales team involves a lot of responsibilities: from initial onboarding for new hires, to ongoing training and coaching, to regular performance assessments.
Both deal coaching and skill coaching are strategic techniques for guiding sales reps, each with its own goals and procedures. Effective coaching can improve win rates by 27% or more — but which approach will help you hit that potential?
Win rate improvement with effective coaching
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Say you are an experienced rock climber, and you’re teaching a newbie the basics. In this scenario:
Deal coaching
Skill coaching
Deal coaching would be teaching this person exactly how to tackle the formation in front of them. You go through each foothold and each hand placement so they know exactly what lies ahead of them.
Skill coaching would involve going over a foothold that lies ahead, but also providing different scenarios you may encounter in the future and how to approach them.
Sales managers typically coach sellers through individual deals. While that’s important, skill coaching is imperative to building a coaching culture and preparing sellers for consistent quota attainment. Continue reading to discover the distinctions between the two and which will be more lucrative for your organization.
Deal coaching: Working through the pipeline
Deal coaching focuses on buyers and what resources are needed to engage them and move them further along the sales funnel. While typically unstructured, these sessions help reps work through specific deals in their pipeline for more immediate impact.
The goal of deal coaching is to remove stalled or unqualified deals, adjust effort toward real opportunities, and strategize how to tackle those opportunities. In deal coaching sessions, managers ask questions like:
What is this buyer’s business need?
What unique value does our solution bring to this buyer?
Who are the decision-makers?
What objections (if any) have there been thus far?
Who are we competing against for this buyer’s business?
By answering these questions together, manager and rep can together come up with the best plan of attack, determining what content and approach will be most relevant and drive the deal to close. And while this method may improve a single interaction with a buyer, its benefits tend to be temporary.
Skill coaching: Polishing the competencies that matter most
Skill coaching, on the other hand, focuses on the sellers themselves. Rather than walking through individual deals, its objective is to develop the knowledge and behaviors most critical to success. These may differ from one organization to another, but the following are the most common skills we see amongst top-performing salespeople:
Understanding customer pain points and how your solution helps to solve them
Skill coaching is an ongoing effort, promoting professional development, learning reinforcement, and evaluation. To contribute to their team’s growth, managers can send them to a class or seminar or assign them a book to read. Managers also assess reps’ training completion and performance for further insight into knowledge and skill improvement. Leveraging data, managers are empowered to have more personalized and relevant one-on-one coaching sessions with their reps.
Which coaching style drives results?
Managers have limited time with each rep, and coaching conversations often become deal reviews — with only 5% of time being spent giving useful feedback on next steps.
Deal coaching is advantageous in the short term; for instance, when a buyer has an immediate need or request. In this case, giving the rep training materials will not help; you’ve got to offer specific and timely advice that helps the seller quickly and competently resolve the problem.
But the most effective sales coaching should identify individual areas for improvement for each rep, then provide content and regular guidance to develop skills – in other words, skill coaching.
If you are teaching someone to rock climb, you need to prepare them for more than just what is in front of them. Teaching and mastering the basics will ensure they can tackle more difficult walls and structures in the future.
It’s a longer game, but working on the high-level abilities that lead to success pays off. Coaching sellers through skill gaps better positions them down the road so they’re able to navigate deals more effectively and, ultimately, close them.
Managers who use skill coaching also stand to be trusted mentors to the members of their teams. Investing time and effort into building a seller’s personal and professional growth earns their respect and loyalty.
Digital tools for successful skill coaching
While deal coaching has its benefits for short-term needs, skill coaching delivers results that generate long-term revenue growth. Using data to inform one-on-one sessions, providing the right learning content at the right time, and ultimately cultivating the behaviors and knowledge of top-performing sellers, your team will achieve peak productivity and revenue growth.
With data at the heart of skill coaching, leadership needs the right tools to administer learning materials and track both individual completion and performance. A revenue productivity platform automates onboarding and training so managers can focus on what’s important: giving sales reps what they need to reach success.
Mindtickle enables front-line sales managers to collaborate with sales reps to close knowledge gaps and achieve higher quota attainment. Kickstart a culture of coaching with tools that make sales readiness a reality for your team.
This post originally published in March 2021 and was updated in July 2023.
Coach Your Reps Better
See how Mindtickle helps orgs take a data-centric approach to coaching.
If you’re looking for a podcast to give tips and advice for how to build a successful revenue enablement program, Ready, Set, Sell is for you.
In each episode, we sit down with industry thought leaders in providing listeners with smart insights, tangible advice, and actionable tips they can apply to the work they do in their own roles.
In this episode, Amy Lord, a Global Sales Enablement Manager, sits down with our team to talk onboarding, continuous learning, and coaching programs.
Keep checking back here to see more videos of our podcast.
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In this video, Chris Jackson, Distinguished Architect, Global Strategy & Operations at Cisco, talks through how his sales enablement organization is using Mindtickle for sales training. He walks through some of the programs they’ve launched, the KPIs they’re measuring, and how they’re showing value to leadership.
Key takeaways
Cisco leveraged Mindtickle to roll out training to 18,000 sellers to educate them on new workflows that would impact their compensation structure.
Measuring how training impacts revenue attainment is a key KPI for Cisco. They’re constantly updating their sellers with new messaging, pitches, etc, and can quickly update their teams using Mindtickle.
Mindtickle has democratized content distribution and helps their disjointed enablement org be more consistent and cohesive.
Visibility into enablement efforts has been key. Their leadership team is able to see engagement and feedback in the platform, positioning sales enablement as best-in-class.
Video transcription
Cisco uses Mindtickle today in a number of ways with our high-value programs. So anytime we have a program that we want to focus on revenue enhancement, or we want to focus on activation of a new skill, Mindtickle becomes the perfect platform to make it happen.
As a quick example, we leveraged Mindtickle at the start of the year to roll out training to 18,000 of our sellers in roughly six weeks. The ability to be able to get this training was crucial because it was going to change the way that they were currently doing compensation. So it’s going to educate them on what they needed to do differently and the different workflows they needed to follow.
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This training was rolled out very, very successfully. We also had an extremely high adoption rate for the training. And we really owe a lot of it to the Mintickle platform and working with Mindtickle professional services.
Chris Jackson
Cisco
Some of the key KPIs that we’ve been looking to solve with Mindtickle, really focus on all the different ways in which we can measure how training impacts revenue attainment. A lot of the things we’re looking to try to achieve with our sellers is to be able to help them be better at what they do with their customers, giving them the latest messaging, and the latest pitches. Any time there’s a change that’s crucial for them to be able to implement, they have the ability to get a quick update so that they can get the training that they need right away.
The KPIs we’re primarily looking for as the revenue attainment of each rep correlated with their bookings within Salesforce.com. These allow us to be able to get visibility into how the reps are performing and how it correlates to training. It also gives us the ability to leverage the Ideal Rep Profile so that we can model our training efforts in the future to do a better job at getting them the information they need based on where they’re at.
Mindtickle impacts our business in a lot of ways. Probably the biggest thing that it does for us is it democratizes the ability to be able to deploy content. So it gives us the ability to be able to take our very distributed enablement organization and be able to allow them to publish and maintain their own learning maps as well as their own journeys within the platform.
That ability to be able to constantly update and ensure that the latest and greatest training is available is something that’s very easy to do with a platform like Mindtickle. And it’s really changed the way that we look at how we can use enablement and how we can activate the skills that we’re looking to be able to implement within our sellers.
Back in the day, where all we had was basically watch a VOD, take a test and everything was good. We’ve evolved way past that our goal is to be able to make sure that you get the training, you activate those skills, you get a chance to work on them, and are able to workshop them and practice them, as well as to be able to detect and analyze how you’re implementing those with your customers.
It’s that visibility into how the rep is performing based on the enablement that’s a crucial thing that’s changed for our organization. Mindtickle has a ton of value that we’re just starting to really uncover. And the thing that I would say is the biggest impact it’s had so far, is the ability to show our leadership what a true world-class enablement platform is. Erotische Österreich Massage.
Our sales leaders are also seeing the amount of engagement and feedback that we’re getting in the platform. If you’ve ever sent out a survey, you know how likely it is for your sellers to actually open it. They’re too busy selling.
What we’ve been able to do with Mindtickle is to integrate feedback loops throughout our training program so that it’s not a big burdensome thing that requires you to be able to do it after the fact that you can do it in line with the training. Now this is something that’s pretty straightforward.
But it’s not a capability that we had in the past. So our ability to be able to leverage this has given us over a 94% engagement rate when it comes to getting feedback, which is just astronomical when you think about how many surveys we send, and how little return we’ve gotten in the past. So it’s a very exciting thing.
We’re seeing a lot of capabilities that Mindtickle is delivering and we’re really excited about this year. Being able to truly start to leverage these capabilities in a very, very meaningful way.
Ready to see how Mindtickle can help take your sales training program to the next level like Cisco did?
If you’re in the market for a solution to train your sales teams to peak productivity, there are probably a few different options that keep coming up in your searches: sales enablement platform, sales productivity platform, andlearning management system (LMS).
While these three distinct product categories share similarities in how they deliver training, there are key differences and objectives they set out to achieve for organizations.
First, let’s take a look at a basic definition of each.
A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software application that allows organizations to create, manage, and deliver online training programs to their employees. LMSs typically include features such as course creation, tracking and reporting, and certification management. These systems are ideal for companies that want to deliver generic training to all employees, like compliance and HR trainings.
Sales enablement platform
A sales enablement platform is a software application that helps sales teams prepare for sales interactions. These platforms typically include features such as training, role-playing simulations, assessments, and coaching tools. Sales enablement platforms are designed to help sales teams develop the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in their roles.
Sales productivity platform
A sales productivity platform is a software application that provides sales teams with the skills, content, tools, and resources they need to be successful. These platforms typically include features in addition to enablement platforms such as content management, conversation intelligence, and revenue intelligence. Sales Productivity Platforms are designed to help sales teams build the knowledge, skills, and behaviors necessary to close more business.
The sales productivity landscape
Historically, the idea of empowering your sales team to succeed started with a one-time sales onboarding program and over time was supported by content (datasheets, recorded demos, whitepapers, etc.) to help reps sell more effectively.
However, as sales processes have evolved and become more complex, the expectation for how to best equip sellers has changed too. It’s not just about one-time training or content anymore — 73% of companies that TOPO recently surveyed have dedicated people within their sales teams focused on training, coaching, content, communications, and more.
One-time training and opportunistic, deal-focused coaching isn’t enough. Successful sales leaders realize that for reps to reach their full potential, they must be supported with always-on, personalized, and data-driven programs.
If you’re searching for a solution to drive sales productivity, invest in a tool that’s fit to handle the needs of a modern (and increasingly complex) selling environment.
In addition to providing ongoing support and training, some other considerations that may influence your needs include:
Keeping an increasingly remote workforce on the same page and regularly updated
Approaching learning in the context and in the moment of need
Retraining, certifying, and ramping up sales and customer-facing teams
Delivering easy-to-consume content in customizable, bite-sized chunks
Enabling safe practice and certifications before money is on the line
Providing insights that tie training to business outcomes
Simplifying and streamlining your tech stack
With these things in mind, how do you go about choosing the right solution?
Finding a solution that suits your needs
The biggest difference between a traditional LMS and the other sales-specific solutions is that an LMS wasn’t built with the unique needs of a constantly evolving sales team in mind.
While an LMS is an ideal solution for HR-led corporate training, its typical focus is on compliance, policies, and procedures, and other generalized corporate programs. Individual sellers may have an array of unique needs, but an LMS is not typically equipped to facilitate the nuanced training or coaching required for most salespeople, nor can an LMS map skill development to business outcomes.
When comparing sales enablement platforms and sales productivity platforms, some significant differences set them apart. Sales enablement platforms focus on the training, practice, and reinforcement of knowledge for sellers while a sales productivity platform is more encompassing of not only tools for enablement professionals but also tools for revenue operations and sales leader professionals. These include conversation intelligence, revenue intelligence, and digital sales rooms.
In the chart below, we’ve highlighted some key areas that differentiate a sales enablement platform from an LMS from a sales readiness platform.
Selecting the right software
Each of these solutions shares some core functionality, but there are essential features that differentiate them. Start by identifying the core problems you are trying to solve, then select a tool that helps you solve those challenges.
If you’re looking to deliver corporate onboarding, compliance training or HR certifications, an LMS will be a good option for your needs.
If you are seeking a way to onboard, upskill, and continually prepare sellers for sales interactions in the field, a sales enablement platform will be a good fit.
If you are looking to unite your sales enablement and RevOps functions to continually improve your revenue-generating roles, a sales productivity platform will help you do just that.
Get teams revenue-ready with Mindtickle’s Sales Productivity Platform
Mindtickle’s revenue productivity platform arms best-in-class organizations with the tools they need to empower enablement, sales leadership, and revenue operations departments. Mindtickle unifies these teams with the combined goal of improving the productivity of revenue-generating roles.
Training and reinforcement to equip salespeople with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed
Practice and role-play exercises to ensure that they’re prepared before money is on the line
Conversation intelligence to capture and analyze real-world conversations
On-the-job coaching aids to help managers and sellers focus on improving the skills that drive productivity
Deal insights and pipeline management for hyper-accurate forecasts
Detailed analytics that scores competencies and exposes individual and team skill gaps, tying readiness activities to business outcomes
The result? Higher win rates, boosted seller productivity, and increased revenue.
In this video, Helen Waite, Principal, Product Marketing at Mindtickle, gives you her top three tips for improving sales skill coaching at your organization. She outlines why it’s an important part of your sales enablement approach and how front-line managers are a critical part of improving rep performance. This quick video will give you three actionable tips you can use today to start building a sales coaching strategy that makes reps more productive.
Key highlights
Front-line managers know best. Make sure your front-line managers are engaged and dedicated to coaching reps. They know their teams better than anyone else and are key to helping reps close deals and drive revenue.
Don’t do everything at once. While there might be many skills reps need to develop, it can’t (and shouldn’t) be done all at once. Focus your time with each rep and develop their skills over time.
Get out of the clouds. For sales coaching to be successful, your reps need real-world examples of what actually works in the field. Whenever possible, show them what top performers are doing.
Follow-up is critical. After the session, make sure reps have the content and training related to what they just learned. They need to practice in order to develop the skills they need to be successful.
In case you’d like to read these tips rather than watch the video, we’ve included the transcription below.
Video transcription
Hey there. This is Helen from the Product Marketing team at Mindtickle. Today I’m going to share my top three tips for improving skill coaching. Skill coaching needs to be a critical factor in your sales coaching framework, and that’s because it really focuses on improving and developing the skills that will help your reps in the long term win more deals and your frontline managers are key to this strategy. They’re the ones who can truly move the needle when it comes to rep performance. They’re working with them day in and day out, and so one key way that they can improve their rep’s performance is through really effective skill coaching.
So I’m not sure where to start. Let’s dive into my top three tips to improve your skill. My first tip is don’t boil the ocean. There are a ton of different skills that you can cover with your reps, but developing these skills takes time. So focus on one skill per session or one skill per quarter with your team members in order to give them that time to work on the skills and develop them with practice.
My second tip is to give real-world examples, especially if you’re using conversation intelligence. Take advantage of the recorded calls that you have, giving your reps real-world examples of not only where they may have been lagging in a skill, but also examples of what good looks like for this skill or top call moments from top performers will really help them give the context to see how they can improve these.
And finally, my third tip is follow up your skill coaching. With training and enablement, you likely have a ton of training and enablement content, and a lot of it should be focused on some of the skills that you’re looking to improve for your reps. So use that training, use that content, assign reps specific tasks after your skill coaching sessions, and then follow up the next session.
Check in on how they did on that training. See if it requires more. That way you can continually reinforce your skill coaching sessions. Thanks so much for listening. Stay tuned for more tips and best practices from our team.
Ready to take your sales coaching to the next level? Download our Guide to Sales Coaching with Sandler.
It’s never been harder to be a sales enablement professional. The pressure to accelerate ramp times and improve sales onboarding often doesn’t come with more headcount and budget. And after years of binge-watching Netflix and scrolling through TikTok, capturing and keeping seller attention is a challenge.
That’s why when it comes to creating enablement programs, we need to be able to do more with less, plus make the content interactive, captivating, and binge-worthy.
Sounds impossible? Not with the right strategy, tools, and technology. Read on to get get the background for why a sales enablement program is such an integral part of successful sales teams and our top seven tips for designing a high-impact program.
Sales enablement programs: What they are and why they’re important for sales teams
Sales enablement programs refer to how sales enablement professionals structure and present training and content related to a specific initiative, topic, or theme. They’re a combination of activities, assets, and resources wrapped together to execute sales enablement at scale for different scenarios. These activities can be delivered on-demand, live, or a combination of both.
The ultimate goal of a sales enablement program is to make sellers better prepared, more knowledgeable, and more effective in the field. Sales enablement teams typically do that by training them on a topic and then providing hands-on practice and reinforcement to ensure that sellers remember the information and can translate what they’ve learned into in-field behaviors.
Different assets and activities act as the building blocks for the program and can come in a variety of formats and modalities. They typically include things like training videos, instructor-led sessions, interactive role-plays, assessments and quizzes, writing exercises, marketing materials or other PDFs, gamified challenges, and much more. But the keyword here is variety. If every program follows the same format and contains the same types of assets, sellers are going to get bored and tune out quickly. But we’ll get into that more in tip #1.
There are sales enablement programs for pretty much any and every topic under the sun. But we typically see programs categorized into these key use cases consistently across sales organizations:
Sales onboarding
Competitive takeout
Marketing messaging and positioning
Product training
Product releases & updates
Sales methodology
Sales skills, like discovery, negotiation, prospecting, storytelling, and more
Sales processes and tools
Coach-the-coach
Pricing and packaging
7 tips to create a high-impact sales enablement program
As mentioned, not every sales enablement program is created equal. And that’s why the outcomes of enablement programs can vary widely from one organization to the next.
For example, Company A and Company B both enabled their sellers on a new quoting process, and each assigned them a program to complete that consists of the following:
Company A
10 page PDF to read
Signature to confirm they’ve read and understand the new process
Company B
5-minute video from the VP of Sales Ops explaining why the new process is important
Demo video of the new process
A short quiz about the content of the demo video
Hands-on exercise for sellers to screen-record themselves completing the new process
Which company do you think experienced higher adoption of the new process? Duh! Company B! Company B’s program had a higher impact because it was more interactive, more engaging, and as a result, they’re more likely to see adherence to the new process.
But creating a high-impact sales enablement program is easier said than done. It’s a lot easier to assign a PDF for sellers to read and call it a day than it is to create a new and interesting piece of content.
That’s why our tips for creating a high-impact program include not only the types of activities that go into the program itself but also, the tools that sales enablement leaders have to create those activities as quickly and easily as possible.
#1 Capture the seller’s attention from the first click
A high-impact enablement program delivers a modern sales content and training experience – and that experience starts at the seller’s first interaction and impression of the program. That’s why you need to create engaging immersive experiences for sellers. One way to do that is by intuitively displaying the program content and training with relevant context. This eliminates any potential sense of confusion or lostness which typically hampers seller completion.
From the first click, sellers should understand:
Program purpose and goal: What they will learn and how and how it helps them crush their quota
Program outcome: What they expect to earn, whether that’s a certificate, approval to sell a new product line, etc. (see tip #4 for more advice here)
Program path and milestones: What activities they need to complete, in what order, and context of how that connects back to the program goal
Additionally, once they begin the program, you need to ensure there is variation in the format and types of activities. Like Company B, you need to ensure you’re leveraging a sales enablement platform that arms you with both breadth and depth in the types of building blocks you can use to build the program. This includes on-demand, interactive, and instructor-led elements, all available side-by-side with unified reporting.
#2 Combine training and content side by side
While training and content on a particular topic are good on their own, like any dynamic duo, they’re more powerful together. That’s why a high-impact sales enablement program not only provides training on a relevant topic but also presents it side by side with the associated relevant content that sellers will use post-training. For example, if you’ve launched a program on new marketing messaging, don’t make sellers go search for and access the new pitch decks and marketing collateral somewhere else! Provide it right there in the program for easy access.
During Mindtickle’s Spring Announcement, Content Center was released, reinforcing the importance of a centralized content management system across enablement platforms.
#3 Make the program interactive
We’ve all done our fair share of multitasking while brainlessly clicking through a long enablement video. That’s why high-impact enablement programs are heavy on interactive, hands-on elements to ensure that force sellers to stay engaged and reinforce knowledge and skills throughout.
Some common interactive elements include:
In-video questions: Asking questions and conducting surveys periodically within video content increases engagement with content and performs just-in-time knowledge checks.
Role-plays and hands-on exercises: Assign prompts and scenarios for sellers to record role-play or written exercises to ensure comprehension and ensure sellers can apply the concept and articulate it in their own words.
Peer examples: Include snippets from real-world customer calls, peer role-play submissions, and peer success stories to make the content more relatable and bring it to life.
Gamification: Incorporating point-keeping, leaderboards, badges, competitions, team activities, and other game-like features into your enablement program boosts concentration and participation.
#4 Create built-in certifications
Becoming certified in a topic or process is a motivating factor for many high-impact enablement programs. But it needs to be easy for sales enablement leaders to scale and automate certification efforts. They need to be able to track seller performance on individual learning components in the program, as well as award certificates using complex criteria, and manage recertifications as necessary.
Certifications are also motivating to sellers, and even partners, when a social component is incorporated. Making it easy for sellers to share their certifications on social platforms like LinkedIn from within your sales enablement platform creates a sense of reward and recognition. And by customizing your certificates to your brand, product, or initiative, you also boost your brand awareness in the market!
#5 Individualize to sellers’ needs
Even the best, most riveting sales enablement program won’t be high-impact if it’s one-size-fits-all. Programs need to be relevant and personalized at scale, focusing on the unique needs of each individual salesperson, and focusing on the skills that will move the needle for them. Leading sales enablement platforms provide automation that adjusts programs to sellers’ skillsets and competencies. Not forcing sellers to complete components of the program focused on knowledge, skills, or behaviors they’ve already mastered generates more buy-in and engagement for programs as a whole.
#6 Use program templates
As mentioned, sales enablement teams are usually short on time and resources, which can drain the creativity juices from even the most innovative sales enablement professional. That’s why using a sales enablement platform that provides quick-start tools like templates is key to program creation. Top sales enablement vendors provide pre-built, yet customizable, templates for key sales enablement use cases, eliminating blank page paralysis and accelerating program creation.
From the State of Sales Readiness Report, we found that using program templates decreased the time to launch a program from 6 weeks to 7 days.
These templates include pre-built best practices and engagement mechanics which provide the blueprint for the best structure and pieces of content for each use case.
#7 Leverage industry expertise and pre-made program content
Similar, yet different, to program templates are ready-to-deploy content. While templates provide the blueprint for a high-impact program, ready-to-deploy programs provide you with the whole enchilada.
There are key topics that sales enablement leaders around the world across different companies are all enabling their people on. Think sales discovery, cross-sell and upsell, objection handling, certain sales methodologies like MEDDPICC, etc. But all of these sales enablement teams are starting from scratch, wasting valuable time, all creating the same things when they could be working on more strategic initiatives.
That’s why sales enablement platforms provide sales enablement teams with prebuilt programs on these key topics created by industry experts and top-tier sales consulting firms. This lets sales enablement teams leverage this expertise and incorporate new modalities and approaches based on modern learning design and industry best practices so they can stop reinventing the wheel and focus more on strategy and execution.
Conclusion
Ensuring that every sales enablement program is high-impact, immersive, and engaging can sound like a daunting task. The good news is you’re not alone. Mindtickle’s fall product announcement ushers in a new wave of products and enhancements that make it easier than ever for sales enablement professionals to deliver modern, high-impact sales training and content experiences. Learn more about how Mindtickle can help you create more binge-worthy enablement experiences during our virtual event on November 15.
Sales enablement, though a singular concept, requires a lot of different moving parts that run simultaneously. By elevating each individually, you’ll see overall improvement in skill building and sales success.
Elements of great sales enablement
The below are absolutely essential for a successful sales enablement motion.
Onboarding and training
At the heart of sales enablement is knowledge. The more information you can pass along to sellers, the more prepared and confident they’ll feel going into conversations with prospects. Learning begins on a rep’s first day with onboarding, and continues throughout their tenure with ongoing micro-learning opportunities. Making sales enablement learning a year-round activity both reinforces foundational knowledge and keeps salespeople updated on any changes in product or process.
Role-playing
A rep is acing all of the quizzes and has achieved multiple skill certifications — great! But is this show of knowledge making any sort of change in their ability to engage buyers? It’s difficult for a manager to know when he or she is unable to join every single sales call or meeting. Role-playing is a helpful tool to help reps practice and improve real-world selling behaviors while allowing sales leaders to get a firsthand look at how learning is applied and provide feedback.
Content
Blog posts, ebooks, videos, and other content are useful resources for reps to hand out in a buyer meeting, send via email, and follow-up with after a phone call. Sellers don’t just need access to this content; they also need to know when and how to use it to engage potential customers at different stages in the buying journey. It’s important for sales and marketing to work together to craft content pieces that speak to various challenges so reps can engage different buyers more personally.
Coaching
Even if a sales rep has inherent sales abilities, it’s a coach that refines those abilities to drive success. Between training and role-playing, regular one-on-one sales coaching is what takes a sales team from okay to excellent. In these sessions, reps can discuss both wins and challenges and work alongside their managers to come up with solutions. Managers should use insights from training and role-playing exercises to identify where the seller is thriving and where they can improve, then give the most meaningful guidance for how to move forward.
Analytics
It’s important to close the loop on all these sales enablement efforts. This means tracking certain KPIs over time to gauge whether sales enablement training, coaching, and other approaches are helping to improve seller performance. Evaluating both individual and team performance metrics, as well as how they correlate to revenue, you can diagnose any issues or gaps within your enablement program. And when you’re able to locate where the problems are, you can make changes, like creating additional training materials around a certain topic or assigning role-plays to reps with specified selling scenarios.
Are you ready to take the next step in your own sales enablement strategy? Set up time for a Mindtickle demo to learn how sales onboarding, role-playing, content, coaching, and analytics come together in one platform.
