A Gallup examine discovered that organizations with excessive worker engagement report a 21% increased profitability price. So how will you unify the rep expertise and drive engagement via 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 tendencies within the office and tips on how to navigate them efficiently.
Right here to debate this subject is Donny Miller, the undertaking supervisor for the rework gross sales coaching at American Woodmark. Thanks for becoming a member of us, Donny. I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your function.
Donny Miller: Yeah, you guess. Donny Miller, my background is usually in gross sales. I’ve labored with largely transformed constructing supplies. Initially from the West Coast, moved round a bit bit, had totally different roles from promoting via about each totally different channel in our a part of the business discovered my option to American Woodmark about 10 years in the past, I’ve liked it ever since. That most likely says quite a bit about our group being right here for 10 years and I’m excited to be on this podcast
SS: We’re excited to have you ever right here as properly. As you talked about, you’ve had quite a lot of totally different roles, however the majority of your profession has undoubtedly been within the manufacturing business, and also you’ve held roles in each gross sales and gross sales administration.
And I’d love to know, given that have, what are among the distinctive challenges that reps within the manufacturing business face?
DM: Yeah, fascinated about all my totally different positions, I believe one factor that form of rings true is complexity in manufacturing. There’s quite a lot of complexity, particularly in constructing supplies and the merchandise that we work with, and never solely are the merchandise complicated, however the gross sales processes will be totally different. They are often totally different within the totally different channels and you’ve got a variety of several types of clients that you simply’re promoting to. However, I believe the massive factor in manufacturing is you’ve gotten a fancy product that goes via quite a lot of totally different phases from when it is available in as an order to when it will get positioned out.
And so being in gross sales and dealing in that, you bought to have quite a lot of totally different solutions. One of many stuff you’re searching for is I do know this isn’t like a job that’s is frequent lately, however you’re searching for an operator typically, like a phone operator the place it’s like, “Hey, what reply can I discover given all of the complexities?”, and discovering that reply very fast is usually a distinctive problem that we face typically.
SS: And the way does having an enablement platform like Highspot assist corporations like yours to beat a few of these challenges?
DM: Yeah, I believe actually connecting you to what you need, what you want, and while you want it’s how an enablement firm like Highspot will help you. For us, it’s going to a single supply of fact.
We’ve got a number of platforms and a number of methods wherein our customers probably go into these and many departments that feed the entrance finish of the enterprise in gross sales, proper? We’ve got finance, HR, advertising, customer support, et cetera. To me, enablement helps overcome these complexities that we face and permit us with all of these variations to probably give the person a tailor-made and distinctive expertise.
SS: I really like that. Now, you’ve shared that you simply truly see the worth of Highspot at your group extending past conventional sales-centric enablement to extra broadly ship enterprise enablement. I really like that, by the way in which. How does Highspot make it easier to higher allow the enterprise as an entire?
DM: A few of it’s a mindset, it connects us out of silos. Wanting on the entire course of from the entrance finish of the enterprise to provide you extra of a tangible instance is you’ll have anyone like my present function in coaching on the gross sales aspect. So I’ll be working with advertising. We could possibly be engaged on the same kind of factor throughout a product launch or one thing like that. And so to have one thing that enables us to each collaborate and work in several platforms, one could also be working in Adobe, one could also be working in Microsoft, et cetera. And to have these cloud providers be capable of join and ship in a content material house that’s tailor-made to that particular person person is big.
And I believe one other massive a part of that’s once I consider the entrance finish of the group, I consider like how CRMs work and making it the enterprise, is that the CRM platforms are usually not simply gross sales associated. Gross sales have quite a bit to do with it, but when you concentrate on it, quite a lot of these providers present cloud providers for advertising, and buyer care providers. And so there’s quite a lot of totally different components.
A whole lot of what your buyer care could possibly be saying and what your gross sales staff could possibly be saying could possibly be comparable, however they is also totally different. And so there’s quite a lot of synergies yow will discover there. For me, it’s actually wanting on the content material and the training and the way all of these potential makes use of that Highspot has with being a CMS and an LMS permits us to attach the whole lot to all of the cloud methods that these totally different departments probably use. And that each one sounds complicated, however the finish person getting it in a easy kind is big.
SS: Completely, and delivering that consistency to your purchaser and buyer on the finish of the day is totally important.
That mentioned, what are possibly among the distinctive ways in which totally different groups from gross sales to, as you talked about, buyer care providers, how do they use Highspot at your organization?
DM: That’s truly an ideal instance: buyer care and gross sales, Shawnna. I like that as a result of for us, like our gross sales staff and our buyer care staff, they’re each searching for the operator that I discussed earlier, proper?
They’re each making an attempt to name in and go, “Oh, I would like this reply once I want it, how I would like it.” And so for the gross sales staff, it’s extra mobile-based. Like our gross sales staff is everywhere in the nation, they’re unfold out. And they also’re not centrally situated they usually’re not all the time at their laptop, so to talk.
So quite a lot of what they’re searching for is a solution ‘mobile-y’, and quite a lot of occasions they’ve an opportunity to prep for that reply or that factor that they’re searching for content-wise or learning-wise. Buyer care is a bit bit totally different when it comes to they’re sitting typically in entrance of a laptop computer, proper? They’ve that desktop expertise, but additionally the tempo wherein they want it’s a little bit totally different too, as a result of they, such as you and I are on this podcast dwell, could possibly be speaking to anyone dwell and going, “Hey, I would like a solution proper now.” Like, “I would like a solution about that complicated, particular a part of the cupboard and I would like it proper now.”
So the totally different wants are totally different, however we’re in a position to meet these wants via Highspot in actually connecting these variations right here, or actually, the mediums wherein they’re looking out. And probably the content material that they’re searching for, proper? A gross sales rep is perhaps searching for a video on tips on how to arrange a show whereas somebody in buyer care is perhaps searching for that particular cupboard half for an order that was positioned a few years in the past. So it may be totally different wants for various components of the staff.
SS: I really like that Highspot’s in a position to tackle all of these wants throughout the group. To shift gears just a bit bit as a result of I do know {that a} massive purpose you introduced on Highspot was to assist ship studying packages, notably to a various set of learners throughout a large number of areas. How do you tailor packages for these totally different audiences?
DM: Studying battles that complexity identical to some other half does. And I believe, for us, we actually wanted extra self-paced studying to maximise everybody’s expertise. We’ll have mentor studying and we’ll have occasions the place we spend in teams at conferences and also you’re in a position to maximize that studying while you’ve gone via one thing just like the LMS a part of what enablement via Highspot presents.
And I’ll offer you a first-rate instance, Shawnna, of me with Highspot: you go to one thing just like the Spark Convention, and earlier than you go there, you most likely wish to undergo a couple of of the training modules. You most likely don’t wish to are available not having gone via that, and so it permits you to – having gone via a few of that self-paced studying that isn’t classroom-based, however then it’s while you come to one thing like Spark – you’re in a position to acquire a lot extra out of your expertise and study and it helps you do extra with no matter it’s you’re doing. It’s comparable for us, totally different processes, whether or not we’re making an attempt to promote extra or give a greater.
Buyer expertise, that’s tips on how to me, we’re in a position to then tailor it to what they want, buyer care, the totally different gross sales channels. And having that self-paced studying after which tailoring it to every group as a result of their gross sales processes will be totally different is basically massive and is how we’re going about it in utilizing the Highspot platform.
SS: I really like to listen to that. Now you talked quite a bit about form of the complexity of the gross sales course of and the product in your world and all the audiences clearly that you should assist allow your groups on. And I do know one in all your prime targets is to simplify the rep expertise. What are among the key ways in which you’ve been in a position to obtain this with a unified enablement platform?
DM: Yeah the very first thing that involves thoughts is I believe it was in like 2020, we have been doing an icebreaker scavenger hunt nearly. And we mainly despatched everyone out from the totally different channels and we mentioned, “Hey, go and discover this stuff.” And what we realized quite a bit about ourselves and looking out.
It took quite a lot of time and whatnot. And in order that complexity is basically what we realized, and we realized we have to discover methods to simplify that. And to me, it’s true of simply gross sales typically. It’s an equation of potentialities of the variety of potential solutions that you could possibly come up towards that somebody may ask you.
Similar with the customer support aspect and actually taking a look at, how can we decrease that search. How can we get – possibly, a greater method of claiming it – how can we maximize to the right reply? How do we discover that right reply as rapidly as doable? And so in ways in which we’re utilizing it’s we’ve loaded our content material in there. I believe quite a lot of the search performance that’s inside Highspot permits us to get, actually the objective is a velocity to reply in order that it simplifies their path to what they want. Like I mentioned at first of this operator idea, proper? “Hi there, operator. Are you able to inform me about this”, proper? “I would like the reply to that and I would like it in the way in which that I would like it.”
And that’s actually the place an enablement platform like Highspot takes all these totally different mediums, proper? Whether or not it’s a video or an Excel doc or no matter it’s you’re searching for, after which inside the search perform permits us to get that, tailor it in spots which might be particular for the person, and that actually permits for simplification of the person expertise.
SS: That’s phenomenal. And, it appears to be like like your reps are already responding actually positively to the work that you simply guys are doing to simplify the expertise. I believe you guys have seen a 14% enhance in recurring utilization simply within the final couple of months. What are a few of your finest practices for driving adoption of Highspot throughout the enterprise?
DM: Fascinated with having a foul system may assist drive that adoption after which present them, Highspot. I believe that helps with that 14% a bit bit. In all seriousness, like the entire scavenger hunt instance is, we went from a number of cloud providers. In the event you’re like us, you’ve gotten a number of storage options, emails, communication platforms web sites, forms of web sites, CRMs, and forms of CRMs that you simply’re probably going to start to undertake that stuff.
And I keep in mind at a gross sales assembly not too long ago I requested the query, “How lengthy does it take you to search out–?” And I used to be interrupted truly by my counterpart who crammed the spot that I left once I got here into this function. And she or he mentioned, “–earlier than I cease wanting?” And again to the identical instance right here.
However in all actuality, we would have liked a system change, and extra tangibly how we go about doing that’s taking an method of champion management. I is perhaps the administrator, however I’m not the professional per se, when it comes to articulating at a peer-to-peer stage, what anyone wants and why they would want one thing like this enablement platform.
And so I believe one of many extra tangible issues that we’re doing round adoption is having that peer-to-peer connection. In the event you’re a regional gross sales supervisor in a single channel to a regional gross sales supervisor in that very same channel, you’re in a position to articulate and communicate to, “Hey, right here’s how this solved the issue for me”, “right here’s the way it simplified it for me”. And I believe that’s actually a method that we’re seeing adoption. We’ve got simply nice folks and nice leaders within the group that see that.
SS: Oh, that’s improbable. Past adoption, what are among the key metrics you monitor to find out the affect of your packages, and the way do you leverage Highspot to assist?
DM: Yeah, we’re wanting into methods wherein it may probably assist affect our gross sales or our enterprise. Perhaps that’s our buyer expertise actually on the finish of the day, how can it assist us promote extra? We’re wanting on the velocity of the sale. I actually really feel, are you able to cut back in that complexity within the gross sales course of to much less time and, time is cash. And on prime of that, it’s alternative. And in gross sales, alternative is quite a bit, proper? As a result of that additionally leads again to cash. So, in some methods, I really feel prefer it has a compounding impact with that point. And so a method wherein we’re studying or taking a look at this extra tangibly past adoption, is taking a look at somebody who’s new. We’ve got, like I mentioned in manufacturing, you might have a fancy product the place it takes some time to study that product and grow to be a seasoned gross sales skilled. And so how can we take that ramp-up time and reduce it in order that they’ve extra alternative from being new to being that seasoned skilled? Actually that’s how we’re taking a look at leveraging Highspot.
SS: That’s improbable. Final query for you, Donny: what recommendation would you’ve gotten for different manufacturing corporations which might be contemplating investing in an enablement platform?
DM: Yeah the very first thing that involves thoughts is plan, and you should have a look at what you want. There’s a lot. I’m certain should you’re listening to this, you’re like, “I most likely have quite a lot of complexities in my enterprise” and taking that, and all of the various things that occur in manufacturing: making that product, and going via the entire cycle, all of the departments which might be concerned – like I spoke to earlier – and all of the content material that you’ve got, the ways in which content material is made and taking a look at how all of that impacts the entrance finish of your enterprise. And to get all of that, it takes quite a lot of planning, and it actually takes you time to get to that time the place you go, okay, what’s our single supply of fact? What’s going to assist us whether or not it’s promote extra, do extra, much less time, extra time, or no matter it’s you’re making an attempt to work in the direction of and to me, Highspot does a very good job. The service staff does a very good job of serving to you propose, however the extra you try this prematurely and have a look at your targets. And what you should get out of an enablement program, I believe is just going that will help you have success with it. The opposite recommendation I might give is simply round taking a look at your CRM cloud providers that you simply connect with and taking a look at a product that does lower out complexities.
Having an LMS and a content material administration system, what I’ve seen is, you want each, proper? As a result of for what we work with, you should study it as a brand new worker, however then you definately additionally must know, “what’s that, once I want it?”. If my product is complicated and I cope with one thing every year, I would like to have the ability to return and discover it, which is the content material administration aspect.
The primary a part of studying it, and going via a path of studying and understanding it’s a part of it. And having these two issues along with among the different capabilities that Highspot permits, and dealing seamlessly along with your front-end answer, like your CRM platform is to me, the recommendation I might give when it comes to taking a look at it’s: plan these issues out and see if there’s success there probably for your enterprise.
SS: Improbable recommendation, Donnie. Thanks a lot for becoming a member of us right this moment, I actually respect it.
DM: You guess. Thanks, Shawnna.
SS: To our viewers, thanks for listening to this episode of the Win podcast. Make sure you tune in subsequent time for extra insights on how one can maximize enablement success with Highspot.
