right programs
The weekly enablement workshop at Smartsheet was focused on showing the reps how to sell better. We would cover 3 topics in 45 minutes with an emphasis on cross-pollinating bright spots and modeling what good looks like. The sessions received a 9 of 10 rating from the field and the average field member visited the enablement workshop site 28 times / year (below are examples of field sessions - trick is to expand to full screen or it will jump around).
When your market and offering are growing quickly, your story keeps getting bigger and your target buyer levels-up. The field team needs to mirror this climb with elevated selling skills. An ongoing learning program is the backbone of this selling evolution. We did 100+ enablement workshops at Smartsheet in 3 years and it was a key reason we were able to increase $ / rep 60% in a 3-year period (see below).
Everboarding
Onboarding
Great onboarding is important for retention, sales productivity and predictable sales success. It is particularly hard in high-growth tech organizations because the offering, ecosystem and stories are constantly changing. Onboarding programs weighted towards sales manager instruction, shadowing top reps and HR onboardings are insufficient for sustained onboarding success. Below is how we structured our onboarding at Smartsheet and increased new-rep retention from 70% to 94%.
Storytelling
The person with the best stories wins the day. The field team with the best stories wins the category. One reason veteran sales people often continue on top is that they both know the existing stories (they helped created them) and they have the network to get the new stories. Replicating these factors in a story program and giving the full field an easy way to continually learn the right stories is how you build a great storytelling enterprise. It works - the enterprise team at Smartsheet grew revenue 6X in 3 years.
Challenger
The average B2B sales cycle includes 11+ people (external and internal) that the account lead needs to manage. Getting customer consensus to move forward is tricky and using the Challenger Mobilizer approach is a great way to navigate the challenge. We had success with it at Smartsheet and, along with a new solution sales process, increased our large deals 3x in the first full year of implementation.
A strong customer champion is a powerful ally in winning new business. However, these champions are often not comfortable or effective working with their own senior leadership to make a deal happen. I helped design and deliver a Smartsheet Mobilizer program to our customers to help train them to better advocate for Smartsheet with their senior leadership (examples below).
Cross-Pollination
Finding and cross-pollinating bright spots across the field is an easy way to increase sales productivity and one of the primary jobs of revenue enablement. It was an ongoing theme in the enablement workshops as shown above. When I transitioned from running Enterprise Enablement to being a direct sales rep in our Commercial group, I captured 4 Enterprise selling super powers and modified them for the Commercial sales cycle. They worked great for my team and for me - I exceeded every quarterly quota (often by a large margin) except one (deck below).