Sales coaching programs typically take a customized approach, tailoring guidance around the seller’s unique strengths to help them develop and refine the skills needed to have meaningful customer interactions and achieve their quotas. Behind every sales coaching program is a sales manager, and it should come as no surprise that effective coaching requires effective managers. According to Gartner, managers who understand how to be a good coach can help individuals increase performance by as much as 8%.

Optimizing sales coaching with software

Coaching sellers poses challenges for sales managers due to the added complexity of managing remote teams. Additionally, the lack of experience and knowledge in modeling the right behaviors makes it more complicated. These obstacles are just a few reasons why most managers spend less than 5% of their time coaching sellers.

To create a scalable sales coaching program that delivers the personalized feedback that sellers require, sales managers need sales coaching software. Just as frontline teams depend on various technologies to do their jobs successfully, sales coaching software is an essential tool that makes it possible to create an online sales coaching program that enables sellers to practice, receive feedback, and track progress over time.

8 qualities every sales coaching program needs

To create the best sales coaching program for your organization, you should start by identifying your objectives and then determine the technology you need to achieve them. Below are the top eight qualities that you should look for and implement as you develop your sales coaching programs:

Customization

Customization is one of the most critical qualities of any sales coaching program. Tailor coaching sessions to address individual and team needs, considering factors like experience level, strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles. This helps sellers and teams capitalize on their strengths and address problem areas faster.

Clear objectives

If you don’t measure it, you can’t track it. Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for coaching sessions provides clear direction and focus. This ensures that coaching efforts align with organizational goals and sales targets. SMART goals also hold individuals and teams accountable, making it more likely that they’ll follow through and take the steps needed to improve performance.

Continuous feedback

Sales coaching programs should offer feedback to sales reps in the moment — whether it’s positive reinforcement or constructive criticism — to help them adjust their behavior quickly. It’s important to deliver continuous feedback to promote learning and facilitate improvement.

Role-playing exercises

Practice makes progress. Prepare sellers for new challenges by incorporating role-playing scenarios to simulate real-world sales situations in a risk-free environment. Sales coaching software makes it easy to deliver scenario-based training at scale, helping sales reps enhance skills, confidence, and adaptability. This tool also enables sales leaders to identify problem areas and know where to correct them.

Data-driven insights

All sales leaders need data to determine what’s working and what isn’t. Utilize sales data and analytics to identify performance trends, areas for improvement, and coaching priorities. Sales coaching software should provide easy access to dashboards and custom reporting to help leaders make data-driven decisions and track the ROI of their coaching efforts.

Skill development

The business landscape is constantly changing, making it critical for sales leaders to prioritize learning and development for their teams. Supplement coaching conversations with training to help sellers master a wide range of sales skills, including prospecting, objection handling, negotiation, closing techniques, and relationship-building.

Offering training and coaching doesn’t just contribute to better performance, it can also improve retention. Seismic’s Value of Enablement Report found that companies that provide on-the-job coaching increase seller retention by an average of 20% each year.

Peer-to-peer learning

Facilitating opportunities for sales team members to learn from each other’s successes and failures through peer-to-peer coaching or knowledge-sharing sessions is a great way to communicate best practices. Sales coaching software enables teams to scale winning strategies by easily distributing playbooks, choreography, and content across the sales organization.

Tech integrations

There are several essential technologies that sales teams rely on to perform their roles. Consider sales coaching software that integrates with your sales enablement tools, CRM systems, and other technology platforms to streamline coaching processes, track progress, and provide access to resources. Connecting with your systems of record helps maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales coaching programs.

Scale your sales coaching program with Seismic

Empowering your sales reps to meet their quotas and beyond is not a one-and-done activity. It requires a commitment to sales coaching that’s ongoing and tailored to every sales rep’s specific needs. Seismic’s learning and coaching solution equips sales leaders to assess skills, deliver personalized coaching, and track development — all within the flow of work. Our coaching software enables sales teams to train their teams 62% faster and reach their goals more often. 

Are you ready to experience a modern coaching platform? Jump into this free lesson to see Seismic Learning firsthand.

The post 8 qualities of effective sales coaching programs appeared first on Seismic.

• How to identify the ideal mix of online and offline learning elements
• Strategies for creating and delivering engaging learning content
• Tips for measuring the success of your blended learning program

I’ve worked with Seismic Learning since 2014 in roles from sales development to account management, and now as a Product Manager. And, I’ve seen training and enablement drastically change over the course of the decade. Back then, nearly everyone was in an office and received their enablement through in-person, training sessions.

Fast forward to an increasingly tech-friendly, remote workforce, and to say learning styles have changed is an understatement. Now, a multi-format approach to training and enablement is critical. At last year’s Seismic Shift, we tackled this reality head on and provided new ways of thinking about learning. We wanted enablers to leave with practical and strategic tips to help them create a comprehensive plan that leads to impactful learning and enablement efforts.

Before diving in, let’s make sure we’re using a common definition for the term blended learning.

Generally speaking, blended learning is a training method that utilizes in-person (or virtual) instructor-led training, alongside self-paced e-learning. We can expand that definition even further to include other training activities, like offline tasks, practice opportunities, or role playing.

According to a 2018 report, nearly 70% of companies use some degree of blended learning in their training programs.  I can only imagine that the number of companies specifically incorporating e-learning into their training programs has skyrocketed since COVID. Suffice it to say, a blended approach to learning is now a best practice.

And while the focus of today’s post is blended learning, I suspect hybrid learning is on many of your minds as well. While blended learning focuses on using multiple training modalities, hybrid learning serves people in the office and those who work remotely.

I recently partnered with my colleague Ashton Sword to discuss the best ways to understand blended and hybrid learning, as well as best practices that any organization can immediately put into action. Ashton has been with Seismic for three years as a Senior Strategic Consultant. Before joining Seismic, she was a Seismic customer who implemented a global instance of Seismic Learning. We recap our Shift discussion below!

Evan: What does blended learning mean to you? And what does it look like at the organizations you partner with?

Ashton: Blended learning, for me, means seamlessly combining traditional classroom teaching with online resources. Partnering with companies from financial services to home builders gives me access to a wide range of blended learning styles and scenarios. From virtually learning about retirement plans, to in-person training on pouring a foundation, it helps to clearly identify what must be in-person and what can be virtual.

E: Thoughtfully building a blended learning program is more involved than just creating a path of e-learning lessons. Why is a blended learning approach worth the extra effort?

A: It’s like crafting a customized learning experience, recognizing that each person has unique preferences and learning styles. A blended approach leverages the strengths of in-person and digital methods to create a well-rounded and flexible onboarding or everboarding experience. As we transitioned back to having sellers in the field, I helped many of my customers change their lengthier lessons to bite-size trainings that are easily accessed on a mobile device.

E: How do you determine what mediums to use in your blended learning? When might you use an instructor-led event rather than a lesson, or a shadowing session vs. a practice scenario?

A: The decision to train in person or virtually depends on factors like the nature of the content, learner preferences, logistical considerations, and the desired level of interaction. We can help customers evaluate content complexity, learner needs, and practicality to determine the most effective and efficient training format. I like to start with a survey to gauge how effective training has been for learners before we make changes. Meeting users where they are is key!

E: The key to blended learning is the inclusion of multiple learning mediums. How do you measure the success of each of those mediums, as well as the success of the learning program overall?

A: With virtual training, I believe it is a bit simpler. You have learner engagement and satisfaction that can be easily measured within the platform, as well as coaching areas such as practice or, my favorite, skills. This allows you to see how learners are performing with content and how they are applying it. Building your training based on desired outcomes or goals allows you to select the most meaningful metrics. For example, if one of my customers is trying to increase win rates, I recommend analyzing contributing factors like product knowledge, communication style, confidence, time management, etc. Those are areas where enablement can build lessons and opportunities for practice.

E: Instructor-led training and e-learning modules are regarded as the two primary building blocks of a blended learning experience, but what are some lesser-known components?

A: Definitely mentorship and peer-to-peer learning. Peer-to-peer learning offers several benefits, including increased engagement, diverse perspectives, and collaborative skill development. Learners often find the informal exchange of knowledge with peers to be more relatable, leading to enhanced understanding and retention. We’ve implemented wins of the week or challenges of the week with many of my customers, helping their colleagues highlight areas of growth and opportunities.

E: How do you see some of today’s emerging technology, like AR/VR or generative AI, playing a role in blended learning?

A: AI will be a massive efficiency gain for enablement teams and go to market teams. The ability to easily create content, smart search capabilities, and AI empowered coaching will all play a role.

E: With so many companies moving to a remote-first workforce, it can be a challenge to make employees feel connected to their colleagues and the organization. A customer’s approach to training offers an opportunity to highlight what makes the organization unique. In this flex-first world, how have you used blended learning and structured your training to reinforce what makes a company special?

A: While great e-learning lessons are fun and engaging and can reinforce your brand, a training program that only utilizes e-learning can feel distant and impersonal. This can be balanced by including instructor-led training events or peer-to-peer training opportunities that give employees a chance to interact with other their teammates and experience the unique culture of your company. Including offline tasks provides another opportunity for employees to understand what makes your company special – whether it’s an in-person coffee with a colleague in the same city, or an in-home scavenger hunt as part of an onboarding program.

E: Lastly, how would you advise our readers to evaluate their learning programs considering the discussion we’ve had on blended learning?

A: We’ve included a handout that can walk customers through the questions they should ask as they evaluate their learning program and understand blended learning styles. Also, partner with your Seismic Learning team for ongoing support, strategy and best practices!

Want a copy of the handout? Reach out to your account manager or schedule a call with one of our sales team members!

The post Driving effective enablement through blended learning appeared first on Seismic.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. There are scrappy, “we’ll-figure-it-out” sellers and leaders around the globe navigating today’s challenges excellently. Most of them are leaning on sales enablement tools to adapt their messaging, strategy, and workflows to the needs of their target market.

In fact, 92% of global revenue leaders who plan to increase or retain their sales enablement tech agree that it’s integral to weathering difficult economic times.

Whether you’re part of a more mature sales organization with sales enablement software in place, or your company hasn’t gotten there yet, we invite you to read on. We’ll review data from the 2023 Value of Enablement Report that proves why it’s the prime time to invest in better sales enablement to boost buyer engagement. 

But first, a quick note: It’s easy for companies to say things like “Now more than ever is the time for [OUR PRODUCT].” These statements always feel biased and sales-y. Our goal here is just to publicize what our data says about the impact of using a top sales enablement software.

The people have spoken: Sales enablement is worth it

Here at Seismic, we, of course, believe that sales enablement software is a competitive differentiator. But this is also supported by the enablers and sellers who use the technology day in and day out.

As mentioned above, we published a report earlier this year where we surveyed and then studied more than 1,200 full-time sales, enablement, and customer success professionals. These people work in managerial and leadership roles throughout the United States and Europe. 

75% of them — whether they have a sales enablement solution in place or not — say that implementing new enablement tools is a priority for their company in 2024. Here are the four main reasons why.

1. Sellers are facing a tough crowd, day in and day out

Closing deals is not what it once was. By the time a prospective client is on a first call with an AE at a tech company or a private banker in the financial services space, they’ve already done their homework. They’re largely informed about what you do, and they expect you to know what they need. 

Prospects expect a personalized sales experience because that’s what your best competitors offer. But this takes so much time.

On top of this, new companies and products are entering the market regularly and clients’ priorities and behavior are constantly evolving. Sales enablement software empowers leaders to better equip their salespeople with the skills, content, insights, and tools they need to engage with clients and close deals.

In fact, 97% of survey respondents who use sales enablement software say it gives them quick access to content, information, and/or coaching, so they can consistently speak to clients from a more informed standpoint.

2. Sellers expect top-of-the-line tech

If you want to attract or retain top sales talent, an intuitive, modern tech stack is non-negotiable. Period. 

Sellers who have experience working at companies with robust customer relationship management (CRM) platform integrations, data analytics tools, and sales automation tech expect sales enablement tech. They want to:

• Be in the know about new processes and market trends
• Streamline tedious tasks so they can focus on client relationships
• Go to a single place to go for all of their learning and content.

Case in point: Based on our data, a seller who’s working without enablement tech spends an average of 10 hours per week tracking down, comparing, or revisiting content to send to clients. And 74% are currently considering leaving their company due to a lack of tools to support their success.

3. Sellers will stay (or go) where they can grow

This goes hand in hand with the top-of-the-line tech reason above. 59% of our respondents went so far to say that they won’t work for a company without enablement tools. Good enablement software and programs make sellers better in their current roles. But great ones make them better sellers, leaders, teammates, and client advocates for their entire careers.

Continuous learning is a major priority for today’s sellers. With a sales enablement solution, you can easily disseminate relevant industry trends and product knowledge, yes — but also selling techniques, certifications, mock practice scenarios, and more to make your sales team more skilled for even future roles they’ll take.

Here’s the best part: When organizations prioritize ongoing training and development for sales representatives with enablement, sellers want to stay. Nearly 80% of the respondents we surveyed believe that their company’s enablement tools will help them retain and attract more employees in 2024. And 100% of those with plans to decrease enablement efforts are concerned that it will lead to lower employee retention.

4. Sellers want to work for agile, adaptable employers

Last, but not least, the best sales enablement tools equip sellers with everything they need to operate with agility, even in times of economic uncertainty. 

Compare these results from the report:

Organizations, especially hybrid or remote ones, without an enablement tool can’t pivot quite as quickly if they notice a new sales tactic that’s closing deals 20% better. They can’t prevent sellers from finding, let alone sending dated content. They can’t create a highly-personalized slide deck in less than five minutes.

Sellers want to work for organizations that are built with resilience in mind and who have the tech and infrastructure in place to handle the ever-evolving landscape they’re working in.

The bottom line about top-notch enablement

It pays big dividends to prioritize sales enablement. The report reveals that an investment in sales enablement grows revenue, retains and attracts great sellers, and gives clients an experience that’s on par (or better than) their expectations. 

If you’d like to learn how you can go to market quickly and smoothly, download our eBook, Kick Go-to-Market Chaos to the Curb.

The post Why sales enablement is worth prioritizing in 2024 and beyond appeared first on Seismic.

Sellers, you know the feeling, too: Your marketing team creates new versions of your go-to-market collateral and you don’t know where to find it. And if you do, you don’t have time to personalize it or demonstrate that it helps move the needle with your clients.

Enablement practitioners, you are the solution to this content chaos. With an excellent sales enablement content strategy, your sellers shouldn’t waste time searching for content.

A 2023 study we commissioned revealed this: 97% of people who said that sales enablement software gives them quick access to content also said that such quick access lets them communicate with their clients from a more informed standpoint. As an enablement professional, it’s your job to make it easier for your client-facing teammates to grow revenue. Reducing content chaos plays a big part in that.

Picture your content chaos, solved

At this point, we’ve established that sales enablement is an efficient, scalable way to control content chaos. Now let’s dig deeper. 

Here are just four (of many) reasons why including a sales content management system keeps your content organized, accessible, and up-to-date. 

1. Sellers find what they need faster

Right now, sellers without sales enablement tech spend an average of 10 hours per week tracking down, comparing, or revisiting content to send to their clients. There’s a better way with content management software. See what we mean by checking out this video.

The best sales enablement practitioners leverage sales content management tech that gives sellers:

• AI-powered search capabilities
• In-context content recommendations (right in their inboxes and CRM instances)
• Custom fields to personalize and send always-compliant content 

One quick note here: Watch for sales enablement content management software that lets admins create content libraries for various profiles and personas, complete with tagging functionality and easy version control. This helps sellers find, customize, and send content at lightning speed. After all, your sellers didn’t join your organization to chase their tails for content; they want to sell. 

The ability to find content quickly and efficiently is actually a recruiting point. The 2023 Value of Enablement Report revealed that 91% of respondents who don’t use sales enablement tools to organize their content have noticed a dip in morale because sellers have to focus on non-revenue generating activities at work, which negatively affects their income. In short, give your sellers fast access to the content they need and you’ll attract and keep top talent.

2. Sellers rest easy because their content tells a cohesive story

With a sales enablement platform, content isn’t being created in ad-hoc, one-off ways. Everything internal (think playbooks and process documentation) and external (think client presentations, case studies, product one-pagers) can be well-planned out and cohesive.

Sales enablement software empowers admins to control who can create or modify content. This allows practitioners to partner with their product marketing teammates to equip sellers only with the most up-to-date messaging. This aligns sales and marketing departments — which historically has been no small feat — and, more importantly, it makes it so your content resonates with clients. They should find the same information on your website as they do in sales conversations and the follow-up content from your sales reps.

3. Sellers personalize content without going off-script

An all-too-common content chaos struggle is rogue content; sometimes sellers create their own materials. Occasionally, these ad-hoc slide decks and PDFs are good, but more often than not, they’re off-brand, noncompliant, and untracked, so no one knows how they perform.

Sellers have no bad intentions in customizing content for their clients. In fact, a desire to personalize content is a sure sign of a great salesperson. But savvy enablement practitioners will give sellers a way to easily personalize their content to make it industry-specific, use-case-specific, and even client-specific.

Earlier this year, we surveyed more than 1,200 full-time sales, enablement, and customer success professionals. 63% of them said that the content they use at work right now is not personalizable enough for their customers. You can solve this with technology that prioritizes sales enablement and marketing content personalization, making it easy for sellers to update fields and send all of their content from one platform. 

This is critical in solving content chaos. Case in point: Companies that prioritize personalization experience a 57% increase in buyer engagement.

4. Most importantly, sellers deliver a “wow” buyer experience

Fact: It’s nearly impossible to deliver exceptional buyer experiences at scale without well-enabled sellers who have powerful content management tools at their fingertips. 

Clients don’t really care if you have an organized content repository; they care that you’re sending them relevant content when they really need it. So, find a sales enablement platform that offers AI-guided sales content recommendations. The best tech should be able to suggest high-performing content across different deal stages based on what’s converted clients in the past. This doesn’t take the humanity out of selling — just the gut feelings and guesswork.

It’s possible and worth it to solve content chaos

From the largest enterprises to the smallest businesses, it’s possible to solve content chaos with a sales enablement platform that’ll scale as you grow. As you consider whether or not better sales content management is something you need, consider these stats:

• 95% of buying decisions are made with the help of sales content
• 82% of buyers view at least five pieces of content before purchasing
• 95% of sales reps say they don’t have access to high-value, shareable content
• 65% of content that’s created by marketing goes unused without enablement 

The numbers speak for themselves. Sellers need a better way to distribute great content. The solution is sales enablement. 

Think it’s time to level up your content organization, distribution, and analysis? Check out some G2 reviews, watch a few led-by-you demo videos, or reach out to the Seismic team today for a glimpse of how we help 2,200+ companies put their best foot forward with better content.

The post How sales enablement solves content chaos appeared first on Seismic.

Let’s get started by looking at how sellers spend their time. The truth is, the majority of their time isn’t spent selling. Shocking! According to the LinkedIn State of Sales Report 2022, sellers only spend a quarter of their time selling. The rest of their time is spent performing a variety of other tasks, including internal meetings, training, administrative duties, and updating their CRM. 

If you’re anything like me, maybe you’re still surprised that sellers only spend 27% of their time selling. I thought the gig was all smiles and dials – turns out I was wrong. Fortunately, our research has shown that one tool can help sellers save up to 15 hours a week: sales enablement software. 

Now, hear me out. We wouldn’t just say that because we’re the leader in sales enablement. The numbers actually bear it out. In the 2023 Value of Enablement Report – a multinational survey of more than 1,200 professionals in sales, enablement, and customer service – respondents overwhelmingly stated that their sales enablement platform saves them time. 

In this post, we’ll see how go-to-market (GTM) professionals use sales enablement to operate efficiently. Let’s get to it!

How sales enablement platforms save time

Sales enablement saves practitioners 15 hours per week. That’s nearly two complete business days. While the time savings are great, what’s even more impressive is what survey respondents are able to do with their time. According to the report, 83% of respondents who use sales enablement software stated that they have more time to focus on revenue-generating activities. 

But sales enablement technology saves time on a variety of activities. According to the survey, 52% of respondents say that sales enablement software helps them save time on finding metrics for planning and forecasting. The benefits also extend to sales enablement training. 48% of respondents say that sales enablement tech saves time on organizing requests and addressing training gaps. Another 47% of respondents noted that sales enablement tools save them time locating information. 

Time savings can have a great impact on employee morale. Think about it – when sellers can easily and quickly find content or access training, they can feel confident that they’re better prepared for client interactions. But, that’s not always the case in organizations that don’t use sales enablement technology. The survey found that 91% of respondents who don’t use sales enablement tools not only spend more time looking for content, but the time they spend on non-revenue generating activities also affects their morale. It also negatively affects their wallets. 67% of respondents who didn’t have access to the correct content said that spending time on non-revenue generating activities affects their income. 

Smarter enablement leads to better outcomes.

We believe that when organizations practice smart enablement, great things will happen. And organizations that currently use sales enablement technology tend to agree. Even as budgets tighten, 71% of respondents say that their company plans to increase its investment in enablement technology in 2023.

Organizations that plan to maintain or increase their investment in sales enablement technology do so because of the impact it has on their employees. We won’t share exact numbers here – we’ve got to save some of the best findings for the report, which you can download here. But, on a serious note, organizations that use sales enablement technology believe that their solution helps with both client and employee retention. 

How Seismic can help

The Seismic Enablement Cloud is purpose-built to help organizations weather difficult times by operating more efficiently. If you find that your sellers are only spending a quarter of their time focused on revenue-generating activities, or if you’d like to help them save 15 hours per week, we can help. We’ve helped thousands of customers like Salesloft achieve 35% higher win rates by delivering sales enablement content to customers through Seismic. 

If you’d like to learn more about how organizations extract value from their sales enablement solution, download Kick Go-to-Market Chaos to the Curb.

The post How sales enablement saves you time appeared first on Seismic.

With this reality in mind, Seismic commissioned a study to better understand the value of sales enablement tools. The Seismic 2023 Value of Enablement Report sampled more than 1,200 full-time sales, enablement, and customer success professionals in managerial and leadership roles throughout the United States and Europe. The report found that sales enablement technology is exceedingly popular, with 82% of respondents saying they use it on the job.

It would be easy for us to say that sales enablement makes practitioners’ jobs easier. However, that statement is much more impactful when numbers bear it out. Perhaps, what’s even more interesting is the feedback we received from organizations that don’t use sales enablement solutions. 

That’s where we’d like to start in this post. We’ll share some of the study’s highlights and outline the experiences of the “haves” and the “have-nots.”

Those who have sales enablement technology

Let’s start with a simple question: does enablement technology make work easier? The short answer is a resounding yes. 99% of respondents who use sales enablement platforms said that it makes their job easier. 

A variety of considerations factored into this claim. As sellers become increasingly responsible for ambitious sales targets, every minute of their workday is more valuable. Any tool that gives them an advantage, or saves time, has a significant impact on their outcomes. 80% of respondents who use enablement technology stated that it frees up time to focus on revenue-generating activities. Furthermore, they reported that it saves them 15 hours per week. That’s nearly two workdays that can be spent interacting with and responding to customer needs instead – not searching for or updating content. 

Enablement technology’s ability to save users time creates opportunities in other areas, too. Not only does enablement software give go-to-market (GTM) teams more time to prioritize client-facing activities, it ensures that they feel more prepared and knowledgeable. When users have the content and resources they need at their fingertips, it’s easy to feel empowered. In fact, 97% of respondents who said enablement technology gave them quick access to content, information, or coaching believed they were able to speak to clients from a more informed perspective. And 68% of respondents said that having quick access to information and content prevents them from second-guessing themselves. 

The enablement have-nots

While respondents who don’t use enablement technology didn’t explicitly say that their lack of access made their jobs more difficult, the numbers said it for them. Their responses indicated that not using enablement technology had negative impacts on their bottom line. Of those who do not use sales enablement tools, 36% said their company struggles with increasing client retention. 

Sales enablement platforms with built-in learning, training, and coaching capabilities are vital to sales acceleration. When organizations onboard reps faster, the sooner they can win new business and have an impact on revenue generation. The inverse can prove consequential. 88% of respondents whose organizations struggle with onboarding agreed that poor onboarding disrupted company operations. These disruptions result in opportunities lost and can stunt a company’s growth. 

Organizations without a sales enablement strategy face challenges that go beyond training and coaching. Once GTM hires are onboarded, poor access to content poses an additional challenge to customer-facing roles. Comparatively, sellers who work for organizations with streamlined access to content felt more prepared and confident going into their customer interactions. On the other hand, 97% of those who didn’t use enablement technology said they were often (19%) or sometimes (78%) unable to locate the content they needed. Of those respondents, 91% said this makes them feel less productive. 

The value of a sales enablement program

The findings in the report indicate that the value of sales enablement can’t be understated. In organizations with a sales enablement team and technology, sellers feel supported and well-equipped to do their jobs. We couldn’t agree more. 

Again, we could tell you ourselves why we believe a sales enablement platform is a sound strategic investment, but we won’t. Instead, we invite you to see for yourself. If you’d like to learn more about why enablement is valuable – both in times of economic uncertainty and abundance – check out  The Seismic 2023 Value of Enablement Report. 

The post Seismic 2023 Value of Enablement Report: Sales enablement makes your job easier appeared first on Seismic.

As you embark on your journey to achieve “best-in-class” enablement with Seismic, remember that success is contingent on a critical factor: understanding your current state of enablement maturity and aligning your business outcomes accordingly.  

In today’s noisy marketplace, enablement promises more efficient and effective teams, elevated brand recognition, and accelerated growth. We’ve come to realize that enablement isn’t just a destination – it’s a journey.  

Our journey as a leader in the enablement space began over a decade ago, with financial services customers across banking, wealth management and insurance. We’ve partnered closely with industry giants, sharing our expertise and developing technology and plans that address the unique needs of Financial Services clients.  

While we drive for today’s success, we look for tomorrow’s opportunities (and challenges). Our internal teams collaborate to share best practices, and develop functionality that increases efficiency and productivity, while maintaining compliant and complex processes and workflows. Furthermore, we keep a close eye on the macro business environment, pivoting as necessary, but also remaining as a stable partner and resource.  

We understand that regulations shape the way financial services firms do enablement and automation. What we’ve realized is that challenges in any vertical are often quite similar: how do we mature our efforts, ensure we get the value out of innovations and create a strategic plan for the future? 

The path to enablement maturity can be summarized in three steps. In this post, we’ll share how your organization can crawl, walk, and eventually run as you uplevel your enablement programs.  

First, we crawl  

In partnership with Seismic’s Professional Services team, your journey toward building a robust content management foundation starts with taming chaos and optimizing content utilization during the “crawl” phase. With Seismic’s expertise, a comprehensive analysis of your organization’s current content management practices is conducted, identifying pain points and inefficiencies to pave the way for subsequent improvements.

A pivotal collaboration with Seismic involves establishing a centralized repository that serves as a unified hub for storing all relevant content. This repository, facilitated by Seismic’s platform, acts as the definitive source of truth, minimizing confusion and ensuring that teams can readily access the latest and most accurate information. 

Many of our financial services clients work hand in hand with Seismic’s services professionals for best practices around categorization and tagging to improve content organization. This approach fosters an intuitive and consistent method for content classification, augmented by metadata such as keywords and descriptors, to streamline content retrieval and maximize efficiency. Seismic’s expertise ensures that access control and permissions are meticulously defined, aligning with industry regulations and safeguarding sensitive information according to user roles and compliance requirements within the financial services sector. 

Seismic’s Professional Services team also collaborates closely to develop a streamlined distribution strategy tailored to your organization’s needs. This bespoke strategy involves creating automated workflows for content distribution, personalized content recommendations based on user roles or preferences, and seamless integration with other tools in your tech stack. Optimizing content distribution gives teams access to the most relevant materials precisely when needed, bolstering productivity and decision-making capabilities. 

As you reach the end of this phase, a continuous improvement process or feedback loop is suggested, actively seeking input from users to identify areas for refinement. Iterative changes are implemented to enhance the usability, efficiency, and overall effectiveness of the content management system over time. This approach ensures that the content management strategy remains adaptable and responsive to the evolving needs of the organization, creating a foundation for successful, sustainable content management. Throughout this process, Seismic’s Professional Services team ensures that your content management strategy remains flexible and scalable. 

Next, we walk 

As your organization advances to the “walk” phase, the emphasis shifts toward improving efficiency and gauging the impact of initiatives. To maintain momentum during this critical phase, Seismic – in partnership with its Professional Services team – has introduced several impactful solutions and features.  

First, Fund Report Orchestrator, which accelerates time-sensitive commentaries, streamlining the assignment, creation, approval, and distribution processes to clients. This not only expedites the delivery of product-specific commentaries, research reports, quarterly investment reports, and topical POVs but also significantly reduces compliance risk. Through collaborative efforts with Seismic Professional Services, your organization can explore automation strategies that inspire efficiency and compliance in content production.  

Seismic Learning keeps client-facing teams informed about new initiatives and content. We’ve enhanced the learning experience with AI, video capabilities, and automated coaching. Teams have access to cutting-edge learning resources, ensuring they remain at the forefront of industry and organizational knowledge.  

Seismic Learning serves as a vital ally in navigating the intricacies of regulatory compliance. The platform ensures data security and privacy compliance by incorporating robust encryption and secure data handling mechanisms, aligning with regulations like GDPR and CCPA, as well as entities like FINRA & the SEC. Seismic Learning enhances the learning experience for client-facing teams, equipping them with tailored content to stay well-informed and adept in the dynamic regulatory landscape.  

Imagine a scenario where your teams receive the training they need precisely when it’s required – where compliant content can be easily surfaced and where content production is a seamless, efficient process across all collateral. 

Finally, we run 

In the “run” phase, we focus on expanding value messaging and driving transformation. Seismic empowers your teams to craft personalized and engaging messages at scale, truly embracing customer-centricity.  

Seismic Professional Services’ thought leadership and expertise – coupled with the innovations of digital sales rooms (DSR) and LiveSend templates – provide client-facing teams with repeatable, compliant, and scalable methods to easily produce external-facing communications that inform and engage their audience. Your personalized messages will resonate deeply across various channels, enhancing engagement and delivering meaningful value.  

Our journey takes us to enablement maturity, where our most advanced clients optimize revenue growth. It’s all about getting teams to operate against data-driven insights, allowing for strategic and operational alignment between Marketing, sales reps, and advisors while obtaining a holistic view of revenue activities.  

At this stage, we integrate Aura AI seamlessly into your workflows, providing teams with just-in-time compliant answers at their fingertips – a vast knowledge base replete with accurate and timely responses to client inquiries.  

The goal is that your entire organization operates seamlessly, leveraging data-driven insights to ignite revenue growth, aligning marketing, enablement, and advisors, while automating time-consuming manual tasks. This phase is the epitome of enablement success.  

Our firm belief is that addressing these foundational aspects of your enablement program holds the key to reducing the noise. It’s akin to unveiling a window into the inner workings of your operations – a window that enables you to clearly ascertain the efficacy of your efforts.  
 
As financial services clients, you have an incredible opportunity before you. By strategically utilizing Seismic and embracing partnership with our Professional Services team, you can confidently progress through this crawl, walk, run approach to exceed your enablement outcomes and transform your business operations.  

Automation, platform efficiencies, cutting-edge, compliant solutions, and industry-leading best practices – our enablement experts are ready to partner with you to win as one. 

The post Win as One: The future of financial services teams  appeared first on Seismic.

At SHIFT 2023, I had the opportunity to answer a pressing question for all forward-thinking organizations: how do we harness the power of Seismic to further mature our enablement functions? As you navigate the ever-evolving terrain of sales enablement, one thing should be increasingly clear: in the journey toward enablement excellence, it is critical to have a clear, actionable strategy. 

There are several benefits to developing a prescriptive roadmap to govern the growth of your enablement program. By taking a well-defined, strategic approach, your organization can increase revenue and operational efficiencies, save time, align cross-functional teams, and even save some money in the process. 
 

The Sales Enablement Roadmap: A strategy for action 

Seismic offers customers a Sales Enablement Roadmap which provides a strategic framework and blueprint to evaluate their current use of Seismic. The roadmap can be used to uncover new projects for enablement and determine how best to scale these initiatives for optimal impact. The roadmap is more than a conceptual guide: our strategic experts collaborate with customers to develop a structured, customized pathway designed to ensure enablement efforts thrive and evolve with changing business needs.  

Seismic’s strategic advisors use a three-step approach to carefully craft sales enablement roadmaps for our customers. Let’s discuss the best way to develop this valuable plan.  

Evolve existing use cases to increase impact 

The first step is a phased deep dive into the current state of your Seismic instance, examining the effectiveness of current strategies and identifying opportunities for enhancement. 

• Baseline current state: Tap into Seismic’s analytics, LiveInsights, for a real-time snapshot of existing content and strategy performance. Insight into content usage and user behavior trends allows you to pinpoint specific areas that are ripe for improvement. 
• Engage stakeholders across the organization: Enablement thrives on cross-functional partnerships. Include feedback from sales, marketing, and product as you explore Seismic’s potential. Their buy-in and participation will be critical as you refine and expand your use cases. 
• Monitor and adjust: Routinely check to ensure that new strategies are adopted and that your platform runs smoothly. Cultivate a mindset of innovation and incorporate Seismic’s dynamic capabilities in your strategic plan. 

Identify future projects and enablement use cases 

After enhancing your current Seismic use cases, the next step is to look ahead. It’s time to strategically identify future projects and use cases that can further elevate your enablement strategies. Shift your focus to discovering and ranking upcoming projects that promise the most significant impact on your enablement initiatives. 

• Start with outcomes in mind: Define desired business outcomes like improving sales efficiency or enhancing customer experiences. Work backward to develop targeted projects. 
• Establish a governance committee: Form a cross-functional team to ensure projects align with your organizational goals. This committee is vital in assessing project feasibility and ensuring seamless implementation. 
• Adopt an iterative approach: Start with small, manageable initiatives. Use insights from iterative cycles to refine your approach and broaden impact across your organization. 

Next, consider how enablement use cases can be scaled across your organization, ensuring consistency and effectiveness for your entire sales team. This is where Seismic is invaluable. 

 
Use Seismic to grow and scale your enablement programs 

Scaling involves increasing the size and improving the quality and reach of your enablement efforts. 

Create dedicated enablement roles: Invest in dedicated roles (e.g., sales enablement manager, sales content manager, operations analyst) focused solely on driving enablement initiatives and amplifying their effectiveness. 

Use Seismic to enable: Harness Seismic as a catalyst for organization-wide strategic initiatives like new sales methodologies and market entries, and as a central hub for learning, training, and executing. 

Conclusion: A Vehicle for Transformation 

Seismic is more than just a tool in your enablement arsenal: it is the driving force behind a transformative journey. By understanding where you are and where you aim to be, Seismic becomes the vehicle that propels your enablement efforts forward. It’s not just about using Seismic – it’s about letting the technology, people, and a carefully crafted strategic roadmap guide your organization to unprecedented levels of growth and efficiency in your sales and marketing endeavors.  

If you’d like to continue the conversation about the Sales Enablement Roadmap, please reach out to your Customer Success team and set yourself on the path to success right away. 

The post Navigating the future: Crafting a comprehensive sales enablement roadmap with Seismic  appeared first on Seismic.

Furthermore, case studies show that companies embracing change are seeing: 

• Reduced risk 
• Greater speed to market 
• Increased margins 
• Enhanced market position 

Now all that is great – but how do you implement change in a business that has standardized ways of working and roots in disciplined environments? If something does not seem obviously broken, then how do we go about fixing it? And how can we ensure that we are reaping the full benefits of digital transformation? 

Michelin discusses precisely how they went about this in their business, in a recent conversation with Seismic (subtitles available). By tying back to key mutual benefits across multiple functions, and ensuring all project partners were aligned internally, they managed to bring about change, in a scalable manner. In addition to this, buy-in across senior leaders and the wider business allowed them to address key challenges they were facing within the industry, such as: 

• Improving the sales process to be more efficient 
• Clarity and alignment in their go-to-market strategy with an expanding portfolio 
• Retaining existing customers effectively – particularly demanding task 

By implementing Seismic, they are able to achieve essential time savings – integrating content into their CRM tool which allowed their sellers to be more productive and proactive. Their sellers can now personalize content in ways never seen before, so that relevant content is shared, and conversations are happening at exactly the right moment in the sales cycle – without jeopardizing impact on their tightly regulated brand guidelines. Marketing now also have insight into how sellers and customers use and consume content, which allows them to refine their content strategies and investment over time to become even more impactful and efficient. 

Another benefit, often overlooked when making this digital shift, is around sustainability which is a huge challenge manufacturing and CPG industries face as regulations tighten. For GEFA Fabritz, the shift to digital meant that they were able to achieve cost savings by up to 50%, all through focusing on a reduction of printing materials.  

A final important aspect of driving change within manufacturing and CPG businesses is learning. Implementing a well-structured and interactive training and learning software that allows employees to learn and develop according to their own needs and schedules does not only save organizations time, but also helps to create consistency and alignment, ensuring that they are keeping pace with change at scale. Tails.com, a Seismic customer and supplier of dog food with a focus on customer experience, was able to decrease their ramp time for new hires by 34% through a streamlined onboarding process. In a small team of only 75 people, this is extremely valuable time that is being saved and can now be re-invested into conversations with customers. 

Change is inevitable, especially within the manufacturing and CPG markets, but it is up to organizations how they choose to react to this change. Implementing a thought-through change management and sales enablement strategy is a good place to start. In fact, Valtech research confirms that 59% of organization’s are now defining their digital transformation goals as ambitious, whereas a year ago this stood at only 47%.  It re-enforces the strategy that by ensuring leadership alignment, effectively engaging stakeholders, providing relevant content, and measuring success at the right levels, manufacturing and CPG organizations will be able to navigate the complexities of change and set themselves up for sustained success in their ever-evolving markets. 

Seismic partners with a range of manufacturing and CPG customers across sizes and geographies, helping to deliver a well-oiled go-to-market machine that is sure to deliver successful business outcomes. Find out more about Seismic for manufacturing and CPG here, or reach out to request a demo. 

The post Navigating Change: leveraging Sales Enablement to drive successful digital transformation for Manufacturing and CPG  appeared first on Seismic.

What is sales synergy?

Synergy is defined as the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. Sales synergy refers to the collaboration and combined efforts of individual sellers within a sales team to achieve greater effectiveness and efficiency in reaching sales goals.

Sales synergy goes beyond working side by side to complete a task or project. Instead, it implies a level of cooperation, communication, and shared goals that lead to a cohesive and streamlined approach to selling and closing deals. Key elements of sales synergy include:

• Effective communication
• Alignment on goals and objectives
• Mutual support
• Leveraging every team member’s strengths

The ultimate goal of fostering sales synergy is creating a high-performing team that consistently exceeds sales targets and adapts to challenges more effectively. In this post, we’ll explore three strategies that teams can implement to enhance their sales synergy.

Let’s dive in!

3 tips for stronger alignment

1. Deliver ongoing education. A foundational step for synergy is to ensure that every seller understands your organization’s sales operations and processes. This includes familiarity on products, your team’s sales tech stack, and the expectations regarding pipeline management. In order to provide adequate education on these items, it’s crucial to establish an onboarding program that provides new sellers with easy access to this information. It’s also important to recognize that training is an ongoing process, so sellers also need access to on-demand training and knowledge so they can stay up-to-date with business processes and best practices. This ensures that your sellers remain agile and adaptable, stay aligned on new information and evolving strategies, and meet business goals.
   
2. Open lines of communication. Regardless of your sellers’ experience levels, the ever-evolving nature of the sales landscape ensures that new questions and challenges will continually arise. To ensure that sales teams  thrive amid these changes, it’s crucial to create a culture of open communication. Vertical and horizontal communication pathways—both upward and downward within the organizational structure—are a great way to share insights, address questions, and refine strategies. Look for ways to plan recurring meetings where team members can openly discuss challenges, share wins, and collaboratively problem solve.
3. Create shared goals. While effective education and communication lay the groundwork for success, their full impact can’t be reached until they’re aligned with shared goals across the entire team. It’s not just about meeting individual milestones — it’s about forging a collective path towards hitting goals as an entire team. In addition to individual monthly or quarterly quotas, consider introducing team-wide goals that transcend individual achievements. These shared objectives should serve as rallying points, motivating team members to pool their efforts for a greater cause. By fostering a sense of collective investment, team members find a shared purpose beyond individual tasks. This not only bolsters motivation but also instills a collaborative spirit. Whether navigating challenges or celebrating successes, by emphasizing the journey as a shared one, you’ll reinforce the idea that the strength of the team lies in the shared pursuit of goals that extend beyond individual endeavors.

Improving your team’s synergy will lead to higher morale, better teamwork, and ultimately more closed deals. These three strategies aren’t the only ways to improve sales synergy, but taking the steps to educate, communicate, and create collective goals for your team is a great place to start.

How we can help…

The Seismic Enablement Cloud, ensures that go-to-market organizations drive collaboration, consistency, and adaptability in order to hit business goals. Interested in learning how sales teams across the globe use Seismic to drive synergy across their sellers? Click here to get a demo!

The post 3 Ways to Improve Sales Synergy appeared first on Seismic.