At Shift 2023, experts from our award-winning Professional Services team led breakout sessions designed to help our customers navigate complex enablement journeys. In our “Shift into the New Year” series, we’re continuing to share best practices to help you develop plans for 2024 and beyond. If you haven’t already, please find the first post in the series about change management here. Now, without further ado, let’s dive into our second post about creating a comprehensive sales enablement roadmap.
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.
