Highspot Blog

One of the biggest advantages of companies with successful sales enablement strategies is their ability to maintain focus.  From content mapping through launch and optimization, they’re clear on why they invested, where they’re going, who is involved, and the steps required to reach their goals.  Today we’ll share a framework for how they do it, courtesy of the Highspot services team.  

Platform Value Drivers

Revenue: your sales reps live by it, your marketers are scored against it, and your C-suite monitors it daily.  Illustrated below is a depiction of the ways sales enablement contributes to this all-important metric.  

One of the reasons we like this value pyramid is that it applies equally to sales and marketing teams.  For example, at the foundational level, the ability for sales teams to quickly access the content they need is a reflection of how easy it is for marketing to make all of their company’s best-performing content available on a single platform.  At the next-highest level, platform usage is directly related to the positive experiences and success of other users from both marketing and sales.  At the top, customer engagement is a clear-cut indicator of whether or not platform features are capable of driving the revenue – and value – anticipated from any sales enablement investment.  Finally, all activities lead to increased revenue, the ultimate KPI for sales and marketing.    Continue reading article ›

The business impact of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) cannot be overstated. In just a few short years, it has recast sales and marketing strategies, inspired new technology decisions, and provoked rapid tactical shifts in sales pipeline management. Looking ahead, we anticipate ABM will exert increasing influence over the processes, content, audience engagement, and analytics that drive revenue growth.

Today we’re pleased to announce the availability of Content: Your Ticket to High-Performing ABM.  You can download your copy at the Highspot Resource Library.Continue reading article ›

When it comes to sales and marketing types, they want to like each other. In fact, in my experience, they want to love each other! After all, sales and marketing work towards a common goal—generating more revenue. But the fact remains that as long as sales relies on marketing to help close deals and marketing relies on sales to get the company message out, there’s bound to be conflict.

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

Sales wants very specific, personalized content that they can find at a moment’s notice. Marketing feels they publish volumes of content (and they do—but 65% of it can’t be found), and they’re sensitive to changing content because it changes the company message. In the end, we have two mission critical groups with a common goal—but different ways of getting there—and mounting frustration.Continue reading article ›

When asked to share the secret of their sales enablement success, most high achievers answer similarly: position your team to make the most of every conversation.  And the surefire way to accomplish this?  Know the difference between what works and everything else.  A dedicated approach to best practices is a great place to start. 

Learning and Doing

At many companies, identifying and sharing best practices is a learned skill.  One reason is that specific strategies and tactics that may have outperformed in one environment aren’t always neatly transferable.  Another is that cross-team alignment and expectations can vary dramatically.  Today we’ll illustrate how sales enablement leaders can set themselves up for success by leveraging the power of best practices.  Continue reading article ›

Ask any sales leader to point out the difference between success and failure. Chances are, they’ll mention content and training before you can count to three.    

Just as a good plan is only as useful as a team’s ability to execute it, so too an optimal sales enablement platform is a direct reflection of how it delivers the full range of what users need.  The partnership between Highspot and Brainshark is built upon this premise.  

Starting today, customers of both companies have seamless access to the features that make each unique.  For Highspot customers, the power of Brainshark’s sales training solution is now available within the Highspot user experience.  For Brainshark customers, the content authoring, training, and coaching they rely upon may now be accessed via Highspot’s industry-leading sales content management, customer engagement, and analytics platform.  It’s a partnership that rewrites the scope of modern sales enablement capabilities and helps sales teams overcome their most daunting effectiveness challenges.       Continue reading article ›

Sales enablement is giving businesses the competitive edge they need.  As illustrated in this year’s State of Sales Enablement Report, critical performance advantages have emerged at companies investing in this high-growth category.

Fundamental sales enablement strategies and tactics are now in place among a broad cross-section of companies.  From smaller sales teams just getting started to larger and more complex organizations, sales enablement has become a strategic commitment with significant upside.  Continue reading article ›

Road trips are a great way to get to know someone.  They reveal compatibilities, interests, and perspectives on everything from the best route to worthwhile stops.  These rites of passage are similar to shared expeditions of buyers and sellers.  Both require clear understanding of the ultimate destination, open communication, and eagerness to engage.  

Still, buyers and sellers are different.  On one side there are needs to fulfill and benefits to derive; on the other, revenue goals and customer satisfaction.  What is a journey for buyers is a process for sellers.  Successful sales and marketing teams manage both paths to mutual advantage while accelerating the results they care about most.

From then to now

We hear many stories about how the buyer’s journey is changing.  How it’s becoming more fluid and dynamic, and how buyers have more control than ever before.  All true.  What’s not true but remains broadly perceived is that the journey is now a random walk.  That buyers are less likely to follow a well-worn trail and more apt to advance from one stage to another with little predictability.  High-performing sellers know better.  Today we’ll share how they remain proactive – and how sales enablement helps establish strong links between the sales process and the buyer’s journey.   Continue reading article ›

High-performing sales teams have one characteristic in common: active leadership.  With it, the most relevant content for every sales stage reaches its intended target.  Without it, the same content goes underutilized, leaving teams on the wrong side of their prime opportunities. Today we’ll describe how best-in-class companies lead by positioning sales enablement as editor-in-chief.  The benefits: sales content that is easier to find, more consistent in quality, and tightly aligned with business goals.  

As highlighted in our recently released Best Practices in Sales Enablement, Volume 2: Put Your Sales Content to Work, content mapping and validation are two of the most important steps in deploying a sales enablement platform.  Both activities require an editor’s eye and intuition, as well as the decisiveness to highlight what’s most important and remove what’s not.  Continue reading article ›

Highspot and Brainshark have entered into a strategic partnership to give sales teams a complete, end-to-end sales enablement solution.  By leveraging the capabilities of both companies, customers will have streamlined access to the content they need for every phase of sales training and content management.  From onboarding reps to optimizing sales content and improving audience engagement, Highspot and Brainshark will empower companies to recalibrate what sales enablement can do for them and execute with greater agility than ever before. 

The Highspot and Brainshark partnership will help sales teams become experts in their field quicker, engage their audiences more effectively, and share best practices in real-time.  This combination will help customers of both companies accelerate their sales processes and increase win rates.Continue reading article ›

Salespeople are acquainted with the phrase Always Be Closing.  The faster they can reach quota, the better their business will run.  Modern sales enablement helps reps accelerate conversions by streamlining processes and saving time. Today we’ll describe how advances in fully integrated content management and customer engagement have made this possible.

From extra clicks to added steps and mistimed syncs to incompatible platforms, friction in the sales process is expensive.  It creates distance between reps and prospects, delaying productive conversations and interrupting the flow of information among sales, marketing, and customers.Continue reading article ›