How Direct Travel Accelerates Deals with Highspot
Direct Travel built a strong enablement foundation designed to drive faster deal cycles and improved GTM performance. Now, its scaling impact with Highspot Deal Agent.
Introduction
In travel management, timing is everything. Buyers have planes to catch and deadlines to meet. To keep pace, global travel management leader Direct Travel uses Highspot to:
- Empower reps to move with speed and urgency
- Rebuild previously manual coaching workflows
- Progress deals with insight-informed precision
Opportunity
Common obstacles stall sales success
Selling travel solutions demands agility. But Direct Travel’s sellers were slowed by familiar challenges: scattered content, limited engagement data, and inconsistent coaching.
“Reps were using old, outdated collateral and struggling to find where those assets are stored,” began Robin Handley, SVP of sales enablement at Direct Travel. “We also didn’t have full visibility into buyer engagement and, without that data, reps were using their gut. There were only a few data points that they had.”
Soon, the enablement team recognized they had a problem on their hands. By partnering with Highspot, Direct Travel addressed these challenges and more. With a strong foundation in place, the organization set its sights on execution, hoping to help sellers understand what was happening in their deals and what to do next.
Direct Travel expanded its partnership with Highspot, exploring new ways to inform deal strategy and drive decisions.
We also had really manual ways to coach the sales reps. It was very labor intensive.
Solution
New capabilities streamline GTM workflows
Direct Travel quickly made Highspot a single source of truth. From surfacing content and sharing it with buyers to receiving real-time engagement insights, every sales workflow now lives in the platform, and 95% of users do, too. As the team began incorporating AI into key workflows, they first made strides with AI-powered coaching.
“Developing individuals through coaching, feedback, and recognition is so critical,” explained Handley. “Being able to leverage AI to provide feedback is incredible.”
Instant, AI-powered feedback was the first step. Now, the team is exploring how AI can connect buyer engagement data, meetings, and CRM signals to help every seller take the next best step in their deals.
“Deal Agent is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a single source of truth for everything related to deals,” shared Richie Lentz, SVP of sales at Direct Travel. “We just started using it, and it’s been a game changer for us.”
Impact
Unified, AI-powered platform accelerates execution
Direct Travel’s new approach changed the game. AI-powered coaching equipped reps to show up better with buyers, and 100% of reps use Digital Rooms to take that confidence to the field. From the first touch to the last mile of the deal, sellers and leaders know what’s happening in their deals and how to keep them moving forward.
“It’s vitally important to ensure that the right content, training, and coaching is available to enable reps to win that business,” explained Handley. “Using Highspot is a dream come true.”
Direct Travel set out to close workflow gaps. Already, it has achieved that and more. Now, its teams are beginning to use Deal Agent to prepare for meetings and evaluate deal status, so they can identify risk before it stalls decisions.
This new direction builds on an already-strong foundation. With Digital Rooms and external shares fueling engagement, Direct Travel has seen a 67% increase in external viewing time on shared content.
I’ve started to use Deal Agent for meeting prep. It requires no extra work and motivates me to do the right activities. When I do that, I’m more successful.
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