Analysis from G2 discovered that in case your gross sales reps don’t really feel they’re studying and rising in your group, you’re in danger to lose upwards of 60% of your complete workforce inside 4 years. So, what makes impactful coaching that leaves your learners feeling empowered?

Shawnna Sumaoang: Hello and welcome to the Win Win Podcast. I’m your host, Shawnna Sumaoang. Be part of us as we dive into altering tendencies within the office and easy methods to navigate them efficiently. Right here to debate this matter is Debra Bonomi, world gross sales enablement supervisor at Rakuten Promoting. Thanks for becoming a member of, Debra! I’d love so that you can inform us about your self, your background, and your function.

Debra Bonomi: Hello Shawnna. Thanks a lot for having me right here as we speak. I actually am trying ahead to this dialog. I undoubtedly have a really various background in coaching and improvement. I began out in retail, then I joined a coaching and consulting agency, after which went into actual property, and now I’m at present in affiliate marketing online.

Though I’ve very various industries, all of my positions in these previous jobs consisted of coaching and improvement. Since constructing our Highspot coaching, I’ve moved into a brand new function even inside Rakuten Promoting from the gross sales enablement supervisor for world gross sales and shopper service groups, to now the educational and improvement supervisor for all world groups.

SS: Debra, we’re excited to have you ever right here, particularly given your experience and your background. Now, you name your self knowledgeable learner and also you focus lots on skilled improvement, together with taking a few of our programs that my staff lately constructed out inside Highspot College. Thanks for taking these, we’d love any suggestions, by the best way, after this podcast. How do you assume ongoing coaching advantages you personally?

DB: I do love these coaching programs. One in every of my prime 5 strengths in StrengthFinder assessments is learner, and that really does describe me. I’ve all the time had a quench for information, and this has helped me in so many points of my life personally, and professionally, being a mother, pal, and peer, actually with everybody that I work together with.

I feel by approaching each interplay I’ve from a standpoint of being open and open to listening, I be taught. I’m grateful for all my interactions with folks since I discovered totally different views or from their experiences that I might by no means have discovered by myself. This has been one of many main the explanation why I can bounce industries and excel so shortly and it’s additionally enabled me to be a useful resource for groups that I assist.

SS: Now you touched on this somewhat bit in your introduction, however you even have a novel background the place you’ve got some expertise in enterprise improvement and venture administration. How do you assume that this impacts your method to gross sales enablement and coaching?

DB: I feel due to my experiences in each, I perceive that when you construct a stable basis, there’s no restrict to what may be achieved, and this satirically makes it extra agile. I put loads of effort and time into constructing the muse of any of the enablement packages I’ve been concerned with and the trainings. Some folks can do that as taking a step backward earlier than we transfer ahead, however I don’t. I do know it’s vital for profitable outcomes. My prep and discovery part takes essentially the most time in the entire tasks that I’m concerned with.

I eagerly search out ability gaps, course of wants, communication wants, and desired outcomes, and I’m consistently asking why and so what to myself. I discuss with the stakeholder from each stage of the funnel or course of concerned in what I’m constructing, in order that the coaching is complete. It is sensible, and it can also embody these nuggets or ideas that fill within the hole.

SS: I like that. Highspot proper now’s actually making an attempt to assist our different prospects perceive what beauty like, so I might like to get your perspective and your opinion on what beauty like with regards to gross sales coaching.

DB: I battle with this as properly. I are inclined to need to preserve going till the coaching covers 110% or offers outcomes which might be 110%. I’m undoubtedly engaged on this myself, however at its core, I really feel like good coaching is when the gross sales groups know their objectives, they’ve the instruments to attain these objectives, they know easy methods to use these instruments, after which give them a platform to share real-time suggestions. A gross sales rep’s function adjustments with every shopper or prospect interplay, so enablement and L&D must be as agile to assist them and whether or not it’s content material wants or firm info, business insights, or any knowledge wanted to assist constructing that shopper rep relationship.
I feel a key change we now have made right here at Rakuten to our coaching since rolling out Highspot, which we discovered out of your platform is breaking down trainings into modules. As a substitute of getting hour-long periods, we’re now beginning to create quick focused trainings which might be process or ability particular. This manner we preserve the learner’s consideration in addition to when the reps return if they’re educated on one thing, after which they don’t must have that info for say, 4 months, whether or not it’s like filling out part of a contract. This manner when the rep goes again, they don’t must scroll by means of hour-long movies like they used to attempt to discover that part. They’ll simply go proper to the focused video, which has been unbelievable.

SS: I like that, and that’s all the time unbelievable to listen to. Now, I do know that you’re passionate and love studying, however how do you share your love for studying together with your gross sales reps to essentially encourage them to enhance their information and expertise?

DB: I like this query. No pun supposed. First I set up relationships with them to really perceive them and their wants, after which to get their buy-in. I feel typically I do that as people and typically I do it on the staff stage, however I do the identical issues no matter both of these. I discover out what their background is, what their ache factors are, what would make their job simpler and extra pleasurable, and what they should obtain their success, after which I ship. I feel that’s crucial factor.

Each time I ship on something that I’ve interacted with them or inquired with them, I can see their shoulders stress-free. I see them smiling extra, after which I begin to see them becoming a member of increasingly of my future coaching periods as a result of I’ve constructed that belief with them. I like my job and I’m not simply saying that. I really love not solely studying about this new business and studying about what I can do to assist folks, so it’s simple for me to be genuine in my enthusiasm and my assist.

SS: Effectively, I like that, and no pun supposed to that as properly. Now you’ve got 98% energetic participation in your coaching and training programs in Highspot, so clearly you’re doing one thing proper and your reps adore it. Are you able to share finest practices for the way you drive rep engagement in your studying packages in Highspot?

DB: Positive, I’d like to. Before everything, one of many key learnings out of your Spark Convention in 2022, which was my first ever attending, one of many key learnings that we walked away with was to get senior management buy-in, and that message was pushed house repeatedly at your convention, and we received it. One in every of our main coaching releases lately was with our CRM, SalesForce, and the necessity was recognized by our CFO.
It was an ideal alternative to get our CFO and our CEO to assist these coaching modules being constructed inside Highspot on Salesforce. That in flip received different senior leaders to hitch in to assist and in addition when it comes to holding folks accountable. I feel this was a significant factor in our participation charge. We nonetheless wanted to make the coaching stick, not simply to have folks take it as a result of they had been instructed to as a result of senior management was holding them accountable. That is the place the invention basis work kicked in. Having a full 360-degree understanding of how this coaching will influence end-to-end makes it extra precious, extra relatable, and drives engagement. When a rep is aware of that they’re requested what they want steerage on, after which they get that steerage, that builds belief with the enablement and coaching groups.

One other key finest follow was using the Highspot platform to vary the supply to these quick focused movies with assessments. They love the problem of the assessments that Highspot offers us to do, in addition to the in-time demonstration of their studying after which additionally offering assist documentation, I feel is vital too on the backside of all trainings in order that they may put it aside as a useful resource. I feel this was very totally different from our earlier studying and improvement platform skills that we’ve had prior to now.

One other key integration for us was that Highspot truly syncs these focused coaching modules proper into Salesforce, and that has been great. Gone are the times of a rep taking a coaching, not utilizing it for six months or longer, after which making an attempt to recollect the place they’ll discover it inside a number of platforms. Now, whereas they’re on the display screen in Salesforce, and so they’re doing a process, in the event that they don’t keep in mind easy methods to do it, proper on the right-hand facet Highspot has the power to have us have the coaching proper there so they may click on on it, it stays in the identical display screen and provides them steerage, which has been excellent. Thanks for that.

SS: Incredible. I like the very best practices that you simply simply shared there. What outcomes have you ever began to see out of your reps who’ve engaged within the coaching?

DB: Sheer pleasure and I imply that wholeheartedly. There’s a pleasure in being extra environment friendly, assuaging their frustration, and realizing easy methods to do their job. Now they’ve extra time to be inventive or simply to have conversations with their shoppers. We’ve undoubtedly seen a rise in our CRM errors, but in addition we’ve gotten extra full profiles, which might not have essentially come up as an error prior to now. The reps didn’t know easy methods to fill in all of the fields, so that they left them clean, and once more, that didn’t come up as an error, however we had been lacking, as an organization, precious knowledge from our shoppers to assist us make extra knowledgeable selections on forecasting and enterprise wants.

We now have additionally recognized the following stage of coaching wants primarily based on all of this. A lot of our duties are interconnected and as soon as we launch coaching in a single matter, another matters which might be woven into it at the moment are highlighted. Now we now have reps in these departments coming to us asking for coaching to be included and typically included in earlier modules. A terrific instance of that’s the CRM coaching I talked about. We initially simply included steps inside the CRM, however now we now have our authorized division reaching out saying, hey, can I add a lesson inside that to provide them a greater understanding of what a contract is or easy methods to fill out the contract, not simply easy methods to add it into the CRM?

SS: Fantastic. Now, as we take into consideration possibly among the KPIs or the important thing efficiency indicators, what metrics do you monitor as we speak to know the influence of your coaching packages and particularly the influence on productiveness, and the way does Highspot enable you to monitor a few of these?

DB: Highspot has given us analytics to a stage that we really have by no means had earlier than. As a substitute of providing a coaching session and ready for suggestions from staff members in the event that they wanted further coaching, which typically suggestions by no means got here, now we now have the power to proactively view the coaching course stats. When applicable we construct good pages related to a coaching matter, some small focused good pages, and a few extra in depth ones. We will additionally use the scorecards from these good pages to see if there’s a rise in content material engagement, utilization, the pitching on these matters, all of them from the coaching that had been launched.

We construct preliminary analytics experiences inside Highspot by the staff in order that managers can pull these experiences themselves and achieve insights wanted for his or her one-on-ones with reps. These one-on-one conversations are extra focused at each reps which might be succeeding and people which might be struggling. If I had a rep attain out to me with a query, I might truly pull up that report for his or her info earlier than I responded to them in order that I knew what to anticipate, or what their actions have been or lack of earlier than I truly began talking with them, which I’ve by no means had that capability earlier than. Plus we additionally utilized the Highspot assist groups, and so they evaluate with us on a month-to-month foundation our report card and provides us insights on our engagement, our utilization, our adoption, and extra. They undoubtedly give us loads of steerage.

Then, lastly, a key name out about Highspot is the adjustments and enhancements it’s making to our group that may’t be tracked or analyzed inside Highspot. I’m the most important advocate of this. After we began to construct our Highspot platform for our groups, we shortly realized that the entire programs and the processes and content material, steerage, and communications that weren’t in place wanted to be, and that’s not essentially one thing that I may pull a report in Highspot, however when you construct this platform appropriately and also you really are thorough, you’ll get info that’s important to a corporation when it comes to correcting its course. I extremely suggest it. It’s a non-confrontational manner of figuring out what must be constructed out to assist our enterprise construction and our groups and it’s an added bonus that Highspot offered us that we weren’t anticipating. Thanks.

SS: I like to listen to that. I think about Debra, simply because once more, you’re taking this be taught all of it mentality, how do you employ these metrics then to optimize your packages and enhance the influence that you simply’re already driving together with your coaching packages?

DB: We used them to determine if the coaching was complete sufficient. Do we have to change it since errors are nonetheless occurring? Do we have to add extra matters like stage 2.0 to the following step of this? What key learnings can we take away to incorporate within the subsequent coaching course creation? Even the good web page builders, just like the Highspot rep and I typically chortle like, do you keep in mind that first good web page we constructed, we thought it was so nice, and now take a look at what they seem like. We will see what reps like by what they reply to and use, after which we will do extra of that and preserve constructing on that.

We will additionally use Highspot to find out what coaching is required primarily based on analyzing the rep’s behaviors. Coaching inside Highspot and inside their each day roles. For instance, inside Highspot, if too many gross sales reps are downloading the pitch deck, as a substitute of creating a duplicate, modifying, and pitching, then we all know that we now have to coach them on that. If it’s a small quantity, the supervisor may be capable of right this, and inside their each day roles, if the reps should not personalizing decks in any respect, or not utilizing the insights obtainable to them, we will right that as properly. By seeing what’s and what’s not occurring, we will use this data to supply insights as to why initiatives are profitable or not, after which make selections on the following step.

SS: Completely love that. Two final questions for you, Debra. I’d love to listen to about possibly a latest win that you simply’ve been in a position to obtain on account of your coaching packages and the way did you leverage Highspot that can assist you obtain that?

DB: Positively our CRM coaching. Highspot gave us coaching program capabilities that we by no means had earlier than. It additionally gave us some steerage when it comes to I don’t essentially know if we’d’ve thought to start out breaking apart our coaching into these fast, quick, focused movies versus persevering with to do the hour-long periods.

We will measure studying for the time being both by questions, recorded responses of a gross sales pitch, shopper name, or laptop process, and we love that they’ll be taught after which exhibit proper for the time being. We will guarantee they took the course, not solely to get credit score for watching your complete course, etcetera, and we didn’t have the potential to do any of these items previous to Highspot, as I mentioned earlier than. The coaching platform is extremely simple to navigate, construct and monitor.

SS: Love that. Final query for you, Debra. How do you intend to proceed utilizing Highspot coaching and training to assist drive gross sales productiveness within the subsequent 12 months, and hopefully past?

DB: As a lot as doable. We use Highspot at present for our gross sales and shopper service groups. It’s a tremendous instrument to make use of for onboarding new hires, rolling out new initiatives, compliance, or obligatory trainings. Actually something that we have to measure and provides reps. The flexibility to be taught after which exhibit key learnings and something that we have to measure ourselves.

We are going to particularly use this for any coaching that can be utilized inside our CRM to assist our reps. As I discussed earlier, not simply the CRM-specific process, however now we’re beginning to layer in authorized parts to that coaching. I’m certain as soon as that occurs, there’s going to be one other division to succeed in out and say, hey, are you able to add this to that coaching as properly, which is great. They love not solely having the coaching on the precise web page that they want in that CRM, but in addition they don’t have to depart the platform and begin the hunt. One factor we’ve discovered, and I’ve discovered undoubtedly, is that the extra we use it, the extra we see why and the way we have to use it.

I’m certain there are issues that I might be saying extra. Similar to once we constructed a coaching course after which instantly noticed the following course wanted to be constructed. I’m clear that there’ll be makes use of for Highspot that aren’t in our orbit but, and I really can’t wait to be taught them.

SS: Effectively, thanks a lot for sharing what you’ve got discovered to date, Debra. I actually recognize it.

DB: Thanks very a lot.

SS: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Win Win podcast. You should definitely tune in subsequent time for extra insights on how one can maximize enablement success with Highspot.