Voices of Revenue is a monthly newsletter spotlighting revenue operators making waves and sharing best practices.
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As Jürgen Klopp's legendary tenure at Liverpool FC draws to a close, the world of football is abuzz with admiration for his transformative impact. From a team languishing in mediocrity, he molded a relentless, attacking force that conquered England and Europe, etching their names in the annals of the beautiful game.
Klopp's secret? A masterclass in onboarding and nurturing talent. Just as he meticulously scouted and integrated players to fit his high-intensity, gegenpressing philosophy, revenue leaders must thoughtfully onboard new sellers, aligning them with the company's values, buyer personas, and sales methodologies.
Like Klopp, who studied opposition tactics to counter them, leveraging persona research equips your new hires with deep insights into your customers' pain points, decision-making processes, and buying journeys. This intel empowers them to craft compelling narratives that resonate, much like Liverpool's fluid attacking patterns that bamboozled defenses.
Moreover, just as Klopp embraced innovative training methods, incorporating cutting-edge analytics and sports science, revenue teams can harness the power of GenAI to automate and augment onboarding processes. From personalized learning paths to real-time coaching during customer interactions, AI can be the ultimate force multiplier, accelerating time-to-productivity for your new revenue rockstars.
So, as we bid farewell to the charismatic German maestro, let's take a page from his playbook and onboard our new sellers with the same passion, preparation, and pioneering spirit that made Liverpool champions of Europe once more.
Onboarding in the World of AI
Mastering and Scaling Revenue Team Readiness. Voices: John Guerriere and Elay Cohen
Link to Original Voice: Real-World AI
Key Quote: “The pace of change is increasing. We need to be able to embrace that change and deliver it [training] more effectively and AI lets us do that.”
- AI is changing how we learn by shifting from traditional passive methods to active engagement and real-time feedback. Learners can now get immediate feedback from training, allowing them to apply new skills and knowledge right away.
- AI coaching tools empower enablement professionals to quickly adapt to new product releases or market changes. They can ensure their teams are consistently equipped with the latest messaging and can maintain a competitive edge.
- Outdated training methods like PDF handouts and scheduled calls are being replaced by AI-driven solutions that streamline certification processes. These platforms provide targeted, efficient training that aligns messaging and accelerates revenue readiness in a fraction of the traditional time.
- One application the team at Capado is leveraging is using AI coaches to autonomously evaluate and provide feedback on new hire pitches, eliminating the need for constant managerial oversight. This technology not only saves time but also allows for immediate adjustments to training materials, enhancing the overall agility of the training process.
- Our enablement philosophy here at Klue is deeply rooted in coaching. How can we coach reps, allow them to practice and get quick feedback? The emergence of AI coaches has been extremely interesting to us as we onboard reps. We spend hours doing live role-plays because we believe in the power of practice. The emergence of AI Coaching tools has allowed reps to still get that live practice without us having to be in the room. New reps can practice pitches, do a live role-play with an AI avatar and get feedback without needing another human.?
The Importance of Real-Time Feedback. Voices: Kevin Gaither and Bowen Moody?
Quote: “The only way [sales] scripts work is if the other party has the script too. The best reps have the script in pieces and can naturally pull in different parts.”
- Train your sales reps like a sports team, focusing on a specific theme each week with regular training and certification. If a rep is underperforming, consider having the entire team undergo recertification to maintain motivation and feel like they are all in it together.
- Current Conversational Intelligence tools often involve a heavy manual process, requiring users to manually identify and review calls, which can be inefficient and time-consuming. Leveraging new Gen AI tools can help expedite this call review process.
- A common reason for training failure is the lack of reinforcement. Sales reps, especially new hires, need immediate feedback to internalize training. The proximity of feedback to the training event is crucial for retention and application.
- Often, when reps get off a call they are not looking back. Leverage AI to implement as close to real-time feedback as possible. This method is more effective than delayed feedback and will help to improve rep performance.
- At Klue, we have been experimenting with a number of AI feedback tools. One tool that captivated the interest of our team was HeySam.ai. We’ve seen live on the call “AI Assistants” but "Sam" is trained to act like an elite sales engineer and salesperson. It understands the sales process and methodology and you can provide the tool with exact talk tracks and tones that replicate how your best rep sells. This quick and relevant feedback allows reps to adjust live on calls without disrupting their existing workflow.?
Using SecondBody’s AI to Practice. Created by Omid Mael and Ronen R. Pessar
Link to Original Voice: Get on the Court!
Quote: “You're at the US Open, soaking in the electric atmosphere, watching tennis pros effortlessly ace their shots. Now, imagine thinking you'll magically become a tennis champ just by being there!“
- To learn how to do something you need training (how and why) and then practice.
- Leveraging tools like
SecondBody ??
allow your sellers to practice key elements of sales conversations as often as they would like.
- They can learn from experts and their successful peers on how to probe and provoke, use tonality, land messaging, and handle objections on their own time.
- The old way of onboarding and coaching revenue team members relied on managers to coach each rep 1:1. This limited the amount of practice due to scale. When we think about practicing something like a talk track, we want a safe space to practice on our own first to learn and try out different pacing, tonality and make it our own. We can learn so much from our own ‘at bats’. Tools like SecondBody give companies a place to set the example for ‘what good looks like’ so newbies can emulate more experienced folks and practice until ready to perform.
Leveraging Personas?
Is it Time to Change the Way We Onboard our Sellers? Created by Koen Stam.?
Quote: “Everything was centered around: Who is the Customer? Each day contained several Roleplays to teach all of us to ask Situational, Problem and Impact questions so we truly learned to understand again...What is the current and future state for the Customer?!”
- Sales onboarding programs are overly focused on the company and product, rather than the customer and their challenges. This leads to ineffective onboarding and long ramp times
- We need to shift from being product and company-centric to being more customer-focused, with an onboarding program that includes use-case-related content and roleplays to prepare team members for being live in-role.
- We need to think about redesigning the sales onboarding program to focus intensely on understanding the customer through situational, problem, and impact questioning to increase the engagement and effectiveness of the training.
- At Klue, persona onboarding is at the heart of how we onboard new reps. We tailor all our training to be specific to our key personas and the pains and challenges they face. Whether it is pitching, demo-ing or telling customer stories, reps are coached to avoid being Klue-centric. We believe this starts with a deep understanding of our buyer personas and their Jobs to Be Done.
Problem Agreement. Created by Gabrielle Stott
Link to Original Voice: Gap Questions
Quote: "How are you (something {your company} does really well) so that (bad thing doesn't happen)".
- Show prospects how the problem you solve impacts them in their role (their persona).
- Push for problem agreement.?
- Build doubt in the success of their current approach.?
- Gabrielle recommends focusing on increasing your conversion rate through “KPIC” outreach:
- We are updating our business case and executive presentation narratives at Klue. We are embedding updated persona research into the Cost of Inaction messaging in our presentations. We are training sellers that the first step is to push for problem agreement with buyers. You have to both agree that there is a problem to be solved and you have to be looking at the root cause of the problem in the same way. Reaching problem agreement accelerates the likelihood of your buyer taking action based on the case you are making for change.?
Persona Management. Created by Laura "LG" Guerra
Quote: “We need to understand persona management based on company size/team size vs. making generic statements about "CRO's or VP Sales" (which typically happens with startups who are moving upmarket).”
- Persona research should begin with the following:
- Next step:?
- We are 100% guilty of generic statements about personas without taking the next step to put these personas in context of the company vertical, team size, segment and how they make money.?
- BRB…gotta book a meeting with our PMM team asap to incorporate this next step in our persona research work to drive revenue enablement.
As we continue to spot trends, we'll keep you updated. See ya next month!
Director of Revenue Enablement @ Klue
6 个月Dad ??
Building The First Conversation Practice Platform! Co-founder @ SecondBody
6 个月Haha, I love how you have put together this piece. I was telling one of our advisors the other day; the way you and Jenna are methodically focused on increasing revenue and securing important opportunities by enabling your front line ICs with Best-in-class tools and ways of having solid conversations to start tipping deals their way and increasing confidence in any high-stakes conversations, is simply commendable. ?? Super awesome to be mentioned in this this volume of Voices of Revenue ??