Driving Performance with Methodology and Technology: The Integrate Story

According to a Challenger study, the buyers’ opinion of sales experience capability is down 40%. 

Reps aren’t just selling to one buyer; they’re selling to a broader decision-making unit, including the prospect’s CFO. The way sellers translate and quantify the value of their products and services and package it to the CFO is becoming more difficult, requiring an up-leveling in skills that needs to happen quickly. Unfortunately, many reps are falling short.

While sales enablement used to focus on efficiency rather than the buyer experience, it’s now more about prepping sellers to have the most effective conversations with both prospects and customers. Even the most efficient rep can fail to move the needle and convert customers. 

Integrate is a high-growth MarTech software company that helps marketers reach prospects with the right message at the right time and unifies marketing channels and lead data. Recently, they recognized that their sales processes needed a facelift. Integrate’s Global Director of Sales Enablement, Sam Carlile, and Sales Enablement Project Manager, Emily Gregov, recently joined a webinar with Showpad’s US VP of Sales, Dustin Deno, and Spencer Wixom from Challenger to discuss the strategies their companies took to improve the buyer experience today and into the future. 

Methodology and technology working in tandem

To shift sales focus on building a better buyer experience, Sam and Emily got to work developing a cutting-edge learning and development program. The program’s roadmap consisted of three parts: objective, methodology and technology. To achieve their objectives, they would need an effective approach in place (methodology) and a delivery mechanism (technology) to work together for better performance.

Together with Challenger and Showpad, they got to work.

Build commercial messaging

Getting started was the most difficult part, since implementing new platforms and processes have historically been a shake-up for sales teams. Before they began crafting their message, Integrate assembled a team to do so — with sales enablement ensuring alignment with their chief revenue officer, chief growth officer and product and marketing leaders. Alongside Challenger, this team redesigned commercial messaging to lead to Integrate’s solution, not with its solution, then pressure-tested it with the sales team to validate accuracy. Once finalized, the content was imported into Showpad, the platform Integrate sales reps already used every day. 

Fundamental skills development

After messaging was built out, Sam and Emily wanted sellers to be equipped with the right skills to deliver that messaging to buyers and customers and provide them with a positive sales experience. They determined a handful of skills that had the biggest impact on performance: 

• The ability to demonstrate unique insight
• The ability to understand and address buyer needs
• The ability to support and simplify the decision-making and purchasing processes

Embed in workflow

Partnering with Challenger, Integrate created learning modules with guides and other e-learning materials to strengthen sales skills, then implemented them within the Showpad platform. This allows sellers to have direct access to customer-facing content, as well as learning materials, all in the same system. Enablement and sales managers can customize learning experiences, ensuring they are relevant to every team’s and rep’s roles to produce better results.

Coach & test capability

Integrate also engaged sales managers to be part of the process, prioritizing coaching as a key element of its new strategy. Using Showpad Coach, sellers are able to review and complete learning materials, then put what they learned into practice using Showpad’s PitchIQ capability. Reps can record themselves practicing their pitches — before presenting to a customer — which are then graded by sales leaders to certify whether that rep has developed the right skills to deliver messaging effectively. Sellers can also self-evaluate to see areas where they can improve.

Validate application

Practice and certification was effective in elevating skill sets, but the true test was when sellers presented messaging in actual conversations with a customer. Recorded video call data provides Integrate with deeper intelligence to evaluate whether reps are applying what they’ve learned and offer the customer perspective as part of the feedback loop. Marketing can then adjust messaging going forward to tie it into business results.

Aggregate data & measure

With all these features in one place, Integrate can gather data in Showpad and connect it to account records in the CRM. Such insights associate individual performance with business outcomes, using the Kirkpatrick Method as a foundation. Considered the most complete model for evaluating L&D success, the Kirkpatrick Method uses four levels of measurement:

1. Reaction: gathering feedback of the learning experience from participants
2. Learning: validating how well sales reps understand messaging and fundamental skills
3. Behavior: confirming impact of learning materials on actual behavior
4. Results: measuring ROI and other sales metrics 

Driving results

By joining methodologies and technologies together, Integrate has increased overall content views by 152%, with Challenger messaging provided to sellers via Showpad among the top 5% of all utilized content. With skill-building, coaching and buyer-facing materials at sellers’ fingertips, they have the resources needed to engage prospects and provide an exceptional experience.

Learn more about how Showpad can boost seller performance with centralized content, training and coaching. Request a demo today.