In a pre-pandemic world, sales teams who crushed their goals would likely see their team expand — more reps means more deals, right?
But according to Dustin Deno, who serves as the senior vice president of global sales at Showpad, that’s no longer the case.
“Today, that equation is starting to break,” Deno said.
Because of the pandemic, prospects are tentative to spend money on new products, and since in-person meetings are out of the picture, sales reps have had to get creative if they want to land clients. That means Zoom calls, virtual presentations, and ultimately, a higher level of skill. That’s where he says Showpad, a software company building tools to help reps better perform, comes into play.
We’re taking an analog process, making it digital and reaping the benefits.”
According to Deno, while many companies had been planning to increase their sales enablement plans, the pandemic has expedited those plans — which has meant a busy year for Deno’s team.
“Once we tie knowledge, skill and performance data together, we can understand the impact of sales enablement, which is on the mind of every CEO right now,” Deno said. “We’re taking an analog process, making it digital and reaping the benefits.”
To learn more about the rapidly expanding market for sales enablement, Built In Chicago sat down with Deno to see how sales enablement has become more vital in the remote landscape.
Why has remote work increased demand for sales enablement products?
While digital transformation, especially for sales enablement, was something that many organizations already had on their roadmaps, this pandemic accelerated those plans seemingly overnight.
There hasn’t been a shortage of sales tools to help reps save more time, but the pandemic has increased the need for reps to improve their execution. For example, we expect that this decline of in-person sales meetings will extend long after this pandemic is over, so sellers need to have tools to engage their buyers with the right information at the right time.
The need for creating interactive experiences that are relevant and timely has never been greater.”
The need for creating interactive experiences that are relevant and timely has never been greater. Not only do sellers now need to understand how to use those tools, but they also need to develop other skills to foster the same level of trust, credibility and engagement as an in-person meeting — only over a video conference or even over the phone.
How is Showpad helping sales reps who are working remotely?
As a platform, Showpad is helping sales and marketing teams by becoming the control point and delivery mechanism for the right message at the right time. We help marketing get insights into what messaging and content is working. We help sellers deliver information through interactive experiences and deal rooms, and provide a place for them to develop knowledge and skill. We help front-line managers implement a culture of coaching by watching “game film” recordings of their team’s sales meetings.
All of these elements come together to validate the increased interest and investment we’re seeing in enablement. Once we tie knowledge, skill and performance data together, we can understand the impact of sales enablement, which is on the mind of every CEO right now. We’re taking an analog process, making it digital and reaping the benefits.
As a company, we’ve always been fans of drinking our own champagne and using our own platform internally. This has helped us discover even more ways that we can leverage our platform to prepare our teams, engage our buyers and optimize for the greatest business impact.
What does this increase in demand mean for your team?
To put it lightly, we’ve been busy.
On the commercial side, we’ve seen a massive increase in demand as people are accelerating their digital transformation initiatives to effectively enable their teams during this time. But throughout the organization, everyone — from marketing to customer success to product teams — is evaluating how we can continue to improve the way we serve our customers and our communities in this new reality.
What’s exciting about being in the sales enablement space right now?
This pandemic has forced a shift in the business landscape. For too long we’ve been focused on driving efficiency throughout our selling teams. We used to believe that more activity equated to more sales. Today, that equation is starting to break — the need to hone in on rep knowledge and skill is really important. Once we can assess and improve that knowledge and skill, we can tie those characteristics to performance, which guides hiring.
We used to believe that more activity equated to more sales. Today, that equation is starting to break.”
Our platform vision across coaching, content delivery and meeting intelligence is really the only way to build a sales enablement program that delivers impact. As organizations think about true ROI, tech consolidation and their buyer’s experience, Showpad is uniquely positioned to help.
Since the pandemic hit, have there been any adjustments you’ve made on your team to help your own sales reps become better equipped?
Since the pandemic, we’ve doubled down on intent data. We realized that there is a natural increase in companies investigating enablement. If we engage with them at the right time with the right message, it allows us to be much more effective and, more importantly, create a much better experience.
Outside of intent, we’ve continued to focus on our own enablement initiatives and leverage our own technology. We aim to be the best in class, and we’re streamlining our messaging, assessing knowledge and skill, and narrowing our focus with soft skills training like discovery, business acumen and multi-threading.
People-First Leadership
As Showpad strives to empower others to be their best, how do you ensure that same empowerment in your team?
It’s at the heart of everything we do. We fundamentally believe that knowledge and skill are becoming increasingly more valuable for all customer-facing teams. If we can be the place where people go to gain knowledge and improve their skills, that’s a powerful thing.
That value also extends past our product and solutions and into the way we think about talent at Showpad. We strive to be a place where top talent can come, make an impact and grow. So many team members have been given special projects or promoted into new roles recently, and the momentum that creates for us helps make all of the hard work worth it.
It’s easy to get lost in all of the things that are going on in the world today. Personally, I’ve been focused on making SaaS sales human again at scale, and I’m really excited to help build that alongside the Showpad team.
