AMA: Mode Analytics Director of Product Marketing, Hien Phan on Sales Enablement

There are two ways to measure the effectiveness of your content - qualitative and quantitatively. However, before you even build anything, you must understand when and where your sales collaterals are being used in the sales process or rather where and when does your sales team need collateral. From a quantitative perspective, I would use software like Highspot, ShowPad to see how often they are sending content out, and whether your content is actually being view and shared by customers and prospects. From a qualitative perspective, I would do two things (1) have a monthly internal survey to make sure that the team actually finds your content effective and that they aren't just sending stuff out just for the sake of sending things out. Then (2) ask your top sales reps if they are leveraging any of your content, if they do, then more than likely other reps are as well. Reps listen to their highest performing colleagues.

This question will depend on the size of your org. Generally, sales enablement shouldn't just fall on one person, even though PMMs are most involved and get most of the requests. There are two models: (1) PMM as a function become a centralized place to get requests and you filter requests down to the owners: case studies - customer marketing, any campaigns - demand gen and field marketing, and anything product related - PMM. The second model will entail the PMM providing request instructions, where depending on the requests, the reps will know where to ask. Both of these models will require PMM to be involved at least on the positioning and messaging portion. As for the go-to-stack for product releases, I don't fully get this question. Are you talking about tech stack or model for product training? If later, I do have a model to help with sales, CS, and SDR for product training and product releases for tracking and KPIs. For the product question and template, email me at [email protected], and I will provide you details and my approach. In short, it will be based on Tiers and the product launch goals and your audience (Sales, CS, or SDR).

This is a tough question to answer because it is so multifaceted. So let's start with the basics when you are moving from product to platform, you're moving from selling one solution to selling multiple solutions. My first recommendation is to hire a separate role that focuses on Sales Enablement. The reason is that you will have to shift from application marketing to solution marketing and this also means shifting to solutions selling, and you will need someone who has a sales background. If your company isn't ready, then you should partner with sales and cs to craft the level 2 and level 3 messages. Level 2 is messaging on assets and Level 3 is scripts and talking points.

I see a few issues: (1) not think about the sales process and the customer journey (CS version, not the marketing version). You need to think about when they will need collateral and what kind of collateral. This will help you with effectiveness. (2) build persona and product messaging without context, meaning just shipping an internal guide without thinking about the situations and scripts will not land. Anything you send out needs to be actionable and in the context of reps workflow (SDR, CS, and Sales) (3) not partnering and testing with a few higher-performing reps for new collateral. You need to make sure your best reps like and will use your collaterals, otherwise, you will land flat (4) not getting alignment from SDR, CS, and Sales leadership on any programs.

This is a tough question to answer because this problem isn't all a PMM problem. This problem is also a sales organization problem. An SMB/Mid Market rep isn't an enterprise rep. A sales leader who only has managed SMB/Mid-market isn't an enterprise sales leader. However, you inherit what you inherit, so here are my recommendations. First, you will need to spend money to get a sales trainer who can train the sales team to sell to the enterprise. Second, make sure you as a PMM clearly define what is enterprise versus mid-market. The definitions are different from company-to-company. Third, the enterprise segment requires solutions and use cases, so outlining clear use cases with personas are ready.