How do you approach creating sales enablement material for a global product?

Great question! At Zendesk, we do provide sales enablement for a global product with a global sales team. Here are a couple of things I like to focus on:

• Region-specific case studies: Include relevant case studies and testimonials from each region to make the material more relatable.

• Whenever possible, localize the content for 1-2 priority regions

• Involve local teams early and often: Work with local sales teams and regional experts to gather insights and ensure the material is relevant and effective. And also, establish feedback loops with local teams to continuously improve and update the materials based on their input and market changes.

• Provide continuous support and resources to address any questions or challenges that arise with office hours, or region-specific trainings/Q&A sessions 

• Work with your enablement team, or regularly review performance data and feedback to refine and improve the materials 

This is a great question as it's so important to think globally but act locally to effectively develop and deliver relevant sales enablement collateral. Whether you are launching a new product, or entering a new market with an established product, it's important to get customer input for messaging and what sales enablement material will be most impactful.

New product launch

When working for a professional social media platform (hint: see where I posted my article below), we were launching a new product for heads of talent and recruiters. As part of getting input, I engaged regional marketers across geographies (Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North America) and a global customer advisory board. Regional marketers connected with their sales counterparts as my role was based in the headquarters office in the United States. This was very helpful as the competitive landscape, regional presence, and cultural norms varied and helped to influence GTM materials.

New market entry

In another example, when working at a major public financial software company, I led global product marketing and relocated to Australia to gain first-hand experience in building the business in a growing “startup” region. Here is a recent article I wrote  - Local Strategies for Regional Growth - that shares a strategic approach when entering a new market and partnering with sales to drive growth.

Here are what I think are the top (3) things to keep in mind with enablement for a global product:

• You will always have to prioritize based on the regions with the largest TAM and biggest opportunity for impact. You don't have to create everything all at once. Select the most critical regions and create a backlog for enablement to follow in smaller markets.

• Wherever possible, create modular content where you can leverage 70-80% of the material at a global level and create modular slides (of whatever the format) for content that needs to be localized. This lowers the lift for regional versions.

• Understand upfront where you need to translate vs. where you need to fully localize. Full localization is usually more effective, but is a bigger lift. Have clear processes outlined for both that you can plug into in each instance to speed things up.

When creating sales enablement material for a global product, the approach can depend on the team structure. If the global team owns content creation, they should take regional nuances into consideration from the start, ensuring it’s flexible enough for localization.

However, if regional teams are expected to localize, the global team provides core materials that can be adapted for local needs. Collaboration is key—global provides the foundation, and regional teams fine-tune it to resonate with their specific markets.

My approach to creating sales enablement material for a global product (and global sales team) is similar to how I would build content for an in-house sales team.

• Understand Your Audience and Their Needs

  Run regular sales enablement surveys to measure confidence levels in different regions, different use cases/challenges your product solves, competitors, etc. This will help you track the success of your enablement program over time and identify some low-hanging fruit. Additionally, you can—and should—schedule regular meetings with the regional sales team to get more information and to start building that relationship.

• Ask Why

  This is important. If a field rep says that a prospect needs a PDF on XYZ, ask why and what they are looking for. In my experience, I try to lead with creating a web page or blog post, as they are less resource-intensive and can be updated or removed quickly without having to worry about a dated PDF floating around.

• Localize Success Stories

  Suppose you see that there are only a few success stories in a particular region that you're trying to grow. Work with a partner in that region to help you craft and translate a case study to increase credibility.

• Leverage On-demand Content

  Develop an enablement program allowing your field to view training on time. This can be tricky, though. You'll need support from senior leadership to hold the team accountable for actually completing the training.

• Make Content Easy To Find

  Build a content repository that's easy to search and find the right content. You can do this on your own using SharePoint, Confluence, or Excel. Alternatively, you can spend a bit of money and use tools like Highspot or GTM Buddy.