How do you ensure that sales teams are adequately trained on new products and updates?

Every PMM has experienced the issue of creating sales enablement materials, sending them "into the void", and not knowing how/where they're being used or if the sales team is adequately trained on them. A few tactical tips that I've used:

• Create a predictable rhythm: Don't just drop your launches into the ether and wait for Sales to pick them up. Have a GTM plan focused on Sales as an audience. How will they learn about the new launch? Do they know exactly where to find materials? Where and to whom to ask questions? Where and how to get detailed training? Set up your "rhythm of business" so that Sales can get the information they need without any friction.

• Find a "gut check" Sales buddy: I recommend each PMM has 1-2 folks they're friendly with on the Sales team who can help informally review/run through new updates before sharing them with the broader team. This allows you to get feedback in a low-stakes way, and practice how you will train the sales team.

• Do practice pitches: We'll create sessions for the Sales team to practice pitching new products or messaging to one another so we can help ensure it's being used correctly and give them an opportunity to ask questions before a real pitch.

• Meet regularly: When we launch a new product, we do daily standups with the Sales team where we can gather feedback and questions and just create the space and time to walk through materials and see where people are confused, or what additional questions they may be getting that we haven't covered. This allows us to stay nimble and see where we need to invest.

Training sales prior to a launch is a go-to-market milestone I incorporate into any of my launch plans. This starts at the beginning of your launch planning. I always align with my sales leaders to assign a primary point of contact (POC) that can represent the sales team. This might come from a sales enablement department, a senior sales leader looking for a stretch project, or other designated role based on your organization. This individual is often responsible for assisting with beta customer outreach and helping gather data across our pipeline and sales database (typically found in a CRM like Salesforce). Since this POC is with you through the launch cycle, once you have your messaging, first call deck, sales script, battle card, and more complete, that individual can help you conduct trainings and evangelize the content throughout the wider sales organization.

One of the most important skills for an PMM is to tailor our content to the audience. Working with technical products like APIs, and recognizing that our buyers and users are often different people with different technical levels means our product launch training also has to address those differences.

Like most teams, we use sizing to dictate the level of effort of each launch and release by stage. Ideally, ahead of any significant launches we host live trainings at globally-friendly times for account executives and solutions engineers focused on key product messages, market trends, positioning, and launch details. Those are also great times to roll out and equip teams on customer-facing collateral. For our solutions engineers who are more focused on the how and technical implementation, hosting dedicated sessions with product counterparts helps to ensure we're addressing different audience needs. Those sessions are ideal places to highlight things like API features, demo resources, and product limitations.

All of these live sessions become useful on-demand resources that can be assigned in an LMS or included in new employee onboarding.