What are the most successful enablement practices you have conducted in your experience to help assist with small, medium, or large product launches?
Small: tight, thoughtful FAQs. Keep it simple. Prep a concise one-pager that delivers the facts and moves on.
Large: think about enablement as a mini bootcamp program rather than a one-and done. Work with managers in advance to get their input on what their teams might need. Do in-person trainings with role playing exercises that help confirm learning. Create a temporary slack channel for launch questions (also helpful for reporting bugs :wink: ). Make sure they know how this compares to the competition and what angles make you win. Follow up after the launch to get feedback on the training so you can do even better the next time.
This is not a great answer but the best approach for enablement is overcommunicating. Taking every opportunity to pitch the launch: why it will make sales more money, why it will help CS save customers, etc.
Not just at meetings but on Slack every week too. Share updates, share customer feedback, share new content you've developed for the launch. Basically don't keep that stuff behind close doors leading up to the launch.
For training a sales/cs team I recommend doing that with a video you record (5-10 minutes of trianing) and send them a short quick (with Google Forms). I find that's better than doing a live presentation.
A few things we've evolved over the years as we've trained sales teams for launches. Rather than leaning on broad sales trainings that include the entire sales org, we've tried smaller trainings for specific regions or teams that are tailored specifically to what is most important to them.
We've also evolved from trainings that take place a week before launch to several touchpoints leading up to a launch - ranging from trainings, to office hours, demo sessions, and on demand trainings - so sales is able to digest change over time and have plenty of time to get comfortable with selling ahead of launch.
One area that often gets overlooked, it putting the time and energy in to making sure sales has a solid demo environment and script - and feels confidently trained (and launch enablement doesn't stop with slides and a training).
Enablement is one of the most critical and often most difficult parts of the launch. The key to remember is that, usually, the product launch is just part of the overall sales process, and you need to treat your enablement as such. Very rarely will a customer-facing team drop everything for a new product line, you need to fit it into their existing flow. Here are some practices I use:
- Timing is everything: This sounds stupid but it’s so key. If you’re trying to train a team during the last week of the quarter, you’ll get very poor participation and engagement rates. At Airtable, we will not launch a Tier 1 feature launch during the last month of the quarter to avoid this. Keep sales timing in mind when scheduling the launch and your enablement sessions
- Work into their existing resources and frameworks: Rather than a feature-specific deck (which I have, unfortunately, thought was a good idea to make in the past) add this new capability to their current materials and show them how your new capabilities fit in with you overall product value prop and pitch. If they have a standard messaging framework and sales process they’re working off of, your messaging for launch should be mapped out in a way that fits into how they’re selling.
- Outreach sequences and target customers: While marketing will have broad announcement comms planned, your CSM team is going to have a much tighter relationship with your customers than you are, and your sales team will have a better idea of how to introduce the new feature to a prospect based on their needs. Arm them with outreach sequences (that they’ve reviewed and will use) and, if applicable, pull lists of key customers and prospects who are a good fit for the new feature/product to help them prioritize outreach and communication around the launch.
In terms of large, medium, and small launches and how to enable teams for each, my POV is that large launches usually have multiple dedicated training sessions. Often one on the demo, one on the story, and one for support on nuances and expected questions. For medium, likely one dedicated hour-long training. For small launches, work it into a monthly meeting about product updates or in their monthly all-hands. My biggest advice is to work closely with sales leadership to determine what makes the most sense for the team. You should come in with an idea of what you think will work, but your sales leads know the team much better than you do and can help make sure you do the right amount of enablement at the right time.
In my experience, successful enablement practices for assisting with product launches – whether they are for small, medium, or large products – revolve around a well-coordinated blend of preparation, communication, education, and support. Here are some key practices that have proven effective:
Early Cross-Functional Collaboration: Engage all relevant departments (product, marketing, sales, customer support, etc.) early in the planning process. This ensures everyone is aligned on messaging, features, and goals, setting the stage for a cohesive launch.
Comprehensive Product Training: Conduct thorough training sessions for your sales and customer support teams. Cover the product's features, benefits, use cases, and competitive differentiators. Hands-on experience can help them confidently convey the product's value to customers.
Sales Playbooks and Battlecards: Develop easy-to-follow playbooks and battlecards that outline key selling points, objections handling, and competitive insights. These resources provide quick references for sales reps during customer interactions.
Customer-Focused Content Creation: Create user-centric content such as help articles, FAQs, how-to guides, and video tutorials. Anticipate common user questions and challenges to provide proactive support.
Demo Preparation and Scripts: Prepare compelling product demos that highlight key features and demonstrate value. Provide sales reps with demo scripts that guide them through engaging and impactful presentations.
Launch Webinars or Workshops: Host webinars or workshops for internal teams to unveil the product and its features. Interactive sessions foster understanding and enthusiasm among teams.
Product Certification Programs: Implement certification programs for sales and customer support teams. These programs validate their knowledge and expertise in the product, boosting their confidence and credibility.
Internal Communication Channels: Establish dedicated communication channels (Slack channels, email updates, etc.) to disseminate timely information and updates about the product launch.
Feedback Loop: Encourage continuous feedback from the field. Sales reps and customer support can provide valuable insights on customer reactions, objections, and areas needing improvement.
Customer Success Enablement: Equip your customer success team with the tools and resources needed to guide customers post-launch. This includes onboarding materials, success plans, and best practice guides.
Post-Launch Analytics and Iteration: Monitor key metrics post-launch, such as adoption rates, customer feedback, and sales performance. Use these insights to refine your enablement strategy for future launches.
Executive Buy-In and Involvement: Secure support from company leadership. Their endorsement can amplify the launch's significance and motivate teams to align their efforts.
Remember, the key to successful enablement is a proactive, collaborative, and well-rounded approach that focuses on empowering teams with the knowledge, tools, and resources they need to effectively promote and support the product. Adapt these practices to the scale and complexity of your product launch, and you'll be on the path to a successful rollout.
General best Practices surrounding enablement of any product launch, irrespective of Small, Medium, Large. The large launches get all of these and hte most attention. Small launches may only get some digital self-learning content, or slideware updates. But the best practices generally remain consistent
First - make the launch enablement less about the product, but more about how it impacts them. Do they have another SKU to sell and meet their quota. ? Is this launch improving your competitive differentiation ? Is it giving access to a new use case or a buyer and new budget line item ? Anchor the reps on the benefits first before you launch into product capabilities and how to sell
Second - Building on this, make sure the content and collateral is useful and packaged in a manner that they can immediately use it. Don't just bring a messaging framework to launch enablement. Make sure their pitch decks and playbooks and copy scripts are ready as well. Capitalize on the mindshare and momentum that a launch generates by arming your reps with the best collateral right away
Third - A good launch should always have some degree of testing- either product testing with beta customers, or message testing for new value prop. If you've done any testing - share those results/quotes/anecdotes. Bring any and every social proof you can bring to the launch, and make reps' lives easier
Fourth- Similar to external social proof, also share any internal social proof. Bring those reps on stage whose customers are happy with the beta product. Or who have already started to use the messaging in their customer conversations. Peer validation works
Finally - Make sure you make the enablement sessions highly memorable, and retainable, by raising the bar on internal storytelling - particularly with product launches. Particularly with major launches, we made our enablement sessions fun and highly engaging - that reps would want to start selling those right away
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