Not that long ago, it was rare for an organization to have a dedicated sales enablement team.
But today, a whopping 84% of organizations invest in a sales enablement function.
That’s not surprising. When it’s down well, sales enablement has a powerful impact on sales productivity, sales performance, and revenue growth.
But establishing a sales enablement function doesn’t guarantee great results. The most successful organizations are those with the right sales enablement strategy and sales enablement tools.
Teradata, a software company providing cloud database and analytics-related solutions, has experienced the powerful impact of adopting the right sales enablement tools. Recently, we sat down with Morgan Clawson, Senior Manager, GTM Readiness at Teradata, to learn more about how the company has transformed its B2B sales enablement strategy for the better with Mindtickle.
Establishing a capability framework for go-to-market roles
In any revenue organization, certain capabilities are needed for success. Those capabilities vary by role. For example, those on the commercial sales team at Teradata require different skills than those on the technical sales team. Yet, many revenue organizations don’t define the competencies needed for success.
With Mindtickle, Teradata has established its first-ever go-to-market capability model, which defines the skills and knowledge each team needs to succeed in the field. Mindtickle provides a place for Teradata’s account teams and their managers to reflect on their sales productivity and efficiency in terms of those key capabilities. The teams also pull data from Mindtickle by capability, which sheds light on the areas where additional enablement is needed.
With Mindtickle, It’s easy for the Teradata sales enablement team to measure progress – both in terms of completion and in terms of skill development. “We can show the progression of the teams as they’re participating in enablement and how they’re moving through and mastering different capabilities,” Clawson said.
Transforming Teradata’s approach to sales enablement
Oftentimes, organizations take a “one-size-fits-all” approach to sales enablement. Taking a more personalized approach requires these organizations to understand what kind of sales training and support each seller needs. But often, organizations lack those insights.
In fact, per our Chief Revenue Officer + Sales Leader Outlook Report, a mere 40% of C-level executives can identify strengths and weaknesses to develop customized sales training.
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Mindtickle enables Teradata to group sellers by proficiency level on their capability model. Then, they can provide targeted and relevant enablement to the people who actually need it.
“Mindtickle has transformed our ability to deliver enablement to those who actually need it,” explained Clawson. “Mindtickle allows us to maximize the seller’s time so they’re actually in the field participating and engaging with customers in the ways we’d like them to, as opposed to feeling like they’re chained to their computer taking enablement that doesn’t apply to them.
In addition, Mindtickle has empowered Teradata to take a more collaborative approach to learning and sales enablement. For example, the company uses a lot of coaching forms and missions – which are different module types in Mindtickle.
“With those modules, managers are really able to take a front seat in the enablement activities and exercises that directly impact the efficacy of their sellers,” said Clawson. “Also, they’re able to participate in these really robust feedback loops related to specific sales situations. That more structured feedback loop that Mindtickle facilitates for us is really crucial to helping uplevel our teams.”
Increasing mastery of knowledge and skills
Mindtickle has transformed the way Teradata trains sellers, provides practice opportunities, and reinforces learning. Mindtickle’s certification and badging features have been key to this transformation.
“With Mindtickle, we’re able to build learning paths and missions that demonstrate real-world mastery of concepts and selling motions that are critical to Teradata’s sales strategy,” explained Clawson. “This means our sales teams are actually going into the world with proven, advanced knowledge and skills. They’re equipped to have confident, knowledgeable conversations about the value our solution can bring to our customers. They’re able to get all that information, practice it, and prove they can do these things through the badging program that Mindtickle helps us to facilitate.”
Earning these badges and sharing them on LinkedIn boosts the confidence of sellers. It also boosts buyer confidence. “[Buyers] know when they’re interacting with us we have teams out there that are going out there prepared and ready to deliver value to their customers,” said Clawson.
Working with a partner that’s committed to innovation and customer success
The team at Mindtickle is committed to ensuring the platform meets the needs of its customers – both now and in the future. As Clawson put it, “Mindtickle’s product team is an absolutely phenomenal group of people who are actually working on the platform and making it something that’s actually relevant and meaningful to us enablement professionals.”
The product team regularly meets with customers – including Teradata – to understand their unique needs and challenges. This input informs future innovation.
Clawson and her team have also found the support team at Mindtickle to be knowledgeable and extremely responsive. “It’s really helped to establish credibility and fidelity with our teams,” said Clawson. We’re seeing a huge uptick in adoption of the platform in our go-to-market teams. I think this is partially due to the quick responsiveness and how helpful Mindtickle is.”
Proving impact and elevating the sales enablement function within the organization
In the best of times, sales enablement teams are under pressure to demonstrate value. This is especially true in today’s economic environment.
Without the right tools, it can be difficult (or even impossible) to demonstrate how B2B sales enablement is impacting the metrics that matter most to businesses. Mindtickle makes it possible.
“If you’re an enablement professional looking for ways to highlight the value and impact of your team to the greater org, Mindtickle allows you to do that,” said Clawson. “We can see very specific correlation metrics to the enablement activities we are producing. I can show very clearly the value my team is bringing to Teradata as a whole, and it’s a great feeling as a supervisor to elevate my team.”
Better Sales Enablement with Mindtickle
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By Vivian Batman