Enabling Effective Sales & Customer Experiences

Topics: 

• Here we go again: do more with less is back for 2023
• B2B embrace customer-centric strategies once the preserve of B2C firms like Amazon
• B2B customers demanding more enablement in a frictionless manner
• Without a large budget to hire CS roles, must find ways to stay connected with customers
• Solution: Everboarding microsites for each customer
• Like Netflix recommendations, going digital provides AI recommendations to improve CX
• Review CX Templates available to get started today: https://marketplace.cxera.com/marketplace

Craig Nelson and Tom Pisello cover topics pertaining to the evolution to Customer Enablement:

• Early Sales Enablement
• Business model change
• Customer Enablement definition
• Enabling customer facing roles
• SE + CE = Revenue Enablement

Craig Nelson and Tom Pisello cover topics pertaining to SaaS vendor and customer success: Market volatility impact on SaaS solutions, Tracking value promised vs value delivered to reduce churn, SaaS solution adoption, Customer success role in driving adoption, Role analytics play in adoption

In this podcast Tamara Schenk and Craig Nelson discuss the future of sales enablement in broader context, the entire customer journey. We have learned over the years that enabling all customer facing roles in both pre and post sales are vital to consistent messaging. Also, we know that focus on the customer needs from first contact to their success, will only strengthen our enablement efforts and cause us to focus on what matters including the experience of both sellers and buyers.

Podcast notes

• CX Definition: understanding what is happening throughout the customer’s journey
• Enlighten leaders view CX as a way to do business, develop a strategy not a set of tactics like doing a journey map
• Understand all interactions that leave impressions
• What are interactions: every conversation, every time you connect, company website, mobile app, etc.
• Does experience meet the expectations coming into the interactions with a brand
• Treat CX as a mindset and discipline of doing business
• Meaningful mindful moments, don’t tack on CX
• Plan for customer issues that may arise
• Bridge the transition from sales to services, address handoff in structured way
• Emotion drives decisions, need a great experience throughout to advance
• Don’t design for digital and non-digital customers differently, treat the same
• Younger buyers view digital as personal and part of life
• Need to address experience of staff that connect with customers
• Important to tell vendors “In the moment” how experience is going
• Don’t wait for after the buy to perform a survey, engage early

Topics Discussed: 

· Sales enablement and CX as one, a holistic view

· What Customer Value Experience means

· Working backwards from the customer outcomes

· Shift from product focused GTM to customer centered GTC

· Sales leading with value to have more meaningful conversation

· Being in sales today requires person to be highly curious

· Sales enablement becomes glue across their organization to understand customer

· Focus on outcomes, from first contact to success

Topics discussed:

· Experience Generation, going beyond the customer to include staff

· Dramatic increase in experiences online

· Staff experience starts day one, need to invest in people

· Staff as strongest brand ambassador

· Holistic experience throughout customer journey – marketing to sales to services

· Experience architecture aligned to customer role

· Handoff from sales and services, continued engagement

Topics discussed: 

Summary

• Aligning technology to GTM and company ecosystem
• Stakeholders’ analysis to verify importance of technology
• Start with people and processes that work, then introduce technology
• Gap analysis and overlap done before technology selection
• # reason for slow technology adoption: communication of solution’s value
• Use proof of concept approach to prove value
• Vendors need to shift away from product to value and stakeholders experience

Podcast Summary

• Why value is so critical in more challenging times like today | 
• The rise of the CFno formal decision committee | 
• More focus on customer value throughout the customer journey |
  • Today’s move to service models to inspire buyers from first contact |
  • What is the value at each stage of buyer journey starting with value driven discovery |
  • Customer Everboarding Experience |
  • Consumer BtoC try before you buy has made its way into BtoB |
  • Limited land deal to prove value and understand vendor experience |
  • Expand deal is typically the profitable business, before that deal is a loss |
  • Need for realized value, identify KPIs and gaps, then use other customer value example |
  • Value Realization and Expansion |
  • As part of using a product, capture NPS and experience along the way |

Today's Guest: Maury Rogow, CEO, RIP Media Video for the past 15 years

What RIP Media Video does: RIP Media Group helps companies like Cisco, Amgen, Comcast, Ben and Jerry’s, Harvard, CXera and hundreds of startups to fix this big issue through video storytelling.

Topics discussed on 15 minute video 

• What types of videos that help companies grow, for example character and whiteboard animations
• I’m intrigued by this statement from your site: videos that do the selling for you 
• Importance of understanding the customer journey to create compelling videos
• Telling stories that connect with customers
• Making a movie, examples: include CXera and Innovative Mike

On this podcast with Ashton Williams, Revenue Enablement Manager for Ada, we discuss:

- Enabling sales success and becoming customer centric

- Sales Enablement (SE) and CX Maturity Model to repeat sales and customer success

- Breaking down the silos to improve customer and sales success

- A managers role in enablement 

- What happens after onboarding, continuous learning or everboarding

Topics discussed on the 15 minute podcast: 

• How to overcome customer's stuck in a maze often driven by pain
  
• Being a guide to reduce customer's bumping into walls
  
• Where to start with enabling sales success
  
• How to reduce the risk of no decisions
  
• How to make it a great experience for both sellers and buyers

Topics discussed on podcast:  

• Aligning the organization’s strategy with not just sales but the entire customer journey
• Expanding vision beyond the department to break down silos
• Creating a buyer/seller journey map
• The importance people, culture, overall experience

Join us for a 15 minute discussion with Jessica Ryker, Director of Sales Enablement for Latch corporation on the topic of sales and customer onboarding.