At the risk of sounding cliché, it’s hard to believe Dreamforce is next week! As I’ve prepared to travel to San Francisco, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to get out of the event, and it struck me that the breadth and depth of vendors in attendance, content available, and people in attendance is incredible.
In fact, it can be downright overwhelming.
Dreamforce has more than 2,000 sessions scheduled, of which 301 have self-identified as having a sales enablement theme! This makes sense, because sales enablement is a huge component of a modern sales organization, and integrating into Salesforce is one of the best ways to make sure sales gets what they need, when they need it. The problem is, of these 301 sessions, it’s unclear how many of them are truly centered around sales enablement.
The same could be said for the CloudExpo, where out of 400 sponsors, a quarter of them (101 to be exact) have self-identified as having a sales enablement theme. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to walk around 700,000 square of exhibit space and talk to 101 sales reps. (As a mother of young children, I am having visions of Dalmatian puppies right now, but I digress…)
With these considerations in mind, here are a handful of resources to help make Dreamforce a little easier for the sales enablement-minded individuals.
- A little help navigating. If you’re looking for a solution that will solve your sales content, training, productivity, or CPQ issues, swing by Highspot’s Dreamforce CloudExpo booth (#1935) and pick up the Ultimate Sales Enablement Map and Checklist to help you navigate the top players in the sales enablement space. To also help you navigate, we’re giving away 10 hover boards, so come get scanned to be entered to win. (Don’t worry, we’ll ship prizes to winners so they don’t catch ablaze on the trip home.) If you want to schedule some time to dive deep into a demo while you’re at Dreamforce, let us know a time that works well for you.
- A dedicated event for sales enablement professionals. Swing by the only event dedicated to sales enablement, the Sales Enablement Day Soiree at Hotel Zetta. We’re joining luminaries from CSO Insights, Heinz Marketing, Smart Selling Tools, and TOPO, and the industry’s leading solution providers to deliver dedicated content and networking opportunities in a casual environment. We have a full day of specialized content planned, as well as opportunities for Q&A with the experts, and a catered happy hour from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Attendance is free, but space is limited, so be sure to register in advance.When: Thursday, October 6, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Where: Hotel Zetta (less than two block from Moscone Center) - InsideView Open Lounge. Our very own Jeff Day is speaking on a panel at InsideView’s Open Lounge with Eric Quanstrom of KiteDesk and Mary Shea of Forrester Research. They’ll cover “How Millennials Are Set to Change B2B Buying and Selling,” which is a timely topic since millennials are expected to be 50% of the U.S. workforce by 2020. Developing a sales enablement practice that works for millennials is critical for all organizations, and the sooner you start, the better.
- What to look for in sales enablement integrations with Salesforce. Perhaps the most important component of your sales enablement solution is how well it interfaces and integrates with the sales rep’s most common business tool — Salesforce. There are a multitude of nuances to consider when integrating, so I wanted to call out some of the most important items:
- Recommend the best content for every selling opportunity. Your sales enablement solution should recommend content based on content performance and the characteristics of the opportunity such as sales stage, company size, product line, industry, or geography.
- Automatic logging of activities. Look for solutions that automatically log all pitching activity — emails, live pitches and customer engagement — as activities in Salesforce. This saves sales reps valuable time and gives them a single dashboard of all customer interactions.
- Content search from Salesforce. Reps should be able search for new content from the entire content repository, directly from the opportunity, and the sales enablement platform should use opportunity characteristics to prioritize search results.
- Digitize your sales playbook. Sales reps are more effective and more consistent when they follow the sales playbook. Your solution should be able to deliver playbook chapters relevant to the opportunity, within Salesforce, along with all relevant content, training, and tools. By presenting all resources ‘in-context,’ sales reps will be more informed and drive more effective sales conversations.
It’s an exciting time to be in the sales enablement space, and I hope to see you next week at Dreamforce and the Sales Enablement Day Soiree.
Stop by and say hi, ask questions, and try to win that hover board!
