According to research from Gartner, only 38% of reps say that their sales managers help them develop the skills they need to be successful in their role. So how can you empower skill development for your frontline reps to drive predictable revenue growth?
Shawnna Sumaoang: Hi, and welcome to the Win Win podcast. I am your host, Shawnna Sumaoang. Join us. As we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully.
Here to discuss this topic is Niyati Parikh, the Dean of Sales College for Visa University, and Christina Catron, the Senior Experience Producer at Visa. Thank you both for joining us. I would love for each of you to tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and your role. Christina, maybe we could start with you.
Christina Catron: Yeah. So I fell into L and D really intentionally. I got my master’s degree in instructional design and I have been loving it ever since. So I’ve been at Visa for about four years now with the sales team, but I worked with call centers and things before.
Niyati Parikh: This is Niyati. Thank you guys so much for having us. I have been in learning and development for 25 years now, and Christina gasped once you heard that number, but I’ve been with Visa for seven and actually, interestingly enough, started our compass knowledge management, which is what is now currently migrated to Highspot and have been focused on sales training and effectiveness for the last five years.
SS: Well, given the topic, we are here to discuss this today. I am so excited to have both of you here, given your subject matter expertise. Niyati, I would love for you to tell us a little bit more about what Visa University is and the role of the sales college within that.
NP: Perfect. So Visa University is really our internal employee training arm. So we do sell client-facing training, but we’re focused on enabling our training for Our employees. So we’ll do things like enterprise-wide leadership skills training, they’ll focus on compliance training for our 30, 000 employees globally. But our team, the sales college is really focused on how do we enable and drive successful sales through about 4, 000 globally.
So things like sales methodology, product training, skills development, all. fall within our world, specifically for our sales and client-facing audience.
SS: And just to double-click into that a little bit, what are some of the core components of your strategy for sales training and coaching at Visa?
NP: Yeah. So we have a long-term strategy here at Visa or longest around the 2030 strategy. And we Break that down over annual OKRs or smaller KPIs for our sales organization. And what we’re really trying to do is make sure that we know what our sales people are accountable for in the short term and figure out how do we put the right strategy together to enable them. And so That could involve business initiatives like sales plays, or trying to figure out how we onboard our new hires more effectively to the program.
We’ll also spend some time really on sales methodology. So what are the skills and the artifacts to enable those skills for consistent delivery across different platforms. So that’s a lot of what we’re doing. And this year we’ve really started to add AI to that arsenal. So how do we leverage AI for them to get better at finding the information that they need quickly?
And also how do we make sure that they have the ability to leverage AI to practice and get real-time feedback? In the absence, as you mentioned, of possibly some of the leader coaching with 38 percent doing what they need to, but we’ve got probably two-thirds of our population that needs some more real-time feedback so we can get into that today.
SS: I would love to. I know that that is a hot topic across the enablement industry, especially with enablement personas that are trying to figure out how to bring this to life at scale inside of their organization. So I’m excited to dig into that a little bit. Before we do, Christina, given your expertise in instructional design, what are some common challenges to developing effective learning for sales teams? And how have you overcome some of those challenges?
CC: Yeah, I think that the number one challenge with any kind of training is time, right? You know, with any job with metrics. Time spent in training is time away from doing other tasks. And so they often, especially sellers, can see training as a distraction rather than a tool that’s going to help them succeed.
So I think the number one thing that we need to do is to make sure that that training is really valuable to them and something that they see and they feel is going to help them in their job. So it’s going to have an immediate impact on their job. And I think another challenge is Just making sure it’s really relevant to a really big population, right?
We’ve got 4, 000 sellers globally, and they are in different regions with different types of clients. And it’s really hard to scale really personal training that they know is really relevant to them. And I think that’s where AI has become such a helpful tool is being able to really scale global training that is still really personal to the seller. And they feel really, really valuable.
SS: Absolutely. And one of the key initiatives your team’s been focusing on supporting this year, as you’ve mentioned, is quarterly sales accreditation for product launches. Niyati, how are you helping sellers successfully execute these product launch efforts through Visa University?
NP: Yeah, that’s a great, great question. So we’re still completely refining our accreditation strategy in partnership with our business stakeholders to make sure that it is achieving what it needs to. But AI has been a big part of accreditation and also non-accreditation-related practice environments. So if we focus specifically on accreditation, the first component is always.
What do they need to know? Right. So do they actually understand the what of what they’re being asked to sell? And so we generally are doing that still either via e-learning or we’ve started to use the curriculums within the compass T’s and C’s functionality. Right. So we allow them to know what. The content is, and in addition to the training, we’ve also started to create the sales toolkits that have the enablement materials right on Highspot as well.
So we have cheat sheets and pitch decks and competitive landscapes, all of that stuff exists. So the first component of our accreditation is making sure that they understand the what. But probably more importantly is really like, how do we ensure they can actually sell the solution? So it’s great that I know and can answer a knowledge test, but can I really do something with it?
And that’s where we’ve seen really, really great initial results around using AI to give them a practice environment with real-time AI feedback to allow them to continue to refine their pitch or their questioning strategy on the fly. And, you know, I’ve been able to really watch people practice live and see over the course of 30 minutes, how they’ve actually enhanced and refined and felt more confident about their pitch within 30 minutes of practicing.
So our vision for kind of the end user accreditation is to apply it to their own client account scenario. And hopefully we can also start to see. business impact and business metrics as a result of this, because you’re taking a concept, learning the knowledge, practicing it, and applying it to your specific client account scenario.
And what we’re trying to do is really make sure that the accreditation is tailored to what is the call to action or the ask of this individual? So are we asking them to find, create a sense of urgency and share insights with a stakeholder? Are we asking them to ask the right questions? Are they making a pitch? Are they actually overcoming objections? Like what is the true ask and call to action for this accreditation and customizing the AI and the experience within accreditation to completely align to that?
SS: Amazing. And you talked a little bit about the component of the accreditation program where you’re trying to help validate rep skills aligned to specific solutions that you offer. Christina, can you tell us a little bit about how you built this program?
CC: Yeah. We have a defined sales methodology within Visa and that outlines. Like the key behaviors, the key skills that they are doing throughout the sales life cycle. And we really wanted to overlay the product information and the product knowledge that they’ve just been trained on.
And we have all these tools in high spot. We wanted to overlay that over the sales methodology. So what we did is we designed this program, this accreditation program, that’s. Essentially, you know, five or six really targeted questions that guide reps to think through their specific client scenario through this life cycle.
So, for example, like Niyati was just saying, one of the first things that we have them do is take data about their client or about the industry and then put that into context for their specific client, right, and their specific client stakeholder. On the user end of this. There is some prep that goes into this.
It’s going and finding data and we’re not leaving them alone for that. With every single question that we’re asking, we’re linking them to those sales enablement materials and just any relevant materials within Highspot. That’s going to help them develop those answers. And you know, on the backend, we’ve spent a lot of time deciding which questions are going to be written versus video.
We know that videos can be really time consuming for the reps and the evaluators. But the path can be really big in terms of, you know, authenticity and engagement. So we wanted to mix, you know, the written in the video questions so that it’s really valuable to the reps, but it’s not too overwhelming to them.
And so on the backend, we’re creating really strong rubrics and good examples to put in the backend. And then we are testing and testing and testing in the AI. And we have partnered with your, you know, Highspot’s incredible engineering team, because. We’re really asking a lot from Highspot or from the AI side.
We’re really asking a lot from the AI. And it took a lot of testing to figure out how we can take these really complex things that we’re asking the AI to do and refine those settings so that. You know, when it takes these answers, it’s really giving consistent and really constructive guidance to those learners.
So it’s been like this really powerful, really incredible environment for these reps to do their jobs and get real-time feedback as they go along.
SS: Christine, if I could ask from your perspective, what role can accreditation and validation play in helping to close that gap between a rep’s ability to practice and a rep’s real-world execution?
CC: One thing to complete a training module where we’re asking them questions and we’re asking them to apply it to a client scenario and then a more real-world application of that through accreditation. And we’re not at a place right now where we can have AI give live feedback during a client conversation, but I think it’s overlooked that a lot of what the seller does is not just in that live.
Client conversation. They’re doing so much on the backend to prepare them for those scenarios. And so it really is real-world execution because we’re asking them to do their job, right? It’s not just a scenario that we’re giving them that they’re applying these things to. They’re going through these things.
That they should be doing in their jobs. And the AI is giving immediate feedback to that. And what we’ve seen is that it’s really boosting their confidence and their competence. And we’re getting information on the backend too, so that we can also improve the way that we train in the way that we go about it.
SS: Amazing. I love how you guys are already leveraging AI-powered skill feedback to reinforce the right skills. Niyati, how are you utilizing this to scale coaching and improve skill development?
NP: I think all leaders are busy. All coaches, you know, have multiple things that pull on them. And so their ability to spend. One hour, two hours in role-plays with people is just not scalable, right? So we are really trying to take this AI again, whether it’s formally an accreditation or outside of that, and allow the reps to get real time feedback, to feel like they’re at a point of comfort, right? And confidence as Christina mentioned, to be able to then submit something to their leader for review.
So as part of our accreditation or even some of our courses, they will practice and iterate, practice and iterate, and then submit it to their leader and their leader is ultimately responsible for reviewing and providing a final score on a submission. And so it’s a great way for our AEs to be able to practice and get real-time feedback, but our coaches are ultimately held accountable for it.
And I think one, just making sure that they are the final reviewers has held them a little bit more accountable for reviewing and providing feedback on specific pitches. But two, I think what’s really interesting is the rubrics that Christina and team have created. And so if you go in and you review and you say, generate feedback from the AI, it actually gives leaders a broader subset of things to coach on than they might’ve thought of without the AI feedback.
So they’re like, Oh, I didn’t think to talk about specific usage of data, or I didn’t really think to talk about this, but it’s actually broadened the coaches’ sense of what they should be coaching on based on the AI feedback that’s generated through Highspot. So I think it’s been a really big win for coaching the eight years and also enhancing the coaching effectiveness of the coaches who then ultimately provide the final score.
SS: Amazing. It is amazing what AI is helping us do on the coaching front. I’m so excited for this.
NP: And if I can add one thing, we also are seeing nontraining use cases pop up, right? So in markets where we’ve launched this, they also want to just say, hey, I want to have my AEs or reps use this to practice prior to a client conversation, even without leader coaching, right?
So I want them to have a practice environment, which Christina helped to create called the Sales Simulator and they can go in and practice either written or video pitches depending on whatever stage they are at the sales life cycle and use that prior to a client conversation. And so I think the non-formal non-training use cases of AI also keep becoming more and more valued by people who go through it in a formal environment.
SS: Yeah, I think that’s an amazing resource to offer your reps. That’s fantastic. Now, when you go about evaluating the success of your training and coaching efforts, I’m curious, what metrics do you use to measure impact, Christina?
CC: This is a huge focus for us in this coming year is really nailing down these metrics. Right now, we’re at a place where we’re still using kind of NPS and pre and post-confidence scores. But one really cool way that we’ve been able to track with this new program is that we’re able to see, you know, what people have been submitting and the scores that they’re getting. And we’re able to see the gaps in our training and the gaps in skills and things like that.
For example, we ask our sellers to create targeted questions, right? Aligned to this sales stage that they’re in with their client. And I was reviewing those answers with the first group that went through this program. And I realized that a lot of the sellers were writing this really, a very similar answer to each other, but it wasn’t as strong as it could be.
It could be a lot stronger and much more of a probing question. Okay, so now we’ve got some actual data that shows us where our sellers are at and how well they understand, you know, how to create probing questions. And so we were able to say, okay, well, let’s go back to the training. Let’s put some of these real-world questions that we’ve seen from our sellers.
And ask them within that training to make them stronger, right? And so we’re seeing that just from being able to review some of these initial groups that have gone through accreditation and see how to improve it. And this isn’t exactly a metric, but we’re starting to gather. These really good answers.
And so with the permission of sellers, we’re going to be able to create this library of great examples. So just imagine being a seller and thinking, okay, this product fits really well within my client’s needs, but I haven’t sold it in a while. And then being able to go to Highspot and see five examples of sellers in different regions with different types of clients, but pitching that and seeing really good examples from your peers.
So really excited about it. Being able to have those opportunities, but where we want to be is. We want to see how training affects business impact. So using these initiatives and these sales plays and being able to track, okay, the sellers that went through the training versus sellers who don’t go through the training and how are they improving their skills and their business impact. So that’s where we really want to be. And that’s. But we’re hoping to get there.
SS: Amazing. I have no doubt that you guys, well, you guys are definitely ahead of the curve on this front now, since implementing Highspot to help support sales training and coaching. I’d love to understand what are some of the early results that you’ve seen? And do you have any wins that you can share?
NP: It’s a good question. So we’re on the cusp of this journey and we tend to have fairly long sales cycles, right? That are months out. So our first accreditations and pilots were about six months ago. So we’re still trying to capitalize on that. But what we have found is that there has been a broader adding of opportunities and dynamics, right?
To specific accounts based on this practice environment. So the coaches are really asking them to implement these opportunities and track them more formally in our CRM system. And we’ve also just non-business revenue related, just gotten a really good amount of feedback from our sales leaders and our sales excellence partners in the regions around.
the quality of pitches that are being made, right? So as we think about a bootcamp that might’ve happened six months ago without AI practice and what we’re seeing now, there’s just a lot more credibility, confidence, and not just across people who are making the pitch, but the entire team, because they’re all accountable for the practice.
So we’ve heard just more anecdotal feedback around how we are seeing an enhanced. On people’s ability to articulate things in the right way based on the access to the practice environments,
CC: and I think people are really excited about it too. And that’s a win in itself, right? If people are really excited about training and they’re excited to be able to upskill themselves, that’s a huge win because they’re going to be motivated to go look at all those enablement materials and things like that.
NP: I think it’s a good point. I don’t even think they see it as training, right? They see it as kind of a fun thing. They see it as a pitch. They are competitive against themselves. And Highspot has also helped us with just making sure that sellers can kind of see what their possible scores are. Right. And so they can keep competing against themselves to make sure that they’re getting to a place where they feel confident.
So I think a lot of these like nuanced tweaks that we keep making as we get feedback from our users, we’ll continue to help people feel excited about the AI functionality.
SS: I love how you guys are tapping into that intrinsic reward of, you know, helping your reps just with their professional development.
I think that’s amazing. Now, Christina, correct me if I’m wrong. I think you are a gen AI ambassador at Visa. I’d love for you to tell us a little bit more about that. And how do you envision continuing to leverage AI to further enhance your sales training and coaching programs?
CC: Yeah, one of many Gen AI ambassadors at Visa. It’s definitely a movement that’s happening here, and being an ambassador is in a lot of ways just sharing wins and figuring out ways and prompt libraries and things like that. So yeah, I really want our sellers to get to a place where they’re saying, okay, let me write out some of the things for my pitch.
Some of the things about my client and asking AI, okay, what are some of the objections that you can foresee in this so that they can really prepare themselves for that conversation. And that’s part of the way that we’re designing our training, but also just a type of cultural mindset that, you know, throughout Visa, we’re trying to really to instill in our employees.
I think one of the cooler things, something that Niyati already mentioned, is the Sales Simulator, right? How do we get them? So it’s not so formal, and they know that they can just go and practice any time without the pressure of their manager, getting email notifications and going through and grading it, how can they just go and get immediate feedback before a sales conversation?
So I think there’s a lot around brainstorming and ideas and everything. But one of the ones we’re most excited about is the Sales Simulator.
SS: I absolutely love it. Last question for both of you as we’re heading into a new year. What do you think is the biggest trend or opportunity that other sales and coaching leaders should be taking advantage of this year?
NP: I think I’ll let Christina talk about the AI, but from a business perspective, moving beyond net promoter scores and time and training and all of that stuff is just so critical. Like I think everyone is more focused on what is the business impact? How do we measure that? And I know that the partnership with Highspot, there is a lot more that’s happening around correlating completions of either training or in our case practice to business metrics.
So really trying to figure out how we do that. It’s of course, a tough correlation, but can we at least show directional trends? And then also the time impact, right. Is really trying to piggyback off of what Christina said is huge, right? So in the flow of work, how do we give them what they need when they need it?
So whether it is the instant answers and getting some feedback from Highspot functionality quickly, or is it a matter of really trying to think about how do we provide them with the coaching and practice when they need it? Like just in the flow of work is just a huge area of focus for us. And however we enable that inside and outside the platform is what we’re focused on right now.
CC: Yeah. I feel like that’s what I think about so much during my day-to-day is how do I get this in the flow of work? Because we need to eliminate barriers for sellers, right? That is part of my job is to eliminate the barriers that get them to do their job really well and really successfully, both for the sellers, but also for the clients, right?
So AI can be a huge part of that. And that’s something I’m thinking about all the time. And also just how can we leverage AI to future-proof career development, right? AI is such a hot topic and how it’s going to impact our careers and our jobs. What does this mean for five years down the road? But how do we really take AI and get it to work for us?
Like bringing their pitches to AI and really get them to ask questions around it and get them to help them think critically for their clients. So that is what I am thinking about every day. And I think there’s so much opportunity for it.
SS: Amazing. I couldn’t agree more. The options are limitless, only limited by our imagination. So I am very excited about what you guys are doing at Visa. I can’t wait to see how you guys continue to evolve the program over time. Thank you both so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it.
To our audience, thank you for listening to this episode of the Win Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with HighSpot.
