How ManpowerGroup Improved Win Rate by 13%

Complex Business Model Requires New Approach

Six lines of business meant six unique selling scenarios, brand identities, and levels of support. The challenge wasn’t unfamiliar for ManpowerGroup. However, as it more closely examined its sales tech stack, it realized there had to be a better way to bring together data, content, and training to empower its many sales teams. Creating a sales tech stack that accounts for these diverse needs had long been a work in progress. “We utilize our tech stack throughout every aspect of the sales life cycle,” shared Kathleen Kohl, sales enablement manager at ManpowerGroup. “A main driver is always leading our sales team back to a centralized place where they can find information and how-to’s for all our tools.”

As ManpowerGroup sought to reimagine its tech stack, it first needed to understand how to serve the needs of each line of business. Its enablement team spent time building strong, ongoing relationships with sales leaders across the organization, seeking to identify how to best enable each business and support their needs. “Building relationships with sales leadership is extremely important, as they hold the power within their sales teams to implement enablement strategies that my team facilitates,” noted Kohl. “It’s crucial that we work closely with our product management team and understand what’s essential for the sales team to know.”

Consulting these diverse stakeholders revealed shared ongoing challenges: It was hard for leadership teams to train staff or measure progress since they had no existing sales data to support their strategy. There was also a growing desire for a more prescriptive and standardized approach to selling products and services to customers. To accommodate, ManpowerGroup chose Highspot, seeing the unified, data-powered platform as the answer to its ongoing efforts to bolster its tech stack.

Tailored Enablement Empowers Seller Performance

When implementing Highspot, ManpowerGroup’s enablement team saw their primary goal as empowering sellers to better understand their target audience and deliver unique, personalized, and professional sales engagements. To help sellers in each business line reach buyers better, ManpowerGroup reimagined its approach to content governance. “We are doing that through tool governance, audits, and Spot policy,” explained Kohl. “Now, Highspot is where we communicate and drive our sellers to as a one-stop shop for information.” 

Now that sellers can easily find relevant content tailored to their role-specific needs, the enablement team is leaning on Highspot’s learning capabilities to inform and standardize seller behavior. From Sales Plays to training experiences, the team is infusing knowledge acquisition and skill development directly into reps’ workflows. “Sales Plays give our sellers a prescriptive approach to what to know, say, show, and do, creating a standardized process for how we sell at ManpowerGroup,” added Kohl.

As ManpowerGroup guides and trains sellers to provide unique, professional experiences, Digital Rooms have become a central aspect of its strategy. “You need to differentiate yourself from the competition these days,” continued Kohl. “With the right tech stack and knowledge, you can do that — Highspot’s Digital Rooms have been instrumental in that approach.” With sellers equipped to reach buyers better, ManpowerGroup can see how sellers engage prospects and target their unique needs. “The ability to see what a client is most interested in helps us create unique solutions based on their workforce needs,” added Kohl. “Highspot also integrates with our CRM system, which really helps our sellers track their engagements and their effectiveness — and seamlessly track that ROI.” With a throughline of engagement data and newfound consistency in seller behavior, ManpowerGroup has empowered execution, driving a 29% increase in quota attainment across its businesses.

Superior Data and Support Boost Seller Performance

Native analytics, a well-integrated CRM, and a single source of truth for learning and guidance have all proven essential to ManpowerGroup. By harnessing Highspot’s unified platform, it has centralized resources and made it easier for its enablement team to power performance improvements in each of its business lines. 

 For sellers, Highspot’s transparency has also been integral. “Our sellers love seeing data on Highspot, seeing if their content is being viewed, and knowing what might be most important to their clients through this engagement,” shared Kohl. “So, this helps our sellers to better cater to their client’s needs and offer them the best solution possible through engagement metrics.” This data — and the improved buyer experience it enables sellers to provide — has helped sellers achieve significant enterprise wins, a shift in selling outcomes that has led to a 7% boost in average deal size and a 13% increase in win rates. Now, Manpower Group has the insight and capabilities to strategically uplevel seller performance — and bring the benefits of consistent execution to life.