How Milliken & Company Boosted Content Usability by 38% with Highspot

Navigating Complex Selling Scenarios

Like so many in the space, manufacturing leader Milliken & Company serves a wide variety of buyers and supplies products for an even wider range of applications. Between end users, distributors, and other buyers along the supply chain, there are a seemingly endless number of potential use cases sellers are expected to discuss and support. “The majority of our products go into other finished products,” began Kevin Lewis, global director of sales enablement at Milliken & Company. “Because of that, the supply chain is very long. We have to be involved at multiple points within that value chain.” 

This abundance of selling scenarios makes for quite the challenge. During conversations with buyers, sellers need to be able to map Milliken & Company’s broad product portfolio to their specific industry and organizational landscape. It’s a complex task, requiring comprehensive product knowledge and the ability to take a consultative approach — two traits that can be difficult to master. “It’s a real challenge for salespeople to navigate that supply chain and the various points within it,” explained Lewis. “Those customers are very different types of customers. They could be a large chemical manufacturer, a cut-and-sew operation, or an end-user like Walmart or Starbucks.” Vacillating between such drastically different worlds was difficult; sellers often struggled to meaningfully address buyers’ unique scenarios.

Recognizing this, Milliken & Company resolved to take a different approach — one that would help sellers overcome these obstacles and help them execute with greater velocity. “We are challenged to grow just like most any company,” added Lewis. “We have to be more effective and efficient without adding SG&A or headcount.” To secure sustainable growth, enablement and, more specifically, enablement technology, would be key. In hopes of enabling sellers to more effectively and efficiently pursue buyers across its supply chain, Milliken & Company chose Highspot. 

Establishing a Foundation for Future Enablement

In Highspot, the enablement team at Milliken & Company found a much-needed central location for executing their programs. The platform quickly became their single source of truth and enabled them to more directly communicate new content, programs, and initiatives to sellers. “A big part of our initiatives is the utilization of Highspot, which allows us to put content, whether it’s training, sales assets, or whatever it may be, at our sales force’s fingertips,” enthused Lewis. To keep content available and sellers engaged, the team prioritized good governance. “We have put a focused effort on governance,” explained Lewis. “We’re putting in specific governance to ensure content stays fresh and relevant.”

With quality content available in just a few clicks, the team had no difficulty driving adoption. In no time, recurring usage of the platform rose to 87% as sellers embedded Highspot into their day-to-day workflows. Buyer engagement capabilities only boosted usage, and the team saw renewed engagement with sales collateral. “We have one enablement platform to house all of our content and give our salespeople the functionality to communicate with customers by utilizing external shares and Digital Rooms,” noted Lewis. Content usability — the rate sellers engage with and share content — rose by 38% as sellers felt empowered to find and share content with buyers. 

The team has cultivated high adoption and reliable engagement. Now, they’re aiming to deliver training programs that build product knowledge and selling skills — everything reps need to rigorously pursue buyers at every stage of the supply chain. “We’re focused on sales training this year,” added Lewis. “We have implemented a lot of sales methodology, market, product, and other types of sales-focused training.” With Highspot, Milliken & Company established a foundation for this new training initiative and those to come. 

Powering Effective Execution Today and Tomorrow

For deals at every stage of the supply chain, Milliken & Company’s sellers have the right resources at their disposal and can take immediate action to put them to use. As sellers’ adoption of external sharing capabilities increases — it has already improved by 37% as sellers recognize its value — so too does the pace at which sellers execute.  “Having [content and engagement] connected is one of the key ways we have improved efficiency and effectiveness and cut down on time spent looking for and creating things,” enthused Lewis. “It has given sellers more time to effectively prepare and then go out and execute.” Together, content and engagement capabilities are streamlining sellers’ workflows and enabling them to have more effective, tailored conversations with a wide range of buyers.  

Milliken & Company has designed an environment built for sustainable growth. All that remains is to continually iterate and innovate in the pursuit of excellence. “This is the year of execution,” concluded Lewis “We’ve built the [enablement] ecosystem very well, so now it’s about execution. As we move forward, we’re going to need to continuously evaluate how these things are going and what we need to change or pivot to make it more effective.”