How PLTW Took External Share Adoption to 89%

Disjointed Tech Stack Impedes Consistent Execution

Project Lead The Way aims to accomplish just that: leading the way for educators across the U.S. striving to help students understand and enjoy STEM. At the helm of the organization are former educators and leaders well-versed in the challenges that define the education space, a backdrop that deeply informs their efforts. “Our team is very mission-driven,” explained Andrea Holzwarth, vice president of sales enablement and customer operations at Project Lead The Way. “One of PLTW’s core values is customer centricity. Our customers are at the center of all that we do.” To ensure every customer receives a high-quality, consistent experience, PLTW needed to ensure that its non-traditional reps – often former educators – were up to speed.

However, when sales collateral lived in several different places and sales training could only be accessed through an entirely different platform, doing so felt increasingly impossible. PLTW’s existing learning management system — which operated out of alignment with its content, created a siloed experience that left reps searching for the right resources across several disconnected systems. For an organization striving to standardize performance, it was a painful gap. 

To create a single source of truth that better aligned reps to a standardized go-to-market and customer success strategy, PLTW’s enablement team realized a change was in order. They searched for a unified platform aligned with their values and equipped to prioritize lifelong learning. In Highspot, they found such a platform.

Unified Platform Reignites Culture of Ongoing Learning

As Project Lead The Way’s enablement team led the charge for change, they revised their existing programs to weave Highspot’s unified platform into their strategy. “Highspot was selected as our sales enablement tool because of its ability to be a source of truth but also its ability to integrate into Salesforce and to be an easy-to-build learning management system,” continued Holzwarth. “We also really appreciated the ability to provide Sales Plays to our team.” Now equipped to guide, train, and track performance, the team was ready to spark improved outcomes for teams and customers alike. With the right support at their disposal, the team began creating the accessible, natively built learning and practice experiences their previous solution was ill-equipped to provide.

By leaning on built-in practice opportunities and contextual guidance to uplevel the skills of reps, the team achieved the consistent execution they had long sought. “If a school was contacting us in California or even in Florida, they were having the same customer experience because of Highspot,” noted Holzwarth. As the team reinforced the value of enablement to PLTW’s customer-facing teams, they began to see significant upticks in adoption, with 91% of reps regularly relying on Sales Plays to guide their behavior in the field. As adoption of enablement programs ticked ever higher, PLTW realized it had not only achieved the engagement it sought but also the impact: Its reps were better equipped to drive consistent impact in the field. 

Enablement Partnership Powers Real-World Performance

With reps better prepared to approach buyers and 89% adoption of Highspot’s external sharing capabilities, buyer engagement data streamed directly into Salesforce — providing a new, data-backed line of sight into the impact of reps’ outreach efforts that the team could use to shape their go-to-market strategy. With new learning experiences and Plays aligning reps to this data-informed strategy, the enablement team had achieved the speed and standardization it initially sought. 

Its sales team now aligned and increasingly productive, PLTW’s buyer engagement has risen by 17% — an improvement achieved by the strategic usage of a unified platform and its cohesive, natively built capabilities. Now equipped with the right partner, PLTW’s enablement team’s momentum is only just beginning to build. “We’re all in with Highspot,” concluded Holzwarth. “We’re going to keep rolling, and we’re excited to see how far our team goes with it.”