Managing a Merger: How QuidelOrtho Boosted Buyer Engagement by 6%

Merger Sparks Go-To-Market Challenges

As go-to-market initiatives go, executing a successful merger is one of the more complicated endeavors an enablement team can be tasked with. Add to that the complexity of a challenging industry, and QuidelOrtho’s enablement team faced an incredible opportunity. “We were bringing on a whole other business, so we needed to align the two businesses in a way that made sense to our sales teams and delivered the business outcomes that we and our shareholders expected,” began Jennifer Shelley, senior manager of global sales excellence at QuidelOrtho.

From the start, the team knew they could more than rise to the occasion. All it would take was a well-defined strategy for establishing foundational readiness in both direct and partner sellers— and a unified platform from which to execute it. With so much riding on their ability to successfully execute post-merger programs, the team knew a change was in order. To quickly scale go-to-market efforts in the wake of the merger, they needed a more robust solution for building competence and confidence with each organization’s complex and deeply technical product lines. “The key struggle sales reps in the medical device industry face is technical knowledge,” added Shelley. “A lot of reps have sales experience but need time to ramp up on technical knowledge.”

Foreseeing the challenges ahead, the team knew a unified platform would be essential. To secure the outcomes it — and its shareholders — imagined the merger could achieve, QuidelOrtho made the switch to Highspot.

Unified Platform Standardizes Sales Competence

With Highspot powering their efforts, QuidelOrtho’s enablement team set about creating guided experiences for knowledge acquisition. Its strategic Spot architecture reinforced this effort. Structured overviews, for instance, meant sellers could surface essential content in a single click and navigate it consistently. “We rely heavily on SmartPage Overviews to take sellers through the journey from foundational knowledge to the methodologies we use and the benefits a healthcare worker will realize by using our solution,” shared Shelley. Tiered partner access reinforced this effort, allowing the team to direct channel sellers through relevant experiences based on their variable needs. “Highspot had the flexibility to differentiate the capabilities we provided to different partners and their tiers,” added Shelley.

Bringing together two content libraries, product lines, and sales processes still presented a distinct challenge. However, Highspot’s unified platform meant both internal and partner sellers had tailored access to up-to-date, on-message content, as well as guidance outlining how to land that content in the field. With guided learning experiences—and a 77% content findability rate—building shared knowledge, the team kept sellers of every origin point aligned to QuidelOrtho’s current state. “We’ve been able to share content across the business units, so as we did cross-training of the two sales teams, they were able to catch on very quickly,” noted Shelley. Soon, 75% of the sales force began to regularly use the platform.

High usage meant the bulk of sellers, whether formerly of Quidel Corporation or Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, partner sellers, or brand-new to the organization, could confidently tell the merger story and land its value during even the earliest post- merger days. Plans to establish tiered partner access will only reinforce this effort; once implemented, varied access tiers will allow the team to direct channel sellers through relevant experiences based on their variable needs. “Highspot had the flexibility to differentiate the capabilities we provided to different partners and their tiers,” added Shelley.

Successful Merger Foreshadows Future Growth

QuidelOrtho’s enablement team executed a series of initiatives that, together, seemed impossible. They brought two distinct businesses together and established shared competence. They streamlined the merger process and ensured sellers were ready to tell QuidelOrtho’s new, shared story with buyers. And, beyond that, they have seen the impact on sales execution: Now, sellers are well-versed in the organization’s shared value proposition and can land it with buyers, resulting in a 6% increase in buyer engagement.

Powered by Highspot’s unified platform and native analytics, QuidelOrtho’s reps are ready to drive successful initiatives and achieve the growth that initially inspired the merger. “Highspot is transformative,” claimed Shelley. “It’s a different way of thinking, behaving, and working. It’s such a powerful tool.”

As the team looks ahead, they are excited to leverage Highspot’s new innovations to continue to deliver value against their key go-to-market initiatives. Whatever the challenge, the team knows they’re ready to face any obstacles that come their way; after all, they’ve already enabled the impossible — and will continue to do so.