The Soundtrack to My Year in Sales Enablement

Music provides a rhythm to the workday. Whether it’s time to grind or unwind, we all have those certain songs that we turn up to get great work done. 

At the beginning of the year, our Highspot product marketing team turned up the music together. We made Ciara’s song “Level Up” our mantra, and this kickstarted what would soon become our team playlist. Every week someone added their own “get work done” anthem, and before we knew it we had 46 songs for 46 workweeks – a diverse mixtape that mirrors the powerful uniqueness of our team. 

Now as I listen to the new songs and artists (Spotify Wrapped, anyone?), specific tracks remind me of key themes that emerged over the course of the year. Just like 2021 brought great musical hits, so did it bring some of the greatest changes the sales enablement category, and our company, have ever seen. 

So let’s press play on the major themes of 2021 – and the songs that represent each. 

Next Level Sales Enablement 

Theme song: Levitating by Dua Lipa

As the world pivoted to a hybrid workplace model and virtual selling, demand for sales enablement has skyrocketed. In fact, according to Gartner’s Market Guide for Sales Enablement Platforms 2021, “Gartner estimates that revenue in the sales enablement increased 12.1 percent over the prior year. Relative to the overall category of sales which was down to 10.9 percent growth, sales enablement is a high-growth segment within the overall sales category.” 

Sales enablement has advanced within the stack as required technology and discipline that drives business outcomes. This reality has contributed to incredible momentum for both the category and for Highspot, with our company achieving record business growth as customers across industries and geographies including DocuSign, General Motors, Nestle, Siemens, and Verizon Media adopt sales enablement. In other words, we’ve leveled up to the point of levitating. Next up: blast off. 

Era of Sales Tech Mayhem 

Theme song: Essence by Wizkid feat. Justin Bieber and Tems

Welcome to the era of sales tech mayhem, where companies have budgets burning holes through their pockets and there are platforms to choose from than ever before. The catch is, when teams buy a mashup of tools, they often don’t work together – leading to more complex tech stacks that hurt more than they help. 

Highspot is combatting this by natively building an end-to-end solution that gives our customers everything they need to turn strategy into consistent sales execution, bringing together content management, guided selling, onboarding, training, coaching, buyer engagement, and analytics. As WizKid says, “you don’t need no other product.” (Or at least that's what I sing). 

Evolution of Buyer Expectations 

Theme song: Leave the Door Open by SilkSonic (Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak) 

While you don’t need a mansion with a pool to attract buyers, you do need to be prepared. Today’s buyers are doing their own thing across digital channels, with evolved expectations and little to no interest in speaking with sales reps. They want to be met on their terms. To win them over, we need to equip, train, and coach our salespeople – so that when our buyers finally walk through the door that we strategically left open, we can deliver the authentic value that wins and keeps customers. 

There's also the notion that the dreaded "Closed No Decision" may not be the gloom and doom you think it is. Buyer needs and projects to solve them change on a continuum. It's important to recognize that buyers don't buyer on seller terms and timelines.

Rise of Sales Methodology

Theme song: Easy On Me, Adele 

Many companies are young when they first adopt a sales methodology. In some cases, they made the right choice despite their maturity level, but in other cases, a change will need to happen. According to Forrester SiriusDecisions Command Center® data, implementing a new methodology is continually cited as a high priority for B2B sales teams — 89% of them. For organizations to nail their implementation, they are going to need some help.

Aware of this priority, partners like Highspot are trying to make it as easy as possible for our customers to choose, adopt, and implement the sales methodology that’s right for them. We recently launched the Highspot Marketplace, the industry’s only exchange where our customers can leverage the content of more than 20 marketing, sales, enablement, and customer success partners. 

Power of Community

Theme song: We Win, Lil Baby feat. Kirk Franklin

The strongest teams are the ones that win together. More and more companies are recognizing the power of extending their team beyond the office walls to include everyone from partners to customers. There is incredible strength in community, when people come together to support each other, share best practices, and collectively work toward shared goals. This is one of the primary reasons why we created the Highspot Spark Community and hosted our second annual global customer conference Spark 2021, where more than 1,000 attendees gathered to invent the future of sales enablement. At the end of the day, that’s what we aim to do – help everyone become better by bringing everyone together.

Reflecting back on all that we’ve experienced and achieved, I’m incredibly grateful to those who have been here making it happen. A special shout out to my product marketing team, not only for the world-class work, but for fueling every day with the great tunes and great vibes that made this a year that brought down the house. 

As 2021 comes to a close, I want to know – which songs best represent the major themes of your year? Leave a comment below.