E41 - Effective Sales Enablement Strategies with Jen Dunn

[00:00:17] Jen Dunn: Thanks for having me, Gary. Pleasure to be here.

[00:00:30] Jen Dunn: Yeah, absolutely. So I am a, I'm a marketing and sales consultant. But I first had my start in the corporate world. I spent 20 years in marketing and sales in telecom and also education technology. And I spent the last six years of my corporate career in field marketing and sales enablement.

That all led me to creating Grit Fueled. It's marketing consulting for entrepreneurs. And essentially the reason I created that is entrepreneurs have so much grit. They work so hard and try to do absolutely everything. So working with them on strategic marketing to help their business thrive is where my company comes in.

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[00:01:28] Jen Dunn: Yeah, absolutely. So as I mentioned, I worked 20 years in corporate, and as a person in marketing, I did everything from events to campaigns to really kind of every aspect of launching products. and what I really found with field marketing and sales enablement is there's, it's an interesting tie when you work very closely with sales.

You know, marketing can be a lot about building brand and helping explain what the company does does overall. But when you get very close to the sales team, you start to realize what they need in their pipeline, what's really gonna help close in year. So a lot of that work was, helping the team prepare for trade shows they were going to, even just creating simple little flyers or email campaigns to really help them get close to the customer.

But you, even just in the language that's used and how, they would work directly with customers, helping them really move that needle forward in a way that was very fast moving, but really was very effective to helping them close their sales. and through that process I was able to also take on a leadership role within our sales enablement team.

And one of the things that really carried forward for me, actually reminded me when I first got my start, in, in my career straight out of university, I came into a telemarketing. So I was right there making outbound calls to consumers, and really of course, eating some humble pie as, as telemarketing goes. And we had a, a marketing lady, her name was Laura. She was lovely. We all thought Laura was a very nice person. but she would come to us with. Here's the new spiff, here's the new offer, and here's the new script or you know, sales resources that we could use. And we'd all sit there quietly and listen to Laura.

And as soon as she left the room, the sentiment was always, marketing doesn't get it. And as someone who went to school to be a marketer, that was always an interesting piece for me to hear from sales is if marketing doesn't get it, sales isn't going to use it. So what we actually did is we. Pretty much threw out the script, sorry, Laura.

And we would take the offer, we would take the spiff and we would do what we knew how to do, knew what we knew how to do best, which is to sell. so we would run ahead with that and, and make the campaigns very successful, but wouldn't really generally share that feedback. Marketing doesn't get it. So as I moved into my corporate career, I really carried that lesson forward.

And through field marketing, of course had a bit of that empathy with the sales team to know how challenging it can be to take something that's, you know, written by someone else trying to implement that on your end. so with our sales enablement team, the teams really it's, it's not just making marketing pieces to make selling easier, it's also in.

Ultimately, what I think sales enablement is, is freeing up the sales team to sell. That's its job. So we actually had an operation side as well as a marketing side of that team. So sometimes we were freeing up, administrative tasks for the sales team because then they're not selling, if they're doing admin.

And then also there's all the sales pieces that would go along with it. So all the different resources and tools. one thing that we recognized is we really needed to not only. Create pieces that made sense for sales, but work in partnership with them. you know, and when you first start your company, you're, you're doing everything.

And then you start to build a team and you start to grow and you get further and further away from sales, and usually marketing as well. And so when you're marketing and your sales teams are on opposing ends or just not working true partnership, that's where you start to get that disconnect. so.

With this team, we were really able to be that bridge between the wider marketing team and the sales team. so as we would go and, and create, you know, marketing pieces or different aspects that would help, the first and fundamental thing we would do is partner with sales before we'd really begin.

You know, we might have the strategy, we might have our theory baked out, but without working directly with the sales team, we knew that resources would fall flat. They'd be missing that, that true, almost that real connection to the customer journey. so generally that would mean, you know. Meeting with sales members, it wouldn't always have to be the leadership.

It could be, you know, the guy that's in the field going for ride alongs, doing sit-ins. However, as a marketing person, you can get closer to sales even if you're not in enablement. I always recommend it because you learn So much you get closer to the customer. so what we would generally do with these webinars, is we'd almost treat it like a bit of a show to be honest.

I got to host it, which is one of my favorite things to do. but we'd always prepare. So every time a team member was bringing a tool to the team, we'd really walk through what's in it for sales. why should they use it? Who did you partner with, and how are they gonna use it? So as we went through each of these, resources that were being presented, we were telling a story.

And so that's really where the selling to sales would really come in. It was, here's what it's for, here's who we worked with, here's how it's going to be used. And in some cases we'd also done a bit of a trial, you know, with a smaller team or a few sales folks that were using it to really share that social proof.

You know, as you, as you promote your company and you're, and you're learning what's really resonating in the market. Most of what will draw in customers are testimonials and for sales it's no different. It's just social proof. It's, it's give them the confidence that this is really working well. you know, Gary, if I said to you we should create, an email marketing campaign that targets your listeners and really helps them, you know, move into the next step in their business, that's one thing. If I framed it as, hey, Gary, I sat down with your sales team and they've identified a gap. This is where the gap is and this is how we're gonna fix it with email marketing. And they recommend that we first start with this target group of your audience, which are you more likely to wanna use?

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Tell me more and tell me right now what's going on? What, what am I missing? Where, what are my blind spots?

[: 00:08:25

We also recognized through working with the teams enough that the needs in North America for our solutions was different than, than it was globally. So we would do breakout sessions at the end of every webinar. and this is where we got the true dialogue because back to my field marketing days, back to remembering being on the sales floor, it was recognizing we needed to ensure that marketing not only got it today, that we continue to get it.

So in these breakout sessions, we'd actually send out questions. A couple days before the webinar, so the team would come prepared and we would put them on the hot seat and we would ask them these questions, ask for their feedback, ask for what's working, what's not, what did you think about what we shared today?

and really act upon it. it's one thing to ask for that feedback. Take it all in. And even if you think you're displaying it in what you produce. You need to draw the lines. so we would actually, at the beginning of the webinars, we would start off with, okay, last time we talked about, you know, A, B, and C and this is how that's going.

Or, you know, we talked about this a while ago. We've now got some feedback. Sometimes the feedback we would get from sales are things we couldn't do anything about. But even just being able to address that, we're listening, we're trying, we've maybe had a conversation with leadership. all really kind of pulled it together and helped it make sense.

And that's really, that's really why that call was so successful. It's actually the. Most successful call I've ever been a part of where a marketing team was presenting to sales. even it even topped, you know, when product marketing would share the new resources that were brand new coming out from the new launch product.

This is the one that the sales team always attended. They always asked for the recordings, if they couldn't make it because they traveled. And it just really brought the two departments together in a very strong way and it, and it continued. It was amazing.

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You, you, when somebody comes up with this brilliant idea that you say. Oh yeah, the general manager came up with that one. We're gonna have to, you know, we're gonna have to work our way through that versus, oh, this was actually, this is what is, is what people are saying. You know, they understand the problems, what the website costs.

They're the ones getting the front frontline feedback, not the, not the person doing, doing that in the back. So, yeah, definitely appreciate, you know, breaking down that, you know, those walls between sales and marketing being. Really important and yeah, you, you, you just wish more organizations found ways to do that and just get people involved on both sides.

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[00:12:26] Gary Ruplinger: Yeah, I think that's, that's really smart advice.

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[00:12:30] Gary Ruplinger: I think that kind of brings kind of the next question here is, I know you have a webinar framework from someone who's done a lot of this work. I would love to kind of get your insights into doing webinars, hosting events and things like that. I know on the, the last episode we recorded, talked to a guest all about trade shows.

So the, the belly to belly, you know, out in the field type of thing. now. Kind of making the pivot over it to what does that look like online now? The webinar, the events would, would love to kinda get your insights there. How, how that, how that looks.

[: 00:13:03

Get almost a quick win, helping them understand something about what you're trying to, to share, or about your company, or even just a quick win on their side. and helping them move through the process of being ready for the next step is generally the point of most webinars. whether it's we want the sales team to understand how this resource is gonna help them and we want them to use it, or we want this customer to be ready to, to meet with our sales team.

It's getting them through that journey. A lot of that is just how you frame this. Story. So definitely wanna build, credibility upfront. Make sure they know that they're, they're hearing from someone that they can trust. so building that upfront is very important. helping them move along in their journey in some way, even if it's a very small step.

And then really painting the picture of what's next to be kind of that natural next fit. And just being very prepared for what you're gonna do. So I actually put together a PDF resource that I'd love to share with your audience, Gary. It's, it's, it's called a camera ready checklist.

So I designed it for, if you're going to be setting up a webinar, and a lot of folks, sometimes the hardest part's, the tech side. So it's kind of a checklist to go through of all the things that you might just wanna think about before you go live, to make sure you're ready. But then it also takes the side of.

A webinar is a presentation, so how to really prepare for that presentation. So it's as most effective as it can be. So you just go to my website and I think Gary's team will drop the link in the chat. It's gritfueled.com/ pipelineology. You go directly there. You just download the resource. And hopefully it'll help you whether you're setting up a webinar, a sales meeting, or just a presentation.

Because remember every presentation, you're selling.

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[00:15:30] Jen Dunn: You got it.

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I, I've done a lot of events myself, and I've told, I've recommended it to clients and I say, what do, what do I need to do? How do, how do I pick a topic? I right, that one comes up a lot is what, what, what do people wanna hear? What will people show up to hear? Because usually what I see is they pick a really big, overarching, generic, bland, boring topic that is like, I wanna talk about entrepreneurship today.

I'm like, whoa, okay, let's, let's not. We bite off a small, little, little piece of that. So I'd love to kind of get your insights into kind of some of that, you know, how how do you that set yourself up for success essentially, right from the beginning?

[: 00:16:32

But Gary, when your team reached out and, and was looking for guests for the Pipelineology, I knew what I needed to talk about was my time in field sales. because that is the piece that's, that for me has been closest to, the pipeline. so that's really important. when you wanna think about, even on the technical side of things, there's always tests that you wanna do.

So obviously knowing the platform you're going to use, making sure your audio works is probably number one. Testing it, testing it, even, you know, like a dry run before you go if you haven't done it before. or even if you have, but even, you know, before we started, Gary, we tested our audio. We made sure their cameras were working very well.

If you're sharing any content, test your screen sharing. one of the, The toughest, toughest hits I took, when I first started my career, first webinar I ever produced. I was with a fellow named Michael. He was in another country, and I was helping him produce the webinar. He was the presenter.

It was an amazing presentation. He did a great job, first webinar I'd ever produced, and for about 10 minutes, Michael's audio went out and. I was brand new to the company. I was able to kind of spitball a little bit of my onboarding training to keep the audience there while we got him back. But we hadn't established a way to communicate with each other.

If the internet went out, I think it was a storm or something in his area. he came back about 10 minutes later. He had no idea. You know, I tried phoning 'em, couldn't get 'em. It was nothing I could do. so since that time, one of my tips that I always give, if you're gonna be hosting a webinar, or presenting on one, is have a bat phone.

Have a way to communicate with the other side, especially if you're not in the same room. So often that's just text. If you just have their phone number, they've got yours. You know that if you see this thing light up that you need to take a look and make sure that. It's your, your other end speaking and, and needing to quickly get over there.

so we would've avoided a lot less stalling had I been able to reach Michael in the moment. yeah.

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because I, it's like backupup, back up backup. because I've, I've been on those ones where things start to fail and you say, how can we. Recover as quickly as possible and, and, and get it going because you know, most of the time, the vast majority of the time they go off without a hitch. But boy does it feel like the end of the world when you are live and you know, you're 15 minutes in and you're just getting to the good part and then something breaks and your video speed goes down.

Oh my gosh.

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[00:20:40] Gary Ruplinger: Oh, I love it. So with events, I'm curious, what is your strategy for a post event?

[: 00:20:48

[00:20:48] Gary Ruplinger: How, how do you kind of keep the momentum going is to turn the almost ready to buy people into, that's now a meeting for the sales team to close. would kind of love to hear what, what your insights as you know, somebody who's done so many of these, how, how that that side looks.

[: 00:21:07

if the audience is ready to take. Then if you stop there, you'll, you'll lose the majority of the sales you need to follow up, pretty quickly after give, give your audience, a good reason to open that next email, not just to buy the product. So sometimes there's going to be, urgency in terms of a sale.

Urgency in terms of timeline. Marketing does thrive with having a bit of that, that urgent need behind it. because generally people, it's, they need a reason to take action now, whether that's for what's going on in their business, they, they really need to move things to the next step. so that timing's right for them.

Or it's a Black Friday sale and that sale's gonna be closing soon. So they need to take that next action. One of the, we used to do a webinar, that was to a, a resale, or sorry, a, a reseller. So we made the product, but they actually sold it through to their end customers. and so getting a sales team onto a webinar is hard anyway, so we would get them on there.

We also used to do a draw, for, gift cards. And what we would do is instead of giving them away live, we'd actually do it afterwards. And the reason behind that is I wanted to make sure that we continued the journey with the sales team so we would have everyone who joined the call was entered into win.

And then directly after the call, we would actually record a quick video. It was a legit draw. We would actually put all the names in. We weren't cherry picking. I would have the sales, person who'd been leading the webinar, Take the moment to record a one minute video. Just to be very conscious of time, we recognized we had a captive audience, and they would, just share one to two key things about what we were talking about.

So whether it's, you know, the key feature in this product and why it stands out, or you know, we have a limited time offer. Whatever it was, it was the two key things, of that captive audience because they're listening. And then we would announce the winner in the video. The email that went out, its subject line was really around did you win?

Ultimately we're all a little bit selfish. We want to know what's in it for us. That's take anything from this podcast away is what's in it for your audience, is what you need to lead with. So we would lead with, dig You Win, and we actually were able to achieve, a very high open rate, and the click through rate, which means those who open the email also click it.

Usually you get about 5%. We got to a hundred. Using that strategy. Yeah. So you could steal it, but it, and it was all very carefully curated. So that's how we got, I mean, in that end, our customer was the salesperson. We needed them to be bought in to be excited to want to work with our brand, to be very successful.

So that's my number one tip.

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[00:24:58] Jen Dunn: Right. That's the big one. And I actually find generally, events, the post-event email, even without that strategy, those are going to be your most open emails period, as long as. If the event was good and you have something to give them, whether it's the drawing, even if it's, you know, we said we were gonna share this resource.

Here it is. or here's the link to download, or whatever it is. It's having something of a follow-up that was mentioned at the event as long as the event was amazing.

[: 00:25:30

But I noticed when I started doing the follow up email right after the event and mentioned it again. That was the highest uptake of it, right there is That's where the people were interested. That was, that was the thing that they really, they don't wanna spend an hour on a webinar if they can get a one, like a one page.

Like that's what I want.

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[00:26:14] Gary Ruplinger: One page. One page PDF. Oh, you got a video that can explain it in two minutes? Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's what I have time for today. So, yeah, I signed up for a one hour webinar. I don't have time for a one hour webinar.

[: 00:26:28

And actually time is just so incredibly precious that if we can get you from, you know, A to B in, you know, 10 minutes in an hour, whatever it is. it's far more effective. and it's, it's worth their time because that speed to delivery is what's winning.

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[00:27:26] Jen Dunn: Oh, I love that question. I mean, one of the big biggest place that I find success with clients is, is really helping them and simplify their message, their market, and really their marketing strategy. and so even just booking a consult with me and we can. Take a look under the hood of the business, see what's working and what's not, and find ways that we can draw those lines.

For example, I've had clients that are running webinars and they're not getting enough people to attend. There's a lot that we can do in the lead up to an event, with great communications that will bring more people to the event. That ultimately that's gonna fill your pipeline a lot more. Like I said, the follow up, having that strategy, to make sure that you don't, you're not losing clients at the follow up, is really important.

and even just for individuals, I've actually set up, a, your LinkedIn profile, is that really that piece that can really open so many doors for you and so many people under utilize it? so I've actually set up. A, a one hour one-to-one workshop. We sit down, we go through your, your LinkedIn profile, and we optimize it for what's your next step.

so all of that is on my website. or gritfueled.com/linkedin for the LinkedIn Lift and just go to gritfueled.com to get in touch with me and see if you'd like to book a consult or just figure out what it is the next step for you. because it's so hard sometimes, especially as a business owner, and I'm guilty of it too, of being too close to it and, and having someone with an outside perspective who can take a look and help you even just move the needle a little bit can make all the difference in your business.

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[00:29:30] Jen Dunn: Very true, very true.

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[00:29:43] Jen Dunn: At GritFueled.com/Pipelineology.

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[00:30:03] Jen Dunn: Yes, it is.

[: 00:30:03

Really appreciate you, having you on the show.

[: 00:30:08

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