Accelerating Adoption of Digital Presales Tools

Sheila Rue, Senior Director of Solutions Consulting at Infor, leads a webinar on the adoption of digital pre-sales tools. She shares Infor’s journey, offering tips to improve adoption and elevate engagement. Strategies include content creation, follow-up sessions, clear expectations, organizing content efficiently and creating high-quality digital content. Rue emphasizes the importance of engagement, creating a rubric to value digital artifacts and capturing clicks and operational insights. She highlights the need to compel clients to take advantage of new functionalities, providing a seamless experience for them at every stage. Rue offers insights on how to get sales adoption, identifying key evangelists within the sales team and partnering with teammates to bring fresh perspectives.

• 00:00:00 Sheila Rue, Senior Director of Solutions Consulting at Infor, leads this webinar on the topic and discusses the importance and potential impact of this platform as well as shares her expertise on the matter. The discussion is geared towards a varying audience, from those in exploratory mode to those ramping up their approach to adoption.
• 00:05:00 Sheila Rue discusses the journey of Infor with regards to digital presales tools. She shares some tips and tricks that the company has identified to improve adoption and elevate engagement. Rue talks about how the project team initiated the project and how the company developed a decision-making framework that justified the investment. The next step was to generate content and pilot it in a smaller fashion. Rue also emphasizes the importance of staying flexible in your journey because your philosophy and perspective will change over time.
• 00:10:00 Sheila Rue discusses the process of accelerating adoption of digital presales tools through content creation. She explains the strategy of using existing content, repurposing demos, and creating new content. Rue emphasizes the importance of a planned approach that leverages internal tools like Microsoft Teams and the challenges of managing multiple and conflicting priorities. The strategy also involved delivering the published content to field sellers in North America and EMEA through a big-bang approach in partnership with enablement teams.
• 00:15:00 Sheila Rue talks about the follow-up sessions that were conducted after the launch of the digital presales tool. The sessions focused on the key areas of the tool and allowed participants to ask questions and gain clarity on the platform’s best use. Rue also provided insights on the number of licenses Infor purchased and how the sales teams were expected to use the tool to accelerate the sales cycle. Rue stressed the importance of setting clear expectations and performance metrics for each constituent group and helping them understand the potential impact of using the tool correctly.
• 00:20:00 Sheila Rue discusses the importance of creating clear expectations and organizing content efficiently when using digital presales tools. She explains that too much content in the demo library can overwhelm the sales reps, making it challenging for them to navigate and understand which content they should be using. Rue suggests developing a mindful approach to present the material to customers and improve their experience. Additionally, she recognizes that there is an opportunity to leverage digital for inside sales and early-stage teams, giving them a deliverable they can use for demos and start to drive business. Rue further explains that they are currently in an assessment mode, identifying what is working and what is not, and exploring methods to provide content to their partner community in an elevated and clear manner.
• 00:25:00 Sheila Rue discusses how her team is constantly trying to improve their digital presales platform and its user experience. They have created feedback forms to gather insights and suggestions from their community and are constantly adjusting their strategy based on new information. Sheila also shares some of the behind-the-scenes work involved in maintaining a content library with 381 demos and conducting quality checks. Lastly, she talks about the connection between digital presales and early talent, and how her team plans to involve new cohorts in assessing the demo inventory.
• 00:30:00 Sheila Rue discusses the adoption of digital presales tools and how they are being used to create a framework for creating high-quality digital content. She explains that despite having 800 licenses, they are being mindful of how each license is being used by ensuring that it is a “use it or lose it” situation. They are looking to create evangelists within the organization who exhibit the proper behavior and use the platform properly. They also use data-driven insights to understand which chapters and stories are compelling to the community, and they change their strategies accordingly. Additionally, they have hired digital sales coaches to help various sales teams navigate their array of tools, which have greatly accelerated the adoption process.
• 00:35:00 Sheila Rue discusses the sales tools used at Infor, including Consensus and their content management platform. They partnered with digital sales coaches to do enablement sessions that helped generate connections within the enterprise. They have invested in leveling up their content with a focus on creating inclusive content that includes an approval component from the sales voice, and analyzing engagement to see what’s working. They have done a full assessment of the quality of their inventory and are continuing to invest in content creation, curation, distribution, and analysis.
• 00:40:00 Sheila Rue discusses the importance of engagement and creating a rubric to value digital artifacts. It’s crucial to think about how content is applicable to various stakeholder communities, such as sales, partner onboarding, and new hire onboarding. Content distribution and analysis are important elements, especially in terms of analyzing the engagement of digital artifacts. Identifying evangelists who can speak on behalf of the company is essential in spreading the message, and having smaller groups such as office hours can be beneficial in creating new connections internally. Finally, understanding the landscape of existing technical tools is essential for creating a positive user experience, and partnering more closely with counterparts on the content management side is critical.
• 00:45:00 Sheila Rue, a digital presales leader, discusses the importance of capturing clicks and operational insights for the adoption of digital tools. She emphasizes the need to level up the analytics in the sales community and provide self-service dashboards for sales leaders to have a better understanding of their teams and current state. Rue also provides her vision for creating an elegant snapshot that showcases how the organization is doing with their digital demo experience journeys. Additionally, she shares her big vision of engaging with their clients at every stage, from the starting point through an RFP to the customer success teams, providing a seamless experience for the clients even after the deal is signed.
• 00:50:00 Sheila Rue, a technology executive, talks about the importance of continuous engagement with clients and the need to compel them to either take advantage of new functionalities or to level up their existing footprint if needed. She emphasizes the vision of leveraging a powerful platform to serve clients both internally and externally, partnering with tech teams, tracking performance, and giving feedback to sales leaders. Rue also shares her experience and offers some hot tips to elevate and accelerate adoption, such as having clear operational insights and incorporating the importance of digital artifacts. Additionally, Rue discusses the role of a digital strategist in guiding sales teams and suggests recognizing different people’s gifts, including those who are into analytics. Finally, Rue addresses the issue of salespeople’s fear of change and offers insights on how to get sales adoption.
• 00:55:00 Sheila Rue discusses strategies for accelerating the adoption of digital presales tools. These include identifying key evangelists within the sales team, using their voices to amplify messaging, and partnering with teammates to bring fresh perspectives. When asked about sales account owners fearing recorded demos would steal their thunder from live demos, Rue suggests flipping the mindset and focusing on what’s most important to the client. She also recommends using data-driven discovery and having a collection of messages ready to land with different audiences. Overall, Rue emphasizes the importance of buyer enablement and integrating pre-sales content into sales outreach and accelerated tools.