B2B Customer Storylines for the Media
After reviewing over 50 interviews with Highspot customers, I identified 32 storylines that Highspot’s PR agency could pitch to the media. I developed the storyline ideas based on market trends, customer pain points that Highspot’s product addressed through its features, and compelling stories of how Highspot customers used Highspot’s product to solve a challenge and drive business growth.
Below are several of the storylines. Identifying customer information has been removed, although all customer interviews were approved to be publicly shared.
SentinelOne had a major deal to get across the finish line: After the buyer spent 73 hours in the Highspot-based digital sales room, they signed the dotted line
Customer: SentinelOne
Theme: Digital sales rooms/micro-sites; buyer decision-making
Lede: Today’s B2B buyers want personalized content that adds value so they can make the right investment decision. They want content that answers their specific questions and aligns with their own needs–not the questions or needs of other buyers. Digital sales rooms, or microsites where sellers can share relevant content with buyers, can help give buyers what they want and streamline the buyer journey. But the quality of the content in your digital sales room can make or break a deal. Here are the practices that SentinelOne follows to create digital sales rooms that win major deals.
Key customer quote: “One of our customers of a major closed-won deal spent 73 hours in the Highspot digital sales room.”
The sales enablement platform that 100% of Lenovo’s sales team wanted to adopt
Customer: Lenovo
Theme: Adoption
Lede: Sellers can be skeptical of sales enablement platforms that aim to change their behavior. They are used to relying on sales tactics that work for them, and feel reluctant about software that will track their performance. If you’re planning to implement a sales enablement platform and want it to stick, your reps need to be all on board. Otherwise the investment will flop. Here’s why every member of Lenovo’s sales team raised their hand to start using Highspot.
Key customer quote: “After running a Highspot pilot, sales team gave a 100% recommendation to adopt with high 90s for satisfaction levels and 97% confidence that Highspot would improve the rep selling experience.”
How GitLab got 98% of its revenue team to participate in a professional development initiative using Highspot
Customer: GitLab
Theme: Training
Lede: It can be hard to get busy teams to make time for training. When GitLab’s revenue team set out to design a professional development day, they knew they would need to make people genuinely want to take part. Without that intrinsic motivation, the team would be unlikely to show up. Here’s how GitLab’s team got 98% of their team to participate.
Key customer quote: “98% of Highspot users went to a professional development page in Highspot on GitLab's professional development day and the page had the highest number of clicks out of any page in Highspot within a 3 month time period.”
Tenured sellers can be resistant to new tricks, but at FedEx, even the most experienced sellers embraced a new sales enablement platform. Here’s why:
Customer: FedEx
Theme: Adoption; Seller behavior change and seller performance
Lede: Sellers can be skeptical of sales enablement platforms that aim to change their behavior. They are used to relying on sales tactics that work for them, and feel reluctant about software that will track their performance. If you’re planning to implement a sales enablement platform and want it to stick, your reps need to be all on board. Otherwise the investment will flop. Here’s why and how FedEx’s tenured sellers embraced a new sales enablement platform.
Key customer quote: “We have a lot of tenured [sellers] and obviously we do not want to hinder the art of selling. We want them to be able to really go out and do what they do best, and when you have a tenured salesforce, a lot of times they're set in their ways in what they do and trying something new is…well, they'll try it and see how it works. With Highspot, they were able to come in and instantly see the impact because they can visually see what's happening with those interactions with their customer. So it won them over quicker because before, you send an email and kind of goes out there in email land and you hope someone got it. Now, you're actually able to see it in action and where the focus needs to be, so actually being able to create a customer strategy and how I communicate with them is what really drove the difference in buying.”
How SentinelOne saw a 163% increase in buyer engagement in just three quarters
Customer: SentinelOne
Theme: Buyer engagement
Lede: The B2B buyer journey is constantly transforming. According to Gartner, 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will take place on digital channels by 2025. Throughout every step—from discovery to contract renewals—buyers are engaging with your content across channels like email, chatbots, calls, social media, digital sales rooms, and beyond. How can your reps meet buyers where they’re at and pitch content that buyers actually want to engage with?
Key customer quote:“From Q1 to Q3 have seen a 163% in pitch engagement from customers.”
How to upskill your c-suite
Customer: GitLab
Theme: Training; Enablement strategy
Lede: Your professional development initiatives shouldn’t just be targeted towards your junior and mid-level staff. The external context is changing fast, and your executives need to keep up if they’re going to keep charting the right course for your business. What’s the best way to efficiently upskill your c-suite? Hint: it’s all about tailored learning that meets their unique leadership needs.
Connection to Highspot:
Tie in enablement equip, train, and coach principles.
Touch on customized learning journeys based on audience segment
Key customer quote: “Our Chief Revenue Officer wanted to have a “development day” to develop everybody in the company. David Hernandez from GitLab created a development day page in Highspot with curated content and each business unit had a customized learning journey. 98% of users went to that page that day and over the last three months, we;ve had the highest number of clicks on that page out of any Highspot page.”