Kelly Lewis

In the fast-paced world of business, many organizations struggle with aligning their Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies across different teams. Individual teams often create their own strategies, but the challenge lies in connecting these disparate efforts to achieve consistent and efficient business goals. However, when executed effectively, enablement can play a crucial role in aligning GTM priorities across various departments, including marketing, sales, product, and operations. If you're an enablement leader looking to establish a strong presence in GTM planning and demonstrate its strategic power, running a Prioritization Process can be a game-changer. In this article, we will explore the essential steps and principles to go beyond what good looks like in a planning and prioritization process.

Step one: Review Current Performance

First, we need to lay a strong foundation for success. Start by outlining your process and creating visibility. When people are informed and involved from the beginning, it's easier to gain buy-in for the process and its timeline. Be prepared for skepticism, especially if your organization has never run a structured process before or if you are implementing significant changes to the existing process. The true power of effective planning becomes apparent once alignment and collaboration start to yield results.

Don’t forget to identify the final decision-maker or approver. Establishing clear roles and responsibilities is vital for a smooth prioritization process.

Step two: Defining Business Outcomes

Strategic Enablement focuses on developing programs that optimize key business metrics and outcomes. After obtaining buy-in for the process and timeline, collaborate with GTM Leadership to define the specific business outcomes that enablement and GTM aim to achieve. While it's crucial to address negative trending metrics, also consider optimizing metrics that are performing well. This collaborative exercise often works best in partnership with revenue operations. While you may want to have a laundry list of metrics to show off, it’s best to limit to four or less to maintain focus such as increasing competitive win rates or reducing churn.

Step three: Gathering Input and Feedback

Once GTM leadership has agreed on the key metrics and desired outcomes, the next step is to gather input from enablement collaboration partners and the field. Remember, it's acceptable if the collaborator intake doesn't align with the business outcomes metrics; capturing all suggestions helps avoid surprises within the quarter.

Enablement should engage key partners to understand what they plan to roll out to the field during the quarter or year and what behavior changes they expect to see. It’s not uncommon to end up with 100-plus requests, making ruthless prioritization a necessity not just a nice-to-have.

Step four: Collaboration with Revenue Leaders

Now it’s time to review the data with revenue leaders. Often, what revenue leaders request differs from what the front line deems most important. Creating visibility at this stage ensures that the final priorities can be translated and communicated at all levels of the organization. At Highspot, we gather feedback through various channels, including Field Confidence Surveys, coffee chats with reps and front-line managers, and our Revenue Advisory Board.

Step five: Define CTAs

Next, to ensure clarity and accountability, it's essential to establish field call to actions (CTAs) for each priority. These CTAs are specific actions that the field should take in alignment with the enablement initiatives. They should be measurable and date-based, allowing enablement to track leading indicators of the initiative's success. While enablement can offer recommendations for field CTAs, it's advisable to involve field leadership for ownership and alignment.

As part of the prioritization process, it's imperative to evaluate the team's expertise level on the given initiative. This assessment helps set a baseline for where core reps stand at the beginning and where they are expected to be at the initiative's conclusion. Below are the levels of expertise we use.

Step six: Building the Strategic Enablement Plan

Once initiatives have been defined and prioritized, the enablement team gains full approval to construct the Strategic Enablement Plan using an enablement initiative brief. At Highspot, we follow the Stategic Enablement Framework to ensure a thoughtful enablement plan taking you through equip, train, coach and analyze. This plan also encompasses the enablement calendar and cadence for the upcoming quarter. Learning paths, like those offered by Highspot, are utilized to develop both live events and asynchronous learning, making the quarter's enablement activities predictable and accessible to the intended audience.

Step seven: Measuring Progress and Optimization

After launching the programs, it's crucial to have predetermined touchpoints to measure leading indicators and understand progress towards the broader business outcomes. According to the State of Sales Enablement Report 2023 , organizations that have insights into what works are 46% more likely to improve the efficiency of their revenue teams. Regular check-ins and feedback loops enable the team to make necessary optimizations and keep the initiatives on track.

With these seven GTM prioritization steps, you are ready to get started with planning, clear communication, and a data-driven approach. By aligning GTM priorities and ensuring that enablement programs are strategic and measurable, organizations can boost their chances of achieving their business goals and staying ahead in today's competitive landscape. Moreover, by following these key principles, enablement leaders can demonstrate their strategic prowess and secure a pivotal seat at the GTM planning table.

Kelly Lewis

Seattle, Washington, United States 4K followers 500+ connections

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About

Experience

Highspot

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Education

University of Southern California

Honors & Awards

2011 Cerner New Business Client Executive of the Year

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