Benjamin Ard (00:55)
welcome back to another episode of Content to Close. Today I'm joined by Jessica. Jessica, welcome to the show.
Jessika Ward (01:01)
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Benjamin Ard (01:03)
Yeah, Jessica, I'm excited for today's conversation. I think it's going to be a fun one. think a lot of people need to hear some of these messages we're going to talk about in the subject. But before we dive in, Jessica, let's get to know you. Tell us about yourself, your background, work history, all that kind of fun stuff. That way we kind of get to know you before the audience hears a little bit more about sales enablement.
Jessika Ward (01:24)
Perfect. I'm Jessica. I've been in enablement for 13 years now. I have mostly been in SaaS startups. So being the first enablement person hire at a company is in building enablement programs from the ground up. I've been in small companies as small as 45 people to larger companies as big as 1,000 and more.
all focused on revenue generating, go-to-market motions and strategy, and anything from small SMB sales cycles to large enterprise, multi-million, multi-year contracts.
Benjamin Ard (02:04)
I love it. That's amazing. Incredible background. Someone with 13 years of enablement experience for an area that kind of is just really kind of hitting a peak and kind of starting to get some momentum is a rarity. So I'm excited to have your expertise on the show. This is going to be a ton of fun. So for everyone listening, what we're going to talk about is operational content strategy.
And basically what that means is how we organize and manage content. So it actually drives revenue. Those are the magic words. So Jessica, to set the stage, how do you define useful content when the goal is supporting sales? What does that look like for you?
Jessika Ward (02:44)
Yeah. So I think the first shift for me is the definition of enablement, utilizing the function as a performance management function and not content or training generation. And so when I think about organizing content that actually moves revenue or creating content that is revenue generating, it's all about the behavior changes that we want to see.
that will actually influence performance. A lot of times we focus on content that's knowledge and we're not actually focused on the things that are going to help a seller take action in that moment that's gonna actually move the needle.
Benjamin Ard (03:26)
I love that. Okay. So it's in the process is performance based. It's helping individuals actually improve and perfect themselves and get better. Now with artificial intelligence, I'm throwing that out way too early in an episode, but it's out there. Can't take it back. There's this struggle with quantity and quality and like knowing what to make, how much of it to make the cadence.
When something should be refreshed or created from new, how do you kind of determine the priorities and when and what and how much of it that you're working on?
Jessika Ward (04:01)
Yeah, so this is a great question because you mentioned it. I have found that the requests for content is never ending. And if you only focus on the subjects, how many case studies you can produce, how many different modalities, some people want short form content that's in a video, some people want one pagers, some people want...
like actual courses, everybody has their different idea of what they think is going to be the game changer when it comes to content. And I think really enablement professionals need to get more comfortable with not creating content. You know, I think we the instinct is to train or the instinct is to throw material at them in order to prove that enablement is busy or that we're useful or that we're valuable based on the amount
of content that we create. And so I think the biggest shifts for me were changing the timing and the visibility of the information and found that that had a bigger impact than, you know, any course that we could create or any one pager this week or, you know, just really getting vigilant on prioritization of
looking at the behaviors that we were trying to drive, right? And which ones were having the biggest impact. So looking at the things that we're working for the sellers that are top performers and maybe where there were other opportunities and using data and insights to drive like, okay, if I'm looking at funnel, for example, know, deals are stalling and using those decisions, that information to drive your content generation and your, you know, your training.
really don't love that word, but you're training materials, your enablement programs around those things rather than just like the volume and where content lives and how often you're putting it in front of people.
Benjamin Ard (05:57)
I love it. And I love how it's rooted in data. You're finding the insights to figure out what should actually be there. You're looking in the CRM, you're looking at the data. I love everything about that. So when it comes to content adoption, sometimes it's a little rough. People in general were creatures of habit.
And when you get into a groove, sometimes it's hard to break that groove and introduce something new into the mix. What are you finding from that perspective of introducing new content when you've maybe edited or created a new version of content? Where are you putting it? How are you influencing change? I'm going to avoid the words training here, but what are you doing to help the adoption just across the board and really prove the value of
maybe taking a different approach and really taking advantage of this new content and materials.
Jessika Ward (06:48)
Yeah, it's a great question. Lots of layers in there. So I think the first thing that I'll mention is like a seller's attention is a commodity and it's something that should be protected at all costs. I always say like any attention that you're taking away from the seller is time that they're spending away from selling. And so there's a couple of ways to both protect them but also as an enablement professional trying to drive impact and influence performance and behavior.
I think we have to think about how sellers actually experience content and where they are in their day to day. So if you're just getting started and you're trying to figure out, what content is actually going to help sellers? One, ask them. Two is shadow them and see what tools they're in, what their flow is for how they're moving through different applications, things like that.
That will usually give me a clue from like where in their day to day it makes sense for content to live and meet them where they already are. So enablement content should feel like a shortcut, not homework. And it should find them when they're already stuck. I feel like if they have to pause their day or
or whatever they're in and they have to sit down and consume it, it's too heavy and it's probably too late. So I think the best content shows up when they're stuck and helps them move forward immediately or the timing, you're not waiting for a calendar event for enablement to get to that.
Benjamin Ard (08:23)
Okay. I really love that. the whole part about it's when they're stuck, like content can help me get out of a groove, help me figure out what to do when I'm not quite sure what to do next. Let me turn to the content. This is an additional resource that's there to help me instead of a burden that's meant to get in my way, take up my time, things like that. When I do have a momentum.
things of that nature. So I love that it's kind of that life preserver that can kind of help them move forward and get out of the mud, kind of an idea.
Jessika Ward (08:48)
Yeah.
We love analogies.
We call it air traffic control, right? Think about all of the different teams that are trying to get a seller's attention. You have marketing that wants their attention. They've got to get product knowledge out there. They've got their managers who are telling them to use the latest sales methodology, whatever, right? And so I like to think of like, if I was the filter for all of the messages that they were receiving and all they did was pay attention to the one thing that I'm posting that week and you can tell them, hey,
Benjamin Ard (08:54)
Okay.
Jessika Ward (09:18)
If you just pay attention to this one post a week or this, you we used to do roundups. It's like, I will, I will protect you and I will filter out all of this stuff that I think is noise. And again, if you've done a really good job of attaching it to the metrics and the behaviors that you're trying to drive, it's really easy to then start whittling things down and being like, does this achieve that particular goal? Do we think it moves?
a stalled deal, do we think that it's actually gonna help them get to close faster, increase deal velocity, all the things that we love to hear? If the answer is no, then it's really easy to just be like, then it doesn't belong.
Benjamin Ard (10:00)
Well, and I'm sure that there was a full process for you to build up the trust with the team to say, I am here to protect your time. I will only show you what is relevant and if it will make an impact, I promise to protect that. I think that's a great enablement gatekeeping role to say, if I say something,
You're probably going to want to read it. And I promise if it's not like noteworthy, I'm not going to tell you anything. I'm going to get out of your way. And I think that's super cool.
Jessika Ward (10:27)
Absolutely.
Enable my earns trust when sellers feel understood. They're not here to be educated. I think a lot of enablement professionals are like, I'm certified in all of these different sales methodologies. And I know all of the market research and intelligence and things like that. And I'm here to teach you something. And I think that if we shifted that to think about
I am here to make your life easier. And the best way that I can do it is understand what your everyday looks like and what customers are saying to you and what's actually happening that will earn you that, that spot at the table where they start coming to you with ideas and start actually treating you like more of an advisor and a consultant than, than a professor.
Benjamin Ard (11:14)
I it. I love it. That's cool. And I like the definition of the role. You know, it's not preaching to a group of people. It is an advisor. You talked about metrics and things that kind of prove that it's actually worth their time. What are the golden metrics for you? What do you look at to know that content's doing the trick? Because that informs so many decisions. Does it need to be replaced? Should it be promoted? Should it actually get on people's radar?
What are you looking at specifically to kind of know the performance of content?
Jessika Ward (11:46)
I love this because again, I think that maybe this is a challenging, another challenging idea because I think a lot of times we default to engagement metrics. Are they looking at it? Are they consuming it? Do they like it? I feel like, again, going back to being a performance consultant, start with observable behavior. Start with the things of...
Did a seller do something differently? Did they reach out sooner? Did the deal strategy change? Engagement tells me if something was seen, but the behavior will tell me if it mattered. And I think that as far as what behaviors you're looking at, go back to revenue outcomes. mean, that deal velocity, pipeline generated, all of the things that matter to a revenue organization.
Those should be the metrics that are driving your enablement engine, not course completion or knowledge, getting an 80 % pass on their ability to short-term recall the quiz information on the 10-minute video they just watched.
Benjamin Ard (12:54)
So you're getting rid of the whole vanity metrics, the engagement, all that kind of stuff and going straight to the disimpact revenue. I love that. Okay, one final question, because we're running out of time and we keep these episodes short because enablement leaders are busy.
For a business who's listening to this, any enablement leader who's like, yeah, we need help here. I need to figure out something to do. We need to improve here. What would you recommend they do today that they can start working on to better organize, better increase adoption, better track, anything that you've talked about today, any recommendations, like if you were sitting in their chair, what they should do today to kind of get the motion going.
Jessika Ward (13:34)
start with the business problem, respect seller attention, and don't be afraid to create less.
Benjamin Ard (13:40)
love it. That's very cool. Don't be afraid to create less. That is a quote that I literally just marked because I love it. I think that's going to be a great title for this.
Jessika Ward (13:50)
Yeah, we try
to be everywhere but nowhere. And I think that again, our lists of requests can grow until we're overwhelmed and then we're paralyzed because we don't know where to start.
Benjamin Ard (14:01)
Yeah, I love that. Well, Jessica, thank you so much for your time and insights today. It has been absolutely amazing. For anyone listening that wants to reach out and connect with you online, how and where can they find you?
Jessika Ward (14:12)
Great question. I am on LinkedIn. That's where you can find me.
Benjamin Ard (14:17)
Love it. Anyone listening, scroll down to the show notes, regardless of what platform you're on, we will link to Jessica's LinkedIn profile right there. Click on her name, connect with her on LinkedIn, say hi, say you're from the podcast, add someone amazing to your network. think it'll be great. Jessica, again, thank you, thank you, thank you. I really do appreciate the time and insights today.
Jessika Ward (14:36)
Again, thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.
