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32 questions to ask sales enablement vendors during a demo

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32 questions to ask sales enablement vendors during a demo

Sales enablement platforms provide sellers with the content resources they need to engage buyers in a way that adds value, while also educating salespeople on the marketplace through training and coaching. While all of this is going on, sales enablement platforms also track buyers’ and sellers’ interactions with content, giving marketers and sellers insights into what’s working and what’s not.

Given all of that promise, marketers are certainly evaluating these technologies and one crucial part of that process is the demo.

It’s important to set up demos within a relatively short time frame of each other to help make relevant
comparisons. Also, make sure that all potential internal users are on the demo call, and pay attention to the following:

  • How easy is the platform to use?
  • Does the vendor seem to understand our business and our marketing needs?
  • Are they showing us our “must-have” features?

Use these 32 questions during the demo to help you gauge whether the platform you are vetting is the right fit for your organization:


Is your marketing team ready to give the sales team the support it needs to convert more prospects? Explore top sales engagement platforms in the first edition of this MarTech Intelligence Report.

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Onboarding

  • What makes this platform technically unique from all the others?
  • How difficult is the platform set up and implementation? How long will it take for us to be up and running on the system?
  • How intuitive is the platform user interface? How easy is it for business users to customize the machine learning-based models or settings?
  • What is your service reliability guarantee?
  • What external resources, such as systems integrators, agencies and consultancies, are familiar with the platform and could be hired to help us get started?
  • How scalable is the platform?

Content creation and management

  • How intuitive is the interface for ingesting and managing content?
  • Does the platform integrate with the tools our team uses for creating content?
  • What content creation tools are included or optional within the platform? Do they extend to more advanced options like VR or 3D experiences?
  • Does the platform integrate with the solution we’re currently using to store content assets?
  • What are the organizational structures for content and how can marketers ensure salespeople can find the appropriate content?
  • What controls can we put in place to ensure salespeople are only using approved, timely and compliant content?

Analytics

  • What are all of the types of interactions that are measurable by the platform?
  • Does the platform support recording calls, video conferences and other interactions for analysis?
  • How does the platform use AI or machine learning algorithms to analyze the content of interactions with buyers?
  • Can we track buyer interactions through the whole purchase cycle from interest to actual conversion? If not, what are the options?
  • Can we bring the data gathered in the platform into other tools we use like CRM?

Training and coaching

  • What are the different types of formats for training and coaching content?
  • What sales methodologies does the platform support?
  • What types of reports on salespeople can the platform generate? Training progress? Performance?

Integrations

  • What native or out-of-the-box integrations have already been created?
  • What happens if I choose to use a tool I’m already using rather than one of the platform modules? How can we ensure they work together smoothly?

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Pricing and support

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  • What is pricing based on? What features are included? Are there additional fees (consulting, add-on features, APIs, quotas)?
  • What is the minimum contract length? Is there a short-term contract or an “out” clause if things don’t work out?
  • Is a free trial or pilot program available?
  • What are the different modules (if applicable) that we can license individually?
  • Who will be our day-to-day contact?
  • Who pays if the system/team makes an error?
  • What kind of customer support is available? Can I pick up the phone to report problems?

Strategy and product roadmap

  • Do you have other clients in my vertical?
  • How does the company handle requests for product modifications?
  • What new features are you considering for the platform? What’s the long-term roadmap and launch dates?

About The Author

Does your marketing team need a digital experience platform DXP

Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media’s Content Studio, where she produces MarTech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land and MarTech. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She’s a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.

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MARKETING

Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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More promotions and more layoffs

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More promotions and more layoffs

For martech professionals salaries are good and promotions are coming faster, unfortunately, layoffs are coming faster, too. That’s according to the just-released 2024 Martech Salary and Career Survey. Another very unfortunate finding: The median salary of women below the C-suite level is 35% less than what men earn.

The last year saw many different economic trends, some at odds with each other. Although unemployment remained very low overall and the economy grew, some businesses — especially those in technology and media — cut both jobs and spending. Reasons cited for the cuts include during the early years of the pandemic, higher interest rates and corporate greed.

Dig deeper: How to overcome marketing budget cuts and hiring freezes

Be that as it may, for the employed it remains a good time to be a martech professional. Salaries remain lucrative compared to many other professions, with an overall median salary of $128,643. 

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Here are the median salaries by role:

  • Senior management $199,653
  • Director $157,776
  • Manager $99,510
  • Staff $89,126

Senior managers make more than twice what staff make. Directors and up had a $163,395 median salary compared to manager/staff roles, where the median was $94,818.

One-third of those surveyed said they were promoted in the last 12 months, a finding that was nearly equal among director+ (32%) and managers and staff (30%). 

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Extend the time frame to two years, and nearly three-quarters of director+ respondents say they received a promotion, while the same can be said for two-thirds of manager and staff respondents.

Dig deeper: Skills-based hiring for modern marketing teams

Employee turnover 

In 2023, we asked survey respondents if they noticed an increase in employee churn and whether they would classify that churn as a “moderate” or “significant” increase. For 2024, given the attention on cost reductions and layoffs, we asked if the churn they witnessed was “voluntary” (e.g., people leaving for another role) or “involuntary” (e.g., a layoff or dismissal). More than half of the marketing technology professionals said churn increased in the last year. Nearly one-third classified most of the churn as “involuntary.”

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Men and Women

Screenshot 2024 03 21 124540Screenshot 2024 03 21 124540

This year, instead of using average salary figures, we used the median figures to lessen the impact of outliers in the salary data. As a result, the gap between salaries for men and women is even more glaring than it was previously.

In last year’s report, men earned an average of 24% more than women. This year the median salary of men is 35% more than the median salary of women. That is until you get to the upper echelons. Women at director and up earned 5% more than men.

Methodology

The 2024 MarTech Salary and Career Survey is a joint project of MarTech.org and chiefmartec.com. We surveyed 305 marketers between December 2023 and February 2024; 297 of those provided salary information. Nearly 63% (191) of respondents live in North America; 16% (50) live in Western Europe. The conclusions in this report are limited to responses from those individuals only. Other regions were excluded due to the limited number of respondents. 

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Download your copy of the 2024 MarTech Salary and Career Survey here. No registration is required.

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