Juniper Networks disrupted the networking market in 1996 and had grown into a $4.6B global corporation by 2013. Yesterday, I listened in on a recent webcast, as Juniper CMO, Mike Marcellin, shared insight into this journey and why sales enablement was key to continuing this trajectory of growth.
In 2013, Mike’s team realized that Juniper’s rapid expansion was making it difficult for salespeople to get their arms around the resources they needed to understand the products and articulate value to customers. He revealed, “Our content creators ended up creating a lot of content to go after these new opportunities, and our sellers were having a challenge finding the content, and maybe more importantly, the content wasn’t contextually relevant to what they were trying to do.”
Seeing that increased alignment between Sales and Marketing would be key to continued growth, they decided to invest in a sales enablement platform. “We recognized that sales enablement is the cornerstone of our sellers in our company being successful. It’s all about improving time to revenue, it’s about delivering the measurement that we need on who’s consuming what, and really enabling them with the right information at the right time.”
What stood out most during this interview was Mike’s top piece of advice to successfully implementing a sales enablement platform…
Put yourself in the shoes of the seller.
Mike preached the importance of understanding the day and the life of a seller. He went on to suggest that Marketing teams shadow Sales to get grounded on what salespeople need to be successful.
Thinking back on my previous sales role, my initial thought was that Juniper sales reps must love him.
My second thought: Why don’t all Marketing teams put sales first?
Marketing exists to help a company build its brand, expand its reach, and attract potential new buyers, so aligning closely with Sales seems like an obvious step. However, many marketing organizations get caught up in the hustle and bustle of churning out more white papers, videos, blogs, press releases, and tweets, and lose sight of their main purpose of driving sales.
Currently working in Marketing, Mike’s suggestion was a refreshing reminder to continually develop a mindset focused around the seller. Marketing teams can spin out countless pieces of collateral, but if they aren’t geared around what salespeople need and will actually use, it will all go to waste.
Ultimately, it’s important for Marketing to be aligned with Sales, especially during periods of rapid growth and expansion. Juniper was able to achieve alignment by implementing a sales enablement platform and putting sales first in the planning process.
Want to hear Mike’s interview in its entirety? Access our on-demand webinar: Sales Enablement: Gartner Reveals Findings; Juniper Networks Outlines Success.
Interested in learning more about sales enablement? Check our latest research brief, containing exclusive Gartner research, the Market Guide on Digital Content Management for Sales.