Sales Enablement in a Digital Sales World with Kyle Healy, #173

How do you get a traditional sales team to embrace modern selling techniques and engage with prospects digitally?

That is the topic of conversation in this episode of the Modern Selling Podcast with my guest Kyle Healy.

Kyle is the SVP of Sales Enablement and Strategy for NFP. A dynamic leader with nearly 15 years of experience in the insurance consulting and sales space, Kyle is a core member of the leadership team at NFP tasked with driving transformation inside the functions connected to the organization’s revenue growth. Kyle is a regular public speaker on progressive sales strategies for complex B2B buyers, as well as total rewards and human capital trends as a result of his background in benefits consulting.

Listen to this episode to discover how NFP has transformed its traditional sales force into a modern sales organization.

Focusing on Outcomes

We started our conversation by talking about some commonly held beliefs about selling that he disagrees with.

One of those beliefs is that as a seller you need to talk about yourself at some point early on.

“We have a lot of our sellers sort of really vehemently believe that if they don't get something about them or us or their product early, it's a waste, that we need to convey value right up front,” Kyle says. “I don't believe I need to talk about me or us until maybe meeting two or meeting three. We've got a pretty long sales cycle.”

His advice is to avoid the product dump or pitch, to avoid talking about yourself as the largest, greatest, baddest in the world. You can talk, though, about your journey, your culture, and the process you have gone through helping others.

“Do not go in presuming you know exactly what their big problem is. Try to understand them and what's kind of keeping them awake at night. Let them lead based on what's important and unique to them.”

The magic word is outcomes.

Especially that first conversation that a seller has with the customer. What is the outcome that they are desiring and does that align with what we do?

When the desired outcomes match with what you deliver, you've got an opportunity.

But what about when they don't have a really clear sense of what the outcome they want is?

Kyle thinks sellers have a great opportunity there.

“The discovery meeting is really about learning about them and helping them discover things about themselves for their business that they weren't even really thinking about yet. That's the fun stuff.”

The New Digital Selling Environment

Kyle says that the insurance industry went through a lot of prospecting challenges because of COVID. “It’s an old school industry and the average age of the typical insurance sales person is 58.”

Once they realized they couldn’t visit people in person, they went to emails, but that wasn’t enough. They need an omnichannel approach to build their sales pipeline.

“We are trying to get our sellers more comfortable with creating content through social, using video, going back to the phones. Something that we're continuing to hammer and coach and one of our big focuses is, okay, if you're only sending emails you're in trouble.”

The modern buyer has changed and sellers must use every available channel to reach their prospects in the channels they prefer.

“I don't love high-volume. I don't love Mass automation. There's a time and place for some of that stuff to create some efficiencies to just make business run better. But especially in the early sales motion, the early funnel when I'm trying to really establish that relationship, I think it's got to be hyper-informed, hyper-personalized, super-specific to the person you're reaching out to.”

This is at the heart of our own PVC Sales Methodology, which calls for personalization in your sales messaging.

Listen as Kyle explains their strategy to customize benefits to each buyer and the success they have experienced with hyper-personalization.

Discover how NFP has modernized their sales process and the tension between automation and personalization, and how to use sales cadence tools effectively (hint: it’s not about speed but about quality control).

Finally, Kyle has some great advice for sales enablement leaders and sales leaders out there, to be successful in this remote selling environment.:

“Make your sales people really effective marketers. I know that sounds really silly or maybe pretty basic but for us, it's hyper-specialization. Make sure you've got something of value to give and then upscale those traditional marketing skills like demand generation and content creation. I want my sellers to be thinking more like marketers and less like sellers, that we get into this digital environment where email becomes questionable as the primary means by which you get somebody's attention. I want people to focus on being fantastic. If everyone of my sellers could be a really successful social influencer, we'd be doing okay.”