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Why Business Units are best for visibility and control

Why Business Units are best for visibility and control

People & Teams

If you’ve attended an RFPIO webinar or conference recently—or read the Freedom to Thrive white paper—then you’ve heard us mention […]

Category: Tag: Sales enablement software

Why Business Units are best for visibility and control

Why Business Units are best for visibility and control

People & Teams

If you’ve attended an RFPIO webinar or conference recently—or read the Freedom to Thrive white paper—then you’ve heard us mention RFPIO’s ability to break down silos. If you’re an RFPIO customer, then hopefully you’re already living the silo-flattening dream.

Through knowledge management in the Content Library and Content Library in-app collaboration and project management tools, and real-time accessibility by way of RFPIO® LookUp to all of this content, silos can be reduced to rubble. Greater efficiency and productivity ensue, correlating quickly to improved response quality and increased win rates.

Nevertheless, sometimes separation is a good thing. Whether it’s for security or compliance purposes, or even perhaps geographic locations, there are RFPIO customers who want greater control and visibility. For this, we have Business Units.

“RFPIO’s enterprise-level capabilities enable multiple business units, including partners, to collaborate on a single platform. It also reduces communication channels during the proposal development process.”
-Page Snider, Director of Business Program Management, Microsoft Consulting Services What are Business Units?

Business Units (BUs) allow you to create distinct operating units within a single RFPIO instance. Think of them like individual villages within a kingdom. These BUs give you the control in keeping people, projects, and content confined to a specific BU, but also allow you to share any of those across your instance to another BU. User profiles remain unchanged as they’re shared with each Business Unit. Additionally, advanced features are available to provide cross-unit functionality across your entire enterprise.

While Collections pertain to simply restricting content, and complete separate RFPIO instances provide no collaboration between people on projects and content, Business Units can provide a level of control and collaboration to fit any growing enterprise business.

When should you use Business Units?

Software business units are quite common in enterprises, but they’re growing in popularity with small- and mid-sized businesses, too. Prior to the pandemic, it was standard operating procedure for sales teams to work remotely while marketing, InfoSec, and customer support worked onsite. With the trend toward hybrid and fully remote work for all teams, content accessibility and control—as well as visibility into how it’s used (or not used)—has rocketed up the priority list for many companies.

For businesses of any size, there are 3 typical use cases for Business Units.

Use case #1: Separate cost centers or business groups

Business Units are most often separated by business group (Marketing, Sales, etc.) or region (EMEA, NAM, LATAM, etc.).

Business unit - cost center

Many RFPIO customers start with two Business Units, separating InfoSec content from all other content that responders will be sharing with prospects, customers, analysts, or investors.

Regional separation would mean your organization wants a Business Unit for each GEO where business is conducted. Factors such as language and compliance weigh heavily into the determination to split an RFPIO instance into Business Units according to GEO boundaries.

business units - GEO

Use case #2: Mergers

The mergers and acquisitions trend in 2021 was off the charts, and it doesn’t appear to be letting up in 2022. According to Wolters Kluwer, the U.S. saw a record $2.9 trillion in transactions (up 55% from $1.9 trillion in 2020). As RFPIO grows in popularity (250K users and counting…) and response management gains traction as an integral part of the sales tech stack, it’s more and more likely that mergers will take place between businesses that are each running their own RFPIO instances.

When a merger occurs with two businesses that both use RFPIO, it’s certainly an option to maintain the two separate instances. However, if you want more control and visibility, then you can convert one instance into the primary instance and then add the team or teams from the other company as a Business Unit.

Use case #3: Projects portion control

Depending on how your business operates and is structured, separate teams may need different numbers of active projects enabled in RFPIO. Whereas you have a set number of active projects in a single RFPIO instance—50, for example—without Business Units it’s a free-for-all for teams to use those projects. If you find that one or two teams are constantly clamoring for additional active projects, then Business Units can help set aside a suitable amount of active projects for those teams.

Let’s take the example of a single RFPIO instance with 50 active projects. In the case of a software business, sales and InfoSec may need more active projects than marketing and customer support. Business Units can allocate projects to meet each department’s needs: 15 for sales, 15 for InfoSec, 10 for marketing, and 10 for customer support.

business units project allocation

What are the benefits of Business Units?

Primarily, project control and content visibility, which result in additional benefits, including:

  • Ability to scale RFPIO across multiple departments to increase win probability and close deals faster.
  • Rolled-up reporting allows for the most comprehensive visibility available for your RFPIO instance.
  • Identify areas that may need more project management support (we see this a lot in InfoSec).
  • Allow for greater content detail and answer accuracy, and, ultimately, a more robust content repository (which pays off when you need to share content across multiple Business Units).
  • Better, granular visibility into projects, people, and content in each Business Unit but still administered within a single RFPIO instance.

Cross-Business-Unit collaboration is something that we’ve seen more as use cases for BUs have evolved. For example, projects can be shared across Business Units. Say you’re running an InfoSec Business Unit project and you notice that some of the questions may be mapped to brand messaging, which would better be handled by someone in marketing. Share that project to the marketing Business Unit to 1) delegate to a suitable subject matter expert, and 2) ensure that you’re delivering the best possible response. There are some user permissions at play, but it’s certainly possible.

Here’s a real-world benefit example from an RFPIO customer I worked with. This client had a Business Unit for North American and another for EMEA. They wanted Business Units so that EMEA could more effectively track its project workflow and would not have to wait to be granted projects from a global team managing the original single instance.

Teams, content, and templates (by language) were separated. Leaders from both GEOs were connected, however, and collaborated on strategic initiatives. They set up the roll-up reporting so that executives could more effectively track time savings to determine how many more opportunities the EMEA team could pursue.

How do you know if you need Business Units with your RFPIO instance?

Review these 6 questions. If you answer “yes” to any of them, then schedule a consultation to see if Business Units may be a good option for you:

  • Do multiple teams/departments/cost centers use RFPIO?
  • Do you want to expand RFPIO in your organization?
  • Do you have RFPIO users located in multiple GEOs?
  • Do you respond to bids, RFx, security questionnaires, or other external requests in multiple languages?
  • Do you have a single executive stakeholder or team that reviews the effectiveness of RFPIO in the enterprise?
  • Have you merged, or are you planning to merge with a company that is also using RFPIO or RFP360?

If you’re still not sure but want to know more about Business Units, you can review my webinar in the Help Center if you’re an RFPIO customer.

What is sales enablement? Why is it trending?

What is sales enablement? Why is it trending?

Sales Enablement

I’ll be honest. When I transitioned from my frontline sales career to sales enablement operations, I didn’t know sales enablement was going to explode like it has. I was just intensely curious about the tools in our tech stack that helped me stay on top of customer engagement. So much so that RFPIO noticed and asked if I’d like to take ownership of it. “Don’t mind if I do!” I replied, and it’s been a rush ever since.

A recent Smart Selling Tools survey revealed that use of sales enablement tools grew by 567% in a one year period. Why? Well, there are many gears that have to sync before achieving a successful sale. Even the deals that close because you feel like you were in the right place at the right time are a product of a lot of work that has gone on behind the scenes. What’s the Richard Branson quote? “There are no quick wins in business—it takes years to become an overnight success.”

How can you make the sales process smoother? The answer to that question is sales enablement. The value prop for sales enablement is to make sure those gears behind the scenes are fully lubricated and precisely machined, no matter how unpredictable your product, market, or customer may be.

What is sales enablement?

Sales enablement is the ongoing, strategic process of equipping sales teams with the right resources in order to effectively close more deals. We complement the sales cycle and help reps do what they do best: Sell. There are myriad ways companies can provide these resources, like through knowledge management software, training programs, and other types of support.

Mind you, sales enablement isn’t just for the rookies. Sales enablement adds a layer of support for reps of all levels, from senior leaders to new hires.

Without enablement, there’s a lack of alignment between process and training. Sales professionals are hard chargers who want to succeed. If their organization doesn’t enable them, then salespeople will go rogue to find ways to succeed on their own. While this is admirable in a proactive sense, it can result in long-term issues with team dynamics, inconsistent messaging, and loss of native expertise when your strongest sales people leave the company. Because along with a penchant for seeking successful outcomes, great sales reps want to be in environments where there are as few barriers to success as possible. If they can be enabled elsewhere to greater success, they’ll leave.

With sales enablement, you can have an open line of communication between all stakeholders—from sales development reps to account executives to account managers. Only then are you able to develop a list of goals that can link the sales team’s needs with business objectives. Of course, goals will vary depending on roles within the sales team. For example, account executives want to rely less on others and have more control over meeting their quota, but other members of the sales team may be looking for ways to share resources faster so that everyone can succeed and better manage revenue streams.

Why is sales enablement important?

Sales enablement can scale the work of sales teams and can also improve collaboration across sales and presales. With these areas of the business communicating to each other, you’re able to formulate a sales enablement strategy that can improve business goals more efficiently.

I don’t believe that every deal is just another number. As the owner of sales enablement at RFPIO, I strive to make every customer journey an experience in partnership with RFPIO. I want to create a sense of community. The support we offer the sales cycle will provide dividends in the customer experience as a whole. If we can drive competency levels with demos, strengthen the sales team culture, and simplify knowledge management, then deals close faster and customers are more satisfied. Reps always want to sell better, they’re always looking to improve, and we’re their biggest cheerleaders.

As sales enablement matures, it can help with so much more behind the scenes, from prospecting to demos and deeper dives, including:

  • Reinforcing knowledge through training and coaching
  • Breaking down silos for sales team roles
  • Documenting best practices for the sales tech stack
  • Delivering the right content at the right time
  • Keeping communication open so sales teams know what they need to know to close deals smarter and more effectively

What is sales enablement strategy?

A sales enablement strategy is the business approach put in place to provide sales with the resources that they need to effectively sell. Not all sales enablement strategies will be the same, as it is unique to your business and its needs. The sales enablement strategy should include data on how to improve sales and an analysis on current sales tools to determine where improvements can be made.

Sales enablement strategy is what bridges the gap between sales leadership and sales operations. Sales leadership sets revenue goals. Sales operations has to meet those goals. Sales enablement strategy determines the technology, content, and support sales ops needs to execute their business development strategy. Sales enablement strategy also evaluates the sales tech stack to make sure it’s optimized to give leadership full visibility and ensure deals aren’t shrouded in the mystery of reps’ own records. It’s about finding ways to make internal relationships more efficient so they’re not detracting from time spent on revenue-generating activities.

7 sales enablement best practices

Sales enablement is important because it plays such a key role in scaling the organization. By providing all salespeople with a level playing field and equipping them with knowledge on demand, sales teams should thrive. I recommend following these seven steps to get the most out of your sales enablement strategy.

  1. Define objectives: The key to sales enablement is that every team involved is on the same page. What is our goal? How do we get there together? What is in our way? I drive and execute on the sales enablement strategy at RFPIO, but I don’t develop it single handedly. Strategic development falls on a combination of leadership from sales, marketing, IT, contracts, and operations.
  2. Understand your buyers: Empowering the sales team also involves empowering your buyer. Make sure that your buyer journey is mapped out accordingly in order to maximize sales enablement and customer experience outcomes.
  3. Continue training: Sales enablement is not a one-and-done solution. Adequate and frequent training will need to be incorporated into the company culture in order for veteran sales members to stay up to date on the trends and new sales members to learn the ropes.
  4. Create valuable content: There are two layers to this step.
    1. Work with marketing and/or your content development manager to provide assets like case studies, white papers, blog posts, webinars, and other content that sales teams can utilize to develop relationships. The best websites and products can bring in their own leads with content and branding, making it easier for sales to close the deal.
    2. Make sure the content that the sales team needs to do their job well is always up to date and accessible. This can include sales briefs, training materials, product roadmaps, and any other knowledge they need to have in order to build trust with a customer. At RFPIO, we actually conduct and record sales enablement sessions on everything from product updates to contracts to ongoing customer support to train anyone in the company who’s interested.
  5. Manage sales enablement processes: This doesn’t mean micromanage, because no one likes a micromanager. However, this process can be new to sales teams. Take the time and effort to ensure sales is enacting the strategy. Check in to ask if anything can be improved and gather feedback.
  6. Use tools effectively: Don’t just give answers. Show the sales team where they can find answers so that they can take control of the process.
  7. Document (v.): Too many sales processes only exist as word of mouth, especially in startup environments. Sales enablement can own the documentation of these word-of-mouth preferences to convert them into manageable, trackable processes. Take handoffs from one team to another, as an example. Sales enablement can smooth out these traditionally rough patches. Rather than nurturing or babysitting handoffs, document how those handoffs need to take place to make sure there’s a smooth transition for customers. This is the type of help that keeps sales teams focused on selling instead of getting distracted by vague operational details.

Empower your sales team

When you empower your sales team with the tools they need to succeed, they will return the favor with better performance. From presales to sales leadership, improved outcomes will leave all team members happy.

On-demand access to knowledge and content is essential to sales operations and sales enablement. Operationalizing your sales tech stack with AI-enabled software that drives more self-service experiences can remove many dependencies that have become frustrating pauses in the sales cycle. It can also increase revenue by up to 20%!

To learn more about how RFPIO can help with knowledge management and how RFPIO® LookUp can grant sales teams access to all content from almost anywhere, schedule a demo today!

Why RFPs are a cornerstone in the enterprise sales cycle

Why RFPs are a cornerstone in the enterprise sales cycle

Sales Enablement

Responders play a pivotal role in winning new business for enterprise organizations. You are a key team member who wears many hats. From content writer to marketing and sales, you add tremendous worth to your organization’s growth strategy.

Your leadership is particularly apparent in the enterprise sales cycle, where the process is long, complex, and high-stakes. A competitive RFP demonstrates to prospective enterprise clients that you understand their pain points and that you are the organization that adds the most value.

Read on to discover how you can pursue highly lucrative opportunities in the enterprise sales cycle with more efficiency and ease.

What is enterprise sales?

Enterprise sales refer to the acquisition of large contracts that involve a higher level of risk than more traditional sales seen in small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Enterprise sales cycles are long, involving multiple decision-makers that bring about large-scale corporate solutions. Contrast this with SMB sales cycles, that are short, lower risk, and fueled by marketing and sales. Enterprise sales offer solutions that are mission-critical to the success of the enterprise, directly impacting business operations at a strategic level.

In general, the enterprise sales model involves solutions that are highly complex, requiring the brains of various subject matter experts. These large-scale enterprise solutions often necessitate more training and customer support.

The role of RFPs in the enterprise sales cycle

Responding to RFPs plays a crucial role throughout the enterprise sales cycle. Unlike SMB sales that often focus on marketing to win the contract, enterprise sales must address various components, including onboarding, security, support, and automation.

Make no mistake, RFPs always require the input of many different SMEs. This intensive collaboration from subject matter experts is even more apparent and necessary in the case of enterprise sales.

Most RFPs are submitted in the final eight hours before the RFP is due. Of these, 35% are submitted in the final hour. Submitting close to the RFP deadline is fine if your team is taking your time to fine-tune your response content. It’s not fine when you’re figuring out content creation at the last-minute. Your organization could miss out on potentially valuable, highly-lucrative contracts just because you didn’t have time to produce high-quality content and go the extra mile.

Although the enterprise sales cycle is long and the acquisition costs are steep, the rewards are enormous. For these big-ticket proposals, it’s imperative that your enterprise has an efficient RFP response process in place. In doing so, your teams can provide the level of detail required for each proposal to close large-scale accounts.

Proposal software brings ease to the enterprise

Andrea Kameron is an RFP analyst at Reflexis Inc. who integrated RFPIO into her enterprise tech stack. Soon after bringing RFPIO to her organization, her response management team reduced the RFP completion time span by one week. Over the next few months, Reflexis doubled efficiency and submitted twice as many RFPs as before.

With proposal software, Andrea can organize questions into sections so they are presented to internal collaborators in a very clear and straightforward way.

How does this approach help streamline and automate the enterprise sales cycle? It encourages the RFP responder to use content already available in the library, rather than tag-teaming the Q&A content to already time-burdened SMEs across departments.

Here are a few other benefits of using proposal software like RFPIO to support the enterprise sales cycle.

Brand consistency

Brand consistency is one of the most common challenges for RFP responders. Because many different SMEs are involved throughout the enterprise sales cycle, each player has their own idea of what makes for the most attractive font types, headers, and bullet point styles. Proposal software resolves visual inconsistencies, thanks to systematic exporting capabilities.

Multi-dimensional response platform

Unlike traditional proposal software, RFPIO is a response management platform that supports many use cases beyond responding to RFPs. Use RFPIO to respond to any business queries: RFx (RFIs, RFQs, RFPs), statements of work (SOW), security questionnaires, proactive proposals, and sales proposals.

Centralized, collaborative, and compliant

A centralized Content Library allows your team to easily find and repurpose content. Because RFPIO has an unlimited user model, your enterprise team works in a collaborative environment to quickly produce standout content. To maintain compliance requirements, simply set up automated content audit reviews and invite your legal and compliance teams to leverage the platform.

By minimizing the content time investment during the enterprise sales cycle, you’re able to focus on crafting a captivating narrative that speaks to your prospect’s objectives and makes your enterprise solution stand out. Proposal software supports your sales efforts, so you can focus on landing the next big deal with greater efficiency and ease.

Ready to master the enterprise sales cycle? See how RFPIO benefits your enterprise team and supports your sales goals.

11 candid healthcare sales lessons explained by a nurse

11 candid healthcare sales lessons explained by a nurse

Templates & guides

You’ve been in healthcare sales for years, but do you really know how to sell to the people who work in healthcare? Whether you are responding to a healthcare RFP or following up with a prospect early in the sales conversation, it takes finesse and commitment.

Michelle Katz is a well-known healthcare advocate, author, and nurse—and she is the Chief Health Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Communications at F1 HealthIT. Also known as Nurse Katz, Michelle has appeared on the “Real Money” segments of ABC World News Tonight in addition to the “Doc on a Dime” segment on The Doctors Show.

nurse katz
For the past 15 years, Michelle has seen the other side of the sales cycle, approached by countless salespeople from tech companies who wanted to sell their solution. Listen closely…what follows are 11 candid healthcare sales lessons told from a nurse’s perspective.

Healthcare sales lessons from a nurse’s perspective

1. Know what’s important

Know what’s important to your prospect in terms of healthcare. At your prospect’s hospital, is their primary focus cancer patients or women’s health? Stick to their focus, rather than the whole scope.

2. Know your product

It may sound weird to say “know your product,” but I find a lot of salespeople come in and they really don’t know their product. If you know what’s important for the healthcare entity you’re pitching to—and you know your product—you can home in and not waste your time or their time.

3. Know the personalities

Get used to the personalities so you learn what your prospect is comfortable with. Some clinicians are dead set against technology. I’ve seen doctors retire early because they don’t want to deal with new technology.

As I nurse, I can tell you if it’s more than one click, you have a lot of explaining to do. Truthfully, this complex, multi-click software of yours better be able to wash our scrubs at the end of the day.

4. Know the end-users

When deciding on a solution, bring key leaders from different departments together. A CIO might think a product is fantastic, then the doctors and nurses sit there and say: “This technology is not important to us.” Salespeople need to listen to the clinical folks, not disregard them.

5. Know budget cycles

You can be the best salesperson in the world, but you won’t even get in the door if you don’t know the hospital’s budget cycle. You might come in too late, when they have already budgeted for their year—or six years out, or even 15 years out. Unless they get a grant, or some big money falls in their lap, you’re done.

You Might Like… Healthcare RFPs: Build Trust Through Authentic Storytelling

6. Know the priorities

For almost any healthcare entity, everyone is ramping up their security. More hospitals are going to be hacked in the next five years than ever before, because ransomware is getting better and better. Now security is in the top three for hospital priorities, up there with HIPAA compliance and interoperability.

7. Know the Chief Medical Officers

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) positions are becoming increasingly popular. CMOs are the doctors and nurse leaders you need to include in decision-making conversations. If you don’t have the CMO’s consent, you will not move forward in the sales process. CMOs know exactly what kind of technology solutions they need to do their job.

8. Know the background

Do a little bit of reading before you pitch something to show that you have an interest in the healthcare entity. I can’t tell you how many times a salesperson has pitched me something that we were already doing at our hospital. All they had to do was read our website to find that information.

Check content publication dates too—otherwise you might watch an old YouTube video and pitch a solution to a problem your prospect solved eight years ago.

9. Know their value

Anyone who’s in the buying position in healthcare is often willing to listen to learn more about the solution you are selling. But, you have to be considerate of your prospect’s time, especially in the medical field.

Five minutes is very, very valuable for a clinician or a doctor who has patients to care for. You’ll get more respect if you take that into consideration and value their time.

10. Know your value prop

What’s good for one person is not always good for another. No matter how fantastic you think your product is, think of what makes your product different and valuable for them.

What technology will appeal to the nurse who is the head of the maternity ward? What solution will work best for the ER doctor working 24/7? Show the value from a medical standpoint, which also means showing some knowledge.

11. Know the commitment

I know you have deadlines, I can sniff out your sales goals a mile away, and I know when you want to sell anything you can or run. I just want you to educate me.

It’s not going to happen overnight—I may not have the budget this year, but your solution may be really interesting to me next year. If you stay on top of the latest regulations on Capitol Hill, educate me about new technology, and keep in touch with me, your product will be pushed to the top of the list.

Now you’ve seen the other side of the healthcare sales conversation. With RFP software, your best content is always accessible and customizable. Start showing your organization’s value with more personalized healthcare RFP responses.

See how it feels to respond with confidence

Why do 250,000+ users streamline their response process with RFPIO? Schedule a demo to find out.