Enablement
How to build a flawless enablement tech stack
By Seismic — On October 12, 2022
The tech landscape continues to evolve at an ever-quickening pace. Adapting to these changes requires a deeper focus on how tools are rolled out internally and to our customers. As enablement practitioners, we often find ourselves asking, "are our colleagues using the tools optimally and adopting them at high rates?" Or, "what if we're collecting flawed data from customers about our products due to improper usage on their end?"
Fortunately, we can prevent and swiftly resolve issues like these with a strategic approach to tool enablement. No matter the size of your enablement function, we'll gladly show you how to create an effective tech tool enablement plan and overcome any roadblocks that come up along the way.
Common challenges associated with new tool launches
When rolling out new tools, companies are often confronted with some degree of employee resistance. Even if a new tool can improve the lives of end-users, a disjointed change management plan can lead to it being poorly adopted. Also, companies may feel they lack the resources needed for a proper tool launch or struggle to align cross-functional leaders in the rollout.
These risks can negatively impact your business — not only can subpar tool rollouts frustrate colleagues and make them hesitant to adopt new tools in the future, but companies can receive a poor R.O.I on their purchase due to clumsy tool usage.
As daunting as these challenges may seem, they can be surmounted by incorporating specific practices and tips.
The features of a successful tool enablement plan
As a best practice, we recommend a five-step enablement plan to ensure the new tools you implement are widely adopted, end-users receive guidance and support throughout the entire launch process, and leadership is aligned on the rollout.
1. Identify stakeholders and executive sponsorship
Launching a new tool may require multiple business lines (IT, GTM, etc.) to operate in lockstep to ensure broad adoption. Aligning these business units on the tool's value will encourage them to support each other in resolving pre-launch issues. Having executive sponsorship is crucial as well, as it can generate momentum from the top-down and unify leaders across the board.
2. Identify the roles to be supported and the scope of change management needs
It isn't enough to view change management as "telling end-users about what's to come." The tool's value must be clearly articulated to targeted users, and strong examples of how it will make them more productive should be offered pre-launch.
