How a Sales Enablement Leader Made Her Reps More Efficient and Successful
WellRight, a corporate wellness program and platform, is growing rapidly. In just three years, its sales team moved from targeting small organizations to submitting RFP responses for complex, million-dollar contracts.
But going after these large contracts wouldn’t have been possible with WellRight’s old systems and processes. When Stephanie Benavidez became WellRight’s Senior Director of Sales Enablement in 2018, the company didn’t have any formal sales processes.
The first item on Stephanie’s agenda: Revamp WellRight’s RFPs.
“Our Sales and Marketing functions only started about three years ago. We had a small sales team that did a lot of work manually. I saw an opportunity to bring in new ideas to make reps more efficient and successful.”
Why a Dedicated RFP System is Key to Winning More Revenue
WellRight stored all of its RFP responses in a massive Word document that was hard to search and maintain. Information in this document was often missing or out-of-date—making RFPs a time-consuming and painful task.
Stephanie brought in Loopio to streamline WellRight’s RFP processes and help scale their growth. She and proposal writer, Becky Meskill, store their RFP content in Loopio’s Library. When reps complete questions, Loopio auto-fills their answers. The RFP response software also provides reps with custom templates so that they don’t need to waste time formatting RFPs.
“My mantra is work smarter, not harder,” said Stephanie. “I’m all about efficiency and making everyone’s lives easier while driving results for the business.”
Throughout 2020, Loopio has helped WellRight automate 53% of their RFP responses—which allows reps to complete RFPs 2-3x faster and have more time for high-value sales activities, such as prospecting and lead nurturing.
3 Ways to Align Your Sales Team Around An RFP Response Process
The improved efficiencies have allowed WellRight to expand its sales team and go after larger contracts. Stephanie now oversees a team of sales enablement specialists and business development reps. She even hired a full-time proposal writer to take over many of her tasks, so she could focus on strategic planning.
Becky Meskill, WellRight’s proposal writer, oversees the entire RFP process. She keeps their content library up-to-date, manages the review process, and trains sales reps on how to use RFP response software.
Here are three steps that she takes to ensure that everything flows smoothly:
-
1. Quiz New Team Members After Training Them
Becky understands that people typically learn by doing—not by reading theory. That’s why she asks every new sales rep to complete a sample project within Loopio.
She starts by spending an hour explaining how Loopio works. During the training, Becky shows examples of how to create projects, import files, assign reviewers, export RFPs, and use the library.
Then, she sends reps a follow-up email that includes a pop quiz to test their knowledge. She asks them to perform specific tasks with Loopio to get them comfortable searching the library and answering questions. At the end of the quiz, Becky asks reps to export the questions from Loopio into a WellRight proposal.
Need help training your own team? Read these RFP management strategies for sustainable tips.
-
2. Schedule Strategy Meetings for Every RFP
When a new RFP arrives, Stephanie and Becky hold a strategy meeting with the sales rep who will work on it. During the meeting, the team reviews a vetting checklist to make a decision about whether they should take on each RFP or not. (You can download a free RFP decision template here.)
Then, they set up the Project in Loopio and confirm all due dates. Becky works with a sales enablement specialist to determine which answers can be found using Loopio’s Library. Then, she will craft answers for anything new, with help from WellRight’s subject matter experts.
-
3. Show Your Success
Stephanie and Becky track their results in Salesforce so that they can show senior leadership how much business they’ve won since making the switch to RFP response software.
Sharing their results has also helped Becky and Stephanie get buy-in from WellRight’s leadership team. If a sales rep isn’t following the correct processes, the VP of Sales will step in to hold them accountable. With everyone aligned around the same goals, the entire sales team becomes more successful.
“Executives always want to see results. Being transparent about our process and showing exactly how much success we’ve achieved with Loopio is very helpful.”
Developing these processes has also allowed Stephanie and Becky to show off their skills and become recognized as RFP experts. They’ve even created an RFP toolkit that teaches their customers how to evaluate a corporate wellness platform.
How WellRight Scaled to Go After Million-Dollar Contracts
Just a few years ago, WellRight targeted companies with less than one thousand employees. Now, the sales team has consistent processes that allow them to respond to large RFPs for million-dollar contracts.
The right tools put accurate, up-to-date answers at reps’ fingertips. The sales team is saving days on every proposal and can keep pace as WellRight continues to grow.
Want to learn more about how Stephanie and Becky achieved these results?
Get the insider newsletter for proposal teams, delivered to your inbox every month.