What’s your best Gong rollout advice?

As a PMI certified project manager, I see the full value of established the COE with stakeholders and roles defined in advance as well as the communication plans to begin getting buy-in from all players.  More planning up front will definitely yield better results.

As a PMI certified project manager, I see the full value of established the COE with stakeholders and roles defined in advance as well as the communication plans to begin getting buy-in from all players.  More planning up front will definitely yield better results.

A strong communication strategy is vital.  Building awareness strengthens any roll-out. 

Test with smaller teams! Have a sales user Champion to support you with other teams

My best piece of tactical advice for fellow Program Managers rolling out Gong would be to focus on tracking key calls, gaining visibility into pipelines, and using that data to proactively assist managers.

When rolling out Gong, ensure that you’re setting up proper tracking for sales calls and interactions. This will give you and your team the ability to closely monitor how reps are engaging with prospects and customers, allowing you to identify patterns, areas of improvement, and best practices.

Take full advantage of Gong's pipeline visibility to track deals in real time and ensure you have clear, actionable insights on what’s happening at every stage. This is invaluable for both coaching sales reps and ensuring that managers can make data-driven decisions, rather than relying solely on anecdotal information.

By leveraging this data, you can assist managers in pinpointing where their teams may need additional support, whether it’s refining messaging, adjusting sales strategies, or identifying opportunities to close deals more efficiently. With Gong, you can provide managers with the insights they need to optimize performance, improve forecasting, and ultimately drive better outcomes across the team.

For any successful rollout, it is crucial to align the tool with clear, measurable use cases. Having those in mind, will make stakeholders and end users to identify the pathway to follow. Make sure to create and maintain feedback loops open to keep momentum and drive adoption across the organization.

There are so many things that affect a successful rollout of a tool, specifically if it’s as broad as Gong. My pro-tips for a successful rollout are:

1. Make a project plan and align with your COE - all stakeholders must be committed to success 
2. Roll out one functionality after another
3. Use smaller pioneer groups to test each functionality for about 2 weeks prior to rollout to the team to iron out any gaps or identify risks early
4. Drive adoption and measure weekly KPIs