Gong Champions Program - Standardizing the program

Ian Gwynne
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Hi Gong Community,

I hope you all are doing just fine and dandy!


I am a technology enablement architect as well as the Gong Technical and Business program manager at Mimecast, a Global Cyber Security company.

I have been running a Gong Champions program since we rolled the tool out in November of 2021. It’s been quite an effective program as I get the opportunity to do technology enablement, discuss more on new integrations/updates and what's in the pipeline for Gong in the upcoming months…. but now that we have had Gong rolled out for about 8 months, I’ve noticed the program is starting to plateau and my attendance is dropping a bit.

As we all know Gong is continuously adapting the platform and there is always content to chat about but I wanted to connect with some seasoned community members to get an idea of how to take my Gong platform to the next level as well create a bit of a “Program Syllabus” so I can make my champions program a bit more long-term, strategic and effective so its not just me speaking about new updates each week.

What are your top suggestions for making an effective enablement program focused on Gong?

How do you run your own Gong Champions program?

Who would be up to connect for a chat to speak more on what is working with your org for Gong and areas you are looking to improve?

 

Give me a shout here or feel free to email me at igwynne@mimecast.com - Always interested in talking shop on technology enablement and Gong enablement!

 

Thanks in advance my fellow Gongsters!

 

-Ian Gwynne

6 replies

Molly Kipnis
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Hey @Ian Gwynne! This is a fantastic question for the Gong Community. I did find this thread in the archives about how to build a comprehensive enablement plan, which I think you may find helpful, but I know there are some folks here in Community that have also done this successfully. 

 

Folks, if you are tagged below, we’d love for you to share your tips and tricks for running an effective Gong champions program! 

@Emily Capleton @Jenna Higgs @Rachel Hudson @Elin Hammenfors @Kelly Parks @Arielle Parnes-Katz @Andrew O'Driscoll @Viktorija 

 

I’m also going to ping our teams internally for some Gongster wisdom. Stay tuned! 

E
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Hi Ian, 

Great question - always good to have new initiatives to release to keep the excitement up and to find an excuse for people to spend more time in the system. 

 

If you’ve been running the Champions program only with sales, how about you start to branch to other user groups? As you’ve been using Gong since November, and it seems like you’ve managed to build adoption with your champions, I think it could be a good time to try to get some really good data from the system. 

 

I’ve attached my training for Product, the purpose for this was for them to get closer to the customer conversations and learn how to draw data related to feature requests. 

I’ve also attached a similar training for marketing so that they can learn what’s going on on the market. 

If you have any type of analytics team, it’s also good to get them onboard so that they can learn how to draw data from the system based on what they want to do in the system :)

 

Let me know what you think! 

 

@Molly Kipnis happy for you to save this in some content library in the community. 

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Ian Gwynne
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Thanks for reaching out to folks @Molly Kipnis! You rock 🙌

Great call @Elin Hammenfors I think that’s a great idea out to start engaging other teams to start doubling down with Gong. I currently do a monthly sync with product marketing and our competitive marketing team but I think its a great idea to pull in wider teams, especially analytics! 

Love the slide mentioning how marketing can use the tool to see how their material is being used ;) brand police I’m looking at you haha great call out!

I’ve also had some success with brining in “special guests” to talk about how they are leveraging Gong at their own orgs and I’ve done the same for a few others. If you or anyone else is open to this, feel free to give me a shout! 😊

Thanks again!

 

Andrew O'Driscoll
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@Ian Gwynne these comments are very interesting  

discuss more on new integrations/updates and what's in the pipeline for Gong in the upcoming months…. and not just me speaking about new updates each week.

 

I have also seen this happen at customers and in addition to the tips given already, consider shifting the conversation from a Gong feature(s) led conversation to leading with the sales programs/ initiatives that are top of mind right now, and show how Gong is supporting them. 

For example you could have done a feature blast when Gong Assist came out, or you could have piggybacked on an internal initiative (if one existed) on how to help AEs’ have better follow up and shown how Gong Assist is helping. This will be more memorable. 

The reality is that not every Gong feature will have immediate resonance with every company. Tying Gong value to things that matter to your company will help keep peoples attention and understanding of Gong. 

Founder, Growment.
Kellie Petruzzelli
Userlevel 4
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Hey Ian—great question! I know you’ve already gone through the Sales Enablement Playbook and the Center of Excellence courses in the Program Manager Launch Certification, but I did want to highlight that, in addition to the course content itself, we also include some additional resources at the end of the Sales Enablement Playbook on these topics that you may want to check out. You can also click here to search through all of Gong’s resources—including our blog, podcast, webinars, etc., which may also be beneficial! Also, just a sneak peek that we’re planning on launching additional tiers of the Program Manager certification in the future that will focus on the long-term management and expansion of Gong at an organization—so, stay tuned. ;) 

Ian Gwynne
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Thank you @Andrew O'Driscoll - You bring up a good point and I think you have the right idea of shifting gears on my messaging. Though I do align with company initiatives, I typically have lead with Gong features in the past. I think if I flip flop it a bit to be more aligned to ongoing initiatives I’d have much more ability to related Gong content to company focus. Thanks again 🙌

Oooooooh @Kellie Petruzzelli looking forward to the future certification roll outs and thank you very much for the suggestion to check out the related Gong resources. I love how easy the Gong team makes it to have relevant job aids and playbooks 😍

 

Gosh darn, I forgot how helpful simple forums like this can be  - Thanks dream team!

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