Company: Brainshark, Inc., Waltham, MA
Entry Submitted By: Davies Murphy Group
Company Description: Brainshark's sales enablement solutions help companies drive greater revenue through faster training, increased demand and more successful sales conversations. Brainshark makes it easy to create, share and track on-demand video communications and hone live presentation delivery. Thousands of companies worldwide rely on Brainshark to improve their sales, marketing and training communications.
Nomination Category: Solution Provider Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales or Customer Service Solutions Technology Partner of the Year

Nomination Title: Brainshark, Inc.

Tell the story about what this nominated organization has achieved since the beginning of July 2013 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

It's never been more a challenging time to be a sales rep. With buyers in the digital age more informed than ever, there's mounting pressure on reps to add more value to conversations. But they're frequently flopping- according to analyst firm SiriusDecisions, the #1 reason reps don't hit quota is failure to articulate value.

This may be due, in part, to an oftentimes dizzying array of complex, evolving product lines- making getting and remaining up-to-speed a constant challenge. Making matters worse, in an industry where time is money, the average salesperson spends 7+ hours each week simply looking for materials to prepare for calls- often without success, according to analyst firm IDC. All this at a time when, per the firm, saving a rep 1 hour/week translates to $300,000 more yearly revenue.

During the past year, Brainshark has endeavored to address these obstacles. As a result, its customers are bucking the industry norms/stats, having reported results including:

*Sales cycles reduced by 2/3
*Rep onboarding time cut in half
*Rep productivity improved by 20%
*25% increase in win-rates
*15% increase in sales per rep

Recent Brainshark developments fueling these successes include:

BRAINSHARK SALES ACCELERATOR

Lauded by media (Network World, eWeek, Learning Solutions, etc.) and analyst communities, this sales enablement platform provides high-impact, centrally accessible solutions for more effective sales onboarding and continuous training, prospecting, coaching and engagement. Reps can access the right content at the right time– leading to smarter conversations that win more deals in less time.

Tightly integrated with Salesforce, the Sales Accelerator also addresses the "black hole" of measuring sales conversations- that is, since managers can't tag along on every meeting/call, how can they tell how interactions are going? By making conversations measurable, the Sales Accelerator lets managers track their team's preparedness to sell, identify best practices, improve forecasting accuracy and hone coaching on an individualized basis.

Additional features include:

*Content in context. Reps have immediate access to content relevant to a given industry, job title, sales cycle stage and more.
*Ability to rapidly create high-impact video content for onboarding, just-in-time learning and prospecting. Content is mobile-ready, automatically optimized for the device accessing it.
*Easy access and search, with prominent shortcuts to favorited, frequently used and self-authored content.
*One-click content sharing to prospects and customers directly from reps' CRM system.
*Integrated onboarding workflow where reps see what courses they need to take and their progress.
*Detailed analytics and dashboards. Reps can see how their content is doing and prioritize follow-up. Managers can identify which content and which reps are most successful to bring 'B' and 'C' players up to 'A' level. In addition, they can see how often specific content affects deals closed.
*Enhanced version control, automatically replacing obsolete content, wherever it exists, with the newest version.

Brainshark overcame several obstacles in Sales Accelerator development, including determining which data points to tap into to serve up "the right content at the right time." The company eventually widened the net, including all fields that sit on a record within Salesforce, so customers can trigger content from any criteria they want- making the solution even useful within their current workflow and sales operations taxonomy. It was also a challenge to balance the desktop and mobile experience. To achieve this, Brainshark studied the behavior of typical salespeople (for example, desktop is more popular for content creation) and tailored features accordingly.

INDUSTRY DATA

During the past year, Brainshark also conducted two major surveys- "State of the Sales Rep" and "State of Sales Training"– with results that have been eye-opening to the company and industry at large. The data not only informed product development, but provided valuable resources to organizations.

OTHER RESOURCES

Brainshark also launched an online questionnaire to help companies make their sales content more targeted, accessible, useful and actionable. Upon completion, companies get immediate access to a free, customized (and non-promotional) action plan. Brainshark also created a free content effectiveness scorecard.

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