Sales Certification for Marketo

[Anonymous]

I was wondering if there was ever thought to having a certification for sales people who use marketo via salesforce. I am having challenges getting my sales team to pay attention and learn how to effectively use sales insight and I thought it would be helpful if there was some kind of test that they would need to pass in order to prove they are proficient in the tools that we are providing them. Most of the sales people that I work with are a bit old school - and also remote - so getting them to really pay attention is a challenge.

Even if it wasn't a certification - but a test or quiz that was tailored to sales people.

[Anonymous]

Great idea!

[Josh_Hill13]

Interesting idea. I doubt a Salesperson would be willing to do this. I've been training teams for years and some folks are just never going to join up....unless the SVP is willing to say, "If you work here, you have to use XYZ systems in this way. Failure to do so within 3 months means your departure." And to actually follow through.

What I suggest is to incrementally train the laggards:

1. Get them to click on the link to the Lead. Unread/Read metric is a good starting point.
2. Once they are doing that, show them how to use Outlook Plugins
3. then come back and show them Campaign details.
4. then show them interesting moments
5. then show the how to prioritize their list.

[Joe_Reitz]

Counterpoint: Tchotckes and competition. This has worked for us in a number of sales programs, and we're currently beginning the process of certifying our sales folks in MSI.

But yeah... would be nice if there was a packaged solution we could just pull off the shelf.

[Anonymous]

Our sales development team is begging for me to come up with an MSI "certification" process. They were super excited when I was talking to the marketing team about Marketo certification and thought this was for them as well. I've now been mandated to come up with a scenario/quiz to show MSI competency. Please share if you have any ideas for a short multiple choice on the terminology.

I'll have to see if there's interest at the sales rep level for this once implemented for SDR.

[Joe_Reitz]

we're actually working on the same thing now. Our goal is to make the questions/quiz more of a functional test.. and to make it easy and brief. Here's our notes so far (but we'll probably consolidate to 5 questions):

QUIZ

1. Enroll a real customer in a specific campaign. Provide their email address: ______
2. Send a real templates sales email to a real customer. Provide their email address: _______
3. Add an email address to a lead or contact that didn’t have one.
4. How do you send a Marketo email?
5. Why would you want to send a Marketo email?
6. What do stars and flames mean?
7. Can you sort anonymous web activity by state or geographic area? True/False
8. What is the one field you need to add to a record to ensure it syncs with Marketo? (email)

Add a lead to the Watchlist

Best Bets

Web Activity

What does it mean if you don’t see the actions drop-down?

Where do you go to perform key marketo actions, like adding to a list?

What is the process for changing a lead from an MQL to a contact? (Is there a process for Inside sales to convert leads to contacts before they give it to a rep? or does the rep change the lead from SQL to actively working?)

[Anonymous]

Very helpful! I'll post back here when I get the "test" set up. I completely agree about making it scenario based instead of just multiple choice.

[Joe_Reitz]

we should totally compare notes after we launch our respective programs.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely! I'm going to do a trial of my first test after Summit.