When the Carlyle Group acquired 1E Limited in 2021, they knew they were in for rapid growth. They needed to quickly expand, onboard and ramp up their sales organization from 10 to 50+ sellers to match their vision for where they wanted to go next. But with a whole new team of reps to train and a company to scale, 1E knew they needed help. This is when they turned to a sales enablement solution.

They needed a better way to manage their sales content, gain data-driven insights into content performance and engage buyers right off the bat. At the same time, they needed a solution that could provide a scalable training and coaching program for their sellers with measurable feedback from peers and managers to get new hires up and running as soon as possible.

But 1E wanted more than just a sales enablement platform. They were looking for a solution provider that could work with them as a strategic partner to help them reach their next level of growth. After a competitive search and thorough evaluation, 1E’s leadership team chose Showpad for its all-in-one enablement solution, ease-of-use, industry-leading buyer engagement innovations and reputation as a strong enablement partner.

“The feedback from the sales leadership teams was that Showpad was easy to use, it met all their needs, and the Shared Spaces piece was really of interest to them,” says Michael Wright, Head of Commercial Enablement at 1E Limited. “They felt like it was a tool that they could easily onboard the new teams with, while we were growing a whole new sales force.”

Rolling out a new technology solution while building a team from the ground up is no easy feat. 1E needed to do it fast and do it right. They worked closely with Showpad’s implementation services team to get their instance up and running, roll it out across their growing sales organization and encourage strong adoption among new and seasoned sellers alike. 

“It’s probably the best implementation experience I’ve had with any vendor,” says Michael. “As a one-man enablement team, the team at Showpad helped me understand what needed to be done first to implement the quickest value to 1E and when it needed to be done to ensure nothing fell between the cracks.”

With guidance from Showpad’s implementation services, 1E embarked on a phased rollout. Starting first with Showpad’s content capabilities, then introducing training and coaching soon after. They also phased the rollout by user group, starting first with SDRs and BDRs, then rolling out gradually to account directors, SEs, CSMs and CSAs.

To support their expanding sales organization, as it quickly grew to almost 5x its original size, 1E worked fast to scale their onboarding and training programs. Using Showpad’s self-directed training courses and PitchIQ^® feature, the team saw a 50% reduction in seller onboarding time. “Showpad’s training and coaching capabilities have had big value in getting our messaging across to new sellers and understanding where they’re at in their training and how comfortable they are talking about our product,” says Michael. “PitchIQ^® provides a safe space where people can try to get their messaging right and then receive 360-degree feedback from their peers and managers.”

With Showpad as their central hub for content, sellers now find and share content easier than ever before. And are confident that the content they’re sharing is always the most recent, marketing-approved version. “The simplified approach to getting up-to-date content and then easily sharing that content is something we would now be lost without,” says Michael.

The introduction of Shared Spaces to collaborate and engage with buyers was another big win for 1E’s sales organization. “Shared Spaces have been a huge advantage to our current opportunities with our sales force,” says Michael. “We’re getting lots of value out of the ability to have a collaborative digital sales room.” Shared Spaces have since been adopted as 1E’s new standard, with every new opportunity requiring its own Shared Space as part of the selling process. The team has since seen a 6-8 week reduction in average sales cycle time and an increase in cross-sell and upsell revenue by up to 25%.

1E’s single-person enablement team is now empowered to work at the same pace and caliber as larger enablement functions. With all the information sellers need easily available on the platform, 1E’s sole enablement leader can take a step back from the day-to-day execution and focus on bolstering strategy and cross-functional collaboration.

1E plans to further explore Showpad use cases across the business, such as Pages to house internal information and kiosk mode for product demos at tradeshows. “There’s so much more functionality in Showpad to explore,” says Michael.