Thales Avionics is a French multinational organization that operates the world’s farthest-reaching satellite telecommunications network, providing voice and data services on a global scale. Salespeople at its headquarters in France must demonstrate the functionality and value of the company’s on-board navigation and communication terminals to the land, aviation, and maritime markets.

How can a salesperson show the full capability of a product that is best appreciated in a boat, an airplane, or in rugged terrain like a desert or mountain range?

That was the question Thales asked when first considering a sales enablement tool to sell on-board navigation and communication terminals to the land, aviation, and maritime markets. The company had the advantage of working from scratch — it is a relatively new business unit under Thales, which operates the world’s farthest-reaching satellite telecommunications network, providing voice and data services on a global scale.

This business unit needed to be truly global, but until the company signed with Showpad, all of its salespeople only had email to communicate with potential customers all over the world. Not only did the company need technology that could work well in real time with customers in different countries and time zones, but it also wanted a solution that was flexible and reliable — two factors Marketing Specialist Luciana Valdiviezo struggled to find with different vendors.

“Others were not as user-friendly or they had issues which made them unreliable,” she said. “We needed something for us that was easy for us and easy for users. We also needed a product that would cover all of our needs — from trade shows to one-on-one demonstrations to training — because we are selling a highly technical product.”

Showpad’s versatility is tailored for the expansive B2B reselling model Thales uses to get its products around the world. In January 2018, Thales purchased eight logins for its eight resellers, who then downloaded content and distributed it to their salesforce throughout the world.

The resellers also use Showpad to conduct sales training on the company’s three core products: FlightLINK, MissionLINK, and VesselLINK. Each communications product is geared for different verticals — flight, land, and sea. Valdiviezo says Showpad’s all-in-one capacity helped resellers organize the marketing material according to product so it became simple to pull up whenever they had one-on-one time with potential customers.

“To have access to marketing content in real time, rather than scramble through different media, was so important. Showpad created a one-stop shop where everyone could get what they needed — and fast,” she says.

Valdiviezo says the majority of content the company has used so far via Showpad includes presentations and videos, as well as PDFs, brochures, data sheets, and infographics. The savvier salespeople will customize some content they want to emphasize. But the greatest benefit of Showpad by far is Showpad Experiences.

The feature gives salespeople the opportunity to build differentiated, customized, and interactive experiences. The dynamic and visual presentations make the conversations between seller and buyer more effective, which is imperative when the product is highly technical.

The three kinds of Experiences — Atom, Mapper, and Selector — give the user the opportunity to create an interactive mind map or visual product portfolio highlighting key features in an environment the buyer recognizes. They can also establish smart, criteria-based filtering that allows them to sift through their entire portfolio within seconds and instantly find the information the buyer needs.

Valdiviezo says the visual strength of Experiences is what makes it very attractive for Thales because now salespeople can zoom into small details or walk the customer through the product in an imagined space resembling their own.

So far, support from Showpad has been “very good,” she says. After helping the company set up the software and answering all their questions, Valdiviezo and her Showpad salesperson check in every month, and she says they have been responsive to all their questions and needs.

“Showpad has already proved how easy it is to share and access marketing material in real-time,” she says. “But it’s the people who are the real partners to our success.”