The Challenge
Outdated Tools and Fragmented Systems Slow Down Sales
As Vice President of Sales Enablement at QAD, Beth Shuman knew that efficient, seamless access to current materials was essential for a sales team working on the front lines of manufacturing technology. However, QAD’s homegrown content management system struggled to meet the company’s growing needs, making it increasingly difficult for reps to quickly locate accurate, branded materials.
“Anytime we slow our sellers down, it’s problematic,” Beth explained, “and the old system returned a lot of content, which made it challenging for reps to determine if they had the latest, compliant materials.”
Without confidence in their content, reps faced potential misalignment in their conversations with customers, impacting their productivity and overall customer experience.
Beyond content, the QAD team faced limitations in training and onboarding. The absence of a structured learning management system meant that training was fragmented, which slowed the ramp-up time for new hires and made it difficult to support both new and experienced team members.
“We had onboarding resources but couldn’t bring everything together in one place,” Beth noted. The lack of integration between learning and content management created a gap in QAD’s sales enablement strategy, which Beth aimed to address with a new, streamlined solution that would unify content, training, and actionable insights.
Beth Shuman
Vice President of Sales Enablement
The Solution
Seismic’s Unified Platform Delivers a New Standard in Efficiency and Engagement
QAD selected Seismic’s Enablement Cloud to meet its growing needs, creating an integrated platform where content, learning, and analytics came together to support a high-performing sales team.
Seismic Content transformed how QAD’s team accessed and managed resources. With Seismic’s intuitive Page view, QAD reps could now visually navigate a centralized, up-to-date repository organized by category, making it easy to find materials for each stage of the sales process.
Beth emphasized the difference this made: “Now, everything is all in one place. We no longer have sellers wondering if they have the latest version of a document or spending valuable time searching for resources.”
This streamlined access enabled reps to work with confidence, eliminating the inefficiencies that had previously slowed them down. For training and onboarding, QAD implemented Seismic Learning to create a fully integrated experience that would accelerate new hire readiness and provide ongoing skill development.
Beth Shuman
Vice President of Sales Enablement
Through a comprehensive 12-week onboarding program built within Seismic Learning, new reps can now access training resources, sales methodologies, and customer-facing content all in one place.
“Being able to display pages with both learning and content materials in a structured plan has truly streamlined ramp-up times for our new hires,” Beth added.
To further enhance engagement, QAD introduced Seismic’s Digital Sales Rooms (DSRs). This feature allowed QAD’s sales reps to compile all relevant content for a buyer in a single digital space, fostering a more personalized experience and allowing the sales team to maintain control over content versioning.
Beth highlighted how DSRs have elevated the customer experience: “Our buyers appreciate having all resources in one place, and it’s easy for us to keep it current. This way, the customer never has to dig through old emails to find something. We’ve even seen our reps compete to create the best Digital Sales Room, which has been fantastic for adoption.”
Seismic’s analytics brought QAD’s content strategy full circle, empowering the team with insights into buyer engagement and content effectiveness. By analyzing metrics on which resources were viewed, shared, and acted upon, QAD’s sales and marketing teams could refine their content strategies based on actual usage.
“We can now clearly identify which content is driving engagement and, conversely, which materials aren’t being used,” Beth explained. “This not only informs our sales approach but also sparks valuable conversations with marketing about creating content that truly meets our team’s needs.”
The Results
A Fully Empowered Sales Team and Enhanced Customer Experience
Since implementing Seismic, QAD has experienced significant improvements in both sales efficiency and buyer engagement. The solution has allowed QAD’s sales reps to focus on meaningful interactions with customers, knowing they are presenting accurate, on-brand content every time.
“Our team now has the confidence that they are always using the latest materials,” Beth noted, “and the impact on their productivity has been palpable.”
QAD’s structured onboarding program, powered by Seismic Learning, has transformed the new hire experience, shortening ramp-up time and helping reps become effective contributors more quickly.
Looking ahead, QAD is eager to explore Seismic’s advanced AI capabilities, including Aura, to bring even greater efficiency and actionable insights to their sales process. Beth shared her vision, saying, “In challenging economic times, it’s essential to invest in tools that make our current sales force more efficient. Seismic continues to be a critical partner in achieving that goal.”