Pardot (and marketing in general) does not suffer from a lack of resources; there are innumerable guides, blogs, white papers, walk throughs, opinions, perspectives, how to’s and how not to’s.
The issue, more often, is that resources like these tend to look at features, functions, and ideas in isolation. They can struggle to show how features interconnect and can be adjusted to your unique strategy needs and requirements.
For me, a prime example of this is with Pardot Scoring and Grading. In 2015, as a brand new implementation specialist for Pardot, I spent a good part of my day googling questions.
(This habit hasn’t changed if I’m honest. But cut me some slack — there is a lot to remember with Pardot.)
Inevitably, I clicked on the first link from my Google search, which happened to be the Pardot Scoring and Grading Lab.
The Pardot Scoring and Grading Lab is a fantastic resource; I will not have a bad word said about it. Countless Pardot admins have learned about Scoring and Grading by using its interactive and colorful features. But it doesn’t tell the whole story. It tells you how things work — not why you should care and what it means for YOUR business.
Connect features to strategy through Pardot training
That’s where training comes into play. The best trainers will add context, outline use cases, talk through scenarios, and challenge your perceptions and ideas.
As an example, let’s take a look at how marketing automation training can expand our understanding of and appreciation for Pardot Scoring and Grading.
How Pardot training fosters the curiosity, creativity, and confidence to connect features to strategy
1. Foster curiosity
Let’s say you were to enroll in the Sercante Scoring & Grading workshop. To start, we want to get you thinking about lead qualification in the right way and what it can mean for your business.
Our trainers utilize their “In the trenches” experience to highlight and discuss critical considerations, important caveats and varying methodologies of lead qualification.
You’ll leave with a more holistic understanding of how lead qualification works. And your instructors will guide you toward creating a list of questions and topics to discuss with your colleagues and stakeholders after the course is over.
2. Build creativity
With that holistic understanding in place, we’ll talk through practical use cases, scenarios, and powerful questions.
You’ll walk away with a framework and tools to define and customize how scoring and grading can work for your business and fall in love with a future vision of lead qualification for your business.
3. Instill confidence
The final step is to instill confidence. We’ll talk about marketing automation best practices, run through step-by-step in-system demos, and test our knowledge with fun quizzes and unique scenarios.
You’ll walk away with a renewed sense of confidence and a list of next steps and goals to help achieve your vision.
Empowered with the proper perspective, the right questions, goals, and an unbridled level of confidence, you’ll be ready to enhance or implement an effective lead qualification process for your business.
Work toward your ‘aha’ moments
Whitepapers, blog articles, and Salesforce documentation are an important starting point. But you can unlock true potential by partnering with and learning from experienced and passionate individuals through things like Salesforce user group events and Pardot training courses.
Mike Morris had a great aha moment involving Pardot scoring categories. He combined knowledge from his friends in the community, which included blog posts from Erin Duncan and Skyler Nakashima, to connect Pardot features to a Sercante clients’ sales and marketing strategy.
You can read about the Pardot Scoring Categories + Handlebars Merge Language peanut-butter-and-chocolate moment here, which explains how to use the features to power dynamic content.
Sign up for Pardot training courses
No matter where you are in your Pardot journey or what course you join, you’ll walk away with all of the tips, tricks, advice, guidance, goals and, most importantly, the confidence you need to be wildly successful.
Interested in learning more? Check out our upcoming courses or reach out to [email protected].
