Because hiring a training team, developing courseware, and hosting classes is expensive, organizations are always looking for cost-effective, streamlined ways to onboard and educate employees. Using a framework that includes on-demand and informal training powered by AI can reduce the time, effort and labor needed to develop and deliver longer structured classroom curricula. Training departments can slice lengthier classes into bite-sized modules that salespeople can consume on the go, increasing the time those reps spend selling. When a company releases a new product, it doesn't have to schedule a formal, in-person class that cuts into active selling time.
Adaptive, intelligent training admirably serves selling organizations in several key areas:
- Ensure training participation: Learning platforms with dynamic training capabilities log all the data when salespeople consume training. In an easy-to-navigate dashboard, HR and sales management can:
- Monitor employees to see when they complete (or fail to complete) required onboarding, such as diversity training and benefits explainer videos, or necessary certifications like OSHA.
- Identify gaps in knowledge revealed when training employees don't complete or struggle with courses, which can inform an action plan to help those employees succeed.
- Identify areas of improvement based on reps’ successes and challenges when selling particular product offerings in the portfolio
- Discover which training the top performers complete and recommend them to other sales reps
- View which reps are passing quizzes and tests to boost their knowledge and skills
- Onboard seasonal and part-time employees: Sales managers can use learning systems to get retail associates up-to-speed quickly so they can start making sales and helping customers their first day on the job. Mobile-first experiences have become critical to retail stores that usually have few desktops or laptops for associates to complete their courses during peak seasons.
- Reduce training budget: As dynamic training takes root in the company's culture, management can gradually shift more learning to on-demand and JIT learning and decrease the budget allocated to trainers, course developers, real estate (classrooms) for instructor-led courses and travel.
- Retain top talent: Learning is a powerful motivator when you hire passionate, curious sales reps or retail associates. Sure, they will enjoy taking training that will help them bring in more revenue, increase their pay and bonuses and advance their careers. But for many, learning is a reward in itself. A corporation with a culture that celebrates learning is a more enjoyable, challenging and satisfying place to work for the right employees.
- Control access permissions: If certain training contains highly sensitive information, the training team can use the sales enablement platform to grant access only to employees in particular roles.
- Gamification: Training developers can create leader boards that show who has completed the most training, done so most quickly and earned the highest grades. Nothing spurs on sales reps like a little friendly competition, especially in today's world of social media and social proof.
In a commercial world that races forward at breakneck speed, continuously adapt your approach to sales training. You'll retain your top producers, boost the skills and confidence of up-and-coming performers (and laggards) and outsell your competitors — and impress your buyers.