Gaining a Competitive Sales Advantage with Virtual Micro-Learning

Deepti Sundareshan on May 16, 2018

In today’s ever-changing marketplace, it’s becoming more and more difficult to get an edge over competitors. Developing a strong value proposition is one way to clearly explain to prospects why they should buy your solution over others. In fact, a great value proposition could be the difference between losing a sale or closing it. According to HubSpot, only 69% of B2B firms have established value propositions, yet 54 percent of companies do nothing to optimize theirs. A strong value proposition alone is not enough to get ahead of your business rivals. It takes a well-prepared salesforce who can effectively leverage your value proposition to make the difference. The best way to prepare them to do so is with the ongoing, bite-sized training that’s accessible from anywhere. Here, we’ll show you how you’ll gain a competitive sales advantage with virtual micro-learning.

Attract and retain good talent

According to research by Gallup,

59% of millennials say opportunities to learn and grow are extremely important to them when

applying for a job

. In comparison, 44% of Gen Xers and 41% of baby boomers say the same about these types of opportunities. Plus, the Harvard Business Review found that dissatisfaction with development efforts such as training and coaching cause many to leave their job for another with better development opportunities.

Sales rep engagement increases when micro-learning is used instead of other training methods because it’s in a format that’s easily incorporated into their routine while meeting their desire to learn. It also increases job satisfaction, since the sales staff feels more prepared and enjoys their work more. Plus, micro-learning is fun!

Faster onboarding

Effective salespeople are masters of a complex skill set. It takes technical expertise and fine-tuned people skills to translate product specs into persuasive value. Micro-learning

shortens ramp time. This means less time to full productivity and more reps selling at their full potential at all times. This reduces the financial drain on the organization and creates a stronger selling team compared to those of competitors.

Always up-to-date

In today’s marketplace, there’s always something new to learn and changes to know. They include updates relating to product, marketplace, prospect challenges, industry information, competitors, and the best sales techniques. With micro-learning, your reps are continually learning and always up to date on the latest need-to-know information.

It helps them easily

keep their knowledge and skills fresh. Consistently improving through reinforcement with practice and application, they’re always ready for any prospect or scenario.

The right information at the right time

Since virtual micro-learning is available from anywhere on any device, sales reps can review the information they need, when they need it. For example, they can refresh on value propositions for specific prospects just prior to presenting to or meeting with, them. This easy-to-access information makes it possible for reps to respond promptly to prospect and customer questions too, resulting in increased sales and customer satisfaction.

This content, consumed at the moment the rep most needs it, is reinforced with an immediate application that results in greater retention. The individualized learning experience that micro-learning provides keeps reps interested and wanting to learn more to fill their individual learning gaps.

Increased productivity

Unlike other learning methods,

micro-learning doesn’t interrupt your reps’ daily work, it fits right in. They remain on-the-job instead of sitting in a training room where they aren’t productive. Also, your team members learn faster and retain more with micro-learning, so they’re better prepared to close more business in less time.

Agile

Matching the pace of today’s business, virtual micro-learning is agiler than other forms of training and communication. Due to their brevity, micro-learning courses can be produced quickly and updated on the go. Plus, notifications about changes to your company, competition, product, and more are easily created and distributed with just a few clicks.

This allows your organization to adapt to change quickly and easily in the marketplace.

As you can see, micro-learning enables your sales force to be better prepared to meet with various prospects, differentiate your solution, and win more deals. With the top talent that’s always up-to-date and continually improving, you’ll already have an edge over your rivals. The resulting productivity combined with your ability to rapidly change with the marketplace, your industry opponents will be no match. It’s time for you to give this method of learning a try and experience the competitive sales advantage with virtual micro-learning in your company.

Reducing Overall Sales Training Costs By Using Virtual Micro-Learning

Deepti Sundareshan on May 9, 2018

Historically sales training has been event-based. The costs can really add up with this style of learning. Fortunately, with today’s sales technologies, you no longer need to invest in old-style educational methods. If your organization is like most, you’re looking for ways to contain spending. Using virtual micro-learning is a great way to do so. In fact, it’s been found to cost at least 50% less to develop than traditional training. That’s some significant savings. So, how is it possible to reduce costs with virtual micro-learning for sales?

What is virtual micro-learning?

Micro-learning involves bite-sized, mobile-friendly, highly focused, individualized training content that can be retrieved from anywhere. That’s what makes it virtual. It includes various content types such as videos, games, quizzes, audio recordings, simulations and more. Research shows that learning in short bursts over time, combined with short quizzes, results in a better long-term recall. That’s why this method of learning is more effective than traditional classroom or event-based training.

Where can you reduce costs?

There are many categories where you can reduce costs with virtual micro-learning for sales. They include:

  •         Travel
  •         Facilities and planning
  •         Materials
  •         Trainers
  •         Re-training
  •         Onboarding
  •         Productivity

Travel

Traditional classroom or event-based training often requires your sales staff to travel to a central location. Costs such as airfare or mileage plus meals and other travel-related expenses can really add up. The larger your salesforce the higher this expense. Of course, for global enterprises, travel is even more significant. When utilizing virtual micro-learning, you reduce or eliminate the need for these sales training-related travel costs.

Facilities and planning

Sales training often involves locating and renting facilities for educational events. Even single-day events, or those taught in your own facilities, typically include meals and/or snacks for all participants as well. Micro-learning is incorporated into your sales reps’ activities on an ongoing basis. Plus it’s accessible from anywhere and on any device. This means you no longer need to incur facility expenses or a planner to make the arrangements.

Materials

Sales readiness materials are all stored in the cloud. This virtual micro-learning eliminates the need to produce, transport, or ship bulky training manuals and hand-outs. You no longer need to update existing print manuals or bear the costs associated with such a time-consuming process. The content used for micro-learning are considerably shorter than traditional materials and can be created much more quickly. This reduces development costs.

Trainers

Switching to this short-format, easily accessible learning format means that you no longer need to pay a trainer to teach in live classroom-like settings. You won’t have to pay an instructor’s hourly rates. In fact, you’ll be able to use many internal SME’s, and other knowledgeable staff members, to create training materials. You can also repurpose your existing training content.

Re-training

It’s a known fact that learning is forgotten if it’s not reiterated often. Based on research by Hermann Ebbinghaus’ research, more than 40% is forgotten within just a few days. By the end of a months’ time, participants have lost 80-90% of the information taught. This creates the need to re-train on topics periodically when traditional training methods are used. Reps are taken out of the field, yet again, simply to refresh their memory of material already covered. With micro-learning, you never need to conduct retraining or refresher training sessions. Plus, information reinforcement is built into the easily accessible bite-sized training style.

Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

(as seen on flashcardlearner.com)

Onboarding

Research indicates that employee retention increases when companies keep them engaged and provide quality training. Virtual micro-learning enables excellent training that accomplishes both of these needs. This, in turn, reduces sales rep turnover, the need for new hires, and the resulting onboarding expenses. Plus, micro-learning accelerates new rep ramp rate because modules are short and easy to digest. This means that they reach full productivity faster, reducing onboarding costs, and increasing their contribution to the bottom line sooner.

Productivity

Although productivity is a soft cost, its financial impact is very real. Traditional training requires your sales force to lose valuable selling time that can never be recovered. Sales dollars are reduced during the time your sales team is at an event. It also takes your reps time to get back into their normal routine once they return from training. Micro-learning doesn’t have this negative impact on sales productivity because it easily fits into your sales reps’ daily schedule.

These savings are just one aspect of the value of using virtual micro-learning to educate your sales force. With pressure to contain costs, this is one way that you can accomplish this goal while getting an edge in the marketplace. Next time we’ll be talking about gaining a competitive advantage with virtual micro-learning. In the meanwhile, you can reduce costs with virtual micro-learning for sales so your organization can start experiencing the benefits now.

Leverage Gamification in Sales Training and Coaching

Deepti Sundareshan on March 21, 2018

It used to be that training and coaching were time-consuming and infrequent. As a result, less knowledge was retained, skill development was slow and behavioral change with minimal. Now, companies are getting great results by using gamification. Gamification is the application of the look and feel of games to engage people, motivate action, and promote learning.

According to Gartner’s Brian Burke, gamification has proven to be very successful in engaging people and motivating them to change behaviors, develop skills, or solve problems. If you’re wondering how to take advantage of this popular trend, here are some ways to leverage gamification in sales training and coaching programs at your organization.

Get them started with a familiar experience

Many people in today’s sales forces are Gen X and Y. They’ve been playing video games as they’ve grown up. This makes it easy to get them involved in learning when gamification is employed. Introduce the idea of simply getting through one learning module (or “level”) at a time before moving to the next. Rewards at the completion of the first level with points or digital badges reps can accumulate and display to coworkers. The sooner they see progress, the more motivated they’ll be to participate further.

Encourage competition

Although individual employees may be working toward individual goals, badges and points can be used to display levels of accomplishment. Post them on a dashboard or leaderboard that is accessible company-wide, office-wide or team-wide. This will register as a method of recognition too.

Identify SMEs or go-to resources

Gamification allows managers to identify who knows the most about a given topic, or who’s best at a particular skill, based on metrics. This helps identify team members who are becoming subject matter experts or excellent resources for others on the team. This may be used to facilitate rewards to officially acknowledge key accomplishments.

Motivate them to learn more skills

Rewards at the completion of one step or competency, inspire reps to move on to the next one. Elements of gamification incorporated in learning initiatives emphasize achievements and recognize them. People want to gain skills when they go through training but it’s better when others know about it.

Break learning into bite-sized segments

A complicated process, topic, or goal may seem insurmountable when approached through traditional training methods. Gamification can eliminate potential intimidation by breaking the subject down into small segments. This helps the rep focus on bite-sized amounts of information per lesson and makes complex learning more fun and engaging. Plus, as research has shown, small frequent sessions are more successful at facilitating the absorption and retention of knowledge or skills, than lengthy, infrequent ones.

Make deadlines fun

Work schedules are often packed with deadlines and activities. Gamification makes deadlines feel like fun. Instead of telling reps that they must have certain modules completed by a certain date, why not set up a competition around who can accumulate the most points by that date. You can still give them a due date and make it enjoyable in the process.

Gameplay

Incorporate short, engaging sessions that are timed or defined by the total number of questions. Quizzes that are converted into games at the end of modules, allow the measurement and reinforcement of knowledge while being engaging and entertaining. In fact, a study by the University of Colorado revealed that games improve knowledge and skill learning while increasing retention rates by 9%.

Scenario-based learning

Introduce new knowledge and skills in simulations of real-life scenarios followed by the participant recording themselves practicing using that same knowledge or skill. This allows coaches to provide timely feedback. These simulations make it easier for reps to apply what they learn without needing to adapt it to actual situations on the job. This method of gamification is not only practical but engages the team member immediately.

Capture and analyze data routinely

The data collected from all these games allows coaches to gain valuable insights. It facilitates the identification of individual coaching requirements and the provision of important feedback without the need to meet in an office. This way coaching easily fits into busy day-to-day schedules and progress continues.

Social elements

Including a news feed to share updates, recognize team members’ accomplishments, and more adds a social element to training and coaching. It promotes open communication between reps, allowing them to cheer each other on.  This further increases program participation, engagement, and results.

Start to leverage gamification in sales training and coaching at your organization. These elements stimulate friendly competition, encourage a spirit of achievement, keep users engaged, and drive behavioral change. The game feels also motivates participants to continually advance, so you see ongoing growth and improvement. Now, isn’t that the result you’re seeking?

[Podcast] Managing Change in a Global Industry with Johanna Kuusisto – Episode 28

Shrimithran R on March 21, 2018

In this 21 minute

podcast Johanna explains:

  • How to manage industry transformation from a sales perspective
  • How they build and measure sales competencies consistently across remote sales teams
  • Her top three tips for implementing change in a global sales force

Wartsila is a Finnish company with over 18,000 professional in over 200 locations in more than 70 countries. The company enables sustainable societies with smart technology. Their solutions cover the energy and marine industries. We spoke to Johanna Kuusisto, Senior Development Manager. She has a background in Learning and Development and now brings her expertise to the sales team.

“I work in marine solutions and am responsible for supporting our salespeople to sell and serve our customers smarter. We develop processes, tools and competencies that help our salespeople be prepared for the future,”

outlines Johanna.

“Our sales cycle can be anything from one to five years. For example, if a cruise line decides to build a new cruise ship our salespeople first need to be engaged early on to influence and be part of the bidding process,”

explains Johanna.

“There are many players in the process – ship owners, shipyards, ship designers, and operators. Our salespeople need to create relationships and build trust with all of them. We also have hundreds of products that our salespeople need to be aware of and understand the value of. They need to match this value with each customer’s specific needs.”

Long sales cycles and complex products make sales challenging at Wartsila, but the rate of change in their industry is accelerating their need to sell differently. 

“There are mega trends happening in our industry. Regulation is changing, some products will be mandatory. People are also getting older which means we need to develop the tourism and service sector more and this involves influences customers, shipyards and ship owners,”

explains Johanna.

“Our salespeople need to accept this change. They need to be flexible in their mindset and keep their know-how up to date.”

Keeping everyone on the same page can be challenging, particularly with information scattered across emails, social media, and documents. This is amplified by remote and global sales teams.

“

Sales readiness is crucial for a company like us. We need to continuously find new ways to work and connect our people.”

The future of the Chief Learning Officer

Deepti Sundareshan on March 7, 2018

“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”―Benjamin Franklin

The role of Chief Learning Officer (CLO) has been around for several years. CLOs are responsible for driving the strategic direction of an organization’s learning. In the past, some have mistaken the role of a CLO to simply be populating the Learning Management System, but things are changing quickly and the role of CLO is now expected to rapidly adapt.

According to

Deloitte’s 2016 Global Human Capital Trends Report

,

“CLOs should become part of the entire employee experience, delivering learning solutions that inspire people to reinvent themselves, develop deep skills, and contribute to the learning of others

.” This change is being driven by several factors, and each one is shaping the role of the CLO in the future.

The future is coming quickly

It might sound obvious, but learning strategy has to reflect the business’ objectives. In the past, learning has sat to one side and focused in on specific technical knowledge or skills, but that’s no longer enough. The CLO needs to understand how the learning agenda fits into their company, the industry and what their competitors are doing. This is because the learning must not only support the business today but into the future.

While CLO’s don’t have crystal balls, they now need to keep an eye on future trends and ensure that their business has the capability and capacity to adapt quickly when required. Disruption is no longer something that happens to other businesses, it’s a real threat for every business so the CLO has to ensure that the business is prepared to weather any storm that may come their way.

Change is the new normal

In the past, learning programs could take weeks to create and be rolled out over the course of months or even years. This approach no longer works, what you learn today could change or be updated next month. This has dramatic implications for the learning agenda.

Learning programs now need to adapt and be flexible enough to accommodate continuous change. This creates challenges both for those who create learning programs and all for the people who are receiving the learning. Not only does information need to be added, changed and updated regularly, but it also needs to be easy to digest.

Learning is a continuous process, and that can’t be taught in workshops or meetings twice a year. Learning programs need to be fluid and integrated into business as usual. This means that managers and those close to the end users need to be integrated into the learning process.

The closer to a topic you are, the quicker you are able to adapt to any change to it. Things like learning agendas that enable managers to give structured and continuous coaching to their team are part of this change. Just in time training is another development that is gaining speed as it allows employees to stay on top of things as and when they need to know them.

Another thing that’s impacting this is the way work is changing as well. More workers operate remotely, work virtually and have flexible hours. This adds a new layer of complexity to how learning programs are rolled out, accessed and reinforced.

New generations are entering the workforce and older ones are leaving

By 2025, 75% of the US workforce

will be millennials, but presently they share their workplaces with Baby Boomers and Generation X. Managing multi-generational workforces has also made the role of the CLO more challenging. Each generation has different learning preferences – millennials are connected to their mobile phone while many baby boomers prefer face to face communication.

When it comes to developing learning strategies, the preferences and needs of each generation need to be taken into account. If all employees are not engaged then some will be left behind when it comes to development.

CLOs need to look at not only the content of learning programs but also how it is delivered. Some things to consider include social networks, mobile enablement and the way content is structured. For example, millennials have a preference for microlearning, which is a big shift from traditional instructional led training.

The changing dynamics within the workplace is also raising new issues. As Baby Boomers prepare to leave the workforce, along with them goes decades of experience and knowledge. Some would also prefer to remain connected to their workforce, raising the possibility of new learning opportunities like mentoring.

All of these factors need to be included in the learning agenda and prioritized by the CLO in a way that engages all employees and meets business objectives.

Every business function needs to justify their position

In the past, learning has been measured by the number of people who have completed courses but this doesn’t demonstrate the value that the learning programs have added to the organization. As organizations become leaner and more agile, every executive and each function needs show how they contribute to the achieving the business goals. This forms the basis of a business case when competing for resources. To do this CLOs need robust reporting and tracking.

Analysis should show how the learning programs have changed the way people work, made them more productive or improved their revenue earning capability. This must then also dovetail into the broader business objectives. Is the learning program a competitive differentiator in the recruitment marketplace? Does it help the business retain employees? Does the learning have a positive impact on engagement?

Retaining and engaging employees is becoming harder

Learning has traditionally been a one size fits all approach, but in order to retain employees and keep them engaged organizations need to focus in on the individual needs of their employees. Learning programs need to be flexible enough to allow individuals to develop on their own journey. By giving individuals the ability to take some responsibility for their own development and have a say in what capabilities they develop, organizations can improve engagement and build capable workforces.

This means providing learning opportunities outside the classroom. Rather than focusing on role-specific learning and build capabilities. Capabilities extend beyond technical skills and can include understanding, empathy, stakeholder management, and networking. Empower employees to learn at their own pace and to be in charge of their own destiny.

Underpinning all of these developments is the need for technology that supports the changing world of learning. Learning tools that are able to be customized and can adapt to different needs, yet still provide enough structure to support managers and leaders to have consistency in the organization. Technology can’t be an afterthought, it needs to fit in with how people work today and how they will work in the future.

The role of the CLO is certainly changing. With each and every day it becomes more challenging and complex, but it brings so many opportunities to innovate and think differently about how people learn. It’s an exciting time to be a leader in corporate learning.

In Conversation with Procore on Sales Enablement

Abhinav Guru on March 21, 2017

 

This post is based on a webinar on the secret to building a sales enablement powerhouse. You can listen to the entire webinar here.

Procore is the world’s most widely used construction project management software. It helps contractors keep track of their projects throughout the entire lifecycle of a project, from bidding to closeout, and helps them reduce errors and cost overruns. Procore was featured on Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2016 and reached unicorn status on Dec 2016. With such high growth, the size of the company inevitably increased, and they now have over 700 employees in 7 offices across the United States.

Three challenges triggered Procore’s need for sales enablement

Procore’s sales team was growing rapidly and they were having difficulty gauging the performance of their sales team, so they implemented a structured sales enablement program. Alex Jaffe, Sales Enablement Manager for Procore, played a critical role in executing this strategy. The key challenges they addressed by implementing a well-structured sales enablement program included:

  1. Keeping their salespeople up-to-date on a constantly evolving product, industry, and competitive information.
  2. Aligning their core messaging and sales process in a period of hyper-growth. This included hiring new reps and ramping them up quickly.
  3. Managing and delivering sales collateral in a way that ensured a consistent customer experience

They focused on three key areas of excellence

“Our approach to sales enablement is in three different areas of excellence. They are selling skills, a definite approach to product and industry is being a powerful leader in that perspective, and then working efficiently with our technology and maximizing the results. So, we focus really in depth on creating the knowledge, process, and skills to make it simple and digestible,” explained Jaffe.

The strategy was deployed using a two-prong approach

Sales enablement at Procore was structured into two distinct categories:

  1. Segment based
  2.  Functional based

All roles within the categories functioned as a conduit between sales and the different departments involved in each initiative.

The distinction based on functions and initiatives helped Procore handle their overall sales enablement program with ease.

“If you have one person focusing on sales enablement then you are not going to be able to to boil the ocean and focus on all the areas. What you guys can do is use productivity measures and understanding of what you can maximize and then do the prioritization based on that. So, at Procore what we have done is split these into two distinct buckets, which we think are two different mindsets. Different people are responsible for each of these initiatives,” explains Jaffe.

Procore’s sales enablement framework

Procore facilitated a structured, streamlined and outcome-oriented onboarding process to ensure their reps were set up for success. The first 90 days was the initial onboarding phase, and from then on it was about continual improvement, called ongoing enablement.

“We start with a simple framework that works pretty well for us. It’s very important to see sales readiness in the two distinct views. First, the onboarding, which we view as 0-90 days, and then the ongoing enablement which is 90 plus days,” explains Jaffe.

Setting expectations is key to your onboarding program

With the framework in place, Jaffe then suggests setting goals and targets based on your onboarding program. “The first thing that you guys need to start on from an onboarding perspective is understanding the approach you want to do. Ultimately the one thing that you need to address is at what stage of onboarding you are, and what are the outcomes that you want to drive. So, if you are running let’s say, an onboarding program that’s five days long on the next Monday, what does the sales reps need on that day to be successful and working on their own. Maybe it’s about understanding the pitch, understanding the customer stories and understanding how to demo and that’s all that it is. Driving those outcomes and then taking the 30-60-90 days approach and asking what outcomes do I need my teams to have in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, and then proceed to ongoing enablement.”

There are three important objectives to an ongoing plan

According to Jaffe ongoing enablement is as important as the initial onboarding phase.  He recommends that it’s tailor-made for each of your ramped up reps. Procore leverages Mindtickle for its ongoing enablement to achieve these three objectives:

  1. Constant reinforcement of knowledge and skills
  2. Regular updates of knowledge and processes
  3. Periodic re-calibration of processes and skills

Aligning your objectives helps to measure the impact of your program

Before you think about measuring the impact of your program, Jaffe suggests ensuring that it ’s well aligned with your overall objective.

“I think aligning your objectives with your global sales objectives as well as your company’s’ is critically important when you are measuring the impact of sales enablement. Sales enablement is not in a bubble creating its own objectives, it’s going to be completely dependent on what are we trying to drive at a company level and a global sales team level,” explains Jaffe.

At the end of the day, outcomes matter

Jaffe shared insights on how the impact of this program was measured and shared their impressive outcomes. “The most important thing with measuring the impact is identifying leading vs. lagging indicators. Leading indicators are going to be what you can coach and train your reps through. Lagging indicators are how you are going to measure that success. Lagging indicators are going to be the results closed, dollars won improvement in sales and things like that. Leading indicators would be an adoption of your program, how comfortable your reps are with the program.”

Procore has achieved impressive results with their sales enablement strategy, the figures speak for themselves:

  • >90% adoption of content and sales enablement technology
  • Sales reps rate the overall program at 4.8/5 according to their internal NPS survey
  • 99% of their sales reps recommend the program

Through a well-structured sales enablement program, Procore has been able to keep pace with their globally expanding sales team. With Mindtickle they have found the right balance between strategy, data, and technology to achieve an impressive outcome.

[Webinar] Procore’s Secret to Building a Sales Enablement Powerhouse

Shrimithran R on March 2, 2017

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“Sales enablement is about your approach to empowering your team to be successful in different areas and much less about someone owning that function. It’s about an entire organization crowdsourcing and working together to focus on results, learning development and mastering the craft.”

As Manager of Sales Enablement at Procore Technologies, this collaborative approach to enablement has been core to Alex Jaffe’s

success. Procore is one of the world’s most widely used construction management software that recently hit unicorn status.

But it hasn’t been an easy ride Jaffe reflects, “New reps were coming in and we didn’t even have phones set up or Salesforce login. So we really focused on building the foundation. Depending on where you’re at in your company lifecycle you’re going to have different challenges, but it’s all going to revolve around your rapidly growing sales team.”

“Just like racing car drivers, even the rock stars in your sales team need to make sure that their car is perfectly tuned for the track they’re racing on. Sales enablement is just like this. It allows your racing drivers to go fast and go well,” chimes in Marc Wendling, Vice President of Sales at Mindtickle.

In this webinar Alex and Marc explain:

  • How to create a sales enablement program that meets the needs of each stage of your sales reps’ development;
  • What role stakeholders, technology and data play in building a sales enablement framework;
  • Why coaching your sales managers is just as important as training your reps; and
  • How coaching can be personalized to meet each of your reps’ individual needs.

Listen now

to hear Alex Jaffe of Procore Technologies, along with our VP Sales, Marc Wendling, talk with Larry Reeves of AA-ISP about how to create a sales enablement powerhouse that will help you make your sales reps successful.

Listen to the webinar now

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