Webinar: A modern learning approach to boost sales training

• 3 min read

Today’s sales enablement for the long term success of your sales team

For a long time, technology has dictated our learning, but more recently, technology has adapted to the way we learn, so our learning patterns have begun dictating the technology we use. So many organizations have made a goal of learner-centric training, and so to explore this trend, Brandon Hall Group and Docebo co-hosted a webinar focused on learning management systems (LMS) for ramping up sales training.

In a survey, Brandon Hall Group found sales training has fallen on the list of organizational priorities. They found people strategy is topping the list of priorities for more than 25% of companies, even above business strategy (19.6%) and operational strategy (15.1%). Sales strategy comes in fourth as the top priority for just 8.6% of companies surveyed.

Within their sales training, companies report the need to boost performance. Two-thirds want to develop their sellers to perform better and more consistently and a little less than one-third want to utilize new and blended learning delivery models.

Using a traditional sales training event, you may fly your salespeople to a central location and sit them down for training. Forbes estimates a three day sales program following that model, could conservatively cost around $100,000 for 25 people, not including the lost sales opportunities as a result of pulling your team from their routine.

This type of formal learning is heavily impacted by Hermann Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve, which establishes that after event-based training, knowledge retention can drop from 100% to 58% just 19 minutes after your learner steps out of the door, taking your training ROI with them.

If implemented correctly, formal learning is effective, but research shows formal learning works best if it is blended with experiential and collaborative learning. Striking this kind of blended learning approach will ultimately benefit your learner.

An LMS with the following embedded learning features is essential:

  • Contextual learning – Based on role, location, and development path.
  • Small – Short videos and quick updates.
  • Informal – Give it an everyday feel.
  • Mobile – Gives sales team down time and lets them get the info they need when they need it.
  • Social – Give them an environment that feeds their desire to engage and learn after a class.

Brandon Hall Group’s High Performing Organizations follow companies with improved KPI’s year-after-year. They measure revenue, profitability, customer satisfaction, market share, among other things. What are these high performing companies doing differently?

Ninety-three percent of them use multiple learning opportunities outside of classroom. For others, 75% use outside of classroom training. Ninety percent utilize learning programs with a mix of formal and informal experiential elements, as opposed to 76% of other companies. Eighty-three percent of companies are able to deliver personalized learning tailored to learners, compared to 66% of other organizations.

Brandon Hall Group also found companies using the 70:20:10 learning model have seen 95% improvements in individual performance, and 91% saw organizational improvements.

What can you do to improve sales training?

Virtual role playing – 70% learn by observation, in a virtual environment, not on the sales floor.
Gamification – Salespeople are competitive by nature. With gamification, team members can see where they rang among their peers.
Short videos – People respond great to videos. Being able to deliver how-to-videos and refreshers is important.

Retraining your sales teams on your constantly evolving product, service or regulatory compliance requirements can quickly become costly and time-consuming, so an LMS with collaboration tools lets your learners and experts transfer knowledge fluidly.

Docebo’s newest application, Coach and Share, puts the learning in the employee’s hands. Your LMS can help call upon your experts to create and deliver content.

For more information on how to train your modern sales force for today’s market, watch the Docebo and Brandon Hall Group webinar.