Product Coaching: How To Empower Gross sales Groups With TalentLMS
Activate your sales force with product training
If we’re being honest, sales are a disproportionately large part of your business success, but it’s not just about numbers and sales. Your sales teams are key to building customer trust and loyalty. Happy customers mean more brand awareness and business growth. Supporting your sales force is an investment in the future of your business, and product training is critical to making that investment.
The product training focuses on in-depth product knowledge. It conveys the advantages and disadvantages of your products and services and trains your teams on the weaknesses, features and advantages of the customers.
Why your sales teams need product training
With good training, your sales reps can offer your customers a great shopping experience. Understanding your product’s features and competitive advantages gives it confidence. They are more comfortable answering customer questions and concerns.
And when they can get their job done comfortably, they are more likely to stick with you and secure future relationships for themselves. The more extensive your product training, the better prepared your team is.
Training content can go beyond basic functions and include, for example, adapting a solution to the customer’s situation. It can help people answer frequently asked questions and direct customers to the right support resources. It also includes sales processes and future plans for the product.
Given the benefits, implementing sales training seems like a quick win. With the right LMS, you can run dynamic training and conduct it in different locations. However, real sales promotion isn’t as simple as offering a course and waiting for salespeople to take the chance to learn something.
The challenges of training sales teams
Product training for sales teams presents some unique challenges. The nature of salespeople work means they are busy and likely to be pulled in many different directions as they juggle customer inquiries. The attention span is short and long, drawn-out training modules can hamper the achievement of quotas.
The technical nature of LMS training can also be an obstacle for some. Online product training courses can be obnoxious if they are complex or require a certain level of technical competence. Finding the right platform for your sales training is just as important as offering the right content.
Creating Working Product Training Programs: Two Case Studies
Two TalentLMS customers discussed the challenges they faced in training their sales teams. From engaging their sales reps to providing critical information to their teams, both knew their product training had to be more than a one-off event.
A business hit by the pandemic
Deliveroo, an online grocery shipping company that operates in multiple countries, found that its business has changed dramatically due to the pandemic. You were suddenly on board many restaurants that needed a way to continue their business amid widespread shutdowns.
The company has developed new protocols and services to provide financial assistance to restaurants. They wanted to be able to quickly and accurately communicate these changes to their sales teams and help them implement them.
Previously, they used Slack messages, workplace posts, or email to notify teams about such projects. However, according to Marcus Verri, Deliveroo’s global sales training manager, they weren’t very effective. “This is communication, not necessarily training,” he says.
A company looking for an accessible, user-friendly solution
Isuzu UTE wanted to provide product training for salespeople and service technicians. On-site training for sales teams wasn’t enough and they wanted to expand their learning programs.
Your new solution had to fit into the busy schedule of employees. It also had to work for audiences that ranged from “living and breathing technicians” to people intimidated by technology.
Andrew Greene, senior product analyst, said they wanted training that was accessible. It had to be available when people needed it and give detailed answers. They also wanted to avoid disrupting busy workloads.
In both companies, executives were looking for a way to automate the training process. They also wanted to provide a consistent learning experience across the company. Aside from their individual challenges, both had concerns that many organizations may be aware of:
- They needed effective training, but also an easy-to-use platform so that staff could actually engage with the courses.
- The sales teams had their hands full. They were busy serving customers and making sales. They needed training that served them on their own schedules and didn’t take them away for long periods of time.
- They needed a financially scalable solution. They wanted to roll out the training across industries – even in countries – and didn’t want the cost of travel, venue or instructor to hinder the training.
Both companies turned to TalentLMS to create and implement successful product training programs that met their needs.
How TalentLMS contributes to successful product training
Many companies share similar concerns about product training for their sales teams. TalentLMS makes it easy to conduct successful sales training with the following advantages and features.
user friendliness
TalentLMS is easy to use for both course creators and learners. Whether you’re creating courses from scratch or using existing content, you can create courses, add users, and track progress with just a few clicks. The user-friendly interface also makes it easy to edit courses as you add or update training materials.
The platform is just as easy for learners to access and navigate. Isuzu UTE was particularly concerned about the convenience of employees with technology. However, Andrew reports that after their successful rollout, people log in and get involved quickly. And there was little to no demand for technical support.
Deliveroo was particularly happy with the customization options. They were able to create a layout that was similar to the portal they were using and that matched the company’s trademark. They report that sales teams took it over immediately.
Both companies found that training was more motivating because it was easily available when people needed it.
Gamification functions
A small friendship competition goes a long way towards motivating learners. Adding game elements or gamification keeps learners invested and encourages learning.
TalentLMS has built-in functions to make training more motivating. There are options for adding points, badges, and leaderboards to your courses.
Seeing their progress encourages learners to return often and get through the courses quickly. It also helps them retain what they have learned by making knowledge acquisition a challenge.
Interactive content
When learners interact with the content, they can get more out of their learning experience. TalentLMS makes it easy to add tests, quizzes, assignments and surveys at the push of a button. These features grab learner’s attention and enhance learning
Andrew Greene notes that interactive elements have made training at Isuzu more attractive. “We were also able to embed quizzes behind the videos and it was very well received.”
Finished courses
TalentLMS’s content library, TalentLibrary ™, offers a growing collection of pre-built video courses. They cover a range of soft skills that all teams need to be successful at work.
TalentLibrary makes it easy for you to evolve your training efforts with courses that cover key organizational tasks, including key sales training fundamentals. The courses are designed to fit the busy schedule. All courses last a maximum of 15 minutes. They are all designed and reviewed by experts, which means that the content is not only current and helpful, but also memorable.
Deliveroo found immense value in the TalentLibrary. They were able to quickly get training up and running across the company with content tailored to their needs. “There is no way I can produce the content that you have,” says Marcus. “I would need several months alone.”
Microlearning
With appointments often hindering training, more and more companies are turning to micro-learning. It’s easier to digest information in small pieces. And, during busy weeks, save less time by delivering precise, to-the-point courses. TalentLMS supports shorter, bite-sized training modules that employees can get through quickly.
This role was significant in Isuzu UTE’s decision to conduct sales training through TalentLMS. Long lessons were prohibitive given the time they had taken from work and the tremendous amount of learning that went into each of them. “We asked whether the 10-minute modules were too long or too short. 93% [of employees] said it was about right, ”says Andrew.
Smaller parts make it easier to focus on individual concepts or skills. Plus, learners can quickly find the answers they’re looking for or repeat a specific session when they need to refresh their memories.
Conclusion
Successful product training doesn’t just mean more sales. When you enable employees to do their best job, you are investing in long-term customer relationships and dedicated sales teams.
TalentLMS addresses the challenges typical of sales training and enables simple and effective implementation. Within the LMS, you can track metrics for learning and understanding. However, the real measure of success, according to Deliveroo and Isuzu UTE, is changing people’s behavior at work. They achieve their KPIs and grow with the organization.
Learning benefits the careers of your sales force, your customers, and your organization. Andrew has seen that kind of business growth at Isuzu. “Now, [salespeople] Feel more connected to the brand because they receive this training regularly, ”he says.
TalentLMS
Easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to like, TalentLMS is designed to get a “yes” vote from everyone, including C-level executives, budget managers, and busy employees. Instead of checking out, your entire organization leans on the training.
