Consistent and quality training holds a lot of promise for many departments in your organization, but enabling support of your sales team can significantly boost revenue and results in your business. Creating and implementing eLearning for sales teams can be very effective for improving outcomes and helping salespeople to navigate common challenges, but this process should be done with the specific guidelines below in mind.

The mobile nature of many sales teams means that eLearning is probably a better fit for ongoing training in comparison with trying to get all the key employees in the same place at the same time. With more flexibility, better interaction, easy information access, documentation, and consistency across the board, the right eLearning program can drive your sales team and entire company towards success.

eLearning as a Base: Recognize the Power of Your Competitive Edge

It’s said that nearly half of all salespeople learn through trial and error. Therefore, the development of eLearning materials for your sales team is just the beginning. With every new module or course, make sure you understand how this will fit into the bigger picture. Takeaways that can be used in simulations or in practice are the most likely to gain traction with your sales team.

Establishing the initiatives for your online training programs can help you decide how best to use eLearning. When done properly, eLearning for the sales team can:

• Enhance existing communication skills and build new ones for recent team additions
• Provide instant access to the training tools your team needs most
• Implement adaptive learning strategies for salespeople on your team to get individualized support and help
• Implement upgrades and updates to online demos that salespeople can use with the target market more confidently

Use Video Simulations Whenever Possible

When developing eLearning for your sales team, a best practice is to use real world applications and problems presented over video to help them see the training in action and what the possible responses may be.

With an eLearning platform, setting up scenarios that reflect the sales environment as closely as possible will better position your team to use these strategies in the field. Address common challenges and objections in the sales process while providing helpful tips for navigating their sales environment, whether it’s over the phone, in person, or on video.

In addition to video, other forms of multimedia have been shown to increase engagement for learners and their likelihood of retention.

Use Gamification

Salespeople are driven by numbers and at least a little bit of a competitive spirit. Gamifying the eLearning experience with badges, notifications, and leaderboards taps into this spirit.

A reward system supports the incentivization of learning and creates a full feedback loop so that sales team members can see the end-to-end cycle from learning to actual practice. It doesn’t hurt that acknowledging their accomplishments is a big boost for motivation when the learning translates over into sales calls and meetings!

Leverage Microlearning

The tendency to provide as much information as possible over any eLearning platform should be avoided whenever possible. According to one study from Sales Performance International, multi-day sales trainings lead to a loss of up to 50% of the learning content within several weeks. When developing eLearning for sales teams, smaller steps can break down important concepts into smaller pieces for better retention and understanding.

Imagine the effectiveness of a TED talk. These microlearning talks can get across a lot of interesting and valuable information in 15 minutes or less, so use a critical eye when analyzing the structure of your learning modules. Odds are you might be able to delete some information entirely and reorganize topics or concepts into smaller pieces that allow your team to better recall and leverage the knowledge.

We're leveraging our own tools to internally inform and drive our sales team here at GT, so we know how to best help you do the same. Interested?