Why Custom eLearning is “the New Black” for Sales Training

Traditionally, sales training was a face-to-face affair, delivered in the classroom and incorporating demonstrations from an instructor and role-play activities for participants to learn the practical application of new skills. Today, however, a growing number of businesses are geographically dispersed nationally and even globally, which calls for a smarter solution to sales training. Well-designed custom elearning for sales training can meet this need while saving your organization precious time and money. You could even say that custom elearning is “the new black” for sales training.

Here are some benefits of using custom elearning for Sales Training:

Ultimate Convenience

Don’t make your sales employees wait for the next quarterly face-to-face training session; provide them with a steady stream of custom e-earning as they need it. Custom elearning can be delivered through concise microlearning bursts of approximately five to 10 minutes in duration. That way, you can roll out a new training module whenever you make a change to your sales process and ensure it can be accessed and completed anywhere there’s an internet connection. Don’t make your sales employees wait for the next quarterly face-to-face training session.

Practice Makes Perfect … Especially When Consequence-Free!

While role-play activities offer a safe practice ground for applying sales skills and knowledge, they are only available during the training session or with a willing colleague. Custom elearning modules can include branching customer conversation activities, where employees select from a list of responses and then receive a unique answer from a virtual customer, mimicking a real-life situation. These online learning activities can be made available so sales employees can try them as many times as they like in a consequence-free environment.

Consistent Message, Consistent Outcomes

You want your sales employees to be able to clearly articulate the features and benefits of your products and services consistently. It’s important that they use similar language and provide a similar customer experience each time. If you’re relying on multiple facilitators in different locations, there’s a chance your messages are being delivered without tight consistency. When all sales employees complete the same online training, you streamline your message and build a consistent sales approach across multiple locations. Streamline your message and build a consistent sales approach across multiple locations.

Whether it’s training on your specific sales process or on quality customer conversations, custom e-learning allows you to present content within the context of your business so your employees can connect and relate to it. With generic off-the-shelf training products, messages are often not remembered, as employees simply can’t see how they translate to their specific role. A custom elearning solution can present information through graphic narrative scenarios using actual employees and the common business-specific situations they encounter when selling your products or services.

Meaningful, Relatable Content

Let’s say your organization has a strategic business goal to increase sales by 5 percent this financial year and has identified several key skills to assist employees in achieving this goal. The most powerful way to present the skills is in alignment with your sales process using real case studies from your sales team. With custom elearning, you can link content to real-life scenarios to make it meaningful and relatable, so employees can immediately apply learning on the job. Custom elearning delivers additional “bang for your buck,” as sales training can include targeted, specific assessments and be aligned with your brand values and image.