Unlike traditional learning management systems (LMS), a modern sales learning platform lets sales reps onboard more efficiently, master remote selling, retain training, and utilize AI to get unbiased, instant feedback.
If any of these signs sound familiar to you, it may be time to upgrade to a modern sales learning platform.
- Sales reps forget trainings shortly after completing them –Scientific studies have measured that participants in a 40-minute lecture only remember about 20% of what they hear. And that percentage will also decrease as time passes, as shown by the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve:
- Trainings take sales reps away from, not help them with, their daily work – Field sales reps especially need completely mobile solutions to allow for complete productivity, on or offline, on any device.
- Your learning system is only available on certain machines - One machine, or one type of machine, can’t possibly scale to enable effective learning for an entire sales team, especially in a BYOD environment. To promote retention and engagement, sales reps should be able to access just-in-time microlearning whenever and wherever they work most, whether that's on an iPad at home or on their smartphone in their car.
- Your learning system is only available online – These days, reps are not necessarily in the office using the reliable company wi-fi. They may be on the road or in their home offices. If your sales learning solution requires internet at all times, a lack of connectivity can hinder training. Modern training platforms offer offline and remote access via apps used on mobile devices.
- Trainings are one-size-fits-all – No two sales reps are the same, so why should their learning curriculum be? Modern sales learning platforms can adapt to specific selling situations, skills, and experience to make sure every rep gets what they need to be successful. They even offer personalized learning paths served up to individual reps by AI algorithms.
- Your training curriculums aren’t scalable as your team grows – Though one-size-fits-all trainings are more manageable, they aren’t a long-term solution to scale. Adaptive learning curriculums are the key – more personalization without more work on the part of the administrator thanks to AI and machine learning.
- You can only deliver certain types of content (i.e. only PDFs) – Interactive content is the best tool for engagement, but traditional LMS’s only support very basic content types like PDFs and images. Modern learning platforms can present any type of content to learners and even measure how they engaged with it.
- Your trainings are all classroom-style – There is definitely a time and place for classroom-style training. However, the most effective curriculums are available whenever a salesperson may need them.
- You have limited visibility into curriculum progress of users – Accountability is key. Sales and enablement managers need to be able to monitor how reps are progressing through their training courses.
- Your LMS is outdated and non-user-friendly – UX is an essential part of any sales training. Beautiful, user-friendly systems encourage adoption in a way that the LMS’s of old can’t.
- Sales reps just aren’t taking the trainings – A curriculum is only as good as the rate of completion. The “if a tree falls in the forest” debate applies here – if a sales training is created but no one ever takes it, is it actually beneficial?
- Creating new learning modules is time-consuming and difficult, and may even require a technical or design background – Creating engaging, beautiful content shouldn’t have to be a chore, and definitely shouldn’t require advanced technical skills. Modern learning platforms utilize templates and WYSIWYG to make content creation simple.
- You’ve received the “the trainings are boring” sentiment from your team – This one is pretty self-explanatory. Boring trainings = ignored trainings. One solution in modern learning platforms is
- Users are unaware when new learning modules are available or required – Salespeople shouldn’t have to search and surf for their learning content. Alerts and access should be as simple and clear as consumer apps and push notifications are.
- You’ve been told by reps that they just don’t have time to take the trainings – With so much to do in one day, it’s likely that sales training is the last thing on your sales team’s mind. Microlearning can take away the time concern by delivering learning in easily-digestible, short chunks.
- Your system isn’t integrated into your other systems – Platform approaches ensure that your systems speak to one another. Attaching your learning platform to your CRM, CMS, and more can help managers get a holistic view of a salesperson’s learning journey.
- You have an existing LMS (either purchased or homegrown) and have invested so much time and money in it, you feel stuck with the poor user experience because it’s a sunk cost – Modern sales training platforms can not only deliver a better experience than a legacy LMS, but can also integrate with your existing LMS to minimize the time and cost of switching systems.
- You want to curate learning modules from existing assets or content on the web – Often times, there isn’t a need to re-create the wheel on trainings. Modern learning platforms allow you to borrow existing content from the web or otherwise and curate trainings.
Do any, or many, of these signals sound familiar? If so, it may be time to look into a new Sales Learning Platform. Get more information on Bigtincan here.
