If you’ve ever organized a classroom-based onboarding session for new hires, then you have something in common with the director of a play: You know what it’s like to pour a lot of time, energy and money into a “live” production that may go over well one day, but fall flat the next – a show that pleases one audience, but puts another to sleep.
It’s for these reasons (and more) that many sales enablement teams are now integrating modern sales learning platforms into their onboarding programs.
Here’s five ways that modern learning tools make sales onboarding programs more consistent and more effective:
1. “Pre-Boarding”
Many of our customers use Allego to provide new hires with an orientation tour (or tours) before they enter a classroom. New employees receive introductions to topics that range from the company’s structure and culture to the people and departments with whom they’ll be interacting. By giving new recruits this sort of baseline knowledge in advance, enablement teams can devote more time to hands-on training, and less time to nuts-and-bolts orientation.
2. More Consistent Delivery
Athletes, actors, and presenters have good days and bad days, and so do sales enablement pros. Sometimes trainers deliver show-stopping performances, and sometimes they flub their lines. However, with the ability to practice on video, and even deliver key training presentations via recorded video, you’re assured that only the best performances and most carefully crafted messages are delivered to new hires time after time.
3. No more fill-ins
When one or more of your “star” trainers or subject-matter experts is unavailable, you need to find someone else to fill the role. Determining which replacements are available at what times can require substantial time and effort. Often, you end up using whoever is available to fit the time slot instead of the person best suited to deliver that training. Sometimes, the result is a substandard session. By contrast, a good video presentation is always available.
4. Embed questions into the videos
Another advantage of modern learning platforms like Allego is the ability to embed questions into the video content. This offers two big benefits: (1) when participants know they’ll be quizzed, they’re more likely to pay attention; and (2) you can track their progress. Using Allego, you can create a “paper trail” of how well a trainee is doing. You can gauge whether they really understand the content being delivered. And if they’re not “getting it,” you can prepare remediation activities such as additional sessions, supplemental materials, or one-to-one coaching and remote practice. These are analytics you wouldn’t otherwise have.
5. Cost savings
Obviously, there can be substantial savings associated with upping the share of virtual training vs. live training. In addition to reducing expenses incurred by reducing travel, meals, and facility rental, there will be fewer (paid) “person-hours” devoted to live training, as well as logistics planning and coordination. And, of course, getting the new hires into the field faster will help your organization start seeing returns on their investment in those new employees more quickly. Cost savings of reduced or removed training days is one of the most tangible and trackable benefits to adding modern learning techniques to any onboarding program.
For a deeper dive on how to build a modern sales onboarding program that will be a success each and every time, download our Essential Guide to Modern Sales Onboarding.
Check out Allego’s modern sales learning and readiness platform, here.
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Posted here with permission from our 2019 National Sales Conference Sponsors, Allego.
