When we talk about workplace learning, our minds automatically tend to imagine people sitting in front of their computers and accessing the learning content. We tend to forget the huge number of on-field staff across different industries. These employees do not have the luxury of sitting in front of a computer in an office to complete the training. This applies to different industries – medical representatives working for pharma companies, insurance agents working in banking and insurance firms, sales executives focused on direct selling of consumer goods, field engineers, etc.
So how do organizations train such employees? This blog presents two solutions to train on-field staff – microlearning and a mobile learning app. Read the blog to learn how these two solutions can be used effectively for training on-field and sales staff.
Using Microlearning to Train On-Field and Sales Staff
In earlier blog posts, we have described microlearning in detail and how it benefits both learners and organizations. Now we will focus on the use of microlearning to train on-field staff and sales personnel. Specific job roles require staff to be on the road and meet clients, distributors, customers, etc. This could cover areas as diverse as banking and insurance and pharma and telecommunications. Roles could cover designations like medical representatives, insurance salesman, logistics and supply chain staff, telecommunication engineers, and much more. What connects this diverse group of people is their need to be on the road for a major part of their daily job.
In such a scenario, it is very difficult for HR and L&D teams to organize dedicated training programs for them within the comfort of an office training room or a dedicated external training venue. So how to train them? This is where microlearning comes into play. As part of their jobs, most of these employees already have access to either an Android tablet device or an iPad to get their work done. By designing training courses structured into bite-sized microlearning modules and deploying them on a mobile learning app, these employees can be granted a quick and easy path to learn. It could be a combination of short video-snippets and simple animated content or learning scenarios, which meet specific learning objectives like:
How to meet and greet a customer / business-contact?
How to convert a potential business lead into a paid customer?
How to sell insurance plans by educating customers?
How to interact with doctors and share details of new medicines?
How to speak with retailers, distributors, and raw-materials suppliers?
Using Dedicated Mobile Learning Apps for Training
In the previous section, we touched upon how microlearning solutions can be deployed on mobile learning apps that can be easily accessed on tablet devices. Mobile learning apps also give learners the opportunity to access training content via their smartphones. Most modern learning management systems and learning experience platforms come with dedicated apps for iOS and Android. These apps offer a seamless learning experience on mobile devices and the learning content is also designed in a responsive format for clear and lag-free learning.
There are also apps that function as mobile-first learning mediums. These are essentially mobile apps that are designed to deliver a great learning experience on the screen of a smartphone. One important app that immediately comes to one’s mind is the highly successful and popular language-learning app Duolingo, which has completely changed the way one learns a new language. Similarly, organizations should focus on using dedicated and customized mobile learning apps that provide their employees a great learning experience.
Benefits of Training your On-Field and Sales Staff
Gone are the days of organizing a one-week retreat and training program for sales and marketing professionals in some obscure resort or hotel away from the city and expecting everyone to remember everything. Such retreats used to function more like recreation and networking events with hardly any proper learning achieved by anyone.
Today learning needs to happen “just-in-time” and “on the job.” It should be tailored to meet the specific requirements of each learner and cannot function in the form of a generic catalog course that is white-labeled and deployed on the company’s LMS. Modern sales and marketing training needs to work in close partnership with actual business requirements and organizational sales and revenue targets. Departments cannot function in individual silos. Training needs analysis, learner audience mapping, and existing skills analysis have to be completed before any form of training can be deployed.
Using microlearning and mobile learning apps to deliver sales training provides the following benefits:
Up-to-date training content delivered on the employee’s mobile or tablet device.
Ability to modify and update microlearning-based courses is simpler than modifying a full-length traditional eLearning program.
Significant cost-savings when compared to running traditional instructor-led training programs in-person at the office or an external venue.
Easy access to learner progress for learning admins and L&D managers.
Ability to configure learning reminders to be sent as notifications within the mobile learning app or via SMS, WhatsApp, and email to the learners’ smartphones.
A well-trained and efficient sales team is motivated, happy, and focused on achieving the organization’s sales and revenue targets.
Conclusion
At S4C, we focus on designing microlearning solutions for different learning scenarios and industries. Be it a brand new sales training program or re-purposing your existing training content into impactful microlearning solutions, we can help your organization meet its L&D goals with ease. Please write to sales@s4carlisle.com to learn how we can help you.
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