Some courses merely transfer information. Others provide a stimulating and thought-provoking experience. Stories and scenarios belong to the second category and are excellent means to enhance learning experiences. Scenarios do help retain new information in an easy manner. When you use real life scenarios or examples, learners are able to relate it to an existing or familiar situation or fact. This helps build on their current knowledge, giving scope for knowledge transfer that has better chances of retention.

However, it is not easy for an instructional designer to build scenarios. More often than not, instructional designers are given material containing examples or scenarios inadequate to impart effective learning. It is therefore challenging to design a course that ensures knowledge transfer in the most user-friendly format.

So what should IDs do when they need to use scenarios in an eLearning course? Here are some guidelines that will motivate your learners to extract knowledge from the course rather than have it pushed on to them.

Understand the objective of the course: What is the objective of the course? Is it to understand compliance procedures or safety mechanisms at workplace? It is important to understand what the learner is expected to learn at the end of the course as it is based on that very objective that scenarios need to be prepared.

Understand the learner: What is the learner expecting from the course? How do you think he will apply the knowledge acquired from the course to his job? Asking questions such as these helps in creating scenarios that are relevant to the learner’s job.

Learn the context and subject matter: To design scenarios, it is important to understand the context of the subject matter. Discuss scenarios closely with the subject matter experts to arrive at a plausible storyline. Validate the same with the SMEs to ensure it is relevant and realistic in the given context.

Use questions: to engage the learner in the process. If the scenario is a dialogue between individuals, you could stop and ask questions such as, ‘What do you think Jane should do in such a situation?”. Suggest a few options and allow the learner to choose one of them. You can also use questions where you expect learners to know the specific Dos and Don’ts in their job. Relate a scenario that they are likely to face in their jobs and suggest possible answers. Based on the answer that they have chosen, they can be given feedback. This enables them to use the information gained and test their understanding of the given subject matter.

Scenarios should be simple and easily understood: They should focus on one issue at a time. They should be simple so that it is easy to communicate the intended message to the learner. They should also include potential problems learners might have and try and encourage the learners to find solutions for these.

There are a few guidelines for Instructional Designers to include scenarios in an eLearning course. If you have other suggestions, please do share your views.

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Training departments and sales and marketing department heads are unanimous in their opinion that product trainings are important. Unfortunately, many product training programs are poorly designed and executed. In this post we will look at a few design strategies for product trainings. Before we look at specific strategies for product training, let’s look at the various types of products out there. Products can either be software products or physical material products such as equipment. Products can also be non-physical products such as banking services or insurance.

For this blog, let me narrow the scope of a product to mean a physical product for which consumers’ exhibit complex buying behavior. What do I mean by that? Let me explain. Consumers demonstrate complex buying behavior when they are highly involved in a purchase and base their final buying decsion on a unique differentiating factor that makes their choice stand out from other brands. The level of consumers’ involvement is likely to be high when the product is expensive, has some element of risk attached to the purchase, is purchased infrequently, and is highly self-expressive. Typically, the consumer has much to learn about the product category. For example, a high-end gadget.

Now we come to the question of what design strategies do we use for product trainings. Here are a few popular strategies and formats.

• Hands on Sessions/ Workshops – The ideal way to quickly get a learner up to speed with a product is through hands on sessions. In fact, almost every high-end purchase by a consumer is typically followed by a live hands-on product session by the company. Think of your first experience with your home theatre or with your high-end microwave oven. Or even your mobile device. However, if you have a large workforce to train, you need to think of an alternate strategy. For instance, if you need to get your workforce trained on a piece of equipment for which you have a very limited timeframe, you can still use hands-on sessions most effectively through part of a blended training solution in which the pre-work is through eLearning.
• Comparison Tables – Another strategy is to use comparison tables to study and compare various products of a product line.
• Videos – One of the most popular strategies is to use demos or videos. They are a very powerful way to demonstrate how a given product is operated and give you a real-world taste of the product so that learners can relate to it better. The number of YouTube videos on various products testifies to the popularity of using demos and videos. They are a great way to show a customer exactly how to use your product through video.
• Customer Testimonials – are an interesting strategy that can be used in product trainings. These testimonials about certain benefits of the product can serve as powerful means of promoting the USPs of the product.
• Job Aids – As the name indicates, these could consist of any information that helps the user do his job better. We will look at the details later.
• Case-Based Learning – Case based or scenario based learning can be used to provide training about a product in context.
• Worked Out Examples – these are closely related to case-based learning and involve presenting situations with a problem and providing a worked out example. In the context of sales training, you could demo an actual sale maybe through a recording. This strategy can be used to supplement case-based learning that we just looked at earlier.
• Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS) – And finally, we come to EPSSs – these are ideal for training that requires access to a huge amount of information. Think of the kind of information that dealers or distributers of spare parts for automobiles need and you will see how an electronic performance support system can provide an optimal solution.

Most of the the strategies given above are generic and can be used both for classroom training and eLearning.

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1. Design Strategies for Product Trainings
2. Tips for Delivering Results-oriented Product Trainings for your Sales Teams
3. Can Online Product Training Increase Customer Satisfaction?

It’s a human tendency to like someone to take us through at times, whether in one’s personal or professional life, because this makes things easier for us to be guided and to learn new things. This is applicable to us all, children or adults. And, in the case of e-learning, it is an advantage if we have an avatar to make our learning effective.

Avatars are the characters that guide learners through a course. As Jeanette Borzo said, “By using avatars, companies find they can combine the best parts of both face-to-face training and computer-based learning.”

Avatar can be used with a number of motives and ways in an e-learning course. A few of them are:

• To personalize learning: When we see a humanly figure, though virtual, our minds start following him and listening to him. Avatars provide a kind of human touch which helps reinforce learners to take the course. For example, in product training, products can be made in the form of avatars to give the training a realistic look and feel.
• To form a relationship with learners: Avatars do this and motivate learners emotionally. At certain stages when the learning becomes heavy for learners, avatars prove to be a great help in engaging learners and help them participate in the course. The way they engage learners in terms of soft greetings and reinforcement helps learners connect with them.
• To retain knowledge gained: By incorporating avatars while explaining and assessing the learning, avatars help retain knowledge gained and make for easy recall of content.
• To make learning fun and interesting: Avatars are found to create interest and fun. Various interactivities can be created using avatars that make learner to have fun and develop interest.

Considering various learning models of e-learning, avatars are seen to be the most effective in scenario based learning.

Recently, product training on a “Checkweighing” machine was developed for sales personnel of a manufacturing industry. Sales personnel are basically taken to be hands-on learners. If they are given product knowledge as chunks of content, full justice will not be given to their style of learning.

So, to make the course more engaging, interesting and realistic, using avatars is a good idea. As the core of the course content revolves around the importance of one gram in any manufactured product, a gram is created in the form of an avatar which takes the learner through the course. It motivates learners and engages them emotionally to remain connected to the product knowledge.

I have tried jotting down a few of the best possible ways to use avatars effectively in e-learning. Do you have more to add?

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1. Four Phases of Product Training for Sales Executives!

To sell a product, a sales person needs to have a thorough knowledge of it. Sales executives need to develop an in-depth understanding of organizational products. Effective product training can help a sales person to understand products and his customers as well.

Any product training can be divided into four phases.

First Phase: Understanding the Product
In this phase:

• Learners develop a complete understanding of the product.
• Product benefits, features, questions on how and where to use the product are typically discussed.
• Product knowledge is made available to learners by using different types of learning devices and presentation patterns such as demonstrations and simulations.
• Motivational strategies that answer learners’ What’s In It For Me are deployed.

Second Phase: Understanding Customers
In this phase:

• Learners are able to get acquainted with various stakeholders and their driving/ motivating factors.
• A customer-centric approach is developed by sales executives. Since there are different customers for a variety of products, each customer and the corresponding driving factors are taken into consideration. For this, the customers’ list and driving factors can be given as a job aid to sales executives.

Third Phase: Competition in the Market
In this phase:

• Learners develop an understanding of their competitors and how to face the challenges in the market in terms of their product’s features and benefits.
• Different competitors are evaluated, along with their products.
• Learners come across various facts and figures about their competitors and their strategies, and use this to refine their own sales strategy subsequently.
• For learners to come forward with their own strategies, training in various forms, especially Scenario-based learning is deployed.

Fourth Phase: Real Sales Training
In this phase:

• Real sales training is provided through scenarios and real time examples by bringing product, customers, and competitors together.
• Different sales scenarios are provided for learners to improve their product knowledge with regard to their respective customers and competition in the market.

A closing thought – To make sales product training more realistic, avatars can be used. This also makes the training more interesting and engaging for sales executives.

What are your views on the same?

Live Webinars: Implementation of eLearning in Organizations!

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Over the weekend, I went shopping at a supermarket with my family. On my way out, we were cornered by a sales rep from a well-known travel company. Not wanting to sound rude, we listened to him present his travel packages to us. To sound a bit interested, we asked him few questions.

Finally, we told him that we are not interested and walked away. When I replayed the conversation in my mind, I realized that despite being polite with him, the sales representative was nervous and fumbling while answering our queries. It made me wonder if he was trained to answer questions other than those mentioned in his list.

A sale is the single most important part of any business. Hence, it is imperative that a business should have a well-trained sales staff. And, what other way than sales training to make sure that your sales people know and understand all the methods and approaches to gain sales?

During the training period, the company should explain minute details about itself, its products and services offered. The sales person should be updated with features, benefits and the competitor’s products or services, et al.

Using scenario-based and role-play approaches, he should be asked to make a sales pitch to a prospective client… The sales people should also be trained on verbal and written communication skills, computer skills for basic reporting, soft skills, dress sense, etc. They should be made to realize that a confident sales professional is bound to create a lasting first impression on potential clients.

Sales person should be trained to be an effective listener and should be prepared to answer and act accordingly. When a customer answers, he can restate it for clarity, try to gain insight into the customer’s need and wants by asking the right questions.

Customers buy not just the product or a service, but a solution through the product or service. He should be able to identify those solutions. While talking about the features and benefits of the product or service, he should allow the customer to see the benefits, solutions and results offered through the product or service.

Customer loyalty, ethics and integrity are important components of sales. An ethical sales person will be honest and tell the customer that he does not know the answer to a specific question, unlike making up an answer just to create sales.

Some companies may think training sales staff is a waste of time and money. However, trained sales professionals have an edge over their untrained counterparts.

However, in today’s competitive business environment, any advantage, businesses give their sales staff pays rich dividends. Online technology has created an entire new way of conducting sales and it is important that business and sales personnel train themselves in these methods. Businesses should consider sales training for everyone, be it the front desk receptionist, customer service or office boy that has direct contact with customers.

Do you agree that sales training really pays-off?

Thank you for reading my blog and look forward to your comments and opinions.

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