Mobile Learning for New Product Introductions – Ensure Happily Ever After Sales Reps

Sales teams may not know about your new product through a one-time product launch event. Yes, they may not get the complete picture of the product at once. In today’s fast paced world, numerous products are released frequently, of those, some are big hits and some fade out from the market very soon. Research by Stage Gate International shows that 14-34% new product introductions fail, though organizations spend millions of dollars on advertising, marketing, and sales campaigns.

The readiness of your sales teams can decide the success or failure of the launched products. According to a survey conducted by Corporate Visions, only 38% of the sales force receives formal training for new product launches. Giving extensive training to sales teams is one of the best ways to ensure your new product is a huge commercial success. You can deliver training through mobiles on new products for your busy sales teams.

So, in this blog, you will know about the limitations of a conventional product launch, and how mobile learning can equip your sales teams for the three phases of product launch.

Conventional product launch – Many organizations think a product launch is a one-time event and sales teams are flown in from various parts of the country. Excitement levels are high and the sales force gets motivated by all the hype. But, amidst this fanfare, when do your sales teams actually learn about the released product?

It is not possible for sales teams to gain the new product knowledge effectively right from day one. They need to assimilate the product knowledge over the period of time. For that, they need to be trained prior to the launch and take follow up training after the launch too. This is missing in conventional product launches.

Mobile learning in the pre-launch, launch, and post-launch stages

You can equip your sales teams with mobile learning during the three stages of product launch: pre-launch, launch, and post-launch.

Pre-launch

Organizations can train sales teams on facts and share introductory knowledge on the new product being launched. Sharing these updates via mobiles in bite-sized modules helps the sales force gain product knowledge quickly. This will also help sales reps learn about the new product whenever free. By the time the product is launched, sales teams will have some exposure to the new product and get an understanding of competitors’ products, before they actually commence their sales pitch.

You can also launch a mobile app to equip your sales teams for new product introductions. By this, you can place comprehensive product knowledge in the sales force’s palms. You can add product features, benefits, comparison tables, and quick guide help manuals in the mobile app. You can provide information on competitor products and how the newly launched product is better than them to help sales teams make deals.

During launch

At a product launch, your management announces the product details, key highlights, and features of the product. You can train your sales force on these with bite-sized videos that can be incorporated in mobile learning modules. Adding product promotion videos to mobile learning modules also helps sales force show them to the prospects. Professor Karl M. Kapp says that you can also use gamified mobile learning courses to motivate and train your sales force on new products and features. 

Post-launch

A Sales Performance International report says, on an average, half of the content of a sales training event is lost in 5.1weeks. On an average, 84% of sales training content is lost after 90 days. Refresher training is best delivered through mobile devices. Mobile learning is effective in pushing new content in a timely manner to sales teams on the move. Product installation and usage videos come in handy to the sales teams, if they are delivered to their mobiles. Info-graphic flash cards in mobile learning can give a quick overview of the new product to the sales force before they meet potential customers. Updates in product features can also be communicated quickly through mobile learning. 

Successful product introduction is crucial to a company’s success. Sales positioning skills aligning with the new product will help handle customer objections smoothly. Product sales training through mobile learning will make this happen.

Implement mobile learning for your new product launch and ensure you have a winner in your product arsenal. Do share your experiences.