Why Will a Microlearning Solution Work for Sales Force on the Road?
Have trouble training your ever on the go sales force? Use microlearning modules to ease this.
Microlearning modules can be defined as a way of delivering content to employees in small and very specific information nuggets of 3-5 minutes each. This highly focused form of digital learning targets just one topic, comprehensively, at a time. Microlearning modules are available in several engaging formats such as videos, infographics, podcasts, and are compatible with mobile devices.
In today’s corporate world where the speed of business is rapid and employees are constantly chasing targets or clients, no one has the time for long training programs. This becomes all the more difficult when it comes to your sales personnel. Sales form a highly crucial part of any business as majority of the profits depend on it. To make this happen, your sales force has to stay on its toes and chase every client or lead that they get.
As you will seldom find sales employees confined to their desks, training them through a lengthy digital learning course is unfavorable. That’s where microlearning modules come to the rescue. Owing to their duration, they perfectly fit the hectic schedules of your sales force, without being too daunting on their minds. Let’s see some of the major advantages microlearning modules offer your sales personnel:
Provide Just-in-Time Support
Imagine your sales employee out there in the field just minutes away from meeting an important client, and he forgets a crucial piece of information such as the comparison of your product to a competitor product! Your microlearning module – a comparison chart developed as an infographic – can emerge as the knight in shining armor in such situations.
Easily accessible through mobile devices, these short courses can provide the right information at the right time. If your microlearning modules are well organized, your employees don’t have to find a needle in the haystack. They can quickly land on the desired topic and absorb the information nugget.
Reinforce Knowledge
Most often, your product and sales training is quite extensive and cannot be covered through short modules. In this case, there may be a considerable gap between the point when the course is taken and the moment they actually venture out to make a sale. This can make their knowledge a little hazy. To counter this, you can create microlearning modules that are derived from the original course. You can include multimedia elements such as video, audio, infographics, game-based content, animations, etc. in your micro module. Using such elements will create maximum knowledge reinforcement in minimum time.
Help Stay Up to Date
In this fast-paced corporate world, new products and services can emerge in the blink of an eye. This dynamic environment makes it very difficult for your sales force to be up to date with the constant in-flow of new products. Microlearning modules can effectively help circumvent this situation. When a new product or service version arrives, you simply need to create a micro-course that conveys its additions or refinements over the previous one. On the go sales employees can be effectively informed through push notification on their mobile devices and update themselves immediately.
Make the Most of Employee Time
As discussed earlier, sales employees are often parched for time. Their schedules are dynamic and often driven by the whims of the clientele. Hence one minute they may be undertaking a long e-learning course and the next minute they are out of the office chasing a client, breaking all learning links. Microlearning can overcome this through its readily accessible nature. Not only are they short, but can be accessed anytime & anywhere, such as when the rep is traveling or waiting for the customer to arrive. Employees can continue with the learning even after hitting the road, even finishing it before reaching the destination.
Offer Something for Every Learner
Owing to their small size, microlearning modules incorporate a variety of learning styles. Different modules use different instructional design techniques for different topics. You can have videos, game-based content, short-quizzes, audio clips, animations, etc. This means there is a learning element for all the different learning styles of your employees. This way, no learner feels neglected in the program, and everyone has something to look forward to.
Since micro-courses are short, and often derived from a larger course, developing them is fairly inexpensive. Not just that, development is just a fraction of what it is for a larger course. But this doesn’t mean that the impact of this learning method is any less, as your sales force will perform significantly better when their skills are honed by microlearning modules. So, with microlearning give your sales personnel the flexible, yet powerful training, that they deserve and watch your profits soar.