Sales enablement is not new, but training and engaging the sales force on their mobile devices is too new a field for anyone to be an expert at it. However, the past few years offered a lot of valuable lessons on how to leverage technology for your sales team.
You feel you’ve been already hearing about it? Well, even though “We have to go mobile.” is stated a lot, mobile is a too small companion in the corporate world to replace too quickly the rest. But it will happen sooner rather than later and you need to get on the trend with a dedicated mobile strategy.
Here are some highlights from ATD 2016, Day 1, Denver, on Mobile Learning for the Sales Department.
The Sales Department is by far the most likely to be supported by mobile technology and in need of mobile learning. Getting to people where they are is most important in their case. The content has to be relevant for them. They don’t want to waste their time. And it needs to be engaging – engagement in the way they do things, not the way corporate does. Make them part of the design team and / or involve them in user interviews. In mobile learning, one size does not fit all. Discover the tool most relevant for your market, for your company culture & objectives. Choose the App Experience that best fits your people.
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How is it different to create content for mobile? Byte size pieces available to the right person, at the right time is the secret sauce. Know what you need to reinforce and when to meet your business objectives. How do you answer a questions just in time (JIT)? Is an investment in content the right decision for you? Where do you start? Well, are your people using mobile devices as their primary means of accessing information anyway? Then offer them a tool on the go, but take the time to design carefully a learning path dedicated to your company and your industry.
Create micro-experiences! Pave the way to better learning with gamification and microlearning – you have 3 seconds to grab their attention & the best lessons on mobile are around 26 seconds. Think along those lines, but don’t teach leadership in 26 seconds. Create 5 to 7 minutes at a time, single concept ideas as well. The content has to be linear, logical and complete. You need to provide daily snippets – ask a few questions per day to remind them of the knowledge base they have at their disposal for the 10 minutes breaks when they are in line at the supermarket on taking the afternoon break.
Benchmark fast what they know to create learning reinforcement. Do not just put every single content piece you have in that mobile app. This is the worst thing you could do. Don’t underestimate your audience and don’t think that if it’s on the intranet people actually use it. Deliver actual information, concise, precise. Have a dedicated storytelling strategy for your content special for the mobile app.
However, value your content and reinforce pieces over time – do not focus only on what’s next. This is why “Search” is so important and often overlooked. People have to really find what they are looking for now only in the new content, but in everything your App has to offer them. And it is important that they can find it quickly.
Do you lack the time or skills in your team to go mobile? One App or multiple Apps? When people are in training or learning they are not selling. People don’t want to change from what they already know. Nobody has the skills to manage a mobile app program? Well. All of these have lots of solutions, but we’ll share some of the most discussed examples from the conference. Here is the advice from Day 1: Mix training and selling. People can create valuable content while selling and sell when testing and applying new practices. Do not start too big too fast. First “fill” and “balance” one app. Executives already want to move towards mobile. Get the team onboard by assessing what they use right now and discussing the next few steps just. Implement a transition / onboarding period.
Establish clear measuring metrics. “I want people to sell more” is not good enough. What do you get from your sales reps and what do you offer them in return? Why do the ones who leave choose to do it? Do they understand their learning and career opportunities in your company? Are they engaged and driven by passion for what they do? One solution is not going to solve all your problems, but meeting their needs on the go, will certainly empower and activate them more. And you will be able to adapt and adjust the learning strategy with them, in time.
Learning is not linear. You will still need people to guide the learning path. Technology just augments it.
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14-day free trial
Includes:
Choose your plan and start building your own platform! Try it 14 days for free.
14-day free trial
Includes:
14-day free trial
Includes:
14-day free trial
Includes:
Choose your plan and start building your own platform! Try it 14 days for free.
14-day free trial
Includes:
14-day free trial
Includes:
14-day free trial
Includes:
Choose your plan and start building your own platform! Try it 14 days for free.
14-day free trial
Includes:
14-day free trial
Includes:
14-day free trial
Includes:
