/ 05.04.19
The digital revolution in sales training
It probably comes as no surprise that more and more companies are using digital technologies to improve their sales training and selling techniques.
Clients often come to us with the assumption that this will be an expensive, labour intensive exercise, but this isn’t always true. We often develop niche applications that target a specific team or problem area of the business. This allows us to test, optimise and make necessary improvements before a broader scale deployment is made.
We often find that the training programmes themselves are quite sound but are failing due to logistical reasons or that the content itself is challenging to consume or access in the field. If the core structure of the programme is right, we look at the best practical way to deliver the information and how the content can be enhanced to be made more interactive.
Accessibility is everything
It stands to reason that if you can make your training materials more accessible and the content more consumable you will see immediate improvements. Crucial with companies with employees operating in a field based environment where the application will often need to work offline.
We also find that overall training costs can be reduced in the mid to long term because the existing, paper-based programmes can be expensive, inflexible and unresponsive to changes in the wider marketplace. The beauty of digital content is that it can be managed centrally and distributed globally at the touch of a button.
Devices and Distribution
Modern day living means that most people are happy to multi-task and are likely to consume information and content on multiple devices (often at the same time). It is essential that your content is optimised, not only for individual devices but also for a user’s behaviour patterns on those devices. Even if the application is predominantly geared to input and collect data in the field, we often find users will access supporting content and resources at home or on their way to work.
Technologies
There are lots of options, but recently we have seen a steady move towards building more Progressive Web Applications (PWA).
A progressive or web app essentially takes advantage of the latest technologies to bring features and functionality you would expect from a native app directly into your browser.
Without getting too technical, this type of application utilises individual background scripts which sit between your application and your wider network. These ‘Service Workers’ can power a multitude of functions, for example; Push Notifications, Content Updates and Offline Functionality.
General performance is enhanced by an App Shell, which (on load) provides an instant User Interface (UI). This light-weight shell works in tandem with the caching abilities of the service worker scripts, delivering native-like user experience.
More recently we've also started to incorporate AI and Machine learning into our applications to provide more powerful insights and analysis into product positioning and placement.
The key benefits of digitising your sales training programmes:
- Simple, immediate distribution of new content
- Detailed statistics and reporting at a Personal, Local, National and Global level
- Access to ‘rich’ multimedia content that improves recall and subject knowledge
- Off / Online access 24/7
- Central storage of data
- Can link seamlessly with existing technologies/software
- Promotes customer loyalty and retention
- Better knowledge transfer
- Substantial cost savings
The team at Soak have designed and developed sales training applications and tools for some of the world’s leading brands. We can't always show them on our site, but if you're interested in hearing more and seeing some live examples, we'd love to hear from you.