The Next Wave

Business is undergoing a revolution of sorts; a
revolution regarding how knowledge and expertise are managed and transferred. And like every business revolution, this one will bring casualties. But, also like every other revolution, we will also see victors. The next wave of progress will wash out some companies and leave some standing. Others will ride it to higher ground. Within a few years, most multi-national companies in all major sectors will use web-based training as one of their top strategic marketing tools. They will do this, of course, because they have to in order to survive in an increasingly competitive world. Other companies will actually use this opportunity to create a sharper competitive edge and to claim a larger, higher revenue market share. The question is what position your company will enjoy and how it is planning to achieve that position.

Knowledge transfer has always been a crucial factor in sales and marketing. Sales channels, whether direct and/or indirect, must have accurate and applicable knowledge about the product and its value, and about the competition. They must know how to quickly identify opportunities and move prospects through an optimum, prescribed sales cycle. Investment in preparing these channels, in delivering the needed knowledge and expertise, is crucial to both a successful launch and the realization of early sales goals.

To accomplish these goals it is imperative that all individuals and partners involved in the sales cycle be knowledgeable about the new product. Knowledge needs to be moved from where it is to where it’s needed. This knowledge should include an understanding of the market in which the product competes, the product’s differentiating advantages over its competition and customer benefits, target profiles, available tools and materials, and the most effective sales strategies. How to move this knowledge is the question.

Problem identification
A great deal of attention and resources are paid to educating the consumer about a company’s brand values and specific product benefits. Delivery channels for this type of information have grown highly sophisticated and effective. The act of transferring information within organizations however, or down through subsidiary and retailer chains has been treated like the unwanted stepchild of the marketing department.

As with any problem, one must first understand the challenges if one is to understand the solution. Approaching modern training obstacles is no exception.

What is easy to see is that sales and after sales organizations need more knowledge than they currently have. This is in part due to the fact that industry is moving from supplying products to providing solutions and services. In addition, new technology also requires that sales and aftermarket organizations be able to sell and support much more sophisticated and complicated products than before. This shift demands more knowledge about the product and how to use it, and about the customers’ situation and challenges. This has given rise to a new, value-based pricing model that, in turn, demands a new way of selling and delivering. As if that wasn’t enough, the spread of the Internet has created a new breed of end customer that is much more product savvy than before. As a provider, of course, you need to be one step ahead. And that gets harder and harder. Knowledge and expertise has to move further and faster. So, how to solve the problem?

You need knowledge – not hangovers
Until the last few years, companies wanting to move expertise and information to sales organisations used product sheets and training binders and other archaic forms of communication. The more ambitious among us used instructor-led conferences and events, with endless speakers and lavish dinner parties that often resulted in increased hangovers, but seldom in dramatically increased knowledge.

In the late 90´s we saw the introduction of corporate intranets and increased computer usage for training purposes. Still, this approach has been used mainly for storage of text-based one-way information, and has not effectively dealt with the real world problems of complex knowledge transfer. And so the dusty binders, the PowerPoint presentations, and the sales conferences – and their morning-after headaches - have prevailed. Some marketing and product managers have persisted, however, in their search for a better way. They have seen the instructional strengths of computer media and the way that such media can be integrated into a more holistic training approach. They have also seen how these modern training methods can provide a multitude of performance-improving and costsaving opportunities. The problem has been in separating the wheat from the chafe. A great deal of the “new learning” models and the companies that promoted them have disappeared. As they deserved to do. These models embraced technology for the sake of technology and ignored a great deal of wisdom and common sense that was already being applied successfully.

And so they flared up and burned away. As most trends do. New waves break and recede. The wise marketing managers, however, are gleaning the best from each of these new approaches and combining these new ways of thinking with tried and tested methods. The result is a modern approach to training that uses so-called blended learning solutions combined with analytic processes and resultoriented strategies. Creating a new approach that is both effective and innovative.

Riding the wave
Blended learning solutions combine instructor-led training with computer-based training delivered through an internet-based learning portal. The learning portal provides the communication interface between the students and the trainers and the managers on the web. A Learning Management System, or LMS, functions as the engine behind the web site. Blended learning methods provide several clear advantages. With their ability to provide training anywhere-anytime they can drastically reduce training lead-time and increase the amount of training delivered. In addition, when properly implemented, blended learning solutions actually improve learning results in terms of retention and transfer. The fact that these solutions are primarily web-based also reduces training administration resources by utilizing centralized storage, maintenance, and follow-up procedures. Last (but certainly not least) on this list of highlights is the fact that most blended learning solutions result in dramatically reduced overall training costs. Costs related to such items as travel, training facilities, administration and, most importantly, lost time and revenue (opportunity costs). Blended learning solutions are typically 40-60% less expensive than training delivered by traditional means. Using this approach, an average instructor-led training of 16 hours can be replaced by 2 hours of computer-based and 8 hours of instructor-led training. This results in minimized cost for training delivery and, more importantly, travel cost. Yet, the most important benefit is not found in the reduction of training costs. It’s even better than that. The most important strategic gain that modern training brings is the increase in sales efficiency and revenue. Bottom line benefits. Bringing time-critical knowledge to your sales staff on a just-in-time basis. This requires, of course, that training be incredibly efficient and incredibly applicable. Which is just what modern blended learning solutions enable.

Companies can achieve dramatically higher efficiency through a modern, competency-driven learning approach than would ever have been the case before. This entails using a competence platform and corresponding gap-training courses to identify training needs and then using this information to enable greater precision in the training that is delivered. In other words, a higher rate of training is delivered to people who need the training and who have the right prerequisite knowledge to make use of the training. Studies that have been carried out among companies that have introduced competence-driven learning reports show an average increase in training effectiveness of at least 45%.

Doing the Math. An inescapable conclusion is reached: in order to achieve optimal effect, blended learning solutions should be used in connection with a long-term competency-driven strategy. And if done so, the increase in training effectiveness significantly increases reseller quality and customer satisfaction as a natural result of the fact that all sales and post-sales personnel are certified to work with the products in their sales area.

That brings us to the problem of achieving all of these things internally, of actually bringing them to force on the problem at hand. A critical part of any successful e learning rollout for large, international companies is a detailed Change Management strategy for the implementation of the training program. As with any new system, implementation is about change. And unless this change is properly planned and managed, negative disruption and confusion can arise, particularly when different local languages and marketplaces are involved. Specifically defining a change strategy to support the rollout increases the likelihood that the new learning model will be accepted and supported. In addition, the decrease in time to achieve buy-in and adherence to the new model will also decrease the time it takes to generate actual business value from the new learning model.

And so, like many things in today’s world, it comes down to a matter of time. Time that you are either wasting or spending productively. The companies that will be at the top of tomorrow’s business are beginning the climb today. Once again, the question is where will your company be and how does it plan to get there?