Modern Sales Learning

When most of us think of learning, we think of attending a live session with multiple people either in-person or virtually. Learning has evolved with how we now access information on-demand in our personal lives across sites like Wikipedia or YouTube. We look up learning videos or articles when we have a need – such as when something breaks in our home. Similarly, in the corporate learning environment, sellers require not only formal training, but learning in the flow of their work. They need access to information on products, sales strategies, and talk tracks as they are working in CRM, preparing for a sales call, or engaging in a discussion with a manager. Learning in the flow of work makes learning more accessible, embedded, and relevant to the day in the life of a seller.

A Learning Management System (LMS) helps large teams of instructional designers create structured lessons which typically take weeks or months to create. An LMS is typically hosted in a separate environment to serve the needs of the broader organization, and are not embedded where sellers typically work such as a CRM. Overall, an LMS system is not designed with the seller in mind. Rapid changes in market conditions, competitive pressures, regulatory changes, and other influences require the ability to share sales best practices and peer knowledge into the field quickly, which an LMS simply can’t solve.

Allego has the built-in functionality expected of an LMS, including the ability to create formal coursework. However, it also enables agile content creation, reinforcement, practice, and coaching which sellers desperately need. Agile content is defined as time-sensitive content developed quickly within minutes by sellers and subject matter experts. These could include win/loss reports, competitive intelligence, call best practices, and other intelligence captured from the field. This “tribal knowledge” is critical for sales success.

With Allego, these insights are delivered in the flow of how sellers work with over 120+ integrations – whether they’re in CRM, browsing the web, writing a LinkedIn post, or writing an email. Delivering learning and content in these workflows drives up adoption and retention as compared to a traditional LMS.

Synchronous communication is when a buyer and seller are engaging in a live interaction – such as during a live Zoom meeting. When sellers and buyers interact asynchronously, they are doing so in their own time. There is no need to interact at the same time. For example, exchanging emails is a form of asynchronous communication. Asynchronous communication has now evolved to include video – where buyers, sellers, and managers can exchange text or video comments right within video timelines.

Typically, when we think about video, it’s as simple as pressing play and watching the content on our laptop or mobile device. With recent advances in technology, it is now possible to embed interactive content right within a video. This could include a piece of content such as a slide deck or brochure. This allows the presenter to add context and explanations to the content that is being talked about in the video. As the viewer watches the video, they can click on the content right within the video player to read along as the presenter speaks. In addition, it is now also possible to add comments and engage in discussions right within a video timeline. This allows sellers and employees to communicate and add commentary during specific moments in a video timeline.

Time has become a very precious commodity for everyone – including sellers. The days when learners could spend days and weeks dedicated to learning activities have become increasingly rare. As such, it has become more important to make learning accessible in short snippets to accommodate busier schedules and lack of spare time. Microlearning aims to create learning opportunities that are minutes long and easy to consume.

While nothing can replace human-to-human interactions from a coaching perspective, recent developments in AI technology have opened up efficiencies for sales managers to automate simpler coaching tasks. AI-powered coaching allows managers to define specific conversation triggers in the form of words or phrases, which can automate delivery of pre-defined learning or content to the seller. For example, a manager may select “regulations” as a phrase to avoid in a conversation. When mentioned by a seller, AI coaches can automatically share advice, learning, or content related to why they should not be talking about regulations with a buyer. This helps managers provide always-on guidance to their broader team, while reserving more time and energy for highly-personalized and face-to-face coaching interactions.