Each year, a vast amount of training dollars are spent across every industry to make sure sales reps have the product knowledge, sales skills, and proper processes they need to succeed. Whether it’s your job to train or enable an in-house sales force, a collection of regional sales affiliates in various countries, or a network of channel partners, I salute you. It’s not an easy job. Internal…

Pretend for a moment that your target learner is a field sales rep named Kate. Her schedule is packed with customer visits. Kate is expected to not just know about a wide range of products and competitors, but be able to articulate this information in a meaningful way to her highly educated customers. She also must effectively execute the company’s sales process and build meaningful rapport…

Early this year, I attended a conference for medical device sales training professionals. I expected to hear about innovative ways organizations are training their reps, reinforcing value statements and sustaining training after product launch events. I was wrong! Instead, I heard many sessions about competencies and competency modeling. Having the right competency model in place is critical for…

If we are really supposed to think outside the box at our jobs, why do so many of us sit inside of cubicles? Even if your office has progressive, trendy furnishings (like ours), there are still plenty of times when a change of perspective would help get those creative juices flowing. Sometimes it’s all about the little things in your day-to-day routine. Truth of the matter is, some managers…

When it comes to user experience (UX), most eLearning designers will tell you they can do better. The problem? They are not really UX/UI designers. They are instructional designers, eLearning specialists and trainers. If they work inside an organization, they do not have the luxury of having a cross-functional team that includes someone with deep UX/UI design experience. UX testing is not even on…

Account managers and salespeople play two important but different roles in the customer acquisition and retention life cycle. But at some organizations, you can't tell the difference. Most of the training that organizations provide their sales functions is centered around front line selling techniques, product knowledge, features and benefits. Increasing a salesperson's ability to immediately…

We often talk to organizations that are trying to start fresh. They've outgrown the tried and true training approaches of yesterday and are ready for something different. They are confronted by a "new normal" in their industry that has changed the game entirely: the regulatory environment has shifted, competition is on the rise and learners must be more skilled than ever before to succeed. Sound…

"We need training on _____" As a company that creates custom learning solutions, many of our conversations start something like this. A client comes to us with a specific need, a deadline and maybe even an idea of what needs to be produced. It's our job to find out what the real story is. In the short term, the need seems simple. Maybe your company has just merged and there is a push to get…