Content Innovation: New Modalities for New Learners

I often talk about today’s multi-generational sales organisations and the challenges presented by millennial learners. I ask clients: “What will it take to engage your learners?”

From London to New York to San Francisco, the answers are surprisingly similar, and whether I’m talking with sales leaders or corporate learning leaders, there is broad consensus about what is required:

To engage today’s learners, training has to be flexible, personalised, bite-sized, relevant, provide meaningful data, and be accessible on demand across a wide range of platforms and devices.

As I discussed in the first post in this series, The Future of Sales Training: Innovation for a Salesforce in Transition, there are more millennials in the U.S. workforce than any other generation. They have a very different relationship with information and technology than previous generations, and they want relevant content delivered to them in ways they recognise and can access easily and quickly.

New Learners Expect Higher Levels of Quality

The answer to accelerating learning across generations is to meet learner’s expectations when it comes to the types and quality of content in training programmes. Younger learners have higher expectations about the quality of video content, course materials, and the online learning experience – the same stale training materials won’t cut it for the new generation.

Meeting the expectations of these new learners doesn’t mean throwing away all past practises and changing everything to suit millennials; it means taking what has worked with previous generations and blending it with new approaches, content, and methodologies to engage the entire multi-generational sales force.

Creating Next-generation Sales Training

For training companies, innovating to meet the needs of future learners requires taking a fresh look at two areas: content and delivery. At Richardson Sales Performance, we are blending adaptive-learning technology, video content, and micro-assessment with best-in-class instructor-led skills training to truly “flip” the corporate classroom. This means that learners can acquire basic knowledge and familiarity online and at their own paces. Once they gain that knowledge, the time that they spend in a workshop can be optimised to focus on skill development and practise with a professional sales coach. This flipped approach saves time and money for sellers and their organisations, and it supports proficiency in learning skills, sustainment of knowledge, and reinforcement of content.

Many training companies talk about having blended-learning solutions, but Richardson Sales Performance is one of the first to truly invest in both the new, modular content required to actually be mobile and adaptive and a new platform to pull all of the elements together into a powerful and configurable solution.

In redesigning Richardson Sales Performance’s sales training programmes for the next generation, we are designing each one according to eight specific industry best practises:

• Curriculum and learning paths: Each programme fits within the framework of a specific curriculum, either at the core or advanced level, with a series of learning paths, depending on the learner’s role in sales, such as inside sales, simple field sales, complex field sales, and sales manager.
• Modular course format: We are incorporating micro-learning opportunities by using a more modular and modern format for programmes. This allows content to be delivered in smaller, bite-sized units with greater engagement.
• Multimedia and video: These elements will be included in every programme, with both live action and animated videos to help visualise key concepts and make them memorable.
• Data and analytics strategy: Dashboards allow users to measure progress, providing views into both what is being taught and how well sellers are learning.
• New design look and feel: Programme materials are being redesigned to have a consistent, updated look and feel, with infographics and other elements to bring the content to life.
• Updated content and subject matter expertise: Every programme is being refreshed with current thought leadership and research, whether it’s the latest thinking about negotiating skills in the 21st century, how millennials communicate, or using social media as a prospecting tool.
• Neuroscience and learning research: One new and exciting addition shares the cognitive science at work in learning, such as explaining how a sales dialogue works in the brains of the seller and the buyer.
• Job aids and manager toolkits: An essential supporting element of every programme is a complete set of tools to help sellers translate the skills learnt in training to actual situations in the field.

The changes we are making to accelerate learning across generations will help clients engage their millennial sellers while also leveraging what already works with previous generations in the sales force. As a result, the entire team will be better equipped to compete in today’s world of ultra-informed buyers who conduct much of their own digital research before ever engaging a sales professional.