It happens all the time. In the weeks that follow a sales training event, the freshly trained reps start blasting through their quotas, sales improve dramatically and management couldn’t be more delighted with their training investment. Within a few months (usually 90 to 120 days), the reps begin to backslide, reverting to comfortable old habits while the numbers slip back to their pre-training levels.
For as long as I’ve been in sales, sustaining the positive impact of training has been a persistent problem. Until quite recently, the solution has been to do another sales training or find another sales training provider.
That’s no longer good enough, say the CEOs of two young technology companies. Confronting the reinforcement challenge head on, each has launched a technology-enabled reinforcement platform that promises to make the positive behaviors learned in training stick for far longer, perhaps indefinitely. Better yet, their applications are designed so that sales reps will enjoy using them.
Ambition’s “Fantasy Football for Sales”
“Reps want to see what they’re doing in real time, and management needs to understand how their salespeople are performing,” says Ambition co-founder Brian Trautschold. “It’s all about improving how salespeople do their
daily work. The Ambition platform gives individuals, teams, and management the tools they need to measure progress, with minute-by-minute updates.”
Permeating the culture within the sales workspace, Ambition seeks to perpetuate learning and positive behaviors through data, competition and workforce optimization. “Compare everything — apples to oranges,” says the Ambition website. The program measures how salespeople are doing against key performance indicators (KPIs), predefined metrics, and each other. Reps can monitor how they’re doing in real time, teams can compare how they stand against one another, and everyone can track whether they’re on course to meet their goals. Others in the organization are able to view the stats as well.
Designed for Salesforce.com users, Ambition can take and use data from any source. The increasingly popular platform has been adopted by Dropbox and several major insurance providers.
Learning while playing
Answer: Qstream
Question: Whose technology uses an adaptive algorithm to provide a mobile sales reinforcement experience proven to boost knowledge retention?
Presented in a format reminiscent of a popular TV game show, Qstream’s platform seeks to circumvent the isolating experience of e-learning as a method for reinforcing information and skills. Salespeople play a three-minute-per-day quiz game on any smartphone or tablet, and their score determines their position on the leaderboard.
To help sales teams retain what they’ve learned in training, the Qstream game will often begin just after a traditional training event. “The first 30-60 days are critical,” says Qstream CEO Duncan Lennox, who has an extensive background in contact management and learning management systems. “As soon as reps get back into the field, the Qstream game is launched. Everyone starts at the same time.” Questions, which are customized to the content covered in the training, might include a hypothetical on the best way to handle a particular situation or how to call on a customer. If the rep answers correctly, the system will resend the question in a week or so to ensure mastery. If the answer is wrong, the rep may receive the question again in a few days. Responses are then aggregated into real-time reports for management to review. If more than a few reps answer incorrectly, managers can schedule a seminar or webinar in that subject area. Reps get to learn in a fun, competitive environment, and managers know exactly what’s sticking and what isn’t.
Renowned sales performance improvement company Richardson has adopted the Qstream platform, integrating it into its solution as QuickCheck™. Noting that QuickCheck offers clients real, rich data, engagement, performance, and mastery, Richardson says that the platform “makes the invisible visible. We used
to have faith; now we have data.”
Qstream and Ambition are just two of a rapidly growing assortment of technology-enabled reinforcement platforms available on the market today. As with sales training itself, be sure you understand your own requirements, culture and objectives before selecting the platform and its provider.
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