In a previous article, we already discussed the benefits of micro-training for your sales team, especially for deployment agility and learning effectiveness. For these reasons, more and more companies are purchasing and implementing a Learning Management System to centralize and distribute their training content. Unfortunately, they often face an adoption problem with this LMS among their employees.
The fact that this training system relies on technology sometimes implies a certain difficulty in adoption, especially for companies that do not have a highly developed digital culture. 67% of companies admit that employee engagement is the main challenge in implementing a digital training system.
So how Can You Ensure Widespread Adoption of your LMS by your Sales Team?
Here, we present a highly condensed summary of two studies on the subject. From this summary, we highlight three main criteria:
- The quality of the training content
- Gamification – the interactivity of the learning experience
- Mobile
Here are the detailed results of the two main studies we used:
The first study is a report from the ISTF (Institute of Blended Learning Professions): Digital Learning Figures for 2017.
Content is thus the primary motivating factor for 25% of learners to take a training course. Just below that, it’s interactivity at 22% that triggers user engagement.
Source: ISTF and e-doceo study
It is interesting to cross-reference the results of the first graph with the second, which focuses more specifically on online training. Here again, content is the primary factor at 30%. Free access at 16% is the second engagement factor, and we can note, as third and fourth motivating factors respectively, tutoring and rewards. However, gamification combines “obtaining certification or badges” with “the playful aspect of this type of content” and by totaling 20% then becomes the second motivating factor for employees to train online.
What Do these Figures Imply?
First, implementing a digital learning strategy requires solid and adapted content. For this, the most effective approach is to co-create the content with your provider: this is the custom-made trend that implies close collaboration between the company and the training organization (which is often the LMS provider). Many companies still prefer in-house production and, thanks to digital tools, have the capacity to produce the content their employees need themselves. This feature further increases the deployment agility of this content and the speed of reaction to an identified training need.
We should also note that gamification, interactivity, and support are key to engaging your teams in online training. How can they be reconciled in a single LMS? The answer is probably mobile.
Indeed, according to a SoftwareAdvice study, mobile is considered by learners to be a factor in LMS usage at 48%. But for 39%, mobile has no impact on the likelihood of encouraging its use.
However, in a context where everything is becoming “Mobile First”, we believe that digital learning is no exception; quite the opposite. And according to the CEO of SmartCanal, in an ElearningLetter article, mobile is already not only the reality but the future of digital learning (which would become Mobile Learning).
The availability of training modules on mobile – and not just responsive – is even more important for a sales force that travels a lot. It is therefore necessary to prioritize a mobile LMS to easily push content to your teams at any time; it is also an ergonomic assurance that can only facilitate the engagement of salespeople with the tool.
However, this is not enough to ensure the engagement of salespeople: digital learning must offer quality content and provide incentives through gamification. But what exact forms can gamification take in sales training, apart from a badge system?
We had provided an initial answer with 3 best practices for implementing gamification in companies. In a future article, we will provide new best practices on training gamification.
Meanwhile, to boost the motivation of your sales team, download our white paper “Creating a Super-Motivated Team in the Digital Age”