- Why you want microlearning
- Why your sales teams will embrace it
Have you noticed stagnation in your teams’ engagement and motivation? Are you worried that your sales teams are not using their knowledge and skills to their full potential? Feeling uninspired at work can invite unwanted lingering effects on productivity and overall performance.
In an industry where product or service offers, execution, and technology are constantly evolving, sales leaders must get creative to provide proper training for their teams－reliable, convenient, and reasonably-priced. There is a pretty fitting solution for this challenge: segment the information, spread it over a select period of time, release the segments of essential information on a digital platform. And voilà, you have microlearning!
1. Cultivate a learning community
First, microlearning platforms suggest innovative and diverse learning material in text, image, and video formats. Second, all learning resources are filled with valuable and potent material, and the educational content is easily accessible in digital libraries. Finally, a microlearning module usually contains an evaluation, which appears as a quiz. This accelerates and simplifies the evaluation process, while also providing instant feedback. The non-restrictive method is extremely useful for detail-specific or complex training. For example, a microlearning format wholly adapted to educate about a new product’s features.
2. Master agile deployment
Microlearning training modules can be divided and disseminated piece by piece, thereby preserving valuable time and preventing unnecessary costs. Configuration and implementation is very fast. According to Ray Jimenez, an “e-learning architect,” microlearning platforms are up and running 3 times faster than traditional learning methods. It’s clear microlearning will boost your speed and agility in deployment; the development phase is shorter and distribution couldn’t be simpler via smartphone. Only one task remains: developing the various modules or lessons.
The agility of deployment will allow you to keenly concentrate on the content of the training modules and to adapt it accordingly based on evolving challenges. An impressive example to portray the advantages of agility is the language microlearning platform Duolingo, whose “…ultimate goal is to give everyone access to a private tutor experience through technology.” In 4 years, the platform gained 120 million eager users and conducted a study, discovering that the microlearning method is 75% faster.
3. Learning continuously and remotely
4. Sense of accomplishment
5. Sensory retention
Since some of our senses depend on short-term storage, ocular retention, for example, is normally short-lived because we are constantly bombarded by visual stimulation. Instead of staring painfully at a report and spreadsheets of data, analyzing a short video and sharing it with colleagues activates the other senses during the learning process and improves short-term memory conversion, resulting in 17% more information retained.
6. Better tracking
Many learning management systems (LMS) provide useful metrics to users, allowing them to track their progress. The microlearning platform administrator or supervisor can also access participants’ scores and track their accomplishments. One of Incenteev’s features is custom dashboards, which integrates all your systems—Salesforce CRM, ERP, LMS—in one platform, in real-time. The customizable dashboard allows you to identify your KPIs, track progress with individual and team performance dashboards, and visualize and target areas for improvement across your organization.
7. You can certainly afford it
According to a Training Industry, Inc. study conducted in 2016, 71% of the 235 companies surveyed agreed that costs savings are a benefit of using sales microlearning. That’s because the development of microlearning training modules cuts the training costs by 50 – 70%, since there is no need for a trainer or specialist, so the additional costs and time it would take to hire one are not an issue. Moreover, no additional space needs to be rented and printed materials expenses add up to a beautiful zero, since everything is digital! All these saved resources enable the microlearning lessons to be operational throughout the year, with no downtime.
8. Raise engagement by 50%
According to a report by Software Advice, microlearning modules are 50% more effective in engaging employees than traditional learning formats. Of the surveyed employees, 58% admitted that they would be more likely to use their company’s online learning tools if the content was broken up into multiple, shorter lessons. They also revealed that longer and more traditional style courses are more challenging to process and remember, especially when this disrupts their daily work flow. Despite, but also due to, the increasing disinterest in traditional learning offers, such as seminars and conferences, microlearning has developed into an efficient method preferred by salespeople and sales leaders alike.
9. Reward your teams
From the Software Advice report, 35% of employees said that “real-life rewards based on learning progress would be the strongest gamification incentive for using their company’s LMS.” Another fun feature of the Incenteev application is the gamification engine with an exhaustive contest library. You can organize sales contests and challenges to inspire and motivate your teams, making quotas and objectives fun! As you receive CRM-integrated live updates on group and individual progress, you can plan rewards for stellar performances with exclusive events, Amazon gift cards, or charity contributions.
How do I implement the microlearning method?
At this point, if you are convinced of the advantages and effectiveness of microlearning, you’ll want to discover the tools you can use to empower your teams. It’s important to not merely rely on a CRM for example, which has only an analytical function. Sure, a CRM gives you all the necessary information to measure performance, but what you do with that information is what truly matters. Consider a sales force engagement application that capitalizes on the analytics, instilling motivation and concentration in your teams on key strategic elements.
The smartphone is an indispensable tool for salespeople. Having access to microlearning modules on the go enables them to learn at their own convenience and ensures the successful completion of these modules. A business motivation application will grant you the freedom to create the training modules you need. And you can customize modules according to a particular team or population.
Key takeaways
What microlearning can do for you:
- 50% more commitment and engagement
- Speed-of-light deployment
- 50 – 70% less costs
- Metrics tracking
- Boost the reputation of your organization by giving employees a real chance to grow and develop
What microlearning can do for your teams:
- Increased retention
- More frequent sense of accomplishment
- Faster and pleasant learning experience
- Exclusive learning and training opportunities
- Rewards and prizes!
