Microlearning: Essential for Sales Teams

In a digital context of constant acceleration, how can we reconcile the long-term nature of training with the market’s increasingly instantaneous demands? This issue, particularly relevant for sales teams constantly facing increasingly informed consumers in the field, as well as the growing complexity of offers and products, must be addressed by management.

There is a very simple solution that is being used more and more: breaking down training into microlearning modules, spreading them out continuously over time, and delivering them via digital support.

Here are the 3 key advantages of microlearning modules:

Create a learning community:

According to a study by Software Advice (a leading institution on software effectiveness and usage that regularly publishes research and studies), microlearning modules generate 50% more employee engagement compared to traditional training modules. It is precisely in response to the increasingly pronounced disinterest and disengagement of employees in traditional training offerings (seminars, conferences, etc.) that microlearning has widely developed.

#Microlearning means 50% more employee engagement!

In addition to fostering learner motivation, microlearning allows for more effective information retention. Indeed, this learning system promotes 17% more information retention.

First, it allows for innovative and diversified learning content, from pure text to video and images. All resources are available to provide material and content for learning. The idea is obviously to make these content libraries easily accessible, especially through digital means.

Finally, a microlearning module typically includes an assessment component, such as a quiz. Such an assessment system is immediate, fast, and thus provides real-time feedback on skill acquisition. This is not restrictive and is extremely useful for very specific training, on important or complicated details – making it a format perfectly suited for training on new product features, for example.

Gain deployment agility:

Training modules broken down and distributed in small chunks also save management time and cost. Indeed, they take less time to implement. According to Ray Jimenez, an ‘e-learning architect,’ microlearning can be implemented 300% faster than ‘normal’ training. Thus, microlearning allows you to gain significant deployment agility: since development time is shorter and module distribution is also simplified if done via smartphone, the only remaining task is to develop the modules, one by one, rather than all at once.

This deployment agility will be particularly beneficial for you to focus on training content and adapt it to daily challenges.

This advantage is also reflected in the effectiveness of microlearning for learners: the example of Duolingo is striking in this regard. Besides the fact that the application gained 120 million users in 4 years, they also conducted a study whose results are more than clear: learning through microlearning is 75% faster.

Train continuously and remotely:

The third essential advantage of microlearning is its ability to provide continuous training. Why? Because developing microlearning modules halves training costs. Indeed, there’s no trainer or specialist to hire, no premises to rent for delivering the training, and finally, no material costs since everything is digital. All these savings thus allow these trainings to be delivered in small doses throughout the year. Continuous training is now one of the significant assets an organization can offer its sales representatives. It’s the promise of continuous learning, of regular skill acquisition: also, in a way, the promise of access to training on the most innovative and essential topics.

It is also an opportunity for an organization to greatly facilitate the onboarding of new employees by means of 2-3 minute modules to be completed daily.

How to implement a microlearning system?

At this stage, if you are convinced of the effectiveness of microlearning, you are probably wondering what tool to use to train your teams. It is indeed important not to rely solely on your CRM, for example, which only has an analytical function, so to speak. Certainly, a CRM gives you all the necessary information to measure your performance (and even then), but what’s important is what you do with it afterward. Consider a sales engagement application that will handle the entire post-analysis aspect, i.e., motivating and focusing teams on strategic points.

The app aspect, unlike a software or merely responsive platform, ensures mobile format: the smartphone is one of the salesperson’s main work tools, especially for field sales representatives. By having access to microlearning modules on their mobile, it offers the possibility to train at any time and ensures easier user engagement in completing these modules.

A sales motivation application will also give you complete freedom to create the training you need yourself. You can thus customize modules for a particular type of audience.

What you need to remember:

Microlearning results in

• 50% more engagement
• 50% less cost
• 17% more information retention
• Much faster learning

And we will let Benjamin Franklin conclude this article because he said it much better than us: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” ¹

^1″“It is by training your employees that you will make the greatest profit.”