Training can take sales professionals away from what they love to do and from their livelihood—meeting potential customers and providing them with the goods and services they need and want. Mobile learning offers a creative, convenient, and timely tool that keeps sales professionals in the field while giving them the information they need.
Mobile is a perfect fit for the person on the road. Segmented training administered while sales professionals travel from client A to client B makes optimum use of their precious time. Online services that inform the mobile sales pro can save time—mapping out the best route and learning along the way. Sales personnel can use travel time for anything from learning about new billing systems to becoming informed about new features of a product.
Information delivered digitally can be updated before a salesperson uses it. That way the sales professional has the latest specs at his fingertips, which he can then use to showcase his products’ features to prospective buyers. He can leverage current data to compare and contrast competitors’ offerings and seal the deal on the spot.
Technology also allows greater access to online content, as hotspots and Wi-Fi networks have become inexpensive and nearly ubiquitous.
Mobile learning can also be done collaboratively. Team members can share best practices and respond to challenges faced by other members by using an internal site or the division’s Yammer group.
For a trainer aiming to measure mobile learning for her sales force, the consumption of training is closer to the point of sale, making it easier to determine the effectiveness of the training.
Here are some further benefits of mobile learning for your on-the-go salesforce:
- Sales training doesn’t need to be expensive. There are many low-cost solutions using tools that most individuals who are on the road have—such as tablets and smartphones.
- You can use many of the digital resources that are already in place, such as the company’s Intranet (through VPN and remote desktop connections), social collaboration tools (Yammer, Jive, or LinkedIn), and company-wide texting systems.
- Costs can be reduced, because sales training materials and marketing collateral no longer need to be printed.
- Digital material gives you control over what your reps are sharing with their customers so that the information is as up-to-date as possible.
- A company’s brand or messaging can stay consistent. If everyone has the same data, everyone is speaking with one voice.
- There are countless applications you can leverage (like SAVO and Qvidian) to integrate your mobile learning strategy with your CRM. Some of those applications can even provide prescriptive content based on previous data.
- When sales reps proactively “pull” information, you can to see and track when and what they are learning and therefore map mobile learning events to performance metrics.
These tips are taken from ASTD’s Sales Enablement December bonus Infoline, “Leveraging Mobile Learning for Sales Enablement,” by Chad Udell and Gary Woodill.
