Sales training is a massive market and shows signs of growing. However, it is a market that has been absent of learning. Traditional sales training programs usually include a one-week intensive event-based training at the beginning of the sales rep’s onboarding. From there the sales rep may have access to a virtual platform where updates around their product, changes in the market, or product marketing content is available. If the sales rep is lucky, they may have a sales manager that periodically assists with coaching or administering roleplays.
Aside from the one-time, event-based training, few learning opportunities are available to the sales professional. Sales reps oftentimes find themselves trying to upskill their pitches and navigating different business scenarios on their own, with little access to coaching or feedback. Their hopes that their pitch is good enough to convert a prospect into a customer usually ends in failure. Most sales reps do their actual practice in front of the customer with dismal results. When this scenario is multiplied across a region, a company’s sales targets are missed and negative attrition creeps in.
Good news! There is a much more effective way to deliver sales training that is based on learning science. At UMU, we have built a performance learning platform that is built on the foundation of learning science. First, to understand UMU you must understand the difference between training, learning, and performance learning:
- Training is the action of teaching a person a skill or type of behavior.
- Learning is the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or being taught.
- Performance learning facilitates the application of learning to the job. The effectiveness of performance learning should be measured by performance improvement.
For any effective sales training program, performance learning should be the desired state. In terms of business outcomes, a company will receive significantly greater performance from their sales reps that have gone through a sales program that has outcomes as its focus.
So, how does UMU deliver performance learning to sales training programs? Founded on learning science, UMU’s AI-enabled performance learning platform empowers sales reps and sales leaders to collaborate and upskill together to drive results. UMU’s all-in-one performance learning platform delivers frictionless learning courses and programs to any device, anytime and anywhere. Using UMU’s course builder, courses and programs can include graphics, texts, audio slides, videos, quizzes, and much more. According to the dual channel principle in learning science, new content and information are transmitted more effectively when visual and auditory senses are activated.
UMU’s AI-enabled video coaching can help sales leaders create opportunities for practice that mirror real-life scenarios. These practice scenarios are effortless to create and deliver. With UMU’s AI video coaching, practice can happen at scale through-out a remote workforce. Sales reps can use UMU’s AI enabled video coaching to practice their pitch and presentations as many times as they need. UMU’s AI gives reps structured feedback to help them improve while creating a safe space for practice. Consistent practice is a key method of learning and applying learning to the job itself is a functionality that is missing in most sales training programs. On average, sales reps that participate in sales training courses that are built on UMU practice five to six times more often than those who do not.
Performance learning starts with high quality-content, followed by practice to internalize knowledge. Timely, personalized feedback during practice helps learners improve. Finally, real-world scenarios should be used to evaluate mastery and true content knowledge. This is how UMU combines the four key elements of performance learning into an effective framework: teaching, learning, practice, and application.
