Analytics, Assessments, Authoring tool, e-Learning, eLearning Develpment Best Practices, Game-based learning, Game-based Learning Infographics, Gamification, Micro-learning, Online Learning, QuoDeck

5 Reasons Why You Should Implement E-Learning

May 24, 2021 QuoDeck Leave a comment

In our previous blog, we discussed how onboarding training can boost efficiency and productivity in your organization. As new learning methods have grown in popularity, more and more businesses are realizing the advantages of e-learning. Although online learning can be costly to implement, it pays off every time an employee completes their courses. Virtual learning is not only less expensive than traditional learning, it’s efficient, and reduces instruction time significantly.

Here are 5 reasons that will help you understand how switching from traditional learning to e-learning can benefit your organization.

Improved retention and consistency in learning

In traditional learning, you usually have an educator who has his teaching tools, methods, and approaches. Employees may find it hard to adjust to new learning methods while simultaneously absorbing the information educators share.

One of the advantages of e-learning is that it can provide important information in ways employees can understand easily, which results in improved retention. Content is simplified using podcasts and interactive modules. Employees can access their learning when their energy and focus are at their peak for retention. This nature makes it easier to retain the new concepts and, of course, to implement them in their work.

Providing new learning methods

Not everyone learns in the same way. Some people prefer to retain knowledge through videos, while others prefer written notes, and still, others require realistic opportunities for practice before they truly grasp a new skill. One of the most significant advantages of e-learning for employee training and development is the availability of a wide range of content formats. These new learning methods are engaging for everyone when it includes videos, notes, infographics, games, and other types of content.

An increased engagement is a sure sign that employees want to finish their course. Apart from this E-learning enables you to update the material whenever necessary. This means the online learning courses can be adapted along the way as it is relatively simple to make changes to online material, particularly textual changes, online courses are always up to date, and employees are not provided with information that is no longer relevant to them.

Gamification and interactivity

Some new skills require more than video notes. Active employee participation is required in learning new skills. The ultimate interactivity and practice can be provided through a powerful learning management system (LMS) that supports gamification, quizzes, branching scenarios, and surveys. Interactive e-learning courses enable employees to practice new skills in a secure place, so they are set up for success in real life. Furthermore, by using a variety of assessments such as quizzes and case studies, you can engage learners as they progress through the training.

Collaboration and community building

Learning can be solitary, but social exercise shouldn’t be so because employees learn much more by interacting with their colleagues than by reading a book. New learning methods lead to discussions and discussions lead to innovation.

Online learning benefits the community and leads to collaboration. Including activities such as forums for discussion and live tutorials can be immensely beneficial. Commitment to other employees encourages collaboration and creates a team culture that showcases its benefits beyond the educational environment.

Immediate feedback and acknowledgment

Another advantage of e-learning in the workplace is that employees have access to immediate feedback. Immediate results from online assessments assist employees in determining how well they are doing and which sections of learning material they may need to review before moving on. Furthermore, gamification features in courses such as leaderboards, badges, and certificates give employees a sense of recognition and achievement, which motivates them to learn. Timely and automated feedback is beneficial not only to employees but also to their managers and the business. This is due to the fact that it eliminates the need for manual feedback and grading.

Conclusion

Learning is an ongoing process and as time changes we all have to adapt to the new virtual learning. Online learning programs apply to every industry, business, and employee worldwide. These learning methods are convenient, easy to access, easy on the budget, and measure results while keeping a digital record for everything. E-learning is cost-effective, improves employee performance, reduces staff turnover, and boosts productivity.

Corporate Learning and Development, Corporate Learning Best Practices, e-Learning, eLearning Develpment Best Practices, Employee-Training, HR Tech, Social Learning Trends

How To Enhance Virtual Learning With The Help Of Social Learning

May 18, 2021 learningsolutionblog Leave a comment

A virtual environment is a medium of learning where learners go through courses, study materials and learning aids through an online medium. It can be browser-based or a virtual training session through Zoom. Virtual learning offers activities, interactions, and resources within a course structure and provides different levels of assessment. Given this context, learners can access learning materials through peer-to-peer collaboration networks such as forums. As social learning is a continuous process of learning from other people within and outside the organization, it can be integrated into virtual learning through various means.

At the present virtual learning also happens through social technologies like blogs, wikis, discussion forums, messaging tools, conferencing tools, subject-matter directories, and videos. Organizations are increasingly using social learning in their training methodologies for improved learning retention, increased learner engagement, and reduced training costs.

The 70:20:10 Learning Framework

In traditional classroom training, most learners recall only 10% of what they have learned after 72 hours. Such lack of knowledge retention can harm the business of your organization. For example, a salesperson may face trouble recalling the knowledge learned at the appropriate time the next week, which could cost them a sale.

As per this methodology, about 70% of learning happens through on-the-job training and practical experiences, 20% through interaction with peers and colleagues, and just 10% in a traditional, instructor-led classroom training environment.

Why Social Learning?

Social learning helps employees with enhanced retention of knowledge, which is the primary goal of any training program. Social learning encourages learning in a working environment and allows learners to apply their knowledge to work. They can learn from peers, senior employees, or experts within the organizations. People learn from real-life scenarios/examples and by direct experiences. Research studies also indicate that social learning methods deliver a better ROI (almost 75:1 ratio) when compared to traditional classroom training.

Here are a few strategies on how to enhance virtual learning with the help of social learning.

Enhance Learner Engagement

A virtual learning environment allows you to manage the learning activities by using various means such as an LMS for learner administrations, learning platforms, and virtual instructor sessions. In social learning, employees can either start or take part in a discussion, training or coach others as and when a situation arises. This type of freedom to engage in their learning will directly impact increased engagement in their work.

As part of social learning, provide a network of mentors and peers, where information is created and distributed easily to employees. Thus, employees can obtain more practical knowledge and make better decisions through increased engagement with others.

Collaborate Proactively With Learners

Communication and collaboration among the participants with emails, chat, wikis, blogs, etc., are other key components of a virtual learning environment. Social learning is collaborative in its approach, happens in real-time, and has a direct relation to an employee’s work. Learning can happen anytime, anywhere, and by using any device. Organizations that support social learning need to have learning environments that foster conversation, discussion, and collaboration between learners across the organization.

Social learning involves knowledge sharing in a joint effort between peers, and between peers and facilitators. It promotes high-level thinking, good relationships, oral and written communication, self-management, responsibility, and leadership skills.

Encourage Peer Learning

Peer learning is a great way in which learners learn from each other. Participants connected can observe and learn from others, helping each other in the virtual session. Learners can directly learn from seniors and experts who have been in similar situations. In peer learning, learners receive more time for individualized learning, and interactions between employees promote active learning.

Learners get a chance to reinforce their learning by instructing others. Also, learners feel more comfortable and open when interacting with their peers. For companies, peer learning is a financially efficient alternative to hiring trainers or instructors. Research studies indicate that peer learning activities yield more benefits to the organization, such as enhanced team-building spirit, more supportive relationships, greater psychological well-being, and improved communication skills. Thus, organizations should encourage peer learning to achieve greater productivity.

Add Simulations And Gamification Elements

Simulations and gamification help facilitators turn their virtual learning into a more interactive experience. Simulations can turn virtual learning sessions into more interesting and fun learning sessions. Mock trials and digital simulations are great ways to enhance a virtual learning session and engage the participants more.

Gamification involves turning an activity into a competitive game for the learners. You can take learning concepts, assignments, and activities and convert them into interesting games. The facilitator can announce badges and rewards for winners and create that unique spark that attracts the learners’ interest. Gamification and simulations allow learners to observe real-life scenarios and examples.

By Suresh Kumar DN, CEO at Tesseract Learning

Corporate Learning and Development, Employee-Training, Game-based learning, Micro-learning, Mobile Learning, Sales

Why Your Sales Team Needs To Be Mobile Ready?

May 11, 2021 QuoDeck Leave a comment

Mobile apps have been seen to increase sales team productivity and efficiency over the years. Sales reps should consider your clients’ schedules. The faster your clients can get the information, the better it will reflect on you and your company. In this scenario, it’s critical to leverage mobile sales enablement within your sales team. One option for sales teams is to use a mobile learning system.

A mobile learning system is an application that can be accessed from any device at any time to help with the sales process. When face-to-face relationship management is not possible, these tools and sales app solutions house customer information and relevant, up-to-date content to engage prospects, allowing for accessible, fast, and convenient communication. Following are the reasons why sales teams need a mobile learning system:

It’s accessible, fast, and flexible

Whether your sales reps are connected or not, they can complete their work from any location at any time. Up-to-date marketing collateral also makes it simple to share content with the entire team in real-time. A Mobile learning system functions as a central “hub,” allowing quick and flexible access to all marketing content and CRM data. Sales and marketing executives, as well as sales reps, can input and syndicate content with great ease and flexibility from a single source that serves as an information repository.

Generate Sales Pipeline

Customer inquiries and concerns do not always occur during normal business hours, and schedules or locations may preclude sales professionals from meeting in person. Mobile sales enablement tools enable marketing and sales leaders to provide excellent management, allowing them to keep buyer conversations going while supplementing or even substituting live meetings and phone calls. Buyers can use mobile learning software with a mobile platform app to reach out with questions, and reps can respond instantly, whenever and wherever they want.

Increased efficiency

Your clients’ days are just as hectic as yours. The faster your clients can access the information, the better it reflects on you and your company. A mobile learning system will save time for both your clients and the sales team. Your customers can access complete information at the touch of a button and for further doubts; they can contact the sales team. It saves your team time as they don’t have to answer trivial inconveniences, hence increasing their productivity.

Data is easily accessible

One of the best practices of this system is that it collects information about orders, products, and clients. This information allows you to learn which products are the most popular when certain orders are most common, and so on. Having up-to-date information helps increase order efficiency and reveals your clients’ purchasing habits. This allows you to suggest more relevant products and expect the client’s next move, which increases trust between the client and sales rep.

Increases customer engagement

Mobile sales enablement provides one-on-one interactions with clients which establish trust and dependability. This strengthens the business relationship and speeds up the sales process. Clients can see orders being placed in front of them and make changes based on their requirements with immediate results. Involving the client in the process of selecting products and placing orders is the most effective way to build closeness and trust.

Conclusion

Sales representatives must be prepared for face-to-face interactions with customers, as well as the process that occurs before a lead is passed on to Sales, as well as the follow-up process. Mobile Sales Enablement helps sales reps get up to speed faster by delivering content that reinforces training directly from their mobile device. Mobile learning systems provide a unique customer experience. Mobile Sales Enablement raises the bar for the sales rep/customer relationship by providing real-time access to the right information to advance the sale process. Staying ahead of the competition necessitates the adoption of new technologies, and when it comes to customer engagement.

Remote Working, Sales, Start-up's

Sales Training Best Practices: Prepare Your Sales Team for Success

May 7, 2021 QuoDeck 1 Comment

Sales training improves the performance of sales reps that has a direct impact on the bottom line, from product knowledge to sales skills. Therefore, sales enablement training is at the top of the list of areas in which companies invest.

Questions that most sales teams may want answered are:

What will captivate your sales audience?
What will motivate your employees to complete your training and make sales?

Some of the most efficient sales enablement strategies we’ve discovered include keeping it short, providing learning at the point of need, and incorporating some friendly competition.

We’ve compiled a list of effective sales training practices and techniques from industry experts to assist you in developing compelling and effective sales enablement training programs.

Emphasis on essential soft skills

Soft skills are effective as it allows meaningful conversation with potential customers. Soft skills such as communication, persuasion, boost your marketability.

The best salespeople are those who want to help their customers; they listen, are pleasant, and are upfront about whether a product or service will benefit their prospects. They cultivate relationships with their clients and get to know them. While some sales representatives are naturally good with people, it is critical to train soft skills such as listening, communication, and phone etiquette. Salespeople have a bad reputation for being pushy and abrupt. Including soft skills in your sales enablement plan will assist your reps in softening their approach, making them a pleasure to work with for both customers and you.

Training about customers perspective

Sales enablement strategies emphasize product details and messaging, at the expense of explaining the buyers’ needs and challenges. Make the buyer’s journey a bigger part of your sales enablement training, both for new hire onboarding and learning reinforcement for your existing sales force. This can be accomplished by ensuring that buyer persona details, such as key business challenges, success metrics, and pain points, are included in your training curriculum (and then assessing your reps’ mastery of them).

You should also outline effective ways for engaging buyers at each stage of the buyer’s journey. Share persuasion techniques that can assist buyers in moving through the decision cycle. Is the prospect sold on your solution and trying to persuade other decision-makers to buy it? Outline sales enablement strategies for shortening the time it takes to make a purchasing decision.

You can combine sales enablement training with coaching exercises that need representatives to think like buyers on the spot.

Highlight Trends in the Industry

It’s possible that your salespeople aren’t reading 30-page research reports on the state of B2B selling or your target markets. However, a 600-word blog post on current social selling tips is an excellent addition to your sales enablement strategies. Providing continuous education to your sales representatives is an essential part of sales enablement training. Incorporating outside perspectives into your training is critical because it reminds your employees that the profession is changing and encourages them to stay current.

For example, you can use sites like Quodeck, you could embed relevant research and news articles about target industries as required courses or attachments into training courses to ensure reps review them to complete their training. You could then include a knowledge-testing component that quizzes salespeople on key findings.

Focusing on one area of expertise

We all have our strengths and weaknesses. There is no one skill that always closes the sale. In reality, sales representatives tend to lean toward specific skills and turn them into strengths. Curating sales enablement strategies that foster a culture of ongoing support. However, encouraging specialization and promoting those talents is the beginning. Your team also requires training to further develop those skills and ensure that their weaker areas are addressed. Try Quodeck for ideas on what topics and specialties to focus on and to generate sales leads and grow your business.

Conclusions

In conclusion, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to sales enablement training for success. However, the underlying foundation should point to learning and training culture.

Consider what kind of post-training reinforcements you’ll provide your team to help them continue their journey, and empower your sales team to succeed by encouraging continued growth. Make it the real goal of your sales team to learn how to absorb and apply new techniques, make changes, and track their results.

Employee-Training, Induction programme, On-boarding/ Induction, QuoDeck

5 Ways to Elevate Your Sales Rep Training & Onboarding

May 3, 2021 QuoDeck Leave a comment

The onboarding phase, in general, is the preparation and integration of a new team member in the organization.

Sales representatives are taken on board through best practices such as revising and attending guidance sessions, and preparation elements to accommodate new salespersons more closely to their environment and responsibilities. According to research by Glassdoor, organizations with good onboarding programs increase new employee retention by 82% and efficiency by more than 70%.

Ways to Maximize Efficiency During the Training and Onboarding Process

Have a Standard Process

According to Harvard Business Review, 22% of companies have no formal onboarding programs. A standardized program can help to have a clear image in your mind that is intended to be long-term. Questions such as, “What basic tasks would each recruit complete in the first week?”,“What training courses do they complete in the first month?”, and ”What do they expect to do in the first quarter?” need to be answered through the program. Therefore, analyze the current onboarding program (or the one you plan to introduce if your company does not yet have one) and define unique events that a new sales rep should go through, and make them the norm for all hires.

Document it

According to a study Human Capital Institute, 58% of company onboarding programs are focused on procedures and paperwork. It’s always a good idea to have some tools and reference guides on hand so they can update their memory on the fly. Creating sales processes and intelligence documents will save the new reps a lot of time and effort during their first couple of months on the job. Of course, you should provide your new reps with a comprehensive set of phone scripts and email templates that they can use right away; these scripts should cover the majority of the touchpoints in a standard sales cycle. Most good reps will later tailor these to suit their style, but supplying them with these tools upfront allows them to get up and start running much faster.

Set attainable goals and milestones for new hire

Consider the following scenario: you’ve just landed your dream job, but during the onboarding process, you find that the job goals are unclear and you’re unsure what is expected of you. When new employees enter the organization, they must understand the goals for which they are responsible. Provide them with insights into the company’s principles, priorities, and long-term goals. When you approach the sales onboarding program with a target in mind, you will be able to remain focused on providing workers with the right insights to keep them motivated and efficient. This approach will also help increase employee retention

Check-in every week

According to a study done by Enboarder, 72 percent of employees, one-on-one time with the boss are the most critical aspect of any onboarding program. Nothing is more motivating for new reps than understanding that you, the boss, care for them and want them to succeed. A weekly five-minute phone call from you will do wonders for a new employee’s morale and effort. Simply get in touch: Inquire how he or she is doing and whether there is something you can do to assist.

Practice makes perfect

The stereotypical cliché hasn’t stopped being real, at least yet. The sales method, like any other part of life, can be mastered with repeated practice. This is particularly true for sales representatives since they learn at a faster and faster pace with repeated practice. As a result, ensure that the program contains a sufficient number of real-world practice scenarios.

Anything that has the new hires doing what they’re learning (while they’re learning it, not months later when they’ve forgotten it) will boost sales training stickiness and rep trust.

Conclusion

These five tips will increase the chances of your sales reps’ success, retention rate, and increase sales. Having an effective sales onboarding program is critical not just for the new sales reps, but also for the entire company. It may appear to be a lengthy and laborious procedure — and it is, but when done right, it will yield profits that are several times over. Standardization also decreases the amount of time put into daily tasks, and so, having a solid onboarding program in place will be beneficial for all organizations.