How to Build Sales Capabilities in the Digital World

Before 2020, organizations didn’t have to give much thought to the nature of their online sales training programs. But suddenly, face-to-face training, events and workshops came to a halt in the wake of the pandemic. It became critical to utilize new tools and approaches for improving sales performance when we could no longer bring sales professionals together to learn in person.

The first six months of the pandemic saw a series of fits and starts as companies began replacing in-person training with virtual events. Unfortunately, they approached these virtual events similar to face-to-face events, using the same content, pacing, and instructors. It turns out that it wasn’t as simple as moving everything online. To meet the needs of the salesforce, a whole new digital strategy is required.

This is the right approach — pandemic or not. Even when things return to whatever we end up calling normal, the plan should not be to return to how things were. Today’s sales professionals need a much more dynamic learning environment that puts learning closer to the moment of performance — something that is impossible in an ILT-only world. New products are emerging more rapidly, and existing ones are being updated even faster. Sales teams need the tools and resources to stay ahead of informed consumers. 

The pandemic presents organizations with an opportunity to see how effective an online learning platform can be. The tools available mean companies can create and deliver interactive, engaging experiences that can also be highly collaborative without the need to put people in the same room. They also make it much easier to provide spaced learning and opportunities for follow-up and application on learning. An online training platform also provides far more opportunities to measure the learning and the impact it is having than a traditional approach.

If you would like to learn more about using digital tools to improve sales capabilities, watch this webinar I hosted recently with Charlie Chung, Vice President, Solutions Consulting from NovoEd, and Michael Leimbach, Vice President of Global Research and Development for Wilson Learning. We dig into the topic, as well as showcase how Wilson and NovoEd have been able to collaborate and create an online sales training platform and model digital environment for training sales professionals.

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