6 Tips On How To Leverage Video for Onboarding Sales Reps

We recently posted that leveraging video sales coaching is a critical way to help onboard new reps, especially if it can be accessed anywhere and at any time. And Aberdeen research confirms: “Best-in-Class sales teams are more than twice as likely as underperformers (36% vs. 15%) to have adopted video solutions on behalf of their front-line sellers.” Plus, video-enabled sellers have 9% better customer retention and 8% more reps achieving their quota—delivering measurably greater results to their enterprises. (Best-in-Class Sales Enablement via Video-Based Learning)

Of course while onboarding, new sales reps are often asked to take in a large amount of complex information in a short amount of time. This is best done visually, which has traditionally meant meeting with managers in person, wherever they may be. But successful firms are finding that videos and virtual sales meetings save both time and money by eliminating the need for travel, lengthy manager sit-downs, and ride-alongs.  Video content also means sales reps can refresh the content when it’s needed, rather than trying to retain every piece of information for every possible scenario.

In addition to saving managers and team members the time it takes to train a new hire, video is quickly becoming known as the easiest way to absorb new content and “one of the most impactful ways to speak to an audience.” (Psychology Today) In fact, Psychology Today also points out our brains can process videos 60,000 times faster than text.

Some Tips for Getting the Most out of Video 

• Keep video segments focused, easy to digest, and brief. Videos should be short—preferably less than five minutes each—so reps are less likely to become bored or lose the thread of information. It’s also important to end with a short review of the main points.

• Create individual videos for each topic to be covered. This enables new hires to easily find and review the exact content they need at that moment. Videos should be clearly labeled and saved to an easily accessible location.

• Track your reps’ use of video. “When video assets are managed by an enterprise video platform, managers also can ensure that employees watch the videos and comply with onboarding by tracking viewer statistics for each team member.” This will also help managers understand the most useful content to their reps so they can modify or eliminate those that aren’t getting viewed in their entirety, or at all.

• Use video as a form of two-way communication. Sales coaching will be far more effective when reps have the opportunity to record and perfect their own pitches to share with managers for feedback. (Best-in-Class Sales Enablement via Video-Based Learning) This helps reps improve message consistency, and managers can quickly identify any performance issues before reps get in front of a customer.

• Make videos interactive if possible, in order to keep reps engaged, involved, and focused on the points you want to emphasize. Use “roleplays, quizzes, and other interactive techniques to engage sales reps in knowledge capture.” (Best-in-Class Sales Enablement via Video-Based Learning)

• Don’t discount peer-to-peer learning. Millennials especially will cull best practices from any source at all. They “learn and grow with input from a gigantic, ever-changing collection of self-curated sources, and consider user-generated content as equally valid as the generational wisdom passed down by your current sales manager.” (Best-in-Class Sales Enablement via Video-Based Learning

As for video adoption, the Aberdeen research shows that 48% of Best-in-Class companies actually prefer video-based learning to traditional training. They recognize that “on-demand, just-in-time knowledge transfer is now the norm, and that mobile consumption of consumer and business learning has grown more effective than the force-fed classroom session.” As technology evolves—and employees along with it—it’s clearly time to re-evaluate how information is dispersed across the board.

Learn more about how Allego accelerates sales on boarding using video, mobile peer-generated content and more.