Allego customers have been on the leading edge of sales learning and enablement since the start of the pandemic, as they shifted in-person training, onboarding, coaching, and content to virtual programs, almost overnight.

New strategies and tactics have been needed this year more than ever. In June, Allego held its Sales Success Summit (S3) to offer best practices for maximizing Allego. Now in its fifth year, the annual event brought together over 800 sales, training, and learning and development professionals from more than 250 leading companies to help attendees adapt to a hybrid workplace and master virtual selling.

The virtual event featured keynotes from Allego executives, sixteen breakout sessions, as well as panels and presentations featuring customers from AmeriSave Mortgage, Ash Brokerage, Clyde, CooperVision, Tripadvisor and Veritas.

Of all the sessions, one of the most anticipated was the Allego Trailblazer Award. Each year, Allego customers are invited to submit a case study that describes their business challenges and how they used Allego to overcome those challenges.

Trailblazer Award Winner: Lincoln Financial Group
Congratulations to Kate Wiley, Kelly Cardenas, Melissa Finnegan, and Nathan Key!

Trailblazer Award Finalist: AmeriSave Mortgage
Congratulations to Jaclyn Smith!

A panel of industry experts then reviews each submission. This year, the distinguished panel included Elyse Archer, founder and CEO of She Sells; Frank Cespedes, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, entrepreneur, and sales management authority; and Lori Richardson, CEO, and founder of Score More Sales and President of Women Sales Pros.

Here are the stories from our 2021 Trailblazer finalists.

AmeriSave Mortgage Trains More Hires and Achieves Better Results

This past year, it was not uncommon for organizations to move their training to a virtual setting. But imagine you had to move to virtual training  and provide nearly four times more employees with training that is critical for their certification – and the success of your organization.

That was the reality faced by Jaclyn Smith, the sole trainer at mortgage lender AmeriSave. Before the pandemic, Smith led new-hire onboarding sessions that consisted of a five-week webinar-based course streamed live to an average of 50 to 60 employees in classrooms across the country.

During the pandemic, when mortgage rates fell, and home buying increased, AmeriSave aggressively recruited and hired new employees to keep pace with the demand for mortgages. This hiring activity meant AmeriSave quadrupled the number of individuals coming through training.

While Smith had to figure out how to handle this increase in trainees, she was also keenly aware of the importance of the training.

To become a licensed mortgage loan originator, new hires must pass a 120-question federal exam with a score of 75 percent or better. Typically, only 60 percent of individuals who take the test pass on the first attempt. If an employee doesn’t pass the exam, they must wait 30 days before being eligible again.

Pre-Recorded Videos Support Learners

To manage her complex training challenge, Smith turned to Allego’s sales learning and enablement platform.

“We took all the study aids and content that had been printed for the classroom sessions and built that content into pre-recorded videos using Allego. We also built-in quizzes that trainees could take immediately after watching the videos to ensure they were able to retain what they needed to know.”

In addition, Smith used Allego to pre-record everything a trainee needed to know for their licensing. Employees can watch—and rewatch—this content as often as they need to ensure they understand the content.

“Trainees used to say, ‘I’m going to live in Allego tonight,’ and that’s what they were doing,” says Smith. “We could see these students were not only watching those videos once or twice; they were watching the videos over and over and over again to ensure that they were retaining the information they were learning.”

Improved Test Results

Since AmeriSave launched Allego into its IGNITE program, they have had over 30,000 content views.

Smith credits Allego with helping increase trainees’ confidence and learning-retention skills—a claim supported by the number of new hires passing the federal exam on the first try. After adopting Allego, the pass rate and test scores of trainees increased by two percentage points.

“Not only did our pass rates increase, but their test scores also jumped,” notes Smith. “Before Allego, IGNITE trainees averaged between 78 percent and 80 percent on the test. After launching Allego, test scores jumped to an average of 85 percent to 87 percent.”

Smith concludes, “AmeriSave saw the benefits tenfold. We are giving a better experience to our new hires, who are starting the job with more confidence. I can’t say enough positive things about AmeriSave and Allego’s partnership.”

>> To see how other customers are transforming their sales learning and enablement efforts, check out our Customer Stories.

At Lincoln Financial Group, Allego Becomes a Key Training Resource

Lincoln Financial Group is a financial services company whose core business includes life insurance, annuities, and retirement plan services. The company started using Allego as a small test within its sales team.

Today, Allego has become an integral part of the company’s overall training strategy, providing a tool for sharing best practices, internal communications, and achieving sales success.

The Move to Virtual Selling

Before the pandemic, Lincoln Financial Group had deployed a small pilot program using Allego to improve the ability of divisional sales managers to coach their geographically dispersed sales teams.

But when the pandemic hit, the organization faced a new challenge: half of their wholesalers did not feel as comfortable presenting virtually as they did in person.

The company used Allego to create a “Virtual Virtuoso” sales training program that included a series of on-demand learning videos that wholesalers could watch—and rewatch—on their own time to learn how to sell better virtually.

“We used Allego to track views of this new program and make sure that everyone was taking advantage of it. The feedback was tremendous. Many wholesalers said the program took their WebEx presence to the next level,” said Kate Wiley of the Center for Sales Development.

Expanding Sales Success

The success of the Virtual Virtuoso program quickly spurred Allego’s adoption across the organization. Leadership buy-in and cross-functional collaboration were the keys to the fast adoption.

“We regularly meet with our leadership to discuss recent accomplishments, where our opportunities lie, and to see if we need to adjust our strategy. For us, Allego has created connections across leadership, teams, and individuals,” says Senior Training Consultant Kelly Cardenas.

The company also formed an internal Allego consortium group where Allego administrators could share what’s working in their respective organizations.

“We’re implementing the platform as a part of our overall training strategy and demonstrating how Allego helps our teams learn, develop, and create efficiency,” concludes Cardenas.

A New Way to Communicate Internally

As more managers got involved in producing learning and skills videos for their teams, Allego’s value as an internal communications tool expanded.

“Managers realized that sending an Allego video to their team was an engaging way to communicate. So now, instead of just shooting out another email, they shoot out a video. As a result, sales and account management teams were logging in more frequently because they’re seeing their direct managers and senior leaders model the behavior,” said Nate Key of the Group Protection division.

Allego also proved its value as a resource to gauge learning assessment and feedback. The company developed a ‘hot seat’ activity, where random questions were shown, and trainees were only given a limited time to respond and complete that response.

“Almost everyone retook the assignment a few different times on their own accord, which meant they were able to use self-reflection. They knew that they could do better. Allego is an ideal way for learners to self-evaluate, self-correct and then move forward,” concludes Key.

Congratulations to our Trailblazers!

Thank you to the Trailblazers for sharing their expertise with our S3 Virtual Summit attendees. We look forward to seeing the triumphs of other innovative Allego customers at S3 2022!

Learn More

To see how other customers are transforming their sales learning and enablement efforts, check out more Customer Stories. Learn more about our Sales Success Summit (S3).