Do you remember what life was like before we had mobile networks, smartphones, and tablets?

Our wired way of life meant we were tethered to our desks. Internet access, email, and online training were limited to desktop computers. If we needed anything on those machines while we were on the road, we were out of luck.

For that time, learning management system (LMS) software was ideal for enterprise learning and development, including sales training. The top-down solution allows companies to store, deliver, and track content. It was enough for what was required during those years.

But that was then; this is now.

Now, B2B buyers are on the go, using smartphones, tablets, and laptops to research and evaluate vendors.

Now, sellers need up-to-the-minute, continual learning in the flow of work about your customers, market, and industry.

And LMS software simply can’t provide that.

Today’s Sales Teams Need a Learning Ecosystem

Sales teams need modern tools that deliver continuous learning, micro-learning, and learning in the flow of work. A “learning ecosystem” provides this by allowing your LMS to coexist alongside a modern learning platform such as Allego.

In this new paradigm, your LMS operates as a system of record for baseline and compliance training, while the modern learning platform functions as a system of experience and learner engagement.

A modern learning platform delivers:

• Agile content creation
• Content that’s easy to access and use while in the field
• Self-directed learning
• Experiential learning on the fly

A modern learning platform picks up your reps’ learning and enablement journey where your LMS leaves off, focusing on skill development and learning in the flow of work. It allows you to provide organizational knowledge, learning, coaching, and content to the field to gain—and keep—a competitive advantage in a buyer’s world.

6 Ways a Modern Learning Platform Gives Sales a Competitive Edge

1. Just-in-Time Learning

With just-in-time learning, agile content is delivered in the flow of how sellers work. Most content management systems focus on storing just-in-time reference content such as slides, brochures, FAQs, and videos needed to educate prospects. A modern learning platform, however, supplements that traditional content with agile content curated by peers and subject matter experts, which increase seller engagement and adoption.

The Edge: With information at their fingertips, sales reps can quickly and easily get information to prepare for a meeting, to send to prospects, and find answers during a buyer meeting. Time is a differentiator, and reps can’t afford to waste it.

2. Peer-to-Peer Collaboration

Sellers like to learn from other sellers—to hear their success stories, winning pitches, and how they overcame buyer objections. With peer-to-peer collaboration, reps can share insights and expertise from the field. Further, organizations that can enable collaboration will see a bigger impact on revenue.

The Edge: When sellers collaborate, they get real-life, in-the-trenches stories—not theory. Reps give and get practical advice that they can apply to their prospecting and buyer conversations.

3. Coaching and Feedback

A modern learning platform enables reps to practice their skills and receive feedback on the go. For example, a rep can record their meeting with a buyer and upload it to the platform. Then their sales manager can run the recording through AI-powered Conversation Intelligence software to analyze the conversation and identify areas where they need coaching.

The Edge: Sales managers can use the data from a Conversation Intelligence tool to determine skill gaps, pinpoint where revenue is won or lost, prescribe personalized training to fix specific behaviors that lose deals, extract best practices for the entire team, and keep deals moving through the pipeline.

4. Field Reinforcement

Sellers want to sell. They don’t want to have to sit through long training sessions. But they still need to keep their skills sharp and be up to day on new product features and messaging. With a modern learning platform, you can deliver training when and where it’s convenient. This can be in the form of videos they can watch when it’s convenient

The Edge: By providing asynchronous reinforcement training, sales reps can participate on their own time. They don’t have to reschedule buyer meetings if they have a scheduling conflict, avoiding the possibility of not being able to get another meeting.

5. Micro Learning

With formal learning, sales reps receive a lot of information during a short period of time. Though well intended, it’s too much for them to remember. Research shows that retention goes down as the volume of information goes up. Plus, without reinforcement, people forget 80% of what they learned. With micro learning, reps receive high-impact, shorter content types.

The Edge: With micro learning, content is continually produced and updated in bite-sized chunks. Salespeople receive consistent, up-to-date information that is easy to consume and easy to remember. Also, research shows individuals who learn in the flow of work make more informed decisions faster because they have embedded access to information at the precise time of need.

6. Location Independence

Today’s sellers are on the go, working from anywhere they have an internet connection and using various devices. They need a mobile-first tool that allows them to access information in their moment of need, and from any location. A modern learning platform provides that.

The Edge: With an access-anywhere, -anytime modern learning platform, you eliminate distance barriers and ensure reps can get to content, collateral, and their peers in their moment of need. You save them time, enable them to sell more, and reduce travel expenses.

Sales Teams Need a Competitive Edge

While LMS software may be a solid choice for company-wide compliance or training, it isn’t sufficient to give a sales team what it needs to succeed: micro-learning in the moment of need and informal, peer-generated information from the front lines of customer conversations.

B2B sales organizations must deliver learning everywhere, all the time. Creating a learning ecosystem that includes a modern learning platform makes that possible—and sets your reps up for greater success.

Learn More:

Download Sales Learning in a Buyer’s World: Why Your Learning Management System Isn’t Enough to get more advice on how to give your sellers the learning, coaching, and content they need to succeed.