A Medical Device Maker Turns Budget Cuts into Better Sales Training Using Sales Readiness Technology (Pt. II)
When the sales training team at one medical device maker was facing budget cuts, they decided to move forward instead of scaling back.
By adopting sales learning and enablement technology, they were able to dramatically improve the company’s sales enablement program with fewer resources.
Interactive, Self-Guided and Streamlined
After training the sales managers in how to use Allego’s technology, the sales training team was now ready for “a behemoth task” – reinventing the new-hire onboarding program.
Once upon a time, the team thought the existing program was “awesome.” But after growing accustomed to the look and capabilities of modern learning technology, they decided the old program was awesome for a different era. “It was color-coded, 13 pages, tables everywhere, links to numerous sites,” said the sales training director. “It was cumbersome, labor-intensive and downright injurious to the eyes. And we expected people to use this? This is your welcome to our company?”
By comparison, the new program is an interactive, self-guided, and more practice-oriented approach to learning – one that became an instant hit among the sales reps due to the prevalence of rep-generated video content residing in the system for other reps to access and learn from.
One contract salesperson told the team, “I watched those Allego videos over and over again, and I really felt like I could get out there and sell based on what you showed us.”
Since implementing the new sales onboarding program, the training team has been able to get reps into the field with much more speed and agility.
New Product Launches
By combining formal and informal learning approaches, as well as role-playing and pre-work, new product launch meetings are more productive, and reps now enter the field with more confidence in their ability to sell.
Gone are the days of binders and handouts at launch meetings. Today, SMEs build PowerPoint presentations that they embed into Allego mobile videos so reps can brush up on the go. From there, managers are able to solicit their team to record their own version of the presentation within the app on their mobile device and share it for in-video feedback.
At a recent launch meeting, “we also did a lot of role playing,” said the training director. “In the past, reps said that role-plays could be avoided or not taken as seriously when done live during group workshops. Allego added a much-needed layer of accountability, ensuring that each rep stepped up to the plate and showed their manager what they’d been practicing by recording it on video.”
Best Practices Videos
Today, reps also benefit from the ability to watch and share videos of best practices on the Allego Best Practices channel. Some videos consist of reps sitting in their cars after sales calls to share with the team a particular talk track that worked well. In others, salespeople record videos of customers discussing what they like about new products.
“This channel reflects best possible use of Allego to carry learning forward after a meeting, and also to connect a team spread across a large geography in meaningful ways. Sharing successes through video sharing has provided our reps with a real-time experience that nothing else could offer them before.”
In addition to best sales practices, the sales training team uses Allego to share best coaching practices. Thanks to their newfound ability to remotely observe managers’ coaching and feedback sessions by using the app, the team is committed to continuously improving managers’ coaching skills by sharing examples of what “good coaching looks like.”