Hi,
Within my organisation, all our field agents are self employed, and many have received no upskilling since their initial induction. Product updates etc are sent out in regular newsletters etc, but we are looking at ways to improve product & sales knowledge to drive sales.
One of the ideas has been to have a training DVD produced. I have requested quotes and samples from several companies and have been impressed with the quality of what they have returned, but the production of this reflects considerable investment and I'm not convinced this would be the best use of my budget.
Does anyone have any ROI or case studies for a simiar type of organisation using a DVD to promote product knowledge? I am concerned about how I can link any increase in sales back to the DVD, I am also concerned about how I can promote this in a user friendly fashion, and ensure it is watched and also how effective this would be long term given new product updates & the "look" of the DVD (would it date v quickly?).
Personally, I would prefer to spend time & money getting out to see as many of our reps face to face, but the reality is that, as self employed agents, to spend time away from a revenue generating position (i.e. in training) can be restrictive.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Jessica
Jessica Clague
2 Responses
Rapid E-learning/DIY
How often does your product change? How do you currently deliver the updates, e.g. by PowerPoint slides?
Many companies have turned to so-called “rapid e-learning” solutions to be able to quickly create and deploy product knowledge training and updates.
I am particularly familiar with the Articulate suite of products.
http://www.articulate.com
With these you can very quickly take your PowerPoint slides, add narration, even build in some product knowledge testing and if you deploy it via Articulate Online (their lite-LMS) you can track who’s viewing your modules. You can include downloads within the modules too, such as product information sheets or other sales aides.
If your product knowledge training would benefit from video footage, than you can use their “Engage” product to include your DIY video clips in your final modules in a variety of different interactive templates.
Or, for video streamed over the web and tagged so that your sales reps can quickly find the bits they need, you might look to a service such as VeoTag.
http://www.veotag.com
With the corporate version, you can even add in PowerPoint slides that run in time with the video footage.
Hope this information is useful and gives you an alternative.
Thanks for pointing out alternative options!
Thanks for your reply Tim. This certainly gives different options, and potentially, a more sustainable option. Currently with product updates, we still use traditional mail to update our agents. Not all of them are au fait with internet use, or indeed have a home PC, but this is a small population of people.
I will do some further research into the options you have mentioned. I have been heavily involved with e-learning in a previous company, but all the material was “off the shelf”, so I’ll have a look at the resource needed to turn my own material into an interactive package.
Many thanks,
Jessica