As with most industries, learning and development continues to evolve. Within the sales learning space we’ve seen a particular acceleration of change and growth due, largely, to the advent of the role of “sales enablement” within sales organizations.
I’ve spent my career thus far at the intersection of sales technology and sales training. A big part of my role is to keep up-to-date, and indeed ahead, of the sales tech landscape. Below I’ve offered up some observations on the sales EdTech world.
Learning in the Flow of work
A phrase coined by Josh Bersin, Learning within the flow of work is the latest evolution in training approach. The idea builds on the 70/20/10 principle whereby most learning happens on the job. This doesn’t just mean sales methodology but also product, industry and process learning. When these areas are purely taught up front in a “learning event” it’s common that the information doesn’t sink in. Salespeople look for learning (and answers) in the moment and place of need.
Self Enablement
A continuation of the move towards self-guided learning. More and more we see that with software and hardware, people use what they choose. They are less open to having purely linear learning forced on them. Curiosity leads individuals to seek out the information they need. We have become accustomed to being able to “google” anything and we see this trend moving into learning.
Democratization of Training
As with all areas, “crowd sourcing” is creeping into learning and development as well. While vetting is obviously needed, we are finding that salespeople are looking to multiple sources for knowledge alongside the formal channels. This often manifests as one rep leaning over to ask a more experienced rep for help or walking over to a peers’ desk. We also see individual reps with no formal training responsibilities publishing their own tips and ideas voluntarily.
Personalization
We’re well into a trend, globally, of personalization. Everyone’s Netflix homepage looks different because algorithms are learning the users’ behavior and preferences. The same goes for all sorts of ecommerce tools, social platforms and applications like Uber, Airbnb and Deliveroo. The expectation will be that training content and tools are dished up specifically for me, when i need them.
Microlearning and Nudge Tech
Microlearning has been around for a while and indeed we have engaged in this with our Imparta eCard technology, but we only see it gaining ground. The idea is that the days of long courses - physical or digital – are over. It’s not enough to just sit someone down and tell them “stuff”. Learning must be short and sharp. It must be personalized and at the time of need; keeping in line with the above trends. The idea of “nudge tech” is that the technology more subtly dishes up contextualized content in a just-in-time manner, and in the form of short sharp bites. Historically microlearning has been an entire product - now it will be more just feature.
Sales Specific LXP
Most companies will have an LMS. Often, they’re systems that are legacy and have been part of the tech stack for many years. They have the tendency to be bloated, and in an effort to be “one size fits all” they can be too generic for the more acute needs of salespeople. That said, they very much still have a place. While in the past, an organization has been comfortable with one central learning system for all staff, we’re seeing an appetite for more specific usage. I spoke to over 20 of the world’s top sales enablement leads and asked them all whether they wanted/needed a sales specific enablement platform or if their sales content should just exist in the company wide system. Most said that Sales needs its own.
Big Data, Short Story
Big data, machine learning and AI certainly aren’t new phrases or movements. In fact, you can get AI as a service these days. We are moving away from mountains of dashboards and tables. The expectation is to shovel said mountains of data (structured and unstructured) into a system and be told a very simple story as an output. Finding a story in data shouldn’t require a data science degree. The data should cut straight to some sort of actionable outcome. This is called “decision intelligence”.
My Response
I am very excited about the plans I have to tackle and embrace these trends and I look forward to venturing on with them.
I would be more than happy to spend some time, one on one, with any willing stakeholders in order to discuss what we are doing and to collaborate on feedback and ideas. You can see some of my work at https://mixdeck.io/
Comments