Sales Training Article: Announcing CCS eUniversity®
How do we maintain the skills, training and momentum?
Introducing the CustomerCentric Selling® - eUniversity
One of the greatest challenges our clients face after they put their organization through CustomerCentric Selling® (or any other training for that matter) is "how do we maintain the skills, training, and momentum?". Everyone comes out of the workshop pumped up, with a genuine optimism as to what the implementation of the CustomerCentric Selling® sales methodology will mean to their ability to meet and exceed their quota, improve the accuracy of their forecast, find and engage with new prospects and build the quality and quantity of their pipeline.
Then reality sets in. How do integrate the skills and techniques that I learned in the workshop into my everyday selling activities?
Things that seemed so logical and easy in the training and skill practice environment now meet the harsh reality of practical application. Questions arise. "What was it the instructor said about handling voicemail?"; "What was it I'm supposed to do when I get blocked from meeting with other Key Players?", etc.. In fact, according the Research Institute of America, 33 minutes after a lecture is completed, students usually retain only 58% of the material covered in the class. By the second day, 33% is retained, and three weeks after the course is completed, without continuous reinforcement only 15% of knowledge is retained.
Quite often the responsibility for answering these questions and providing advice, assistance, etc., falls to the first-line sales manager. However, he or she has probably only been through the training once or twice themselves, so their ability to accurately and consistently reinforce the concepts and help their salespeople is somewhat limited.
So, let me ask you...
After the completion of the 3.5 day CustomerCentric Selling® workshop, would it be helpful if your salespeople had access to an ongoing, self-paced, web-based version of the training that they could access on an as needed basis?
And when needing assistance in a specific area, would it be helpful if your sales people had online access to, and could "re-take", those targeted modules that address their specific sales process needs and questions?
Also,
When you direct a salesperson to refresh himself on a given portion of the CustomerCentric Selling material, would you like the ability to monitor their compliance and level of participation electronically and have them take customized proficiency tests to determine the effectiveness of the additional training?
To help our clients address this critical issue of ongoing implementation support, we have recently completed the conversion of the entire CustomerCentric Selling® course into a web-based, e-learning program we're calling the "CustomerCentric Selling® - eUniversity". While we at CustomerCentric Systems initially envisioned this being an option for the delivery of the standard instructor-led workshop, we now recognize that it is much better suited to be an ongoing reinforcement vehicle after the instructor led training.
Again, according to the Research Institute of America, whereas the average content retention rate for an instructor-led class is only 58%, the addition of e-learning to the mix enhances the retention rate by 25 to 60%. Greater retention of the material puts a higher value on every dollar spent on training and positions you for a more successful, less stressful implementation.
The CustomerCentric Selling® - eUniversity will be available December 1. The only prerequisite is that you must have attended a full, instructor led CustomerCentric Selling® workshop in the past three years.
If you are an existing CustomerCentric Selling® client, please contact your CustomerCentric Selling Affiliate for additional details. Or, drop me a note at fvisgatis@customercentric.com.
Good selling!
Frank Visgatis
Co-Founder, CustomerCentric Systems LLC
Co-author of the CustomerCentric Selling sales methodology
