What will it take to engage your learners?

This is a common question asked of training professionals and discussed at conferences. From London to New York to San Francisco, the answers are surprisingly similar, and there is broad consensus about what is required:

To engage today’s learners, training has to be flexible, personalized, bite-sized, able to deliver feedback, relevant, and accessible on-demand across a wide range of platforms and devices.

Over the past few decades, the selling environment has changed dramatically. The pace of business is faster, ultra-informed buyers come to the table having already researched their desired solutions, and productivity demands on sales professionals are considerably greater. Time has never been a more precious commodity, and sales professionals must spend it wisely, maximizing interactions with customers and minimizing days away from the field sitting in training classrooms.

The composition of the workforce is also experiencing dramatic changes. According to Pew Research, in 2015, millennials surpassed Generation X as the largest segment of the U.S. workforce. The next generation, Gen Z, is beginning to graduate from college and seek entry.

Take a moment to consider the implications of these changes on training and development. As workforce demographics become more and more diverse, and the pace of the business environment hastens, there is a widening gap between traditional training solutions and what effectively engages learners. It is incumbent upon training organizations to bridge this gap and to evolve and innovate to meet learners’ new needs and expectations. This challenge is explored in new research on sales training innovation.

Training programs must be innovative in the modern sales environment, and they must meet learners where they already are, which is in an increasingly digitally connected world of screens. This doesn’t mean throwing away all past practices; rather, it means taking proven solutions and blending them with new approaches, content, methodologies and technology to engage a diverse salesforce working in a fast-paced environment.

This evolution requires training organizations to change the benchmark by which they measure the quality of their solutions. Today’s learners don’t simply compare their training experiences to other training experiences. They compare them to all other formal and informal learning they have experienced, both in person and online. It’s critical to understand that expectations of training programs have changed significantly. The courses and products we develop will only be successful if they are as easy to use as the best digital learning products on the market.

Elevating the quality and effectiveness of training solutions requires taking a fresh look at two key areas: content and delivery.

Here are eight specific industry best practices for designing sales training content:

• Curriculum and learning paths: Each program fits within the framework of a specific curriculum, either at the core or advanced level, with a series of learning paths, depending on the learner’s role in sales, such as inside sales, simple field sales, complex field sales and sales management.
• Modular course format: Incorporate microlearning opportunities by using a more modular and modern format.
• Multimedia and video: Include these elements in every program, with both live action and animated videos to help visualize key concepts and make them memorable.
• Data and analytics strategy: Dashboards allow users to measure progress, providing views into both what is taught and how well sellers are learning.
• Cutting-edge design: Redesign materials to include infographics, elements of information and interaction, and other elements that bring content to life.
• Updated content and subject matter expertise: Refresh every program with current thought leadership and research, whether it’s the latest thinking about negotiating skills in the 21st century, how millennials communicate or using social media as a prospecting tool.
• Neuroscience and learning research: Share the cognitive science behind learning, for example, by explaining how a sales dialogue works in the brains of the seller and the buyer.
• Job aids and manager toolkits: An essential supporting element of every program is a complete set of tools to help sellers translate their new skills to actual situations in the field.

Innovating sales training programs are about more than just great new content. By blending adaptive learning technology, video content and micro-assessments with instructor-led skills training, we are able to truly support a “flipped” classroom. In this new environment, learners can acquire basic knowledge and actually practice new skills online before ever stepping foot in a classroom. Valuable classroom time can then be focused on giving learners opportunities to dive deeply into meaningful skill practice with an experienced trainer or coach.

Achieving rapid and sustained behavior change in sales organizations is about more than just conveying information and measuring completion; it’s about teaching sellers new ways to think, helping them apply new skills and developing effective new behaviors that lead to powerful new habits. For today’s complex workforce, this means taking a next-generation approach to training and development. Technology is key to bridging the gap, helping learners accelerate their time to skill mastery and accelerating their time to better sales results.

Chris Tiné is SVP and Chief Product Officer at Richardson Sales Training.