Online sales training has gained a great deal of popularity in recent years. Thanks to advances in technology, the use of this type of training tool allows many companies to provide real time interactive training opportunities without the need to gather all the trainees to a central location. This approach is especially helpful for large corporations with sales forces located in a variety of locations, as well as training affiliate partners who contract to sell the company’s goods and services. When looking for the best online sales training platform, it is important to consider issues such as ease of use, the range of interactive tools included in the platform, and the cost involved with the platform’s use.
In order for an online sales training effort to be successful, it is important to make sure that trainees can access the training with relatively little effort. This means using a platform that is Internet-based and requires little to nothing in the way of downloads prior to attending any of the live training sessions. Typically, a training platform that requires nothing more than an Internet connection of a certain speed and the assignment of login credentials to the trainee will be sufficient to track attendance and allow each trainee to make the most of the training.
Access to online support materials, such as required reading or archives of live presentations is also very important when it comes to online sales training. This approach makes it possible for trainees to review sessions and go back over materials to answer any questions that may occur after the live meeting has concluded. Access to those materials will also be helpful if homework or tests are assigned as part of the training, since the attendees can refer to those resources when doing assignments or preparing for a test.
Interactive tools are also key to the success of any online sales training program. Ideally, trainees should be able to interact with instructors at specific intervals during the live presentations. This may be in the form of using a tool to indicate a question, allowing the instructor to recognize the attendee and allow the question to be asked. Alternatively, a program that allows trainees to submit questions via a chat box to the group or the instructor alone will also make it possible to hold those questions until specific points in the presentation.
As with most business tools, the cost of operating an online sales training program must be taken into consideration. While even the most robust and feature-rich online training is still much less expensive than conducing on-site training sessions, care should be taken to make sure the structure of the training platform is as cost effective as possible while still providing adequate training to attendees. In some cases, the use of a web conferencing platform in conjunction with audio conferencing may work just as well as making use of video conferencing for the live sessions, and cost much less.
