Sales department training: onboarding, support training and certification. The case of the company ViYar
“ViYar” is a company operating in the market of furniture fittings and components for more than 19 years. Their customers are specialized trading companies, various manufacturing enterprises, as well as private craftsmen producing furniture. The company’s business card is modern showrooms, where you can see the range of products, get expert advice and quickly pick up the goods you need.
The rapid development of the company needed to scale, automate and improve the training system. For high-quality training of sales employees, it is important to quickly update the knowledge base and organize access to the material 24/7. Therefore, the company decided to implement a distance learning system (LMS).
By the beginning of 2022 the company had about 4,000 employees, more than 500 of them were sales employees. Evgeniy Biletskiy, training manager of the ViYar corporate university, told us about the training at ViYar.
The sales department of the “ViYar” company consists of several divisions:
- Showroom consultants.
- Showroom managers.
- Active sales managers.
- Call center consultants.
Absolutely all employees are trained in 2 stages:
- As newcomers;
- As regular employees.
How newcomer training is built
The adaptation period is 1 month. During 2.5 weeks, employees learn offline with experts, then intern for 2 weeks in the showroom with a mentor.
When “ViYar” did not yet have an LMS, after lectures, employees had to repeat the material on presentations. Since the company is developing rapidly and changes are constantly occurring, the information studied by employees quickly becomes incomplete or irrelevant. Therefore, it was decided to implement LMS, in which you can constantly update the knowledge base. The main condition is 24/7 access to information.
Once newcomers have taken classes with speakers, time is allocated for them to take courses on the LMS Collaborator platform. The courses use different types of training content: informative screencasts, videos, articles and presentations. This makes the training more interesting and helps to keep the employees’ attention. They are tested after each course to check their knowledge.
Newcomers learn at this pace for two and a half weeks. After that, each employee is assigned a mentor, a curator of their work. Usually it is an experienced employee.
Newcomers are also evaluated. An appraisal is considered successful when an employee passes each topic with a score of more than 80%. Employees who score less than 80% on a topic may retake it.
Organize training for newcomers with the LMS Collaborator. The portal is accessible 24/7. Users can study at any convenient time. Submit an application and our managers will help you with the choice of tools and demonstrate all the features of the platform.
Regular employees training
“ViYar” has an extensive range of products, each with individual characteristics that need to be told to the customer. In order to provide quality advice, an employee needs to be an expert and know the product he or she is selling. That is why all current employees are evaluated every three months to assess their level of knowledge and competence.
The attestation consists of different topics, each topic has 13-14 questions. By coming out of the average score for the attestation, employees receive a certain bonus motivation. If an employee receives more than 90 points on all test topics, then they will take the next attestation in six months.
Employees have one attempt at testing. If they do not like the result, they can prepare and pass the certification in three months. Preparation for certification takes place using the same courses as for newcomers.
The product range of “ViYar” is very large, so it’s easy to forget something. LMS Collaborator courses help to restore knowledge and get new information.
LMS Collaborator analytics helps us generate the necessary reports based on the results of certification: a report on the division and a specific employee, a general report, a comparative report with the previous year. Thanks to this data, we form a report from the sales department and by the result we calculate the bonus that employees receive.
“ViYar” is also actively using a news tab on the portal. This block is designed exclusively for employees of the sales department. Employees can read them: while commuting, on break, or at lunch.
Previously, all employees were informed of all shifts through corporate mail. However, because of the large number of emails it was easy to lose or not read important information. Therefore, the channel for informing employees was also transferred to the “Viyarum” portal.
Knowledge base
“ViYar” employees actively use the Knowledge base. It contains all the information about the product: how to prescribe it, characteristics, preferences, etc. So that employees can quickly find the information they need, all materials are divided into categories and subcategories.
Internal information about the work of the sales department is in a separate category of the Knowledge base “For work”, divided by position.
For example, if an employee works in a call center, a separate category is created for him/her. It contains all the relevant information: training resources, work schedule, general department schedule, etc. The link to the category tab is linked to Google Drive. So when a supervisor changes the data, it’s automatically updated on the portal. This helps employees search and view the information they are interested in at any time and from any device.
Conclusions
In the example of the “ViYar” company we can distinguish the following components of a successful case study of the sales department:
1. Newcomer training and supportive training for regular employees.
LMS Collaborator tools can help you organize a fast and high-quality adaptation of your employees. You can provide the necessary materials for newcomers. With the help of individual development plans (IDPs) make onboarding personal, organize access to knowledge as needed, use different tools for communication and track progress.
Don’t forget about supportive training for current employees. To keep employees’ knowledge up to date, use short courses, conduct regular testing, arrange access to knowledge 24/7 with a knowledge base, and maintain regular communication.
2. Actual knowledge base.
The knowledge base will be a great cheat sheet for your employees. Don’t forget to keep the information up to date and structure the material. In LMS Collaborator materials can be structured into categories and subcategories, and you can set access levels to content for employees of different positions and departments. This helps avoid confusion during the search process: employees will see only the information that relates to their area of work.
3. Periodical evaluations
Attestation on the basis of comprehensive testing will help check the knowledge and assess the level of expertise of employees in different areas. In addition, regular attestations help to maintain knowledge – employees will be able to analyze their mistakes and prevent them in the future.
Want to teach sellers in a beneficial way for your business? Submit your application and we will demonstrate how it can be done with the LMS Collaborator.
Read our other cases:
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