Chief Learning Officer - April 2008 - (Page 33) Because of the sophistication of the sale — and, therefore, the learning — Steelcase has developed an internal system for categorizing training into the following levels: awareness, knowledge, understanding and skill. In the awareness stage, sales associates just need to know that an aspect of a product has changed. That takes place through an e-mail or a letter. At a knowledge level, sales reps should be able to speak about the basic features of a product. In that instance, the training blend is a little more elaborate, so it will start with an e-mail, but that will be augmented by some sort of Web interaction or distance learning. “Understanding means that [sales reps] can talk about [the product] and relate it to the needs that they’re hearing from the client,” Dutkiewicz said. “When we have to get somebody to that level, we want to see the performance of a person before they go in front of [the] client. Whenever we want to do that, that’s when we know we have to put a trainer or a human being in front of a class, and usually, that also tells us that this isn’t a one- or two-hour intervention.” For employees to attain a level of skill, there has to be coaching and mentoring in an actual sales situation, as the classroom is still an artificial, simulated environment. “Usually, when we want to bring things to skill, we build in a coaching element because that requires the salesperson’s manager to go out, watch the person do it in front of real people, give them immediate feedback and see that the things that we built in the classroom are actually being used in the real world,” Dutkiewicz said. Creating a learning initiative in the pharmaceutical industry adds an entirely different element, as the product always needs to be reviewed and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before it hits the market. As a result, the training is on hold until the product is approved, forcing those in charge of learning to work within a condensed period of time, usually between three and six months, to develop a productbased training module for field-based employees. “In the pharmaceutical industry, training departments tend to work at a very fast pace between the approval of a product by the FDA and, ultimately, the training of the field forces,” said Michael Capaldi, associate vice president of sales training and leadership development at pharmaceutical company sanofi-aventis U.S. “You do as much as you can leading up to the approval stage, but anything related to the product itself really has to wait until the label is approved before it can be developed [to meet legal requirements].” Product-Based Training Is More Than the Product Learning initiatives shouldn’t end at the product. They also should delve into the skills needed to sell and support that product. Unfortunately, most companies aren’t training sales reps on the skills, but instead are concentrating all of their efforts on the product itself, according to Nancy Stephens, president of international management consulting firm PI Worldwide. “We always ask and talk with a client first about product knowledge,” she said. “Most companies that we interview tend to say that they feel that their folks In creating a product-based training solution, companies should include a variety of modalities in their learning. It can’t all be instructor led, and it can’t all be e-learning. are most equipped in [product knowledge]. The product knowledge is critical to the sales process and sales presentation, but it is not the only piece. Companies can do a fantastic job at product training, but if they’re not teaching the surrounding skills, they’re actually not completing what a sales rep needs.” An enhanced learning initiative would cover product training in sync with sales training. Steelcase University does just that in its training programs. “We don’t want to make our training all about product,” Chief Learning Officer • April 2008 • www.clomedia.com 33 http://www.clomedia.com
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