Training Industry Magazine - Winter 2022 - 62

CASEBOOK
PAX8 UNIVERSITY
HOW BLENDED LEARNING INCREASES
STICKINESS AND REDUCES RAMP TIME
BY J.B. MCKOY
Pax8 is a leading provider of cloud
technology, strategically focused on IT
professionals that support small-to-midsized
businesses (SMBs). Pax8's listing
on the Inc. 5000 for four consecutive
years as one of America's fastestgrowing
private companies has required
building a well-trained sales force at
record speed.
THE CHALLENGE
" We could never have successfully
accommodated such rapid growth
without a blended learning approach,
which I'd describe as giving learners
multiple
opportunities
to observe
relevant information and practice desired
behaviors, " observed Lynn Leadley, senior
vice president of Pax8 University.
Blended learning involves a multimodal
approach and, at minimum, typically
supplements traditional classroom
training with self-paced learning. Pax8
incorporates six training elements:
live, in-person or virtual instructor-led
training (VILT), role-play, teach-backs,
incentivized eLearning coursework,
shadowing and coaching. The specific
mix will vary according to whether the
topic involves soft or hard skills - the
latter requiring more concrete and
technical trainings.
For application training, the team might
combine live, hands-on instruction with
a self-paced course featuring software
simulation, then follow that up with
shadowing so learners can observe
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how others navigate the system,
perhaps even recording the session
for later review. For soft skills, such as
cold-calling prospects, sales trainers
augment classroom instruction
with
role play. The adrenaline-pumping
exercise of practicing something new
in front of peers involves risk, as well
as receiving honest feedback. It also
promotes long-term memory retention,
or stickiness, and tends to correct
one's delivery in a way that passive
learning cannot.
Three-year sales growth exceeding
3,200% necessitated learning and
development (L&D) innovation to
decrease the time it took new hires
to attain their full quota, which Pax8
calls " ramp time. " Channel account
managers (Pax8's primary sales reps)
were taking seven months to ramp, and
the L&D team challenged themselves
to reduce that by a month through
blended learning.
THE RESPONSE
Despite ever-present pressure to get
new sales reps on the phone and selling
as quickly as possible, Pax8 boldly
expanded new-hire sales training from
two weeks to four, allowing time for
additional modalities and practice.
Trainers added teamed learner teachbacks
to VILT, increasing engagement
and
collaboration. Having recently
invested in a learning management
system (LMS), Pax8 launched in-house
development of tailored eLearning.
The team capitalized on the natural
competitiveness common in sales by
adding contests to the training, plus
gamification and a rewards shop.
Learners earn points by completing
courses and exchange them for Pax8branded
merchandise like a gym bag
or a Yeti tumbler. Trainers chunked
instruction with corresponding inclass
role-play, finding that elemental
focus and repetition increased learning
stickiness. Trainers assigned new hires
to listen to a model pitch in the LMS,
then recorded themselves for scoring by
a reviewer. Sales managers collaborated
with trainers, learning to see shadowing
not as an interruption, but as a time
investment critical to the new rep's
success. As a cohort's formal training
ended, the monitoring and coaching
phase kicked into high gear.
Sales trainers and managers at Pax8
could listen in on live sales calls and
coach via chat in real-time, scoring
them based on rubrics or assessment
maps created for each type of call
their reps conduct. These rubrics
made expectations crystal-clear and
mitigated
scoring
subjectivity
and
inconsistency. The company procured
software ideally suited to this purpose.
Besides call scoring, a sales manager
could remark on granular aspects of
Such self-paced instruction now broke
up classroom training and locked in
new knowledge, with progress through
learning plans recorded in the LMS.
Training Industry Magazine - Winter 2022

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