By Jim Lundy
On February 21st, 2019 we published our first evaluation of sales coaching and learning providers. Nearly all of the providers in this market are separate and distinct from LMS providers, which we often refer to as corporate learning. Why are there new and different providers? The reason is simple—sales teams need more than LMS providers were offering to effectively train and continually empower their sales teams.
The New Category of Sales Coaching and Learning (SLC)
Sales coaching and learning (SLC), as detailed in our report, is a new market that focuses on the on-boarding, skill building, and regular knowledge reinforcement via role plays and skill reinforcement sessions (flash drills). This is way more than the old ‘teach and test’ method that is the norm in the traditional corporate training realm.
Sales teams need more and SLC is delivering that in spades. A number of firms, including a recent firm that IPO’d—DocuSign—have used dedicated SCL tools to keep their sales team in fighting shape to win deals.
A Threat to LMS Providers
The reaction from LMS providers will certainly be that they can do sales training, too, but we studied this market for four years before declaring it. SLC is a separate set of capabilities. It is certainly possible for an LMS provider to adapt, but our scenario sees a corporate LMS and a sales coaching and learning offering together in the same firm.
Don’t Wait to Get Started with Sales Coaching and Learning
For most sales teams, the lack of performance is attributable to a lack of skills or a lack of practice of those skills. SCL is the way to fix that. Aragon recommends that sales teams need to act now to deploy SCL If you are trying to figure out how to get started, Aragon can help with this and our other coverage of sales enablement.
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