Your Complete Guide to Learning Content Management Systems

Elisha Zhang on August 12, 2024

As a business leader, you understand enterprise learning and development’s important role in organizational success.

By offering employees the right learning and development opportunities, you’re helping them build the skills and behaviors they need to reach their full potential and propel your organization forward.

The right technology is essential to any learning and development program. With the right tools and technology, learning and development teams can more effectively and efficiently create and deliver training and learning programs – and measure their impact on employees’ behaviors and business outcomes.

A learning content management system is an important tool for learning and development pros. But what is it?

In this post, we’ll define a learning content management system and explain how this technology is different (and similar) to a learning management system. We’ll also explore some of the must-have features to consider when considering software and some of the most popular options today.

What is a learning content management system (LCMS)?

First things first: what is a learning content management system?

Also known as an LCMS, it’s a software solution that enables learning and development teams to develop and distribute training and enterprise learning content.

Some learning technology is built primarily for L&D teams or learners. On the other hand, a learning content management system is built to meet the needs of both parties.

For the learning and development team, an LCMS serves as a one-stop shop for managing everything related to learning content. With the right learning content management system, L&D teams can efficiently create digital learning content and learning paths and assign learning to users. L&D teams can also leverage the LCMS to measure learning consumption. Ideally, these teams should also be able to get insight into how their learning initiatives are impacting outcomes.

A learning content management system is also built for learners. Employees can turn to the LCMS to find everything they need related to training and learning. There, they can find learning opportunities tailored to their needs – and be sure they’re accessing the latest and most excellent versions of everything.

LCMS vs LMS: What’s the difference?

Chances are, you’re familiar with the concept of a learning management system – or LMS for short. You may be wondering how a LMS compares to an LCMS.

Learning content management systems and learning management systems are certainly related. But while the terms may be used synonymously, they’re not the same thing.

LCMS vs LMS: Key differences

A learning management system (LMS) is software that enables organizations to organize and distribute eLearning courses and content to users. First, L&D teams create learning content and courses in a separate authoring tool or platform. Then, they can upload content and courses to the LMS. Learners log on to the LMS to find and consume eLearning content. Admins can access basic tracking information, like how many learners have completed a course and passed a specific assessment.

Think of these platforms as the next level of LMSs. They typically provide the same functionality as an LMS – but with additional capabilities for creating, curating, and managing enterprise learning content.

L&D teams use learning content management software to manage the entire lifecycle of learning content. Teams can plan, create, and deliver learning content – all from one platform. A platform also provides robust analytics that shed light on how learners consume content. For example, you can see how long an employee spent on specific training and how they answered each question in an assessment. Some LCMSs also provide insight into whether elearning consumption is tied to improved performance and outcomes.

Another key difference is that learning management systems are primarily built to meet the needs of students. On the other hand, learning content management systems are focused on delivering excellent experiences to administrators and learners alike.

LCMS vs LMS: Key similarities

Of course, there are also similarities between learning content management platforms and learning management platforms. Namely, both are tools used by learning and development teams to deliver training and learning that helps users gain the skills and knowledge they need to be effective and efficient in their roles.

Essential features of a learning content management system

If you run a quick Google search for “learning content management system,” you’ll see plenty of options. However, not all software is the same. Each LCMS offers a unique set of features and functionality. Furthermore, some platforms that claim to be an LCMS aren’t.

When comparing your options, be sure to look for certain must-haves.

#1 Easy to use workflows

Investing in an LCMS should make your life easier, so find an intuitive and easy-to-use option.

Administrators and subject matter experts should be able to quickly and easily create new content without mastering new skills. Look for an LCMS that provides templates that can serve as a starting point for creating new material.

A recent analysis of Mindtickle activity found that it takes companies an average of 3-4 weeks to launch a new program from scratch. However, organizations can launch programs in seven days when they start with a program template.

Time to launch a program

without a template
0 days
with a template
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Your chosen LCMS should also provide the option to create a variety of different types of e-learning, including:

  • Videos
  • Presentations
  • Printed materials
  • Microlearning
  • Paced reinforcement
  • Practice opportunities, including role-plays

It’s also important to ensure the LCMS is easy for learners to use. If there’s a steep learning curve, your employees may avoid using it.

#2 Mobile-friendly

Learning doesn’t just happen in a classroom setting. Instead, it can happen anywhere.

Be sure your chosen LCMS is mobile-friendly. That way, employees can access the right enterprise learning content wherever and whenever needed.

#3 Customized courses and learning modules

Each employee brings a unique set of strengths, weaknesses, and experiences. Furthermore, every team member has preferences regarding how they learn best. A one-size-fits-all approach to learning just won’t cut it. Instead, organizations must embrace individualized learning.

Courses and learning paths must be tailored to each employee’s needs. That way, users spend their time on content that will actually help them boost lagging skills—and not waste their time on irrelevant content.

Be sure your LCMS has features and functionality that make it easy to pinpoint each employee’s strengths and weaknesses. Your learning content management system should then make it easy to deliver customized courses and learning paths relevant to each user. Also, look for an option leveraging AI to recommend learning content to users based on their knowledge level and preferences.

#4 User activity and progress tracking

Creating great learning content is pointless if no one engages with it. It’s important to track which users are engaging with what content, and your LCMS should make it easy to do so.

At a minimum, your learning content management platform should allow you to track the basics, like how many users have completed a specific training module or passed a certain assessment. You should also be able to drill down further to see how users engage with sales learning content.

For example, you can see how long employees spend on a learning module, what pages they view most, how many times they view it, and how they answer specific questions. You can look for trends in this data. For example, you may notice that sales reps consistently have low completion rates in a certain region. This is an opportunity to work with the region’s sales leaders to ensure sales reps understand the importance of completing learning modules.

#5 Real-time analytics

As we explored in point #4, it’s important to identify which users are engaging with learning and development content. However, understanding consumption and engagement isn’t enough. After all, a user can complete every learning module assigned to them yet still underperform.

The best teams understand they must look beyond consumption and views to truly understand how sales learning content is impacting outcomes. Your learning content management system should provide the right data, analytics, and integrations to understand impact.

For example, let’s say you have a sales rep who struggles with objection handling. So, you assign them a series of learning content focused on the topic. Of course, your LCMS should allow you to see whether or not they engaged with the learning content. But you should also get insight into how the rep’s behaviors are (or aren’t) changing in the field – and whether they’re doing a better job overcoming objections and closing more deals.

Of course, having access to data doesn’t necessarily mean you know what to do with it. Today, some learning content management solutions leverage AI to make sense of data – and then recommend actions based on it.

#6 Integrations with other important tools

Chances are, you already use a variety of tools and technology. It’s important to ensure that your chosen learning content management system integrates with your existing technology.

Also, remember that adding a new tool to your existing technology stack isn’t always the best option. According to Salesforce’s 2023 State of Sales report, nearly 70% of sales reps are overwhelmed by the number of tools they’re expected to use.

According to research,

of reps are overwhelmed by sales tools
0 %

Instead, look for opportunities to streamline your tech stack by trading point solutions for integrated platforms. For example, an integrated revenue enablement platform incorporates learning content management capabilities, training, enablement, coaching, conversation intelligence, sales content, digital sales rooms, and more.

#7 A commitment to continuous innovation

In the world of business, change is the only constant. While your chosen learning content management system may meet your needs today, it is important to find a vendor committed to continuous innovation.

For example, some learning content management systems are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to drive even better experiences for learning and development teams and learners. Some allow administrators to tap into AI to quickly and easily develop and deploy new learning and enablement programs. Others use AI to suggest learning and development resources to learners based on their strengths, weaknesses, learning preferences, and queries.

The best learning content management systems in the market

We’ve explored some of the must-have features of any learning content management system. Now, you may ask yourself, “What’s the best learning content management system out there?”

The answer to that question depends on your organization’s needs and goals. However, a few examples are especially popular in the market today.

Mindtickle

G2 Rating: 4.7 out of 5

Mindtickle is an integrated revenue enablement platform with robust learning content management capabilities for admins and learners alike.

With Mindtickle, learning and development and enablement teams can quickly and easily develop new learning and enablement content. With Mindtickle’s provided templates, teams can launch a new program within seven days.

Of course, learning and development can’t be one-size-fits-all. Fortunately, Mindtickle facilitates individualized learning.

With Mindtickle, organizations can develop ideal rep profiles, which lay out the skills and behaviors different customer-facing roles need for success. Then, teams can measure each employee against the appropriate ideal rep profile to pinpoint their weaknesses. 

Ideal rep profile competencies

Equipped with these insights, learning and development and enablement teams can easily create individual learning paths for each employee that help them build lagging skills. AI can also suggest learning content based on individual strengths, weaknesses, and preferences.

Mindtickle also provides a simple, intuitive experience for learners. Employees can access all learning and development content – including onboarding, training, reinforcement, coaching, and practice opportunities – all from a single platform. In addition, Mindtickle is mobile-friendly, which means learners can access what they need whenever and wherever they need it.

In addition, Mindtickle provides robust data and analytics to administrators. Learning and development teams can see who is viewing and engaging with learning content – and how they’re engaging with it.

With Mindtickle, enablement teams can also see how the consumption of learning content impacts business outcomes. For example, they can track how a rep’s in-field behaviors are changing and how key metrics – including close rates and sales cycle lengths- are (or aren’t) improving. Learning and development teams can use these insights to optimize their programs for better performance.

Docebo

G2 Rating: 4.2 out of 5

Docebo is a learning platform that focuses on delivering a great user experience for both admins and learners. Docebo enables admins to create new learning content for employees, partners, and customers.

Docebo leverages AI to automate time-consuming tasks such as translations and content categorization. The platform also leverages AI to enable admins to create learning materials quickly.

Docebo offers an integration with Salesforce, which allows businesses to understand how learning content contributes to revenue performance.

360Learning

G2 Rating: 4.6 out of 5

360Learning is a popular learning platform “powered by collaborative learning.” It includes features that make it easy for subject matter experts to collaborate with learning and development teams to create effective learning content.

360Learning can integrate with many other technologies you already use within your organization. One notable integration is with Salesforce, which allows learning and development teams to understand the impact of learning on sales outcomes.

Bigtincan

G2 Rating: 4.3 out of 5

Bigtincan is a sales enablement platform with learning content management system capabilities. Bigtincan aims to ensure that customer-facing teams have access to learning opportunities that prepare them to deliver great customer experiences.

Bigtincan integrates with technologies you may already be using, including Salesforce, Salesloft, Microsoft Teams, and Gmail. In addition, the platform provides robust data and analytics to help you understand consumption and impact.

The Right Technology for Your L&D Program

Ready to see why winning revenue teams are turning to Mindtickle to build, deploy, and measure learning content that drives real impact? 

Get Your Demo

How to Create a Wildly Successful Individualized Learning Program

Elisha Zhang on July 31, 2024

Every member of the sales team is unique. Each seller has a different experience, strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles that work best for them.

Blanketing every single seller with the same sales training and learning doesn’t make sense. Instead, winning organizations take an individualized learning approach.

Individualized learning might sound like a great concept in theory. But actually creating and delivering it for every member of the sales team can seem impossible—especially for enterprises with hundreds or even thousands of sales reps.

With the right strategy and tools, it doesn’t have to be.

Read on to explore individualized learning, why it’s a winning approach for revenue organizations, and how you can start creating and delivering learning that will create an entire team of top performers.

What is individualized learning?

First things first: what is it?

As the name suggests, individualized learning (also referred to as personalized learning) is learning tailored to each individual’s needs. It’s the opposite of a traditional approach to learning, where the same generic learning is distributed to everyone in a particular group, regardless of its relevance.

In sales, individual learning involves creating and delivering learning customized to each seller’s needs.

An individualized learning approach considers each sales rep’s strengths and weaknesses within the revenue organization. Then, sellers receive personalized learning paths to improve their weaker skills and job performance.

For example, let’s say a seller struggles with objection handling. That seller would receive targeted learning opportunities to help them strengthen this key skill. However, other sales reps who have mastered objection handling wouldn’t be required to complete this training.

Individualized learning also considers individuals’ learning preferences. For example, some sales reps may learn well by reading written training materials, while others learn better via video.

Learners are in the driver’s seat when an organization uses this approach. They can access the right learning opportunities to close skill gaps and improve performance – whenever and wherever needed.

Why is individualized learning important?

Investing in employee learning is a good move for any revenue organization. When revenue teams have access to the right training and learning opportunities, they’re better equipped to do their jobs well, which can have a big bottom-line impact.

But generic learning programs won’t drive these results. Instead, the most successful revenue organizations adopt an individualized learning approach.

Let’s explore some of the top advantages.

Tailored learning that helps each seller hone key skills

Organizations often blanket sales training programs across the entire revenue organization. That means some (or even many) of your sellers waste their time on irrelevant training.

A key advantage of an individualized learning approach is that each seller has access to relevant learning opportunities. This tailored learning will help sellers strengthen the skills they need for success.

Personalized coaching that improves long-term success

Recent research found that top sellers receive significantly more coaching than their lower-performing peers. Coaching is tied to better performance.

But delivering one-size-fits-all sales coaching or focusing solely on deal coaching won’t make much of a long-term impact.

When organizations adopt an individualized learning approach, sales managers gain insight into each rep’s strengths and weaknesses. They can then provide tailored coaching to improve sellers’ skills and performance in the field.

Timely learning opportunities that address needs as they arise

Often, organizations assign training on a schedule. For example, a sales rep might be required to complete training every 90 days – regardless of whether they need it.

With individualized learning, training is available when the need arises. That way, the seller can complete the training when it’s most relevant. For example, if a sales rep struggles with discovery, they’ll be assigned training immediately to close this skill gap.

Learning that’s accessible on-demand from any device

Previously, sales training programs would be delivered at a specific time. If a seller had a conflict, they’d miss the learning opportunity.

With individual learning, sellers can complete relevant training and learning opportunities anytime, from any device.

Greater seller engagement

If sellers are required to complete generic, irrelevant training, they will likely disengage. But with personalized learning, sales reps get tailored learning opportunities. Relevant learning opportunities are more likely to engage sellers, and when sellers are engaged, they’re more likely to retain what they’ve learned.

A data-based approach to learning

In the past, organizations delivered sales training programs and other learning opportunities they hoped would be effective without the data to back their decisions.

On the other hand, individualized learning is rooted in data.

First, organizations leverage data to understand their sellers’ strengths and weaknesses. Then, these orgs work to deliver relevant learning opportunities to strengthen sellers’ weaknesses. Organizations with an individualized learning mindset also measure the impact of training on performance and adjust as needed.

How to create individualized sales training and sales coaching programs

Taking an individualized learning approach makes sense. When you deliver personalized learning to your revenue teams, every member has what they need to improve the skills and behaviors that matter most.

But how do you create an individualized learning program at your organization? Let’s examine some best practices.

#1 Define what excellence looks like for each customer-facing role

All revenue leaders want a team of great sellers. But often, they don’t take the time to define what great looks like.

A foundational component of individualized learning is defining what excellence looks like at your organization.

Make a list of all revenue roles within your organization. Then, create an ideal rep profile (or IRP for short) that defines the key skills and behaviors necessary for success in each role.

Ideal rep profile competencies

An integrated revenue enablement platform like Mindtickle enables you to create IRPs for each key role within the platform.

#2 Develop sales training and sales coaching programs to address key skills

Once you’ve determined the skills and behaviors your sellers need for success, you must have training and coaching programs to help them build these key competencies.

Do an audit of your existing sales training programs and content to identify gaps. Then, you can develop new sales training to fill in those gaps. Artificial intelligence can make it faster to develop and launch learning programs.

Be sure to incorporate different types of learning into your programs. In addition to longer format training, consider elements like bite-sized reinforcement videos, quizzes, and interactive role-play opportunities.

 

#3 Measure each sales rep against the appropriate IRP

Individualized learning that addresses the strengths and weaknesses of each sales rep is extremely effective. Yet, a recent report found only 40% of C-level executives say they can identify a rep’s strengths and weaknesses for customized training.

Research shows that only

of C-level execs can identify rep strengths and weaknesses
0 %

Once you’ve developed your IRPs, measure each sales rep against them regularly. That way, you’ll understand where reps excel and where they need extra help. These insights can fuel your learning initiatives.

This can be difficult to track manually. However, some revenue enablement platforms allow you to quickly and easily determine how each sales rep performs against the appropriate IRP.

#4 Deliver relevant, individualized learning to each rep

Once you’ve identified each rep’s strengths and weaknesses, you can deliver individualized learning to close the gaps.

Determining which training is relevant to which rep can be tricky (and time-consuming). However, a revenue enablement platform like Mindtickle considers each rep’s strengths and weaknesses and then identifies personalized programs for every member of the revenue team.

#5 Equip managers with the proper tools and training

Sales coaching is a key component of any individualized learning plan. But not all sales coaching is effective.

Be sure to equip your sales managers with the tools to deliver personalized coaching at scale. The right tools will empower sales managers to quickly identify their reps’ strengths and weaknesses, which can inform personalized coaching.

It’s also important to train sales managers to be effective coaches. Be sure to take an individualized learning approach. While some managers are great sales coaches, others need additional training and coaching.

#6 Measure individualized learning impact

Your sellers may engage with your individualized learning programs. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re effective.

It’s important to determine whether your programs are actually making an impact. You must track the right metrics to determine whether your individualized learning initiatives are actually improving reps’ skills and behaviors and empowering them to close more deals.

Then, you can make adjustments as necessary to improve outcomes.

#7 Look for opportunities to automate with AI

Individualized learning is key to creating an entire team of top performers. But creating and delivering plans across the revenue organization requires much time and effort.

Winning organizations leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver personalized learning at scale.

For example, some revenue organizations leverage AI to suggest learning opportunities to reps based on their strengths, weaknesses, and behaviors. Others use AI to build individualized learning programs quickly. Still others leverage AI to provide their sales reps with dynamic, interactive opportunities to practice their skills.

Your learning management system (LMS) or revenue enablement platform may have capabilities that enable you to deliver learning at scale. Be sure to ask your vendors.

#8 Invest in the right technology

A successful approach requires the right tools and technology. You must have the right tools and technology to execute the best practices we’ve explored in this guide.

Today, some organizations depend on a learning management system (LMS) to power their programs. But many are outgrowing their LMS and looking for a more robust solution, like an integrated revenue enablement platform.

Create and deliver personalized learning programs with Mindtickle

Today, the most successful organizations are consolidating their sales learning stack and trading their LMS for an integrated revenue enablement program like Mindtickle.

With Mindtickle, you can quickly develop and deploy sales learning programs that help your sellers master the most important skills. Sellers can access all individualized learning – including onboarding, training, coaching, and content – all in one platform.

With Mindtickle, you can create Ideal Rep Profiles to define the skills and competencies each customer-facing role needs for success. Then, you can measure your reps against the IRP to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses. Once you’ve unlocked these insights, you can deliver individualized learning, training, enablement, and coaching to help reps strengthen their skills and improve behaviors. Mindtickle also makes it easy to measure the impact of your programs on sales productivity and performance.

Individualized Learning with Mindtickle

Ready to see how Mindtickle empowers revenue organizations to develop and deliver individualized learning programs at scale?

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AI in Learning and Development: How AI Enhances Your L&D Programs

Elisha Zhang on July 18, 2024

The whole world is buzzing about artificial intelligence. Everywhere we go – from industry conferences and boardrooms to news publications and social media sites – we hear conversations about the large (and rapidly growing) impact of AI.

Already, the most innovative organizations are leveraging AI in learning and development initiatives. Those that embrace AI in learning and development are better equipped to build and deliver programs that grow skills and improve business outcomes. 

In fact, as an L&D leader, you simply can’t afford to ignore AI in learning and development.

If you’re looking to supercharge your learning and development efforts with AI, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll explore everything you need to know about AI in learning and development. We’ll cover topics including:

  • The role of AI in learning and development
  • Why AI in learning and development is important
  • Top challenges of implementing AI in learning and development programs 
  • How the right technology can help you capitalize on the opportunities of AI in learning and development while overcoming the key challenges.

The role of AI in learning and development

Chances are, you always strive to hire the strongest candidates for every open position. Most organizations do!

But every employee – from the lowest performers to the all-stars – need ongoing learning and development to be successful in their roles. With a strong learning and development program, employees have opportunities to grow their skills. When every employee has access to the right learning and development opportunities, performance improves across the entire organization. 

As an added bonus, a strong learning and development program increases engagement among employees. When you prove you’re invested in your employees’ learning and growth, it boosts employee satisfaction and retention. 

But where does AI fit in?

One-size-fits-all learning and development doesn’t work. Instead, the best L&D programs are tailored to the unique needs of each employee. Organizations must also be able to measure the impact of their learning and development program and make data-based adjustments as necessary.

Pulling this off requires a ton of time and effort – especially for enterprises with hundreds or even thousands of employees. In fact, it can feel downright impossible.

That’s where AI in learning and development comes in. 

When you strategically leverage AI, you’re able to develop and deliver effective, personalized training and learning that address the needs of each learner. That means every member of your team has the right opportunities to build the skills and behaviors they need to be as successful as possible.

Why do you need AI in learning and development?
 

AI isn’t just a buzzword or a passing fad. Instead, it’s becoming a critical component of any effective learning and development program.

Not sure why you need generative AI in learning and development? Let’s take a look at some of the key reasons innovative L&D teams are already incorporating AI in learning and development.

Faster creation of L&D programs

Strong learning and development programs can significantly improve performance. But building and launching impactful programs takes time. Chances are, you don’t have much to spare.

Today, winning organizations leverage AI to create learning modules quickly and easily. The sooner you launch a program, the sooner you’ll see an impact.

Personalized L&D programs that address the skill gaps of each employee

There was a time when learning and development was limited to onboarding, and programs were one-size-fits-all. That approach will no longer cut it. L&D needs to be personalized to the unique needs of each employee.

Organizations leverage AI in learning and development programs to recommend L&D that’s relevant to each employee. For example, AI for training can deliver recommended learning and development based on factors like:

  • Job title
  • Skill gaps
  • Learning preferences
  • Content they’ve already consumed

Self service learning opportunities

With AI in learning and development, employees don’t have to wait around for content or a training module to be assigned to them. Instead, they can access individualized training and other learning whenever and wherever they need it.

For example, a sales rep can type in a question they’ve received from a prospect. AI will analyze all the content that’s available to provide an answer. AI will also recommend additional, related resources (like microlearning and sales content) the sales rep can use to learn more.  

Immersive practice opportunities to perfect skills 

Ideally, employees would remember everything they learned in training and apply it in the real world. But that’s not reality. 

Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve tells us employees forget half of all new information within a day; they forget 90% within a week of learning it. 

It’s important to provide employees reinforcement and practice opportunities. Role-plays are one example. However, traditional role-plays require a lot of a manager’s time.

That’s not the case with AI. 

Learning and development teams can create realistic scenarios and assign specific characteristics to an AI bot. Then, employees can engage with the bot to practice and hone their skills. 

Timely coaching and feedback

Employees depend on coaching and feedback from their managers to improve behaviors and performance. But delivering meaningful feedback takes time and effort, and employees can’t afford to sit around waiting.

AI for coaching is the answer. 

Today, sales enablement teams use AI to record and analyze sales reps’ calls. At the end of the call, the rep receives a score and real-time feedback for improvement. In addition, sales managers can look for trends (for example, a high volume of calls with low scores) to identify opportunities to deliver additional coaching to sales reps. 

Data analysis

Data is key to L&D success. Chances are, you have plenty of data available to you. For example, you likely have data related to how employees are engaging with different learning and development programs and how they’re performing on the job.

But it can be hard to make sense of the huge volume of data available to you.

Innovative teams use AI in learning and development to analyze data and provide summaries. AI can also make data-based recommendations for next steps.

Top challenges of implementing AI in learning and development

Leveraging AI can have a huge, positive impact on your L&D program. But implementing generative AI in learning and development also presents some unique challenges. 

Let’s take a look at some of the top challenges of implementing AI in development and learning.

Challenge #1: Integration with existing tools

Chances are, you already use certain tools to power your L&D program. You can’t bring a new tool or technology into your ecosystem and hope for the best. Instead, you must make sure it integrates with your existing tools.

Talk to your existing vendors to learn about the existing or upcoming AI capabilities of the learning and development tools you already use. If you’re searching for a new learning and development solution, look for an option that incorporates AI in innovative, impactful ways.

Challenge #2: Costs

Integrating AI in learning and development costs money. For example, you may need to purchase new learning and development tools. You must also consider the costs of training the members of your learning and development team.

In the best of times, it can be challenging to secure funds to invest in AI. This is especially true in today’s economy. 

Challenge #3: Training

Of course, you must train your L&D team on how to use your AI in learning and development solutions. You must also train employees who will be consuming your learning and development programs.

Developing and delivering training on AI requires time and effort. Employees have to set aside time that they would typically use for other tasks. 

Challenge #4: AI limitations

Make no mistake: incorporating AI in learning and development can dramatically impact the effectiveness of your programs. However, AI isn’t magic. There are limitations.

It’s crucial to understand those limitations. It’s also important to remember that AI outputs are only as good as the data behind them. 

Maximize the impact of your L&D initiatives with Mindtickle’s rich AI features 

Artificial intelligence is here to stay. Now is the time to determine how to incorporate AI in learning and development. Your competitors are already using AI in learning and development initiatives, and you can’t afford no to.

Today, some organizations continue to use a traditional learning management system (LMS) to deliver their learning and development programs. However, a growing number are trading their LMS for an integrated, AI-powered revenue enablement platform like Mindtickle.

The Mindtickle platform incorporates a number of powerful AI features that enable organizations to deliver engaging, effective learning and development at scale. 

For starters, Mindtickle leverages AI to allow training, development, and revenue enablement teams to spin up new learning experiences quickly and easily. The faster you develop programs, the sooner you’ll start seeing an impact. 

In addition, Mindtickle uses AI to help employees surface relevant learning resources, such as individualized training, content, and microlearning. That means employees can find the learning resources they need, when they need them. Mindtickle also offers AI-powered role-plays that ensure employees have opportunities to perfect their skills in realistic, dynamic scenarios. 

Finally, Mindtickle leverages AI to help organizational leaders make sense of the large volume of data available to them – and act on those insights in a way that improves sales performance and business outcomes.

AI-Powered Learning with Mindtickle

Ready to deliver effective, AI-powered learning and development opportunities?

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Enterprise Learning: What it is and Why it Should Matter to You

Elisha Zhang on July 9, 2024

“Knowledge is power.” It may be cliche, but it’s true.

Sure, every organization aims to hire the most qualified candidates. However, enterprise learning ensures employees can easily access learning and development opportunities to grow their skills and knowledge.

Organizations that embrace it reap some significant benefits.

Employees are better equipped to do their jobs and grow their skills by implementing enterprise learning. This increases employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention – not to mention the organization’s overall performance.

But what exactly is it?

In this post, we’ll explore the basics of enterprise learning to help you understand:

  • What it and why it’s important
  • Some of the top benefits
  • Some of the key challenges
  • The importance of choosing the right solution

What is enterprise learning?

You’re certainly not alone if you’re unsure what enterprise learning is. Let’s examine it and why it matters.

Enterprise learning, defined

Traditional professional learning often involves training built around a specific topic. For example, reps may attend a live rep sales training to get up to speed on a new product offering. Or, employees may be required to attend cybersecurity training within a certain window of time.

It goes beyond traditional training.

Enterprise learning is a set of practices and principles focused on providing employees with easy access to ongoing learning and development opportunities – whenever and wherever they need them. With this type of learning, employees are empowered to sharpen their existing skills and develop new ones that will help take their careers to the next level.

Enterprise learning isn’t a one-time training or event. Instead, it involves providing continuous opportunities across the organizations. In addition, it’s on-demand. Employees can access the resources they need whenever and wherever they need them.

Traditional training may be one component of an enterprise learning program. However, it’s is a holistic practice that may include many other components, like:

  • Live and on-demand webinars
  • Bite-sized learning
  • Text-based resources
  • Practice opportunities, like assessments and role-plays
  • Sales coaching
  • Mentorship
  • Knowledge sharing
  • Social learning opportunities
  • Professional certifications

Why is enterprise learning important?

So, why is it management so important?

Traditional training has a role to play. But on its own, it’s not enough to bolster knowledge and skills. After all, according to Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve, employees forget 50% of all new information within a day and 90% within a week.

Employees forget

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Organizations must build a culture of ongoing learning if they expect to grow and develop their employees effectively – and reap the benefits of doing so. That’s where enterprise learning comes in.

We’ll take a closer look at some of the key benefits next.

6 key benefits of enterprise learning

Increasingly, organizations are shifting from traditional training to an enterprise learning approach. This makes sense, as both organizations and employees benefit significantly.

While this learning offers numerous benefits, let’s examine six that top the list.

On-demand learning opportunities

In the past, employee training was offered only at a specific time. For example, a sales rep might be required to attend a half-day training session on a new sales methodology.

Of course, real-time training still has a role. However, with enterprise learning, employees can also access learning opportunities on demand.

For example, they can watch an on-demand webinar during their lunch break or squeeze in a bite-sized learning session in the 15 minutes between two meetings.

In other words, employees can seek out upskilling opportunities whenever it work for their schedule. And if it works for their schedule, employees are more likely to do it.

A single source of truth for everything related to learning

Employees might want learning opportunities. But they’re not exactly sure where to find them. That means they waste time hunting for the right materials, which takes away time they could learn.

Organizations that are most successful provide their employees with a single source of truth for everything related to learning. Employees can find everything – from written content to video training to opportunities for social learning – all in one location.

The right management system makes learning materials well-organized and easy to search. Furthermore, employees can always be sure they’re accessing the most up-to-date versions of materials.

That way, employees can spend less time hunting for learning materials and more time learning and bolstering skills.

Improved job and organizational performance

Improved job performance is perhaps one of the most obvious benefits of an enterprise learning approach.

When employees have opportunities to learn and develop new skills, they’re better equipped to do their jobs well. When all employees have these opportunities, job performance across the entire organization will be boosted.

Higher employee satisfaction and retention

Employees who feel supported with ongoing learning opportunities are more satisfied in their roles. Research tells us 68% of employees feel learning opportunities are key to job satisfaction.

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Satisfied employees are more likely to stick around long-term. That means you won’t have to deal with the inconvenience and costs of backfilling vacant roles – or the stress of figuring out how to accomplish the same amount of work with a smaller headcount.

A competitive edge

In today’s world, change is inevitable. Your employees may be equipped to tackle their jobs today. However, an enterprise learning approach provides employees with ongoing learning opportunities that’ll help them adapt to continuous change – and excel in their roles. Your organization’s ability to adapt to change will give you a competitive edge.

Powerful insights to optimize learning initiatives

In the past, the HR, training, or enterprise sales enablement team would develop training, distribute it widely, and hope for the best. Though teams would spend plenty of time developing programs, they had little insight into whether their efforts had an impact.

A strong enterprise learning strategy – coupled with the right enterprise software – enables you to measure the impact of your initiatives. For starters, you can see which resources are used. For example, you can see what portion of sellers are accessing specific sales onboarding modules.

You can also understand how the consumption of different learning materials impacts outcomes. For example, you can see whether sellers who complete certain sales training are more likely to reach quota. Or, you can see if other materials are correlated with promotions.

These powerful insights can optimize existing enterprise learning resources, create new ones, and eliminate those that aren’t being used or have the intended impact.

Top challenges of enterprise learning

Organizations that adopt an enterprise learning mindset experience several key benefits. However, it also presents some unique challenges.

Let’s examine some of the top challenges.

#1 Creating engaging content

Different employees have different learning styles. While some prefer video, others are better able to retain written materials. Enterprise learning teams must be able to provide a large volume of assets that’ll resonate with different employees.

Of course, creating these materials takes time. Yet, time is a limited resource.

The good news is that the right tools can help teams develop materials more quickly and easily. One way these tools expedite learning creation is by offering templates as a starting point.

A recent analysis of Mindtickle users found that, on average, it takes between three and four weeks to launch a new enterprise sales enablement program from scratch. However, a program template can dramatically shorten this time to seven days.

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Then, you can leverage analytics in your enterprise earning platform to determine which types of resources employees use and whether they impact outcomes. You can use this intel to invest in the resources being used and make an impact.

#2 Delivering personalized learning at scale

Learning isn’t one-size-fits-all. Instead, it’s important to offer personalized learning and development opportunities that meet the needs and interests of each employee.

This can be hard to do – especially at large organizations with many different departments.

A platform makes it easier to understand each employee’s unique strengths and weaknesses – and then deliver learning suggestions that meet their needs.

#3 Measuring enterprise learning impact

Many organizations measure the completion of initiatives. For example, they can see what percentage of sales reps completed a specific enterprise sales enablement program.

However, it’s critical also to measure the impact of your initiative. In other words, how is your practice improving outcomes?

This can be tough to understand – especially if you’re using a traditional learning management system (LMS).

However, you can measure consumption and impact with an enterprise learning or revenue enablement platform.

For example, you can see that a specific piece of content is used often – and it’s tied to many closed won deals. You can use these insights to optimize the content further.

#4 Choosing the right enterprise learning technology

Technology is a key component of any strategy. But there are many options, from traditional enterprise LMSs to enterprise revenue enablement platforms and everything in between.

Determining which option is the right fit for your organization’s needs can be challenging.

There’s no right answer. It’s important to consider your needs and find the platform that addresses them.

#5 Increasing adoption

Your initiative won’t impact if no one engages with the resources you offer. But getting employees to take advantage of learning materials can be hard when they already have busy schedules.

Building a learning culture within your organization is the key to combating this challenge. Help employees understand that enterprise learning is beneficial to them. Set aside a day every month when your employees are encouraged to engage with different learning initiatives. Also, provide recognition for those who are leveraging your materials.

Another key way to increase adoption is to rethink the format of your learning materials. Traditional employee training is often dull and lengthy, and employees must set aside a significant chunk of time to complete it.

Instead, consider creating bite-sized learning that employees can engage with when they have a few moments to spare. Be sure to communicate that learning doesn’t have to be a huge investment in time!

Transform enterprise learning with Mindtickle

The right enterprise learning software is foundational to the success of your strategy. But, as mentioned earlier, knowing which solution is the best for your needs can be challenging.

Today, some organizations leverage a traditional learning management system (LMS) to power their enterprise learning programs. However, many enterprise LMSs simply aren’t built for the needs of today’s learners.

Increasingly, organizations are searching for a solution that enables them to develop and deliver personalized learning programs for each employee. Many are opting for an integrated revenue enablement platform like Mindtickle.

With Mindtickle, teams can develop and deliver training and other learning opportunities quickly and easily. That means employees can easily find everything related to enterprise learning – including rep training, content, and coaching – whenever and wherever they need it.

Finally, Mindtickle offers robust data and analytics to help you understand who is engaging with what resources and how that engagement is (or isn’t) impacting performance and outcomes. Then, you can use these insights to optimize your strategy.

Enterprise Learning with Mindtickle

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Are You Reducing Your Sales Enablement Budget? Tips for Staying Ahead

Elisha Zhang on July 5, 2024

While the threat of recession may be fading, we’re still facing a lot of economic uncertainty. It’s not surprising that many organizations continue to monitor spending closely.

Revenue enablement teams are feeling the effects.

Today, many revenue enablement teams deal with flat (or even reduced) budgets. Yet, the expectations placed on these teams only continue to grow.

In other words, revenue enablement teams are pressured to accomplish more with smaller revenue enablement budgets.

Are you a revenue enablement professional looking to maintain (or even increase) the impact of your program – even when you’re forced to trim your sales enablement budget? If so, you’ve come to the right place.

In this post, we’ll share four powerful tips for effective sales enablement – even when you’re facing a flat (or reduced) budget. We’ll also explore four key elements to incorporate into your organization’s revenue enablement budget.

Tip 1: Retain and develop your existing sellers

In today’s economy, many organizations aren’t replacing sellers who leave the organization – at least for now. But often, sales goals remain the same.

Revenue teams must boost performance and reduce turnover – even when hiring new sales reps isn’t an option. Upskilling your existing sales team is the most effective approach.

Upskilling is the process of providing existing sales reps with ongoing learning, support, and reinforcement so they can develop knowledge, skills, and behaviors that’ll help them meet (or even exceed) their goals.

Learning and support can (and should) take many different forms. For starters, revenue enablement teams must provide training materials to develop sales reps, including:

  • Live training
  • Videos
  • Product sheets
  • Quizzes

Revenue enablement teams must also provide sales reps opportunities to practice their new skills. Role-plays are one popular example. Sales reps can record their pitches and get instant input from artificial intelligence and feedback from sales managers and peers.

Sales reps must also receive regular, personalized one-on-one sales coaching for guidance and feedback and sales content to use with buyers throughout the sales cycle.

With the right sales enablement platform, sales leaders can track performance on the team and individual levels. This enables leaders to understand each seller’s strengths and weaknesses. Then, revenue enablement teams and sales managers can deliver additional, personalized sales enablement and coaching to strengthen lagging skills.

Tip 2: Examine what you might have missed

It’s hard to look ahead without considering how you’re doing things now. Look back at workflows and pipeline management processes to identify gaps and inefficiencies. Are you optimized to move opportunities through every stage of the sale?

A great way to get started is to perform a win/loss analysis, where you examine deals that were won and deals that were lost. Have sellers answer specific questions for each, like:

  • Where did you find the lead?
  • How did you initially reach out to the customer?
  • Who did you talk to first and who were you in contact with throughout the process?
  • How did the first conversation go? What was the next step?
  • What were the customer’s pain points at the time?
  • What were the customer’s goals at the time?
  • Was the customer looking at competitors at the same time?
  • How did you know this was a good deal to pursue (or what were the signs that it wasn’t)?
  • How did you present the value proposition/use case?
  • Who within the customer’s buying team made the final decision?

Revisiting opportunities allows you to determine what types of engagement and content led to success — and whether recently disqualified opportunities were properly disqualified or are still warm enough to warrant reaching back out.

Tip 3: Quantify your impact

Besides making changes to your approach, you must also prove the value of your sales enablement function when navigating budget discussions. This means being able to present numbers that demonstrate how enablement projects directly impact revenue.

Look at factors like content engagement and role-plays and how they correlate with quota attainment and revenue generation.

For instance, how likely are sellers who engage with enablement content to reach or exceed quota? Do sellers who practice with role-plays ask more questions in real-world buyer conversations or have more success in moving an opportunity forward? Putting numbers to these key performance indicators (KPIs) enables you to align efforts to stakeholder goals.

This is also an ideal time to ensure your current customers have clear benchmarks and KPIs to measure success. Dig into what they’re already measuring and discuss how those metrics can be used to understand their progress with your product. If they don’t have data to analyze, work with customer champions to establish easy KPIs to start measuring immediately. If their own organization is looking to consolidate technology, those champions can tie those KPIs to revenue and defend your product.

Tip 4: Automate tedious tasks

Recent Salesforce research found that sales reps spend a mere 28% of their time each week actually selling.

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When reviewing your sales processes, look for tasks that can be automated to help sellers focus on sales activities and boost sales productivity. Clunky, manual work like toggling between tools or scouring different folders to find specific content wastes time that could be spent on revenue-generating activities.

In these instances, there are likely ways to automate or consolidate programs in your tech stack to save sellers’ time and effort. Many sales technologies have integration capabilities to alleviate frustration and streamline methods for transferring customer data, sharing content, reporting, and more. If yours doesn’t, it’s probably time to look elsewhere.

The same Salesforce report cited earlier found that 66% of sellers are overwhelmed by the number of tools they’re expected to use.

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So, when evaluating new solutions for your sales organization, consider vendors who provide at least several functionalities in your current tech stack within a single platform. This way, your sales team members and adjacent and supporting teams, like marketing, are working from a single source of truth, and all know where to find what they need. Revenue teams will spend less time hunting for what they need, switching between tools, and more time selling.

For example, an integrated revenue enablement platform has enablement and training, content management, conversation intelligence, coaching, and analytics all in one place. By delivering time-saving abilities and the assurance that every rep is using the most up-to-date internal and customer-facing content, an integrated revenue enablement platform lets sellers focus on sales activities that drive outcomes and revenue growth.

4 key elements of a sales enablement budget

In the best of times, a sales enablement budget is an essential piece of your sales enablement strategy. Today, when organizations closely watch their spending, creating a sales enablement budget is even more important.

If you’re building a revenue enablement budget from scratch (or revising an existing budget), you should incorporate four key elements.

Fixed costs

Variable costs

Unexpected costs

ROI

#1 Fixed costs

Fixed costs are any sales enablement expenses that stay largely the same. Some examples of fixed sales enablement costs include:

  • Sales enablement team member salaries
  • Monthly or yearly cost of sales enablement platforms and tools

These fixed costs are easy to predict because they remain steady – even as your business encounters change.

In general, fixed costs represent your sales enablement program must-haves. They’re things you need for your sales enablement team to be successful.

#2 Variable costs

Variable costs are expenses that can (and often do) vary based on the ever-evolving needs of the business. Some examples of variable sales enablement costs include:

  • Travel
  • Consultant work
  • Vendor costs

Because these costs are variable, they’re trickier to plan for. It’s always better to overestimate variable costs than to underestimate them.

#3 Unexpected costs

Unexpected costs are – you guessed it – expenses that aren’t expected or planned for.

It’s important to consider any upcoming changes that could impact your budget. However, it’s impossible to anticipate everything. As such, it’s a good idea to build some wiggle room into your sales enablement budget so you have the funds to cover unexpected costs.

#4 ROI

Sales enablement’s goal is to positively impact sales productivity and performance. It’s important to prove that your sales enablement program is impacting the metrics that matter most to your business.

Your ability to convey return on investment (ROI) is key to maintaining the revenue enablement budget you already have. Proving ROI may also help you secure additional budget and resources.

Maximize the impact of revenue enablement with Mindtickle

When it’s done well, revenue enablement can have a large, measurable impact on sales productivity and performance. Yet, in today’s uncertain economy, many sales enablement teams have flat or reduced sales enablement budgets.

Using the tips in this post, you can maximize the impact of sales enablement—even when budgets and resources are tight.

Streamlining your sales enablement technology is one powerful way to maximize your sales enablement budget. Now’s the time to trade disparate point solutions for an integrated revenue enablement platform like Mindtickle.

Mindtickle incorporates all the key elements of revenue enablement – including onboarding, ongoing training, sales content, sales coaching, and conversation intelligence – all in one platform. Your sellers can find everything they need in one spot, so they’ll spend less time hunting down materials and more time engaging buyers and closing deals.

Sales Enablement in Mindtickle

Curious why the world’s best revenue organizations are choosing Mindtickle?

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This post was originally published in October 2022 and updated in July 2024. 

The Top 5 Features to Look for When You’ve Outgrown Your Learning Management System (LMS)

Elisha Zhang on July 2, 2024

When a start-up excitingly experiences enough growth to consider a solution for onboarding and compliance, a learning management software ticks the boxes of automating employee training and information delivery.

Alternatively, large, historied, traditional companies often prioritized ensuring compliance training first and never updated to new, more sophisticated solutions that would help them with the continued development of their workforce.

But in a world where people are accustomed to a curated “For You” page and information is available in quantities that were unheard of when PCs were first introduced to consumers, your employees’ need for effective, personalized skill training, coaching, and continued development past onboarding means making the switch to a new solution.

Behavior change for competency building

Reliably delivering information across an organization is an excellent foundational goal for any organization. Achieving this fundamental first step is an achievement, but it’s only the first step on a journey for an organization’s learning and development program.

Ultimately, today’s workforce demands an employee experience where they develop skills and competencies during their tenure at a company. This means going through an onboarding process and completing compliance training annually will only contribute to low morale and high attrition.

So what does it take for them to stay?

Personalization/relevance of training

We’re flooded with information everywhere we turn. According to the Harvard Business Review, information overload cost the U.S. economy $900 billion in 2009.

And it’s only gotten worse.

So why would you also subject your employees to unnecessary training and information?

Instead, tailor what they see based on their roles and responsibilities and make sure their time is used to address their growth opportunities instead of taking training courses for areas they already excel in.

So what are the features to get you there? 

#1. Role-based home pages

Make sure the solution you choose can connect to your HR management system so the employee’s learning experience can be automatically tailored based on their title and team.

For example, suppose someone has just joined the customer service team. In that case, they’ll be assigned only the courses necessary for general compliance and to help them provide a stellar service experience in any customer interaction they may face. This could mean courses about the escalation process or regulating their emotions when the other party is heightened emotionally.

#2. Competency profiles

Another requirement you should include when looking for a new solution is the ability to evaluate every demonstrated person’s strengths and weaknesses compared to an ideal benchmark at scale. This information will take your employee development to the next level, enabling you to customize their course assignments automatically and see whether their courses translate into execution and skills.

Beyond looking at the individual level to tailor the learning experience, you can make more informed decisions about where to invest resources based on the strengths and weaknesses of various teams or the organization.

In this example, the West sales team is strong in rapport-building skills but struggling with negotiation. If we zoom out further, we can see that the sales organization as a whole could improve its negotiation skills. Based on this insight, the team can decide to develop a new course, run a workshop, or even bring in an expert in negotiations to motivate them.

Mindtickle Sales Readiness Index

Changing behaviors for skill development

People don’t achieve new goals by doing what they’ve always done. It takes change. And it takes a concerted effort to make that change stick.

Give your employees tools that help them apply their learning through practice, and receive feedback quickly so they can practice and reinforce the right behaviors.

For example, if you have a junior HR employee with less experience than the rest of the team, have them go through a role-play exercise simulating a meeting to resolve a conflict between an employee and their manager.

Here’s what to look for.

#3 AI-powered role-plays

A safe environment to practice before the pressure of a real-life situation is crucial for desired behaviors to become second nature. Some interesting new point solutions provide an AI bot that will simulate a conversation with your employees to help them put the concepts they learned into practice.

However, finding a consolidated platform solution with this functionality is a better investment. The results from these role-play exercises can inform your employees’ competency profiles, with all the benefits mentioned above. They can also be used with the next feature to magnify the effects of your employees’ and managers’ efforts to improve.

interactive role-play

Investing in a culture of data-informed coaching

Practicing with AI-powered feedback will kick-start the behavior change process, but it can’t compare to consistent, high-quality coaching from a manager equipped with the skills and tools to mentor their teams.

Create a culture of excellence, transparency, and accountability around coaching and encourage a growth mindset in your employees. Set benchmarks for manager competencies and give them the training they need based on the strengths and weaknesses in their competency profiles.

What are the features to look for to get you there? 

#4 Integrated coaching forms

As you coach the coaches, find a solution that gives your managers integrated coaching forms to guide their coaching sessions, assign tasks, and send reminders about conducting coaching sessions regularly. This feature should feel like it is woven into the rest of the platform by providing:

  • Ways for your managers to watch and provide their feedback on role-play submissions
  • The ability to assign courses to their team members
  • If your organization records calls with customers and prospects, the option to bring those call recordings from real-life scenarios into coaching sessions

These aspects of the feature help employees understand what good looks like and see their progress toward their goals.

#5 Robust data and analytics

Hold your managers accountable by finding a solution with nuanced data from features like coaching forms, competency profiles, and all the table stakes data from foundational training features. Track the progress of each manager’s team over time, whether through the frequency and results of the coaching sessions, the changes in their competency profiles, or even in comparison to other top managers.

Relying on these metrics is better than relying on lagging indicators like employee satisfaction or retention rates, which forces leaders to react instead of proactively making decisions to improve the employee experience before they leave.

A world beyond LMS

Outgrowing technology is a great problem. When evolving past an LMS, consider consolidated readiness solutions to reap all the benefits of a one-stop shop for employees to learn, practice, receive coaching, and more.

Move Beyond Your LMS

Mindtickle is here to grow with the needs of every organization, from start-ups to enterprises. To see how take a look here or book a time with us for a more personalized demo.

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Build Good Habits and Change Bad Ones with the Mindtickle Platform

Elisha Zhang on May 15, 2024

Targeting and changing a specific sales behavior is tough.

It requires concerted, organized effort from the individual rep and their manager and enablement to empower a cycle of benchmarking, knowledge acquisition and retention, practice, monitoring, and good, actionable feedback.

The right tool can amplify that effort, while a poor one will nullify it.

Give everyone the best chance to drive that change with a solid foundation of proper access, seamless and time-saving integrations, and metrics for more personalized, impact-driven programs.

Mindtickle is proud to launch features this Spring that support those conditions for change.

Meet everyone where they are with what they need

One of the most crucial aspects of changing behavior is the ability to review and receive feedback on what’s happening on sales calls. And in today’s buying environment, tethering your reps to their laptops or desktops wastes those on-the-go moments of downtime.

Give learners the power to review and reflect on past calls to prep for the next meeting or identify where to focus their efforts to improve themselves instead of doom-scrolling on X (formerly Twitter), all from their smartphone.

Enable managers to provide invaluable feedback to their reps efficiently, from anywhere, with call insights, summaries, and transcripts that help them jump to key moments to review, comment, and tag the right people to take action.

AI for semantic search

Apologies to everyone who has developed “a particular set of skills” to pinpoint the best search term for keyword-driven searches. Back then, an exact match of a word or phrase was your best bet to find what you were looking for.

Now, the Mindtickle search bar understands the underlying meaning of your search to bring you more relevant results.

Prevent overwhelm and maintain data privacy

Many think giving everyone access to everything will resolve complaints about transparency or inefficient workflows. There is such a thing as too much access since the human attention span only has so much capacity to parse and filter what is in view. Mindtickle helps admins make the best use of every iota of attention with features like restricting different folders in our Content Center or sharing reports to user groups so they don’t have to dig through the data themselves.

Provide managers with a limited view of analytics and reports based on organizational hierarchy or log the download and export activities to maintain learner data confidentiality.

Bring in your content from Sharepoint and Egynte

Duplicate, menial work can grind away at a person’s morale and drive, resulting in more mistakes when getting training and marketing content into Mindtickle. Automating content sync up from Sharepoint, Egnyte, or several other content repositories can mitigate human error and save time and effort for admins without disrupting the content creation or content management processes that have worked for your organization.

Competencies for scalable, personalized, enablement, coaching, and behavior change accountability

Trying to change behavior is meaningless if you don’t have a target or goal. This is where the ideal rep profile and Mindtickle’s Readiness Index come in. Outline the set of competencies a rep needs in their position to start your journey to correlating engagement with enablement, training, and coaching with outcomes.

You can do this in a few minutes by using our Ideal Rep Profile templates, built by our experts for common roles like Account Executives, Business Development Reps, or Solutions Consultant/Engineer. Adjust the weights on each competency to tailor our recommendations to your organization’s needs and priorities, then start tagging your content with our suggested tags.

product imagery of the Mindtickle readiness index

Hone in further on the unique profiles for the different roles in your company over time by editing the weights on competencies, creating and tagging new programs and coaching forms, and editing the competencies themselves. Our templates serve as a solid foundation for gauging behavior change and impact on outcomes as your team and enablement grow and mature.

More to come for Mindtickle

Like how we encourage and guide our customers to foster a growth mindset for their organizations, Mindtickle is committed to continuously learning and growing. We’re always looking to our customers to understand their current needs. We hire empathetic product teams to anticipate and solve their problems in the future, even if it means building something the market has never seen or tested.

Mindtickle 2024 Spring Announcement

Register for the webinar, Sales Superheroes Unleashed: Transforming Sellers into Superstars with AI, to learn more about the Spring launch and hear customer stories firsthand.

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How to Use Your CRM, Enablement Analytics, and Call AI to Inform Better Coaching

Elisha Zhang on February 12, 2024

Today we’re re-sharing one of the most popular videos from our series focusing on reducing your tech stack chaos. In it, Elisha Zhang, one of our product marketing managers, shares insights on reducing chaos in sales onboarding by using CRM, enablement analytics, and conversation intelligence. Elisha shares three key takeaways: identifying short-term deal risks by aligning competencies with sales stages, mitigating systemic risks through targeted coaching, closing skill gaps, and building a coaching culture by evaluating teams based on CRM data. The approach enables accurate risk assessment, sustained improvement, and a culture of continuous improvement.

Key takeaways

Identify short-term deal risks

  • Align competencies important to roles with different sales process stages.
  • Develop skill profiles for each rep to identify strengths and gaps.
  • Utilize this information for more accurate short-term risk identification, especially in forecasting and deal reviews.

Mititgate systemic risks and closing skill gaps

  • Coach reps based on identified skill gaps, providing targeted support.
  • Leverage conversation intelligence to review previous calls and offer hands-on feedback for sustained improvement.
  • Evaluate teams or the entire organization on competencies within the CRM context to identify and remediate bottlenecks.

Build a better coaching culture

  • Use data sets to determine trends and root causes of deal challenges, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
  • Validate hypotheses by reviewing calls from lost deals and incorporating insights into future coaching and training sessions.

Transcription

Hi everyone, my name is Elisha Zhang, and I’m a product marketing manager at Mindtickle. I know that I often find myself anticipating a lot of overwhelmed when it comes to onboarding with a new company, particularly because of all of the technology chaos that is out there in our modern world. I’m here today to help reduce some of that chaos as you enter the new year. In particular, we will discuss how you can use your CRM enablement analytics and conversation intelligence to better inform your coaching.

Once you have married your CRM, enablement, analytics, and conversation intelligence, and those three data sets are in harmony, you can do some things. The first is that you’ll be able to identify short-term risks when it comes to your deals more accurately. And then the second is that in the long term, you’ll be able to mitigate all of that risk, especially at a more systemic level. And you’ll be doing that by closing skill gaps that you’ve identified. Okay, so to actually identify that short-term risk, you will need to set yourself up for success by having competencies that are important to your role identified and mapped to the different stages of your sales process.

Once all of that is done, you’ll want to use those competency profiles and identify a skill profile for each rep, which will help you see if a person has this gap, and this person is very strong in this particular skill. Once you have this better understanding of folks individually, your managers will be better able to use the information in their CRMs for forecasting and deal reviews. That’s because if you see a particularly large deal, for instance, and you’re very excited about it for this quarter, you can go into see who the owner of that deal is and try to understand whether or not their current skill gaps are going to introduce any risk to the field.

For example, I might have a rep who is not particularly strong and negotiation. I can see that this quarter, they have a huge deal entering the negotiation stage and we really want to close it out this quarter. Once I really actually have identified that and see that that is a risk, then I’ll be able to coach them a little bit better because I will know the targeted skill that is going to be necessary to get them through and close this deal.

You’ll be able to do all of that with the help of conversation intelligence as well because you’ll be able to go back and review the calls previously held in the deal. As well as take a look at that rep’s calls from similar stages on different deals, and help provide feedback to help them improve as you give them a little bit more hands-on support.

Of course, once you start to coach folks on skills, you’ll find a lot more sustained improvement and mitigation of risk. In particular, if you can evaluate your teams or your entire organization based on those competencies in the context of your CRM data, it will help you with identifying and determining remediation for actually opening up the bottlenecks.

So perhaps it’s the case that many of your deals are getting stuck or being lost at the proof of concept stage. It might also be the case that you see as an organization that folks are not scoring terribly high on the demo role plays. Well, when you take these two things in combination, you will probably come up with the hypothesis that the demos that we’re doing are not very good. And as a result, we’re losing deals once we get into the proof of concept stage. Okay? Pretty simple. Let’s try and go validate that, take a look at all of your calls that are, or maybe a select few calls for particularly big lost deals from the last quarter or last year, and validate whether or not it was the demo, or maybe it was another skill that was lacking. It could be the case, for instance, that the demo itself was very good. But because we weren’t very good at active listening, it just was a generic demo, as opposed to something that was more tailored for the prospect.

Once you’ve gotten a better understanding and really determined exactly how you want to remediate, maybe you can go ahead and incorporate that into your next Escale. These are just a few ways to use these three data sets to build a better coaching culture. I hope this video has given you some tips on how you can reduce your technology chaos and build a better coaching culture in the new year.

Mindtickle in Action

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What are Sales Battlecards and How Can Your Sales Team Benefit from Them?

Elisha Zhang on November 27, 2023

Great sales reps must know their product and service offerings inside and out. That way, they can confidently recommend solutions that’ll address their prospects’ biggest challenges and pain points.

But it’s equally important for reps to be well-versed in how their company stacks up against the competition. This knowledge is especially important to winning competitive deals, which are quite common. According to Semrush, over half (57%) of all sales deals are competitive.

Percentage of sales deals that are competitive
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Sales battlecards (also referred to as competitive intelligence battlecards, sales enablement battlecards, or simply battlecards) are one tool winning sales organizations use to ensure their sellers are always ready to conquer any competitive deal.

In this post, we’ll explore what sales they are, why they’re important, and how sales organizations can create effective ones to improve seller performance and close more deals.
What are sales battlecards?
Sales battlecards are an effective tool for ensuring reps are experts on their competitors’ offerings. But what are sales battlecards?

They provide an overview of how your company stacks up against the competition. Sales battlecards distill key factors about your own company and your competitors, which may include:

Products

Services

Features + functionality

Pricing

A sales battlecard may compare your company to a single competitor. For example, HubSpot might create one comparing their marketing automation offering to that of ActiveCampaign.

Other sales battlecards compare a company against multiple competitors. For example, a multi-competitor one might show how HubSpot stacks up against ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Marketo Engage.

Some sales battlecards are created as an internal resource for sellers to use. Others are developed as customer-facing collateral. We’ll explore the different types later on.

How are sales battlecards important for competitive selling?

Creating battlecards takes time. Is it really worth the effort?

Yes, without a doubt.

Competitive intelligence battlecards are a powerful tool for competitive selling. In fact, they’re proven to improve sales outcomes. According to research from Crayon, seven in 10 businesses that use them say they’ve boosted their win rates.

Competitive knowledge is key to sales success. But sales reps are busy people. They simply don’t have the time to keep up with every product or feature change announced by a competitor. Sales battlecards can help bridge the gap.

Here’s how battlecards help reps during the course of a deal:

Product and service offerings are always changing and evolving. Competitive intelligence battlecards help ensure sellers always have the latest information about their competitors – and how their own offerings stack up. However, it’s essential they’re updated on a regular basis.

One-size-fits all pitches don’t work. Instead, sellers must develop pitches that address the unique needs and challenges of each seller.

In some cases, a sales rep knows which competitors a prospect is considering. Sales battlecards can help reps tailor their pitches in a way that addresses how their offerings are a better solution than what the competition has to offer.

Sellers are no strangers to objections. A recent analysis found that 63% of sales calls have more negative sentiment than positive. Competitive mentions are one example of negative sentiment.

As such, objection handling is a key sales skill. Specifically, reps must be prepared to address objections related to competitors.

Imagine a prospect considering two competing products. They might raise objections such as:

  • Why does the competitor’s product have these features – and yours doesn’t?
  • Why are these product features important when your competitors don’t have them?
  • Why is the competitor’s product less expensive?

Battlecards help sellers understand how their offerings stack up against a competitor. That way, they can anticipate buyers’ objections – and be equipped to address them head-on.

What are the types of sales battlecards?

There are many different types of sales battlecards. Each type is used in different circumstances.

Single competitor vs. multi-competitor

You might develop a sales battlecard that compares your business to one competitor. These can be a great resource for sellers who are working with prospects who are further along in the sales funnel and have shared what other options they are considering. These single-competitor sales battlecards provide a detailed look at a competitor’s strengths and weaknesses.

Some organizations also develop a sales battlecard that pits the company against multiple competitors. They can be a great resource for reps when they’re working on deals that are higher up in the sales funnel. Typically, they include less detail than a single competitor battlecard.

Competitive

Competitive battlecards provide information on a company’s key competitors. This information might include:

  • Company information
  • Product and service information
  • Pricing
  • Target audience

They are a great resource for ensuring sales reps know how your company stacks up. Competitive battlecards also help sellers anticipate objections so they can be prepared to address them.

Product

These ensure sales reps know the ins and outs of the products they’re selling. These battlecards may incorporate information including:

  • Customer challenges
  • How the product helps address these challenges

Some product battlecards focus on a single product offering. Others compare multiple product offerings – and how they each address specific use cases.

Marketing

Marketing battlecards focus on the marketing strategies of key competitors. These zero in on who the competition is marketing to and what strategies they’re using to position themselves as the right choice for that market.

For example, one competitor may position themselves as the lowest-cost option. If your solutions are more expensive, your reps must be prepared to articulate why that is the case.

Marketing battlecards may also incorporate other information on competitors’ marketing strategies, including:

  • Strategic partners
  • Key marketing channels

Prospect-specific sales

Some battlecards can be used more generally. For example, a multi-competitor, customer-facing sales battlecard can provide a great overview of how your company differs from its key competitors.

However, there are times when it makes sense to create a prospect-specific sales battlecard. This sales enablement battlecard can address the specific, unique pain points of the prospect – and how your solutions stack up to your competitors in terms of solving those pain points.

How to create effective sales battlecards

Sales battlecards are a great resource for your reps. They can have a positive impact on sales outcomes – when they’re thoughtfully created and your sales reps know how to use them.

So, how exactly should you go about creating one? Here are a few best practices to guide the process.

Step 1
Start with a template
Step 2
Determine your competitors
Step 3
Chose your focus areas
Step 4
Do your research
Step 5
Revisit them often

Start with a template

Starting your sales battlecard from scratch can seem overwhelming. Instead, consider starting with template that suits your needs and use case. Using a template will save time – and it’ll help ensure they all have a consistent look and feel.

Remember: a template should only be a starting place. Be sure to adapt the template as needed so it works for your needs.

Choose your competitors

Start by making a list of your key competitors. Then, add details about how often and when each one typically comes up in the sales process. If you’re not sure, ask for insights from those who know best: your sales team.

These insights can help you determine what type is needed for each competitor. For example, if your sellers often lose deals to a specific competitor, it makes sense to develop a battlecard focused solely on that competitor. However, if there is another competitor that’s brought up earlier in the purchase journey – but you don’t often lose deals to them – you can include them in a multi-competitor sales battlecard.

Determine your sales battlecard focus areas

Next, you’ll need to determine the categories to include in your sales enablement battlecard. Some focus areas to consider are:

  • Product features
  • Cost
  • ROI
  • Customer support
  • Customization options

The focus areas of your sales battlecard will depend on the type you’re developing and the intended audience. For example, a customer-facing multi-competitor battlecard will likely include fewer focus areas than an internal, single competitor version.

Of course, you want to develop battlecards that put your brand and offerings in the best light. However, it’s important to be honest, too. If there’s an area where a competitor outshines you, be sure your sellers know how to articulate why this is the case.

Do your research

It’s important to ensure the information on your sales battlecards is accurate. If a prospect notices an error, you’ll lose your credibility – and likely, the sale.

As such, it’s important to do plenty of research when developing your them. Much of your research can be done online. For example, you can find product feature information on your competitors’ websites. In addition, you can read reviews from current and past customers to gain insight into user experience. A generative AI tool like ChatGPT can also be a great tool for doing high-level research about competitors.

In addition, ask for feedback from teams throughout the organization. For example, the sales team can provide insight into why deals are often lost to a specific customer. Marketing teams, on the other hand, likely have insight into a competitor’s online presence and marketing strategy.

Revisit them regularly

Sales battlecards aren’t a one-time project. Instead, they need to be revisited often.

Why? Your own products and features will change and evolve in the future. So will that of your competitors.

It’s important to ensure they always reflect the latest and greatest information about your own business as well as your competitors. That way, your sales reps can confidently share their knowledge and be equipped to overcome objections.

How to use them

Creating great battlecards is foundational. But it’s also important to ensure your sales reps know they exist and how to use them. Otherwise, the time and effort spent creating them will be wasted.

With that in mind, here are a few best practices for using them.

Do's

Don'ts

  • Store your them in a single location
  • Provide training, enablement, and coaching on how to use them
  • Ensure sellers know which ones are internal and which are customer-facing
  • Leverage conversation intelligence to ensure sellers are putting their knowledge into practice in the field
  • Communicate when a new one is available
  • Welcome feedback – especially from top sellers – and incorporate this feedback into new versions

 

  • Distribute them via email or store via disparate platforms
  • Assume sellers know how to use sales them
  • Distribute internal sales battlecards to prospects
  • Assume sellers are applying their competitive knowledge in the field
  • Make your reps find them on their own
  • Create the sales battlecards once and never revisit

 

#1: Ensure they are centrally located and easily accessible

Some sales organizations may still use printed sales battlecards. But most have made the transition to digital sales enablement battlecards. It’s important to ensure they are housed in a central location so your sales reps know exactly where to find them.

Some organizations opt to store them in Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or a similar solution. However, a better approach is to store your sales battlecards within your revenue enablement platform. That way, sales reps can easily find exactly what they’re looking for – anytime and from any device.

In addition, a sales productivity tool with content management capabilities makes it easy to make updates to them. That means your sales reps can always access the latest and greatest versions of each sales one. You no longer have to worry about them using an outdated sales versions.

Empower your sellers to win more competitive deals
Sales reps must have deep knowledge of their own products. But they must also become experts on their competitors’ offerings.

Sales battlecards are a great resource for both new and veteran sellers. They provide reps with the information they need to confidently articulate how they differ from the competition. They also help sellers anticipate buyers’ objections – and ensure they’re ready to overcome those objections.

The best place to house your sales battlecards is within a revenue intelligence platform like Mindtickle. That way, your sales teams can access the sales training, sales enablement, sales content, and conversation intelligence they need to win against the competition – all in one place.

Salesforce - Asset Hub

#2: Provide enablement and coaching on how to use them

You’ve created a collection of sales battlecards. But you shouldn’t assume your sellers know what to do with them.

It’s important to provide sales training, sales enablement, and coaching to ensure your reps know how and when to use the sales battlecards available to them. Training, bite-sized exercises, and practice opportunities can help ensure sellers understand:

  • Which ones are available to them
  • The intended audience for each one (internal vs. external)
  • Which ones they should use in which sales scenarios

Sales managers can also leverage conversation intelligence to ensure sales reps are actually putting their knowledge into practice in the field. If there are knowledge gaps, sales managers can provide additional coaching to close those gaps – and improve sales outcomes.

#3: Communicate when there are new ones available

Over time, there may be a need to create additional versions. Each time a new one is available, make sure to let the sales team know. That new sales battlecard may just be the ticket to winning their next competitive deal.

#4: Ask for feedback

Your customer-facing teams interact with prospects day in and day out. They’re well aware of your key competitors and why they’re losing deals to them. So be sure to ask for their feedback on a regular basis. Incorporating feedback from your top sales reps can help improve the effectiveness of your sales battlecards.

Empower your sellers to win more competitive deals

Sales reps must have deep knowledge of their own products. But they must also become experts on their competitors’ offerings.

Sales battlecards are a great resource for both new and veteran sellers. They provide reps with the information they need to confidently articulate how they differ from the competition. They also help sellers anticipate buyers’ objections – and ensure they’re ready to overcome those objections.

The best place to house your sales battlecards is within a revenue intelligence platform like Mindtickle. That way, your sales teams can access the sales training, sales enablement, sales content, and conversation intelligence they need to win against the competition – all in one place.

Close every winnable deal

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Mindtickle’s New Features and Enhancements for Fall 2023: All Those in Favor, Say “AI”

Elisha Zhang on October 18, 2023

With the enormous advances in AI and automation, every member of your customer-facing teams can focus on using their human creativity and strategic thinking to deliver exceptional customer and buying experiences.

Mindtickle’s 2023 Fall Announcement introduces the ability to scale the use of best practices and highlights winning behaviors with new features and updates, including:

  • AI search for fast, accurate results ​​based on a deeper understanding of language and search terms
  • AI-powered self-enablement with real-time answers to field questions on topics like pricing, or product features
  • Scalable CHAMP and MEDDPICC call scoring with AI
  • and more.

Take a look at all the brilliant updates on the horizon and close out the year on a high note with us.

Find what you need, fast

Copilot’s AI Search

When searches require exact spelling or phrasing, it can become frustrating and a waste of time sifting through irrelevant search results. Save time and reduce friction when trying to find training, content, and calls in Mindtickle with smart search results using Copilot, eliminating the need for an exact keyword match.

Copilot’s AI-powered just-in-time enablement

Finding the right subject matter expert, asking them a question, and getting an answer can take anywhere from seconds to hours, or even days. Ensure teams are successful in every prospect or customer interaction by getting them timely answers to their questions using Copilot’s generative AI. Encourage self-sufficiency in your go-to-market roles and reduce the amount of time spent by subject matter experts answering common questions asked by field teams around topics like pricing or product features.

Ensure consistent deal execution

AI-powered CHAMP and MEDDPICC call scoring

Have your sales calls scored based on how well the rep adheres to deal qualification frameworks like CHAMP and MEDDPICC to identify opportunities for coaching and training. Reinforce those sales methodologies at scale to ensure your teams are executing deals consistently.

Two women on a video call with a call score

Prevent overwhelm with curation

Role-based home pages and scoped DSRs, call library and content center access

Provide a more tailored user experience to enhance learners’ engagement and productivity. Role-based home pages allow for precise content targeting, ensuring reps access the most relevant training and collateral suited to their roles or based on sales stages. Limit which DSRs, call libraries, and areas of your content center various users can access for better control for admins and a more streamlined experience for those users. With attention being directed only to what is needed and relevant, learners can focus on upskilling to impact revenue.

More for Microsoft customers

Microsoft Teams instructor-led training integration

Schedule and manage your Microsoft Teams-hosted Instructor-Led Training sessions conveniently in the Mindtickle platform, with automatic attendance and engagement tracking so you can understand who is actively participating in your ILTs.

Outlook add-in

Ensure the assets that reps use to drive deals forward and broaden the scope of insight into engagement with your content by making finding and sharing the right asset for each email interaction easy and convenient.

Content sync with Sharepoint

Effortlessly maintain your content library in Mindtickle with an automatic content sync with Sharepoint to save time for admins and improve reps’ confidence in the relevance and accuracy of the content.

Mindtickle’s commitment to customer-centric innovation

Like the learners, managers, and creators who use Mindtickle, we strive to improve the customer experience and meet their ever-evolving needs. Mindtickle thrives on curiosity and pushes to anticipate and build what customers will need in the future, partnering with customers who provide feedback on trends they see, new creative ways they use our features, and constructive comments about our solutions.

Want to learn more about the new features and enhancements coming out through the end of the year? Schedule a demo.

Mindtickle's Fall 2023 Announcement

Want to learn more about the new features and enhancements coming out through the end of the year?

Learn More + Get a Demo

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