Podcast: See How a Large Company Deployed Micro-Training with Stunning Results
  • sales
  • Blog post

Podcast: See How a Large Company Deployed Micro-Training with Stunning Results

Because Micro-training is so new, few companies have a clear roadmap for deploying it. In fact, some hesitate to even try because they’re afraid they’ll launch an initiative and lay an egg.

Well, if you’re in that category, or if you’ve tried Micro-training but don’t feel you’re using it optimally, this podcast that featured Rapid Learning Institute will be an eye-opener for you. It’s with an RLI customer, Kaeser Compressors, that had a dramatic success deploying sales Micro-training. Their team of 100+ salespeople increased new accounts 8% in just six months. And after two years they bumped that number up to 16%, while overall sales soared 25%.

It wasn’t an accident. It had everything to do with how Matt McCorkle, Manager of Branch Operations, designed the learning initiative, which was inspired by RLI’s Micro-First model. Micro-First is a single-concept learning approach that turns legacy training models on their heads. Instead of teaching multiple concepts in a single event, and hoping people will retain them, with Micro-First learners focus on developing a single skill for a short period of time, mastering it, then moving onto the next skill.

RLI teamed up with the information and learning analytics firm Modern Distribution Management (MDM) to conduct a podcast where MDM President Tom Gale and I asked Matt to explain how he cracked the code on Micro-training in a large training initiative that rolled out in multiple locations across the U.S.

In the podcast Matt will explain how he:

  • Assessed his team to identify skill gaps (using RLI’s BCAT™ assessment tool)
  • Chose to create a one year initiative devoted to one broad skill area – prospecting
  • Assigned extended learning paths for each salesperson where they’d focus monthly on a theme driven by a single-concept RLI training module– for example, cold calling, call reluctance, second efforts, getting buyers to hear your message, and so on
  • Got strong manager buy-in and ensured that managers facilitated group and individual coaching to ensure that salespeople learned each skill correctly and retained it

You can listen to the podcast here:

Or give it a listen via these podcast streaming services:

What’s in the podcast?

If you want to jump straight to topics that interest you, here’s a roadmap to the podcast showing the times when various topics were discussed.

  • Stephen Meyer’s description of RLI (1:42)
  • How the content was assigned and what Matt learned about “how people learn best” (11:40)
  • Matt’s description of the results his team achieved (12:20)
  • The benefit of the single-concept approach to training (12:57)
  • Why the initiative required that all reps watch the same training module at the same time  (15:15)
  • How meetings are facilitated — both live and remotely – and how RLI content is deployed (18:35)
  • How Micro-training tools make it easier for managers to play their talent development role (20:50)
  • How Matt is deploying a new coaching and leadership initiative in Year 2 (his model is different!). (21:50)
  • How Matt’s initiative held people accountable (23:25)
  • How Matt ensures that learning sticks with RLI Micro-training compared to other e-learning Kaeser has deployed (24:25)
  • The impact of RLI’s research-based content (26:25)
  • Matt describing his process for choosing to go with RLI Micro-training (28:11)
  • Stephen Meyer on how modules are created (30:05)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Share:

Get a demo of all our training features

Connect with an expert for a one-on-one demonstration of how Rapid Learning can help develop your team.