3. Virtual Onboarding Instills Confidence If we expect our sellers to achieve virtual


selling mastery, we need to walk our talk. Using virtual onboarding to teach virtual selling demonstrates our own prowess at virtual training and inspires confidence that sellers can also master these techniques. Let’s talk about how that can be done.


SALES ENABLEMENT TECHNOLOGY + GREAT INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN Start with Learning Design Today, the technology exists to fully enable a virtual onboarding (and ongoing training) system, and especially to teach virtual selling. Technology, as cool as it is, is primarily an enabler. You also need a great learning experience design. This starts with a performance-centric design


rather than a topic-centric design. First, try to dump the assumptions and begin


with a blank-slate mind. Determine what you need your reps to be able to do (in training, this is a task analysis). Map the workflow for each role. Then set performance milestones for new hires. What do they need to be able to do, at what level of proficiency, by when? Depending on the length of your sales cycle, you may need to mix both leading and lagging indicators for your milestones.


Next, chunk sequences and layer the


prerequisite knowledge, skills, and tasks (in workflow order) to achieve each milestone. To avoid overwhelming new hires, teach only the content they need to know to reach the milestones. This will get your new reps to acceptable levels of performance (your milestones) faster than any other methods I’ve seen in the past 35 years. For more, see this post.


Layer Modern Learning Methods into the Mix What are modern learning methods? Technology has advanced considerably since the early clunky days of my 2003 virtual onboarding. Today, you can: • Quickly and easily create bite-sized learning modules that focus on one task or set of related tasks (the “chunk, sequence, layer” technique)


• Incorporate spaced repetition, using reminders of past tasks in future modules


• Use retrieval learning, with quizzes, memory recall, and Q&A formats


• Provide virtual practice opportunities (asynchronous and synchronous) with expert feedback loops and coaching


• Encourage peer sharing of bite-sized, just-in- time content


• Incorporate digital manager toolkits to help managers reinforce and coach the content


• Maximize Conversation Intelligence tools to record trainees’ live buyer- and customer- facing conversations


APPLY THIS APPROACH TO TRAINING VIRTUAL SELLING If you want your sales force to sell more effectively through digital channels, you need to master virtual training first, and then train them on virtual selling methods, virtually. My friends at Allego have published a great book on virtual selling, titled Mastering Virtual Selling: Orchestrating Sales Success. I highly recommend it.


A global pandemic pushed most of the world into virtual environments in Q1 2020. As I write this, we’re about to slide into 2022. At this point, there is absolutely no excuse for sales reps not to be able to use your company’s choice of virtual selling tools. I’m talking about being adept at file sharing, desktop sharing, highlighting, laser pointers, chat, whiteboards, Webcams, lighting, virtual backgrounds, and more. Beyond the use of the tools, I find that virtual


selling environments have exposed a larger problem – a serious deficit in foundational selling skills such as conducting a great situation assessment, qualifying, researching, sales call planning, building an agenda, running a meeting, resolving concerns, and orchestrating successful buyer/seller interactions that achieve the desired objectives and outcomes for both sides. When you combine these skills (we teach them,


virtually, in Modern Sales Foundations) with the mastery of the medium (the digital tools), you’ll find the effectiveness of your sales force will skyrocket. That’s what we all want, right? Then, you can share what everyone has learned, through better virtual training. 


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