8/9/2021: A prospective customer contacted the xms team concerning a Learning Management System requirement that would assist them in selling their products globally via a channel of 3,000 independent dealers.
In this case, the independent dealers were not the prospective customer's employees. And because the market is competitive, the means that the dealers could decide to sell products from and producer in the market--including the prospective customer's competitors.
So, how could this prospective customer entice 3,000 independent dealers to sell their product, rather than the products of their competitors?
This customer created an awards program that would be the best awards program in the industry. If 70% of the customer's independent dealers completed an online product training curriculum, they would be awarded points to redeem in exchange for prize items on the awards website. Then, if an employee completed the curriculum and met their sales quota, they would be awarded double points. If the exceeded their sales quota by 10% and completed the curriculum of courses, they would receive triple points!
All of a sudden, these independent dealers started to complete the curriculum of product training courses in high numbers.
This resulted in a triple win: First, the dealers became more familiar with the product. Second, people sell what they know--so, the dealers started to sell more of our customer’s product, because they were more familiar with it versus the competitors' products. Third, our customers won, because the dealers were able to thoroughly explain the benefits of the product, which resulted in better customer service.
The awards program was an absolute success, but it took a great deal of collaboration to implement properly. This program required the xms team to provide the following to the customer:
• SINGLE SIGN-ON: Provide a Single Sign-on for the independent dealers. The dealers could now log on to the customer’s website, then select an icon to access the training site and awards site. This meant that they did not have to log on twice.
• GDPR COMPLIANCE: The customer utilizes independent dealers on a global basis, which meant that the service had to be GDPR compliant.
• LANGUAGE LOCALIZATION: This site had to be localized in ten different
languages, for ten high-volume countries.
• SIMPLICITY: The success of the entire initiative relied on a system that would be simple for dealers to use.
• REPORTING: It was an absolute priority to provide instantaneous reports to the executive team. Reporting information needed to include the number of the independent dealers' employees who too the training courseware. It also needed to include how many users earned an average exam score over 90%, and identify any correlation between exam scores and quota achievement.
In summary, revenues from the independent dealers exceeded all expectations. This result is due to planning that took place in launching a training program, coupled with an awards program that truly motivated the front line to sell more of the customer’s product.