How to Create High Value courses with limited resources
Michael Pedone grew up with the dream of becoming a rockstar. Growing up in a humble background, Michael imagined a life of luxury, but more important, a life in where he was able to enjoy money freedom. Over time, this idea became a pastime, but Michael discovered a career path that allowed him to be like a rockstar, selling.
For 25 years, Michael has worked as a straight commission sales representative--a rep whose entire income is made up of commissions by closing sales. That's no surprise, as to his core, Michael has always lived the life of an entrepreneur. The first company he started was amid the 2000-dot-com crisis and later sold it at seven figures. He then went on to start a company that has earned him a lot of praise today: SalesBuzz.
"Of all the business ideas I thought of, this was the one that I always came back to. I know what it feels like to have the phone feel like a twenty five-pound weight and you don't want to pick it up anymore, and I know the pressure of needing to pick it up because you have a family to support."
"Out of the various platforms that we evaluated, Plus was the best choice to allow other companies to get their sales reps their training quickly and at a cost-effective solution," Michael says. Michael.
With a core comprised of two individuals, Michael, Founder and CEO along with Brittany, Training Coordinator, SalesBuzz created their online educational offering from the ground up on Plus. Approaching course creation with their clients and students in mind, this small but strong team has been successful in creating their top-quality Engage Selling course in 9 different languages, with 1081 students counting!
"I come from a teaching background, not a computer background. But is easy to use--it's easy to set up and the customer support is excellent, and it's very user and user-friendly." Explains Brittany who designed SalesBuzz's entire website.
And, without a platform in mind what exactly is the way SalesBuzz been able to achieve its successes with the smallest available resources?
Michael holds the distinct perspective of both a sales rep as well as a business owner. Both perspectives that he employs to SalesBuzz. The secret to their success boils down to three fundamental elements:
Understanding your students
Michael knows what drives his students. He knows what they want to discover, the way they'd like to get there and what hurdles could get in their way.
"When I was struggling as a young sales rep, I just wanted to know how to close. I was a little wet in the ear and needed to realize that you can close better when you do not skip steps early. You really need to master each step, one at a time. If you get started, you're going to close faster and have a shorter resistance ."
Using his past experience and insider knowledge, Michael and Brittany have built their courses . For example, to counteract the temptation to "skip ahead" they've made it possible to enable drip material, which allows students to take the course only once they've completed certain parts of the course. In order to encourage completion and accountability, SalesBuzz provides a certificate at the time of completion, which students are able to showcase on their LinkedIn profiles.
Michael recognizes that increasing your sales skills takes practicing. That's the reason he gives his students access to his program all year long so they can go back and refresh themselves whenever needed.
"You cannot go through something, and then learn it all by yourself You have to practice it," he says. "If you're trying to learn something, particularly in the area of sales skills, you can listen to something for a while, but it doesn't mean you're going to be able to master it. ."
Learn to understand your customers
Knowing your students' needs is crucial and understanding the needs of your customers is critical. SalesBuzz is a B2B (business-to-business) company whose target audience is small business owners to Sales Directors of Fortune 500 companies. Understanding what a customer's needs and what they value is what has allowed SalesBuzz make decisions that impact their clients' user experience in addition.
Being able to track progress, report on performance, as well as integrate check and balances, such as exam and quizzes are among the things which Brittany and Michael were considering when they chose their platform for courses. Actually, one of the primary reasons Michael and Brittany decided to go with Plus was because of the unlimited groups Analyst feature.
"Money is being invested and if the company is going to invest into their employees, you must ensure you have the tracking mechanism to ensure that the team is actually putting in their part to develop. The ability to provide every manager the chance to login, check the progress of their team and track their progress is vital," states Michael.
The Group Analyst feature allows SalesBuzz to provide their customers with access to the progress reports to teams and groups who are participating in the training course. This helps them know where their investment is going as well as provides additional accountability to the students they train.
Deliver valuable content
The most important aspect of the SalesBuzz strategy is the delivery of useful and relevant content. This factor has been crucial for the success of SalesBuzz and it's what is what makes Michael's company thrive. Over the years the company has learned many things in the art of creating content. Since the introduction of the "on-demand" approach to course delivery, they've found that "more people are preferring this model" and that "new clients are loving it ."
What is the quality of content? According Michael Michael the most important thing is quality, not quantity.
"It has to be valuable in every phase," he explains, and "there there is no reason to make up fluff to make it more accessible. If you could instruct someone in three hours, there's nothing wrong with creating thirty hours of content ."
Michael as well as Brittany have broken their content into digestible chapters. They've also developed a range of fun lesson formats including presentation decks featuring the audio of a voiceover printable PDF worksheets, guides, quizzes, as well as tests.
According to Michael, having quizzes at the end of each chapter is essential to both his students and his clients. The ability to provide various options within the bank of questions ensures that his students aren't just remembering answers, but actually learning and this has become a key selling point for his business.
"They need to be familiar with the material. It's a major benefit to our clients. If they learn that these tests are being conducted, it makes a big difference because it's not just to go through the check and fast-forwarding and making an examination and then learning. It is essential to master these things!" Michael explains.
This is the winning formula
"Our customers are enjoying the training and they are loving the platform--that's a winning combination right there."
Michael draws on the 25 years of his selling experience as well as 10 years of teaching to create content he knows his clients and students will enjoy. By understanding his students and the needs of his clients, SalesBuzz has been able to expand and provide quality courses to customers all over the world. While they strive to climb the next level One thing is for certain the team's size and a platform that's dedicated to the satisfaction of customers and students is essential to provide the best learning experience.