Business Solutions
Information Systems (IS) created and delivered more green sheet reports than anyone ever read. They arrived in field offices well after they were useful, and were largely ignored by the sales force. Yet the daily information about customer applications is vital to effective selling in this particular environment.
IS Field Information Support developed a software program that runs on notebook computers, and uses dial-up communications to download up-to-date application decisions from the mainframe. This link ties Field Sales directly to the front end analysis of new business and customer accounts and keeps competitive information at the reps’ fingertips. Field Sales can check on activity in local and national accounts before making the next sales call, and review account history and current status to plan sales strategy. Field Sales can also query the mainframe database or produce local reports from downloaded data for timely analysis.Benchmark Publications was asked to design a training program for busy sales reps, taking into account both the amount of time they would be willing to take away from selling to learn the program, and their relatively unsophisticated knowledge of computers. Budget constraints precluded high voltage delivery mechanisms or even bringing the reps together in a large group, with all the T & E that implies. The challenge was to get their attention and hold it.
Using our Focused Learningsm techniques, BPI designed a very small book (it fits into a notebook computer) that takes the learner through just the steps necessary to get into and out of the system without confusion; to navigate the screens and system modules; to get Help; to enter and extract information and to communicate with the mainframe without fear. Readers learn what they have to know to use the system for day-to-day business tasks. Next, BPI designed a failsafe train-the-trainer package using a simplified scripting technique and low-cost visuals that even a non-trainer can use effectively. Last, BPI delivered the pilot training class in Los Angeles to a very small group of highly skeptical sales reps in their office with the phones ringing! The client program manager observed, and then gave the second pilot course herself. After BPI made minor final adjustments to the training kit, the program manager has used it in visits to every sales location (where she also had other business) to train the entire sales force.
The rollout of the software was smooth; calls to the help desk were kept at a minimum. BPI was asked to repeat the project for Phases II and III of the software rollout. This is from one of the initial reluctant trainees:
“INfFO is a snap!”
From the Benchmark Publications portfolio of informative briefs, Business Solutions.
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