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How Searchable Video Will Supercharge Your Sales Force
November 25, 2009
By Sebastian Grady
Businesses everywhere are struggling through the economic downturn. Unfortunately, in difficult times many companies cut back—sometimes way back—on training and development, a discipline often thought of as expendable. Training departments are under tremendous pressure to cut costs and find new and innovative ways to train, educate, and share knowledge across large, geographically disperse sales teams and distribution channel partners. The costs associated with in-person events are astronomical, and include travel costs for geographically dispersed personnel, space rentals, and food. For an average-sized sales team in the hundreds or thousands, the costs associated with hosting a live event for 3 days can run upward of $1 million. Imagine what shareholders would say if they knew that their company, whose numbers aren’t even what they should be, spent its dollars that way.
In contrast, completely eliminating the very event that helps drive the company's revenue is out of the question. So there’s a fine line and an optimum balance.
Finding that balance is the key. The balance must include a way to continue motivating, energizing, and educating the resources that feed the revenue stream, while also meeting the mandate of reduced spending. The question then becomes: What kind of solutions exist to foster sales enablement, training, collaboration, and knowledge sharing without the live event? The answer is the introduction of a different delivery mechanism—such as enterprise video.
Benefits of Using Enterprise Video
A recent Gartner Group report indicated that video is rapidly moving from consumer applications to the enterprise as a viable way to communicate and train global workforces. In particular, the poor economy is causing many organizations to look at video as a way to meet their goals without the formal meeting and training events of the past.
While some organizations still haven't made the leap to video and are waiting to see the business benefits, video can be used as a high-performance learning tool for sales organizations. Instructional designers and subject matter experts use video-based training for knowledge transfer more and more in today’s global organizations.
With the right tool, it is possible to capture, share, and search valuable content, delivering vast savings over traditional live events. Yes, the cost savings are important, but there are other reasons for introducing audio and video into the enterprise. Managed correctly, enterprise video for collaborative knowledge sharing offers other benefits, including:
•Enables limitless reach to geographically dispersed workforces
•Ability to search available content down to the original spoken word
•Ease of reuse in every corner of the organization
•Simplified access from a range of mobile devices
•Fastest way to capture corporate intelligence
Case Study: NetApp
Take, for example, NetApp a large technology company headquartered in California. The company employs 900 systems engineers (SEs) and partners with several hundred distribution partners that employ another 4000 to 5000 technical sales engineers. In an effort to keep partners and employees informed and ensure they remain proficient, and sell more effectively, the company historically has hosted several major worldwide technical sales enablement events in the United States and abroad. The evolution of business practices and increasing costs of travel, lodging, and meeting venues has forced this organization to downsize its in-person events without reducing the technical proficiency and sales effectiveness of its global sales channel.
"It's all about enabling our SEs to become more knowledgeable and more productive so they can deliver the best pre-sales guidance humanly possible," says Jim Coleman, System Engineering project manager at NetApp. "Our traditional way of educating and re-educating the SEs meant flying them anywhere from 600 to 6,000 miles for a live, annual, three-day sales conference or technical event with more than 90 sessions led by subject matter experts imparting knowledge on 200 products. These events are substantial investments, and the return on investment is watched closely."
Live events are taped and archived on a portal delivering the benefits of a live experience along with in-depth search capabilities, reusable media files, presentations, and expert-based knowledge that can be archived and played over and over.
Because the distribution channel delivers a significant portion of the revenue for this organization, it was important for NetApp to treat its partners just as it did its own direct sales force. This meant ensuring proper care and feeding of the sales engineers of their partners' sales force. The company now has the 200 plus product line, featured with up-to-the-minute detailed information that is fully searchable and referenceable.
Justifying Enterprise Video
For training and development professionals, sometimes the success story doesn't offer enough ammunition to make the business case. There are several criteria to take into account when creating the argument to justify the costs of enterprise video to executives. These include:
1. The necessity of airfare for the global workforce, suppliers, distributors, and resellers when rearranging a live event.
2. The mandatory provision of hotel accommodations over three days per attendees during a live event.
3. Productivity losses due to being out of the office for several days during a live event.
4. No need to rent or prepare additional IT equipment for use in training classrooms or auditoriums.
5. Productivity gains by being able to reuse and revisit materials versus a one-shot dump at a live event.
6. Productivity gains by being able to search for content down to the spoken word means less time is spent digging for information and listening to lengthy videos when only one piece of information is needed.
According to Whit Andrews, a Gartner Group analyst, "The popularity of video content in enterprises is sure to explode on the heels of a consumerist fascination with it on the Web. Content is evolving to include images, audio, and video." So what is clear, is that enterprise video is beginning to take off, and whether it be as a replacement for live events due to the downturn, or as the "new norm," the benefits are compelling.
Sebastian Grady is Chief Operating Officer of Altus, responsible for overall business development and customer satisfaction. Grady brings nearly two decades of management and IT experience to the company, with a successful track record in customer service, enterprise software sales, rapid organizational growth and corporate leadership. For more information, visit
www.altuslearning.com
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