Training that Sells More Product

As a manufacturer, you need effective ways to train both employees and channel partners — and to verify the training stuck. The best training ultimately gets your product noticed and increases sales.

  • Reduce the time and expense of training - eliminate training travel and more easily and effectively reach your learners
  • Launch new products - provide innovative training that energizes your entire channel quickly
  • Penetrate new markets - tap into the BlueVolt network to expand your reach into new markets and channels 

Calculate the ROI of online learning for manufacturers.

What are your training challenges?

Following are descriptions of how BlueVolt helps solve specific problems.  We use a story format that combines the issues of multiple customers to illustrate our solutions.  In every case the names are fictional, but the solutions are real.  We are happy to share references from satisfied customers.

Launching new products: Jim knew online courses met most of their training needs, but at one point his product managers wanted to generate real excitement around the launch of one of their new products. BlueVolt helped him produce a series of live webcasts for their employees and channel partners to attend. The format was a “lunch and learn” face-to-face training, where he combined some of the better aspects of a live format, such as a dialogue between BlueVolt’s professional host and his product manager, a Q&A session and a hands-on product demonstration. In lieu of buying lunch he budgeted some $BlueBucks for each participant who successfully completed the quiz at the end of the webcast. With BlueVolt’s help Jim trained his entire channel in one day!  Later, he archived the webcast and used it as an online course.  Ready to launch a new product?

Getting my training online fast:  Within six weeks of deciding to go with BlueVolt, Carol was able to launch her company’s branded “University” along with their first four product courses.  It didn’t take long for their internal sales team to complete the courses, but Carol was surprised by some of the feedback she received. Certain parts of the training courses were just not that clear. Being a BlueVolt LMS administrator, Carol quickly edited and clarified a few sections in each course then pushed them out to their distributors and resellers. Want to see how fast we can move your training online?

I hate my LMS:  Before Michael discovered BlueVolt, it took an act of congress for him to upload a course, change a headline or run a report. He needed a separate server to run the LMS software and a dedicated IT guy to administer it. In a short period of time, the courses were outdated and employee traffic had dwindled down to a handful of new hires.  When he pulled the plug on the old system and moved to BlueVolt things turned around.  The monthly expense turned out to be a lot less than the cost of his old servers, maintenance and headcount that it took to run the old system.  BlueVolt made it so easy that his managers and administrators were able to become power-users in a matter of weeks.   Do you want to love your LMS?  

Training my channel:  Before talking to the BlueVolt team, Jodi already understood that it would be a challenge to get the word out beyond her company and motivate non-employees to participate in training. To drive interest, BlueVolt suggested Jodi offer $BlueBucks incentives as a reward.  The amount she offered was only $5.00 per completion, but the impact was much greater than she expected. In the first week Jodi trained more people online than she would have in an entire quarter of live trainings.  One benefit that she didn’t fully understand going in, was that she was able to capture the individual e-mail address of everyone who registered for a course, which allowed her to market to learners directly.  Want to discuss how we can do this for you?

Penetrating new markets:  One of the biggest challenges any manufacturer faces is getting the right information or training to the right people fast enough to make an impact on revenue. BlueVolt helped Steve enroll most of his partners and then shared his courses with a few major associations and buying groups that could reach a much larger number of distributors and retailers that his company didn’t sell to directly.  Steve was able to select which product trainings would be available to each and carefully allocated his $BlueBucks to partners with the highest potential. By using BlueVolt to reach new channels and markets his company was able to significantly expand their market share without increasing their sales and marketing costs. In addition, the BlueVolt LMS helped him consolidate reporting for all learners, regardless of where they took our courses.  Let's go get that new market.

Developing and managing certification programs:  One of Angela’s product lines required a great deal of expertise and training to install. To add to her challenge, her management had recently decided to require product certification in order to become an authorized reseller. With help from the BlueVolt team, Angela set up a curriculum of required courses and used this as a pre-requisite for an on-site, face-to-face training. After completion of the in-person and online trainings, she used BlueVolt to keep track of their authorizations and to communicate the latest product information on an ongoing basis. Once her finance department became aware of this capability they used it internally to ensure that all their warehouse employees, truck drivers and maintenance workers complied with OSHA 10 and other safety standards which then allowed them to qualify for a 5% reduction in insurance premiums.  Need help with your certification program?

Reducing training expenses AND improving product knowledge:  One of the biggest reasons Fred moved to online training was to save money.  He was under so much cost pressure that he was actually willing to sacrifice the channel’s product knowledge in order to increase his profit margin.  As planned, Fred scaled way back on his face-to-face trainings and braced for the worst, but as results came in he found that sales actually increased as distributor and retail employees ramped up their participation in our online courses. Over time, Fred learned that combining online and face-to-face training gave him, by far, the biggest bang for his buck.  Is your budget smaller and your training needs greater?

Scaling up new-hire training:  Sales were finally on the upswing and Linda found herself in a hiring phase.  She found that her new employees, many of whom were in their twenties, were used to online training. She relied on BlueVolt to help get her online training up to speed and is now in the process of creating specific curriculums for different roles and positions. She is also considering making these a requirement to qualify for bonuses, pay increases and promotions.  Have new hires to train?

Training in other countries:  Increasingly Tran is working with suppliers and channel partners from different countries throughout Europe and Asia. Using the BlueVolt LMS, he can offer the same training in multiple languages to ensure his product, service and support standards are understood and followed.  The BlueVolt team helped him translate his courses, reference materials and branding into ten languages including German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese.  Habla Espanol?

Training for professional certifications:  Randy discovered many states required certifications for their commercial products, so he engaged BlueVolt to help him get authorized in 18 states. When his employees and contractors complete their online training, results are automatically submitted through the BlueVolt system and their certifications are tracked.  Prior to BlueVolt, this was a time-consuming and difficult manual process.  Make certification easy.

Extending my product line:  Eric’s company is a leader in a narrow category but is committed to expanding its product line to include a wider range of items.  Despite his strong channel relationships, it has been an uphill battle to change perception and gain channel support.  Recently, Eric began using the BlueVolt LMS as a marketing tool to leverage the popularity of his strong products to drive training enrollments in the line extensions.  Marketing funded a modest $BlueBucks incentive program and grew sales by 30% in 90 days.  Jump start a new line.

Getting my manufacturers' reps to focus on training:  Like everyone else in our industry, Edgar’s manufacturers’ reps are trying to do more with less.  In the past, he could rely on them to call on branch offices and train salespeople.  Now they spend most of their time chasing orders.  After trying everything he could think of to push the reps to start creating demand again, he finally decided to launch a blended learning program with BlueVolt.  In this case, blended learning combines short face-to-face product demonstrations with online courses.  He uses the LMS to automatically push out training reports via e-mail to his rep firms who can prioritize which distributors are the best candidates for live demos.  Focus your reps.