Over 100 years ago, family-owned Leviton made mantles for gas lights during the Edisonian era. Now they produce more than 26,000 products and are the largest privately-held manufacturer of electrical wiring equipment in North America. Nine out of ten homes in North America have a Leviton product in them. Fielding an effective external salesforce is central to business growth.
Training, they believe, is the key factor in making their external salesforce effective. “Product training is central to how we go to market. We know that the difference between one of our products being recommended over a competitor’s could be something that was learned from training,” says Jill Cherveny, Manager, Technical Training & Development in Distribution.
Prior to Cherveny’s arrival at Leviton, online training was delivered from a homegrown program that only housed core product information, had very limited reporting capabilities, and wasn’t truly a learning management system (LMS). They knew they wanted to do more to prepare their internal and channel partner sales teams, so Cherveny was charged with overhauling Leviton’s eLearning efforts.
Cherveny took stock and went into action—electing to take advantage of BlueVolt. “I did my due diligence. After reviewing more than 50 LMS options, BlueVolt stood out as the right solution for us,” says Cherveny. Leviton’s priorities in selecting an eLearning solution included: ease of use for learners and admins, a simple process for sharing courses with channel partners and reporting to tie learning behaviors to business results.
BlueVolt kept pace with Leviton’s desire to quickly launch their new online university by working with Cherveny to establish and execute on a three-phase plan.
“Today, if sales are not where expected in a particular area,” notes Cherveny, “the question from management now includes ‘Has everybody taken the product training?’ Product training is now no longer recommended but mandated.“ This is due in large part to the ease of accessing the training by the sales force and partners, and the easy rapid course development and reporting tools in the system for admins. “Channel partners and external learners can take courses any time on any device,” says Cherveny.
Since 2003, BlueVolt has been a pioneer in the online eLearning industry. BlueVolt consistently ranks as the top learning and marketing platform, combined with world-class customer service. The secret to BlueVolt success is its sharing network—sharing more than half a million pieces of product training from a variety of industries and manufacturers. BlueVolt supports a wide range of organizations to increase sales, build brand leadership, and enhance employee knowledge.