A study cited in Fox News says that most managers believe it takes about six months before a new rep is fully trained and really running on their own. That’s half a year…a little scary if you have an annual number to hit. Ramping a new rep quickly matters and the better the foundation the more likely the new rep is to succeed. It’s a foundation with a positive compounding effect over time. This effect also cuts the other way with the loss of a rep who doesn’t work out and who maybe the training didn’t “click” with. There is actually a way to minimize this risk and likely compress a rep’s ramp-up time. It takes 10 minutes and it should be done before training even begins.
A friend of mine who is a professor at Vanderbilt turned me onto a brief online test he suggested we all should take, which shows us our most effective ways of learning. After a small amount of questions, it generated a learning profile, which measures how you most effectively take in and process new information. (The test itself is here ).
It turns out that there are four unique ways people learn.
Visual: learns best through symbolic/graphic information: charts, diagrams, flowcharts, color-coding, spatial layouts. Does not include video or photos. Let’s say you bought a new piece of furniture that requires assembly. These people focus on the diagrams that come with the assembly directions.
Aural: learns best through listening and talking: discussion, being talked through something, explaining ideas out loud, phone calls, audio. These people will find a youtube video of how to put the new furniture together.
Read/Write: learns best through the written word: lists, manuals, bullet points, documents, glossaries, reading, slide decks and writing things out. These are people who like to read the directions to put the furniture together.
Kinesthetic: learns best through hands-on experience: trial and error, real examples, demonstrations, practice, doing the actual task rather than reading or hearing about it. Video is a split between aural and kinesthetic. Kinesthetic learners throw the directions aside and just get started. They’ll pull up a youtube video when they hit a snag.
I’m bimodal, Aural and Kinesthetic. I need to try things hands on, hit my own walls, give mock presentations and talk things through before it clicks. Meanwhile my read/write is very low: A binder full of information and a slide deck full of bullet points will nearly evaporate once put aside.
Most sales training and onboarding is built for one type of learner. A lot of it leans heavily on the written word: onboarding docs, playbooks, battlecards, scripts, written quizzes for certification, etc. That works great for someone with a strong Read/Write preference. It does very little for someone who might be a Visual and needs a diagram of the sales process, or someone who’s Aural and needs to sit in on real calls and talk it through afterward, or someone Kinesthetic who needs to just get in the product and break things before it makes sense.
None of these reps are weaker learners. They just take in information differently, and if you only train one way, you’re only reaching a fraction of your team effectively and efficiently.
Invest the 10 minutes to diagnose the learning style and give reps options. Some reps should watch demo recordings. Some should shadow calls and talk through what they heard. Some need to just run a demo themselves, badly, a few times, before it sinks in. Identify the mode rather than force one mode on everybody.
This isn’t just a sales training problem. Think about it for clients. A client may light up at a verbal explanation of a concept, but tune out when shown the concept on the screen…thats an Aural. That client who didn’t seem enthused over the demo, but is heavily engaged in your post-demo emails? Thats a read/write. The client that cuts to the chase and asks for a trial? A kinesthetic. We can now adjust our follow through accordingly.
Think also about the lost art of ongoing training. Battlecards have become the de facto for competitive intelligence. Those reps who barely look at them? Theyre likely wanting it synthesized into a competitive landscape discussion, or watch a Zoom call where a competitor was overtaken and practice it themselves.
There is a larger pattern at play here and it even pertains to our education system. Our entire education system runs on a Read/Write and lecture heavy model, and we wonder why so many capable kids get labeled as struggling students. Some of them just needed to build it, discuss it, talk through it or try it.
Try it with your team, introduce it to your enablement and you’re likely to see more engaged reps, more successful new hires, shorter ramp times and an exponential payoff.