Maximizing Your Sales Training Budget With The ARISE Model

5 Steps Of InfoPro’s ARISE Model

You do know that due to increased competition and information availability, product knowledge training is more crucial than ever. This is why your company is already investing heavily in product knowledge.

However, by reducing the percentage you invest in selling skills and investing 40% of your sales budget on product knowledge training, you can achieve increased results without spending more.

But why should you invest more in product knowledge training?

Because the role of the successful salesperson is not telling the customer what your product has to offer; their role is to outline the specific outcomes the customer stands to gain by using targeted case studies and references. The successful salesperson needs to challenge the preconceived notions that customers have about your product and present new applications that customers have never thought about before.

The goal of the ARISE model is to maximize the ROI of product knowledge training:

ARISE is a proprietary sales methodology that ensures your blended learning solution will yield the maximum sales performance improvement.

Let’s explore the 5 steps of the model.

1. Analyze

The ARISE model begins with a comprehensive internal assessment, which consists of:

• Auditing existing content and training materials
• Surveying and interviewing key stakeholders:
  • Salespeople
  • Channel Partners
  • Management
  • L&D Staff
• Delivering assessments to benchmark sales/channel product knowledge and identify gaps

2. Recommend

This step consists of formulating and documenting the recommended learning strategy, blended learning asset inventory, and project plan. All of the recommendations should tie directly back to the findings from the Analyze stage. This “Recommendations Document” typically includes:

• Summary of Approach
• Key Findings
• Recommended Learning Strategy
  • Recommended Learning Model
  • Goals of the Program
    • What performance will be enhanced?
    • How will it be sustained and evaluated for success?
• Blended Learning Asset Inventory
• Considerations for Delivery
• Considerations for Certification (if required)
• Roadmap for Implementation
  • Project Overview & Plan
  • Project Budget & Resource Requirements

3. Implement

Following an AGILE methodology is crucial to the success of delivering timely materials for product training. This shortens the overall time to market, while also providing more modularity to the project to account for product changes midstream. As with most learning programs, it takes a blended learning solution to maximize the effectiveness of product training.

Credit: InfoPro Learning

4. Support

As implementation concludes and you begin to deploy the content to users, you should transition into a performance support role which includes:

• Assistance in Content Delivery
• Technology support for LMS integration/implementation and any other learning technology
• Train the Trainer
• Coaching
• Certification

This step is led by the Learning Strategist who also has access to the training delivery team, experienced sales trainers and coaches.

5. Evaluation

The final step of the ARISE model is to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. This step is accomplished by creating assessments and evaluating the learner groups on product/service knowledge. The results of this assessment are then compared to the initial benchmark results to ensure that significant improvement has been made:

1. Technical understanding of the product
2. Ability to convey FAB of the product
3. Ability to tailor product explanation for customer needs
4. Ability to sell a “solution” instead of a product

Conclusion

The selling landscape has drastically changed over the last decade and it is time for our sales team to catch up. Although customers will always want to bond with their sales person, it is not more important than the ability to convey valuable information about your products. By shifting your budget towards product training and using the ARISE model as a guide, you can create all of the training materials you need, while also building an agile framework for future product changes that are bound to happen. The ARISE model works great for companies that need to equally invest in building the knowledge of channel partners, and even customers, due to the re-usability of training content established in the implementation phase.

Without spending any more money on sales training, you can achieve greater results if you focus more on product knowledge training and less on selling skills. The ARISE model has been found to be successful for a diverse group of companies, all selling different products and services.