Positioning Learning Technology With Different Executives In Your Firm
Docebo’s free LMS Project Toolkit was designed to give you a thorough understanding of the ways you can use to make different executives in your firm see how indispensable it is to invest in learning technology. Sometimes, your executive team won’t immediately see the full value of a learning technology investment. To convince them, you’ll need to understand their priorities and the challenges that stand in their way. Then, you can connect the dots for them and position your request for learning technology to address their specific concerns. There are 5 generic steps you can follow to build your business case.
- Seek to understand management’s objectives
Understanding their collective and individual goals will help you present a case that meets their needs. - Create a financial case that aligns with their objectives
The key is to work backwards from the main objectives that your executive team holds dear. If revenue is the main objective, base your case on revenue. - Discuss, don’t present
Start by asking questions that seek to understand what management is looking to achieve. Then transition by saying, “If I could show you how to meet those objectives efficiently and effectively, would you be interested in learning more?”. - Support your case with real-life case studies
This will help you answer the potential question, “This all sounds good in theory. How do you know it will work?”. - Be ready if they say “yes”
Have your high-level plan ready, as well as an overview of the next steps, timeframes, and required resources.
How To Position Learning Technology With Each Executive
Every business has problems. You’re building a business case for an LMS because you think learning technology can help resolve some of those problems. Your case might make complete sense to you. However, to gain buy-in, you’re going to need to specifically position your argument. Your argument will need to show the benefit of learning technology for each executive. Docebo’s free LMS Project Toolkit was designed to fill you in on ways that you can convince all the key executives in your firm on the advantages of learning technology. Follow the breakdown below to connect the dots between your executives’ chief concerns and how you’ll address them.
- CLO/VP/Director Of Training
When trying to convince either of those executives for the importance of learning technology you might face specific concerns. Those concerns include the ability to attract and retain key talent and onboard more people. Making new hires productive in less time is also an objective. Another concern might be if learning technology allows corporations to keep up with fast growth and staff teams across a global company. What’s also important however, is the specific words and terminology you will use. Appropriate terminology will make them realize that learning technology is the only way to go. Try using something along the lines of “An LMS can provide continuous learning and development opportunities and it can also centralize learning content and delivery. What’s more, an LMS can also look at systems that scale seamlessly as your business grows. Finally, an LMS increases collaboration among disparate teams by providing multilingual support”. - CEO
CEOs usually see things in a very certain way. You’ll have to speak their language to get them to see how learning technology will contribute to the company’s growth. Docebo’s free LMS Project Toolkit was designed to give you all the background you need in order to position learning technology with CEOs in the right way. When trying to persuade your CEO towards the necessity that learning technology constitutes certain concerns might come up. Those concerns include the ability to meet board expectations for profitability as well as innovate and differentiate from the competition. Another concern might be if learning technology enables building and aligning the organization by enhancing collaboration as well as managing risk. In addition, you can use certain lines to point out how an LMS can help the company. An example could be “ An LMS can improve efficiency to meet business objectives. It can also increase collaboration and skill development. An LMS creates a stronger, more engaged, and higher performing workforce. An LMS can also facilitate consistent learning and social learning. In this way, knowledge is capitalized within the organization and helps to maintain compliance”. - COO/VP Of Operations
The company’s COO or VP Of Operations may often express concerns upon a proposal for investment in learning technology. They might doubt the fact that learning technology can support organizational growth. They might question the ability to manage finances and budgets. Making data and statistics-based business decisions another common concern. Addressing those concerns is vital. In this context, you can shift the focus into the fact that an LMS can effectively equip new hires with the skills they need to meet the speed of growth. An LMS can also better track ROI on learning investment. An off-the-shelf system is more cost-effective than developing a system internally. Finally, an LMS can help fill skills gaps and increase individual and organizational performance. - VP/Director Of Customer Success
The VP or Director Of Customer Success usually have concerns of a certain nature. Docebo’s free LMS Project Toolkit was created to inform you on the way to tackle those concerns. Some of them might be if learning technology can manage customer onboarding and increase customer retention. Another concern might be revenue expansion potential in accounts through cross-sell and upsell opportunities. A final concern might be the ability to encourage customer advocacy. In answering those concerns don’t forget to mention that an LMS can centralize and facilitate customer onboarding programs. An LMS can also track customer onboarding activities to keep customers engaged and prevent churn. It can also analyze customer skills to understand areas of opportunity and transform your customers into company advocates because of ongoing engagement. - VP/Director Of Enablement, Sales
The VP or Director Of Enablement, Sales will probably be hesitant regarding learning technology’s ability to build sales enablement programs for more effective onboarding and continuous development or to create a more efficient hiring process. They might also doubt if learning technology enables collaboration with marketing, customer success, and partners to ensure sales has the appropriate training materials or if it encourages sales engagement. Address those concerns by saying that an LMS can prevent what salespeople dislike most, wasting time fishing for the latest product information. An LMS allows salespeople to learn and stay up-to-date so they can spend less time learning and more time selling and it also enables learning content sharing and access at the point of need. Additionally, an LMS facilitates social learning so salespeople can easily access subject matter experts and it allows Directors Of Sales to leverage their salespeople’s competitive drive to increase engagement and, therefore, knowledge retention. - VP/Director Of Partner Channels
Concerns often expressed by the VP or Director Of Partner Channels include learning technology’s potential to develop relationships and structure effective partnerships with channel partners. The Director Of Partner Channels might also doubt learning technology’s ability to facilitate training programs to ensure partner channels are up-to-speed and drive revenue via channel partners. Providing the right arguments to tackle those concerns is essential and Docebo’s free LMS Project Toolkit was designed for that reason. Emphasize the fact that an LMS can centralize and facilitate partner onboarding programs, track partner training activities to analyze partner opportunities and performance, and consistently engage and equip partners with the information they need to increase performance. - IT Leadership
The executives of the IT department will be hesitant as to if learning technology can protect the company against IT risks, evaluate all technology purchases or ensure the IT infrastructure is successfully exploited to achieve continuous improvement. You can reply that an LMS can mitigate the complexity and security risks associated with multiple technologies. It can also easily and securely integrate with a wide variety of third-party platforms and reduce maintenance and support efforts because it’s a cloud-based system.
Much like every person has their own idiolect and expresses things in their very own way, so do executives need to hear arguments towards learning technology investments put in a specific manner. This will help them see the value that learning technology will bring to the table. In addition, get a broader perspective of learning technology by reading the article Learning Platforms: The Ultimate Pocket Guide. The article highlights common features and benefits of learning platforms.
Learning software users are not always pleased with the learning technology solutions they have opted for. The article How Modern Learning Technology Addresses Learning Software Dissatisfaction provides both reasons and solutions for the aforementioned phenomenon.
Download the free LMS Project Toolkit by Docebo and gain further insight into how modern learning technology addresses learning software dissatisfaction and various other learning technology related issues. The free LMS Project Toolkit will also inform you regarding things to consider when looking for learning platform vendors.
