We’re all familiar with the saying, “Knowledge is power.” In today’s competitive business landscape, effective education and training are more valuable than ever before.
But the ways that this knowledge is being disseminated is changing, and has been for the past few years. Of course, we’ve seen the rapid rise of online learning (eLearning) in education. But this type of online or remote learning is increasingly being taken out of the context of the classroom and utilized in the corporate arena.
In fact, the size of the global corporate eLearning market was roughly $22 billion in 2023, and is expected to more than double by 2030. And as recently as 2022, more than 40% of global Fortune 500 companies were already using some form of corporate eLearning technology.
So, to get a better sense of what this opportunity set looks like, let’s focus on some of the important components of a good corporate eLearning and enablement strategy, including what it is, how it’s used, and why it works.
Did you know?
42% of companies say that corporate e-learning has led to increased revenue.
Every dollar invested in online training results in roughly $30 in productivity.
72% of organizations believe that corporate e-learning helps them increase their competitive edge by giving them the opportunity to keep up with changes.
With corporate e-learning, participants learn nearly 5 times more material without increasing time spent training.
What is Corporate eLearning?
eLearning can mean different things to different people. But in general, it refers to a variety of tools and technologies that serve to educate a specific cross-section of a company’s workforce.
Specifically, we might see eLearning packaged in the form of a robust Learning Management Solution (LMS) platform, a more specific product training solution, or a steps-to-the-sale channel enablement initiative. These tools are often modular in nature, and can be incentivized to encourage engagement.
How is Corporate eLearning utilized?
An obvious place to start when it comes to corporate eLearning is with enhanced product knowledge. This is especially useful down-channel, where channel partner salespeople might not be as familiar with your specific products, and thus have a harder time selling for you.
By incentivizing the learning process, you can arm these salespeople with better knowledge about your offerings, and better engage them in cross-selling and upselling. You can improve their awareness of sales opportunities, helping them recognize which products complement each other, or which “add-ons” fit with specific products.
This can also be helpful with product lines or solutions that are complex by nature. For example, in the tech space, product complexity is growing about as rapidly as Moore’s Law. As a result, your sales team or channel partner salespeople need to have the language and knowledge necessary to speak directly to customers’ uniquely modern challenges.
A corporate eLearning strategy built around product training can help these sales professionals become better equipped to sell customers on the ways your specific solution can help solve their specific challenge.
Built into this type of eLearning strategy, you can also subsequently enhance these salespeople’s awareness of competitor offerings. Why is this important? It allows them to speak directly to your products’ differentiation, providing another avenue to promote the competitive advantages of your business.
Yet another way eLearning might be used is as a tool for making your channel sales more efficient. Businesses are always looking for ways to enable their channel partner salespeople to become more self-sufficient, and corporate eLearning is a useful tool for this.
Whether it’s distributors, dealers, or contractors, the more these channel partners know about your products, the better they’ll be able to sell them independently and without your support. Of course, a little incentive never hurts.
Finally, companies can use a corporate eLearning solution to improve organizational alignment, and thus, brand effectiveness.
According to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute, 57% of marketers say that sales and marketing teams lack collaboration when it comes to assessing content effectiveness. In addition, 40% feel that marketing and sales teams aren’t telling the same brand story.
Ultimately, when up to 90% of sales tools developed by marketing teams aren’t being consumed or utilized by sales channels, this misalignment creates an opportunity for these companies to provide corporate eLearning solutions devoted to bridging this gap.
eLearning isn’t simply about gaining knowledge — it’s about building corporate awareness, and making that awareness targeted and value-additive.
Why eLearning?
In-person training or professional development sessions (e.g. seminars, workshops, conferences, etc.) can be expensive and inefficient to physically organize. On the other hand, corporate eLearning solutions are a flexible and cost-effective way to increase both mindshare and market share in your industry.
The path to improved ROI might not be as direct as a typical sales incentive program. However, with the proper rewards structure built around them, and targeted reporting and analytics resources devoted to evaluating their success, corporate eLearning initiatives can end up providing a significant return on investment.
In fact, companies who use eLearning tools and strategies can boost productivity by 50%—just one of many metrics that demonstrate the power of this underappreciated tool.
Best of all, they can serve a variety of purposes depending on your business needs, and function in a myriad of customizable ways:
- You can arm your down-channel salespeople with more product knowledge
- You can more easily sell your most complex solutions
- You can provide cost-effective training for your direct sales team
- You can establish a more consistent message across a global salesforce
- You can improve your channel’s overall efficiency
- You can strengthen marketing/sales alignment
- You can incorporate new models into existing SPIFF or channel programs
Want to hear more? If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of a corporate eLearning solution, check out our guide: How Incentivized Learning can Benefit your Business
