Prospecting Best Practices
This xAPI-enabled concept project is a scenario-based training for inside sales account managers at a publishing company. The goal is to help account managers apply prospecting best practices to increase their pipeline development and ultimately meet their sales quota.
Audience: Inside sales account managers at a publishing company.
Responsibilities: Instructional Design, Visual Design, eLearning Development
Tools Used: Articulate Storyline, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe XD, Snagit, Visual Studio Code, Veracity LRS
Overview
The client is a large publishing company with a field and inside sales team. The client came to me because many inside sales account managers were not meeting their sales quota.
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After reviewing Salesforce pipeline data it was clear that account managers were not building enough pipeline to be able to meet their sales quota. We determined that the account managers did not know prospecting best practices. The client was aware of a lack of formal training on this topic and agreed that it was the best solution
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I proposed a scenario-based eLearing solution to help account managers apply prospecting best practices to make the right choices on the job.
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With scenario-based learning, the learner is immersed in a real–life scenario, and they must choose the best response out of several offered. The learner sees the outcomes of their choices, and is offered constructive feedback which can also be applied to make the right choices on the job.
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I also proposed a job aid which is accessible throughout the course, and is available for download so the learner can print it or have it handy on their desktop.
Process
I designed and developed this eLearning course by working closely with SMEs at ABC Publishing Company. I used action mapping, scenario-based learning, and Storyline 360 to bring this learning experience to life.
Action-Map
After identifying the need with the client and agreement on the solution, I met with the SMEs for the kickoff meeting. Using Cathy Moore’s “Map It” approach which focuses on what people need to do and design experiences so the learner can “learn by doing”, we created an action map by mapping out key actions that increase pipeline.
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The story-driven approach immerses the learner into the action. Account managers need to navigate their sales activities daily, and the scenarios focus on the actual behaviors and decisions that the client wants from their employees.
Text-based Storyboard
Using the action map as my goal post, I wrote five scenarios that inside sales account managers encounter with common mistakes as distractors.
In each activity, I provided the learner with optional help with information they needed to make a good choice with the “Ask Luis” button. Luis is the mentor who is a seasoned inside sales account manager. When Luis provides guidance, the learner can also look at the real-world job aid before they make their decision.
Included in the text-based storyboard are consequences for each choice, as well insight into why the consequence happened. This provides the learner with feedback quoted from only the most relevant part of the optional help.
Visual Mock-Up
The visual design of the course was developed in AdobeXD, a visual and user experience design tool. With Adobe XD I was able to quickly iterate on the designs of slides to achieve the look and feel I was aiming for.
I developed the first section of the course which included up to the first question and feedback slides to ensure the design was polished before beginning development in Articulate Storyline.
Interactive Prototype
Once the visual design of the course and the storyboard was completed, I developed an interactive prototype of the first section of the course up to the first question slide and feedback slides and added all of the xAPI statements into the prototype.
I created the prototype to collect feedback, test the functionality of the course, and to ensure that the xAPI data was being sent to the LRS. This allowed me to make improvements in the learning experience before developing the rest of the course. Once the prototype was perfected it was very simple to develop the rest of the course by iterating on the prototype.
Content Slide
Question Slide
Mentor Support Slide
Consequence Slide
Feedback Slide
I also developed a job aid that was available for the learner to consult to help them choose the best answer. This was also available to download to support the transfer of learning. Below is a segment of the job aid.
xAPI Implementation
xAPI tracking of learner behaviors provides me with rich data about how learners are experiencing the eLearning course and insight to support instructional decisions.
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Time Spent: xAPI is embedded to track how long the learner spends on each slide. This allows me to see if there are any relationships between learners who did poorly and how long they spent in the course. It also provides insight into if there were particular sllides where learners spent more time on, and lets me know that the information might need to be revised for improvement.
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Tracking answers: An xAPI statement is sent to the LRS each time a learner selects an answer providing the answer chosen for each question. When uploading the SCORM package to an LMS, I can only see if the learner failed or passed, but not the question level data. xAPI answer tracking is a powerful tool for insight into detailed learner responses in the course.
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Resources Consulted: Each time a learner views the optional job aid resource, an xAPI statement is sent to the LRS that says the learner viewed the resource, and which question they viewed it for. With this information, I can see how often learners are accessing the support, if it is helpful, and if there are any questions that learners are consistently accessing the support for. This allows me to see if the learners are using the resources, and if they are helping them to make the correct choices.
An xAPI statement in a question slide.
Custom JavaScript code I embedded in the Storyline output folder to send xAPI statements from the Storyline course to the LRS (Learning Records Store).
