Mastering product training for business success

Knowledge sharing is vital to keep everyone in your organization in the loop, and it’s even more essential when you want your employees to learn in-depth about your products and services. As Deloitte points out in its Global Human Capital Trends ¨Knowledge has been and will continue to be a key competitive differentiator when it comes to driving organizational performance. ¨ 

This holds especially true for frontline and remote workers. Providing them with structured frameworks to foster the exchange of information and equipping your deskless staff with the necessary tools to effectively communicate product benefits and troubleshoot issues leads to business success. One of the most effective tools that you can use to do this is to create product training for your staff. 

In this article we will explore in detail what product knowledge training is and its importance. Also, we will deep-dive into the different types, steps to implement if effectively, and successful real-life cases. So, start jotting them down in your training program and read on to get some inspirational tips!  

What is Product Knowledge Training? 

Product training is a course that is held internally for all employees so they can better understand the products: product features, selling points, use cases, and how it benefits the end customer.  

These types of product training courses are especially important during an onboarding process for a new employee or a product launch where many departments are involved in the promotion of a new release. They are an invaluable tool for sales reps, marketing teams, customer success, and customer service teams to stay aligned and ultimately enhance the overall customer experience.  

The Importance of Product Training 

Sometimes the importance of product training is overlooked but adding it in your training program and finding the right channels to share it, makes a big difference within the whole organization. If each team and department does not know about the product, how are teams going to sell it, promote it, or help customers with queries? Let’s look at why it is so important:  

Enhancing Customer Satisfaction 

First off, if your whole team knows the product and services of the company inside out, the end winner is the customer. Why? Because at every touchpoint of the customer journey, each team will be able to give a stellar service. Sales teams will be able to advise them about the benefits of the product and what needs it covers. Customer success and customer service teams will be able to quickly solve any questions or issues. Marketing teams will be able to provide useful information through their communication channels. While product teams will be able to make improvements to the product. This alignment, thanks to having a comprehensive product knowledge throughout the organization, enhances the whole customer experience.  

Boosting Sales and Revenue 

It is no secret that offering continuous product knowledge training to your sales reps can boost their performance and hence increase revenue. And since they are usually on the go, providing the right tools where they can easily access product information such as the isEazy Engage training app, can make a big difference.  

Integrating training such as training cards and microcontent that includes videos, audios, infographics or interactive games can increase their knowledge retention of the product, which ultimately helps them better sell it and improve customer relationships, boosting sales. Numbers show that 84% of companies that work towards improving their customer experience have reported an increase in revenue. 

Improving Employee Confidence and Competence 

As they say, knowledge is power, and if your employees can conveniently access product information at the right time, they will feel confident and competent to deliver a better service. They will be able to easily address questions such as:  

• Who is our target audience?  
• What customer needs does our product cover? (Sales teams)  
• What pricing plan can I offer each client individually based on their needs? (Sales teams) 
• What does our product offer that the competition does not? (differentiation) 
• What new products and services can I offer to our clients? (Customer success teams)  
• How can I answer FAQs effectively? (Customer service)  
• What are the most important news and updates that should be shared throug our communication channels? (Marketing)  

Helping each team member and department answer relevant questions can empower them by building trust, confidence and competencies.  

So, now that we have seen why product training is a win win for everyone, and especially for deskless, frontline, and remote workers that do not work at an office or one of your headquarters, let’s move on to seeing what the key objectives of product training are.  

Now that we have explored the importance of training your employees in your products and services, let’s look at the different types of product training to effectively transfer your internal knowledge.  

Different Types of Product Training 

There are different ways that you can approach product knowledge transfer. Depending on your company structure, needs, and employee geographical locations you can either choose one or decide to implement several training types.  

• In-Person Product Training 

In-person product knowledge trainings are ideal when you want employees to exchange information, best practices and organize team building activities where they can directly practice their product competencies. They also help build trust by networking with each other and drives support internally.  

On the other hand, this type of training is time-consuming and is not cost-effective, especially for bigger companies with many staff members. You will need to put a lot of work into finding the right space or venue, covering flight and hotel rooms costs for overseas employees, as well as hiring audiovisual material.  

• Online Product Training 

Conducting an online product training is an ideal choice, especially if you have remote global staff or frontline employees working at different deskless locations. It is highly cost-effective, and you can either organize it via a live webinar or go for microlearning apps and include training materials in different formats which can be easily accessed from their mobile phone and are available at anytime.  

• Hybrid Product Training Programs 

Another interesting option is to mix both online and face-to-face product training programs. Having the best of both worlds can help employees access information easily and have it at their disposal at any moment and when they most need it, while in-person training can help build an internal support network. 

Now that we have finished exploring the different alternatives you have for product knowledge training, let’s dive into what is the most effective way to develop a robust online product training that helps you reach your frontline and remote workers.  

How to Develop Effective Online Product Training 

Excited about starting your product training? Well, let’s move on and see which are the most important steps to start implementing it.  

• Assessing Training Needs 

First off you will need to assess the training needs of your employees, you will need to consider what their knowledge gaps are in reference to your products so you can focus on specific training areas.  

A good way to start is by conducting a training needs analysis, AIHR defines it as ¨a key tool in the arsenal of any L&D professional, trainer, or training consultant. It’s effective in determining learning and development areas you need to focus on to address performance gaps that get in the way of achieving organizational goals. ¨ 

Once you have finished performing your training analysis, you will have a clear view of your product training objectives and topics.  

• Choosing the Right Tools and Platforms 

The next step involves choosing the right tools and platforms that can help you distribute your product training knowledge and offer a variety of formats.  

There are many ways that you can reach your employees, and in the current digital world, one of the most effective ways is through mobile learning apps that offer short-form content that is easier to digest. Statistics show that mobile learning improves retention rates by 45% more than traditional learning.  

Another option is using an LMS (Learning Management System) where you can publish and share all your product knowledge training, this type of platform allows employees to take their training at their own pace and even review the information over again if they need to. Also, you will be able to create evaluations to test your employee’s knowledge and even issue certificates and diplomas once they have completed the training, which can be a big motivator! Moreover, it lets you see the progress of each learner and the overall impact of your training so you can adjust and make improvements.  

• Creating Engaging Content 

The new generation of employees and the rise of a more digital society is bringing about many changes in the way we engage with content. There has been a shift in the way we learn and consume information. Taking this into account is vital when creating content and knowing where and how to distribute it.  

While traditional formats focused on written long-form content through static presentations, word documents, or printed manuals; today’s society is opting for bite-sized microcontent such as podcasts, videos, quick guides via infographics, and even more interactive formats that include gamification that are fun and easy to complete. In fact, according to HR Dive 93% of employees want training that is easy to understand, and 90% want their training to be engaging and fun.  

In conclusion, finding the right tools and platforms that cater to new generations and different learning content formats that will increase engagement and knowledge retention is key when implementing your product training. But there are also other elements to consider for maximizing the effectiveness of your training.  

6 Tips to Maximize the Effectiveness of Product Training 

If you want your product training to be successful, there are other key points that you need to keep in mind, here we will examine them so you can apply them to maximize effectiveness, so start taking notes!  

1. Know Your Audience 

Knowing the profile of your employees is essential to use the right communication channels and formats. Many companies are made up of different generations from Gen X, Millennials to Gen Zs, while others attract a younger generation of workers. Knowing who your target audience is within the company will help you organize your product training strategy.  

2. Use Real-World Scenarios 

Including situational real-life scenarios can help employees better understand how to solve real world problems in their day to day, for example these can come quite handy when it comes to handling complex customer queries or a complicated client. 

3. Offer Continuous Learning Opportunities 

Ideally, product training should always be ongoing, company products and services are never static, they shift and change constantly, and all your employees should always be updated so that they can perform their jobs effectively.  

4. Provide Hands-On Practice 

Providing hands-on product training through interactive games is a great way to motivate your workers in a fun way, while at the same time putting their knowledge into practice. As numbers show implementing gamification within your training increases motivation by 83%, furthermore 87% of employes claim that gamified activities make them feel more connected.  

If you want to learn more about how to implement fun games into your product training program, you can read our Guide to gamification at work. 

5. Gather and Act on Feedback 

Gathering employee feedback through surveys and analyzing their comments through the company’s social channels is a great way to adjust and make improvements to your product knowledge training. For example, you can send a survey right after they have completed or consumed a specific product course or content, while it’s still fresh in their mind to gather suggestions.  

6. Evaluate and Update Training Regularly 

Gathering feedback is just part of the equation, but if you want to maximize the effectiveness of your product training program you will need to perform in-depth evaluations regularly to make strategic decisions on improvements and adaptations.  

Part of the evaluation of your product knowledge training program should include measuring the success of it. There are several metrics that can be used to do so, here are just a few of them:  

There are many more, but these can give you a pretty good overview of what worked and did not work so you can plan and adjust accordingly.  

If you want to learn more about how to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of your training, you can read our guide: How to conduct a training evaluation. 

In conclusion  

To sum up, product trainings should be an integral part of your overall training program, they help employees stay in tune with the latest product and service updates, it helps them feel more connected to the company, they improve motivation and knowledge retention, and performance. Finding the right tools and platforms is essential to be able provide the necessary information to frontline and remote employees, as well as target different generational audiences within your company.  

If you have not found the right platform, we invite you to check our training app isEazy Engage, which provides all the necessary tools to give the best product training all conveniently in one single training mobile app. Find innovative ways to reach your employees through fun games or exciting multimedia such as videos, podcasts, articles and much more! Try it now, request a demo so we can show you all its advantages.