Everyone is busy all the time, so this stat won’t surprise you: Nearly nine in 10 employees say they’re already operating at full capacity. And a lack of time and resources is the most common barrier employees say is stopping them from learning.
But if no one has time, when are they supposed to learn?
Too often, the answer is “never.” No responsible employee is going to put themselves behind on their work to learn. And yet learning is highly desirable—for both businesses and employees. Employees who spend time learning are 47% less likely to be stressed and 39% more likely to feel productive and successful.
So how do you make it happen?
The secret is removing the zero-sum relationship between learning and work. And that starts by removing the friction.
Employees who learn at work are less stressed and more productive.
Getting into the flow
You’ve probably heard about how multitasking is the enemy of productivity. Or how moving between different tasks leaves attentional residue that can last hours. It’s scary stuff. And it means that asking employees to switch to a learning platform in the middle of their workday carries significant cost.
Ultimately, learning shouldn’t compete with work. Learning should enhance work. And to make this a reality, the two need to be integrated.
Here are a few examples of what learning in the flow of work can look like:
Onboarding and tutorials. Lots of applications do this already: The first time you open them they ask you to take a ‘tour’ and highlight important features. Of course, they could be smarter and use data from other systems to determine if you’re actually inexperienced. If you’re a brand new employee, you probably need a tour of your organization’s project calendar and learning platform. But the new Senior Designer you just hired probably doesn’t need a tour of Photoshop.
Learning at the point of need. Here, the program you’re using has learning tools built in so you can troubleshoot and learn without having to switch tasks and change contexts. Most programs today have ‘Help’ sections, but these are often limited in scope and not especially detailed. To truly learn, users often have to go off-platform for tutorials, FAQs, and walkthroughs.
Fully integrated learning. Finally, a business can integrate their entire learning platform with their business tools. This is most useful in large, multi-purpose platforms that users spend a lot of time in (like Microsoft Teams) and means that they can search, access, and share learning content easily. Not just learning related to the platform they’re in: ALL learning content.
The third option is best for maximizing productivity, but even the second option can be a massive improvement to how your organization learns. And yet 48% of businesses say that their LMS doesn’t integrate with their business tools at all. That’s rough.
Introducing Docebo for Microsoft Teams
The world’s most powerful learning platform now integrates with the most popular business platform.
Docebo for Microsoft Teams allows you to embed Docebo within the Microsoft Teams experience, empowering learners to access all training directly through Teams, with a personalized training dashboard, social and collaboration functionality, and full sharing capabilities across chats and channels. This makes learning more effective and reduces friction and distraction, improving productivity.
If you want to build a culture of learning, increase productivity, and empower your people, this is a game-changer.
You can already Instagram in the flow of cooking and podcast in the flow of waiting in line at the grocery store. It’s time to learn in the flow of work.
In the Press Release from our launch, Docebo’s Chief Product Officer, Fabio Pirovano had this to say:
“The integration of Microsoft Teams and Docebo seamlessly blends learning, communication, and collaboration. The result is that our valued customers have access to a solution that their organizations can use to empower their workforce, while at the same time expanding the pool of internal and external learners using Docebo’s platform to address their training needs.”
Success looks different to everyone. To me, it looks like my learners achieving their goals and hitting their numbers. In Docebo’s recent webinar, How to enable business value with L&D, we asked “what does success look like to you?”
Answers ranged from “delivering performance for my business” to “ROI” to “Observing a change in behavior.”
Delivering on business value with our learning programs is the holy grail of L&D, but there’s a lot that can hold us back. For me, it’s rapid change within Docebo. We innovate quickly, which means it’s easy for me to become a change manager and miss out on strategic initiatives and their impact. Others said budget, resources, and time.
Regardless of what is holding you back from delivering business value, there are principles that we can apply to enable our learners and our business to be more effective.
If budget, resources, time and change all resonated with you—you are not alone. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Learning at work 2023 survey report has a few findings that stand out:
L&D is feeling the pressure Just over half (53%) of L&D professionals agree: Although resources have rebounded or increased from last year, overall workloads have increased, too.
Learner time is precious…and in short supply The biggest barrier for L&D professionals is none other than the lack of learner time, identified by 42% of survey respondents, beating out lack of engagement 41% and limited budgets 36% as the most pressing issue.
We’re only human! While superpowers like omniscience would be amazing, we’re not superhuman. We’re learning, too. New technologies, new best practices…it’s hard to keep up. L&D capability is also a concern for 15% of respondents.
So the pressure is on to make sure we understand our stakeholder needs, design for impact, ensure engagement and prove that the investment is worth it.
The allures (and pitfalls) of (new) tech
So what should an organization do to tackle these challenges? As tempting as it can be, tech alone will not save you. Recent advancements, especially in AI, certainly make it seem sensible to go all-in on technology. But watch out! My co-host, Laura Overton (Co-Founder of Learning Change Makers), put it well: “In all the studies that I have done…technology has never once correlated back to business impact. But how we use it absolutely does make a difference. [Technology] is our enabler, not our saviour.” This absolutely resonates with my own experience and research: Technology gets us so far, but we make the difference.
Here’s what will work to drive business impact
Moving from a transactional model for L&D to driving performance and a high performing learning culture takes time. Let’s turn to the six tested-and-true principles that Laura found through her 35 years of experience as a learning analyst.
When these six principles all work together, they correlate to better business impact in L&D.
But (here’s the important part!), we must understand that these principles need to be tackled in succession. Thankfully, Laura has divided these principles into three distinct areas, each at a different stage of your learning program development cycle to help us understand how we can deliver on the promise of impactful change. The steps are deceptively simple, but when people reflect on the behaviors behind them, we find that we don’t apply them as consistently as we think.
We’re going to go through each stage and give you a list of questions to reflect on your own practices for each principle. Many of these questions come from the Learning Performance Benchmark, which Laura helped develop.
Getting Ready: Three principles to prepare your program
These three principles help us start our programs off on the right foot, considering what success looks like for the business and impacted learners before we start building.
Have you ever had someone come to you and say “we need training about…”? They usually have complete conviction as they request a training program for something that should…be an email? Or a process change? This step helps us ensure we’re working on things that will actually make an impact.
The key takeaway in this part: Take the time to get yourself ready.
Principle 1: Align to the Business
“Are you able to be responsive to the changes in your business?”
“Do you identify actions that employees need to take for business outcomes to be achieved?”
“What does success look like to the business?”
Principle 2: Listen to Individuals
“Do you understand what individuals need to do or are trying to achieve?”
“Are you using data to uncover that?”
“Do you understand their motivation? Their career aspirations?”
“What does success look like to learners? managers? leaders? you?”
Principle 3: Influence and be aware of the environment around you
“To what extent are you working with your line managers?”
“Are you building relationships with your business stakeholders and learners?”
Now, real talk. I’m the first to admit that I fall to the pressures and don’t apply these 100% of the time or as effectively as I could. That’s okay. (Not great for my ego, but okay!) Time is usually what gets me. If scaling or time are concerns for you: Start doing this with your most strategic programs first and then once you feel the benefit of changing your own process, it will get easier to incorporate these principles into more programs – as if you were building muscle memory.
The middle stage: Respond with impact
Naturally, the next step is to respond. For many of us this is where we tend to start and we end up with a cart before the horse kind of situation, but if we’re well prepared we’ll be ready to respond in a way that is impactful because we know what success should look like. Let’s look at the two principles that speak to our ability to build learning programs that can drive performance.
Principle 4: Capabilities for L&D
When it comes down to creating impact, our own skill sets play a huge role. They influence how we design, collaborate, encourage practice and reflection, repetition, application, sharing, etc. Building a powerful program is not just about creating great content, it’s about shifting behaviours through holistic design strategies. Learning is not just a single moment in time – it’s ongoing. Leveraging our own capabilities to develop the capabilities of our learners is key.
Here are some questions to consider:
“Do you incorporate new media in your learning design?”
“Does your organization encourage and provide time for reflection?”
Courtesy of Laura Overton, Learning Changemakers
Principle 5: Engage
We also need the ability to connect and engage. Not just to make sure that learners are engaging with and completing the content – but how are they using it when the training is over?
Here are some questions to consider:
“Do you include activities that help employees practice desired outcomes?”
“Do you equip line managers with resources to help their teams?”
“How do we use technology to support engagement?”
“Are you creating opportunities to develop relationships / networks?”
The final stage: Revisit your program
“L&D maturity is not just about understanding what’s needed and responding appropriately,” Laura said. “It’s also how we revisit our work and reflect.”
Principle 6 – Improve
Once your program is launched and running, it’s about creating an ongoing relationship with the organization to ensure business success. More importantly, it’s about doing something about it if it’s not working out as planned.
Here are some questions to consider:
“Do you use performance data to measure the impact of your learning program?”
“Do you revisit your program for continuing relevance with business stakeholders?”
“Do you leverage data analytics to improve the services that you deliver?”
How these principles work in action
So, with all these principles in place, what should success look like? Laura did a lot of the heavy lifting in this webinar, but I had the pleasure of sharing a program that we built here at Docebo as an example. Last year, we scoped and launched a career transition program, targeted at business development representatives (BDRs) interested in becoming a part of our Account Executive Team.
Using (mostly by accident) the six principles, here’s how we built a successful career transition program:
Get ready:
Aligned with the needs of business stakeholders in terms of whether or not this program could help them solve their problems. In this case, we could help BDR managers have better career development conversations and create a talent pipeline for sales leaders.
Listened to the learners and identified their and goals for their careers.
Influenced through relationships we build with stakeholders and learners.
Identified success metrics for everyone involved: BDRs, BDR Managers, AE Leaders. (Getting hired, reducing attrition, strong performance upon hire)
Respond:
Built a program designed to enhance BDR capabilities in their current & future role that integrated theory, practice, sharing, application and repetition. The program included self-service materials, live sessions with experts and leaders.
Engaged with mentors and AE leaders to create a network for learners to lean into later.
Improve:
Knowing what success looked like from our preparation stage, we had things to measure! Some of the success metrics took months to generate any data, but ultimately BDRs who were hired as AEs performed 217% better than external hires on a faster timeline.
We also ensured that the program remains impactful by establishing a steering committee that can revisit it at certain points – this helps create buy-in and ensure Docebo is committing to continuous improvement of this program!
By the end of the experience, my team built a clear path forward for our BDRs, while simplifying the hiring process and creating a robust talent pipeline.
Shifting to becoming a high performing learning team sometimes means that we have to let go. A professor once said to me that sometimes improving means “mourning good ideas.” Things we’ve done up to this point have worked reasonably well and yet most learning professionals I talk to tell me that they don’t know if they’re delivering on business value. So, rather than focusing on doing more and more – embracing these principles to focus on doing the most important programs well is key to enabling business value.
One final tip
Want an easy way to remember the three stages? Just remember the three R’s: get Ready, Respond, and Revisit!
Get the full picture
Want to dive deeper into the principles and how they can be used to manage change and build better business impact? Get more insights by watching the full recording of this 45-minute webinar, How to enable business value with L&D.
Competition is stiff in the business world, meaning sales reps need every advantage to drive sales home and increase their win rate.
This is where sales enablement content can be the ace in your back pocket.
When used correctly, it’s a highly effective tool for closing deals and driving customers down the sales funnel.
In this article, we’ll go over the basics of sales enablement content, what it is, what it isn’t, how it differs from content marketing, and the best practices to create an effective sales enablement content strategy.
What is sales enablement content?
Sales enablement content is the type of content that sales professionals utilize to effectively present a product’s value and how it will effectively address users’ needs and pain points.
Salespeople use it both before and during the sales process.
This type of content is part of the broader sales enablement process.
But to put it simply, sales enablement is a more comprehensive approach that includes sales ops and sales training, alongside sales content.
It usually includes people from different departments, such as sales, sales ops, product development, or marketing, to develop and optimize the entire strategy; content creation and deployment included.
Internal vs. external sales enablement content
In terms of the actual sales enablement content, it can be broken down into two main categories.
On the one hand, there’s internal sales content. As its name implies, this is the type of content sales reps use for themselves.
It helps them acquire the necessary product knowledge, which they can later use during the sales process.
Sales team-facing content takes on several forms. The most common include things like battlecards, sales playbooks, sales scripts, online training courses, buyer personas, email templates, and more.
Some of these work to reinforce the sales knowledge and know-how acquired during training.
Others aid reps in improving their sales conversations and talking points with potential customers, helping them increase their win rate.
On the other hand, we have external sales content.
This type of content is geared toward the target audience.
It can come in the form of case studies, use cases, whitepapers, industry-specific e-books or blog posts, webinars, product demos, explainer videos, one-pagers, customer testimonials, and other forms of social proof, etc.
It’s typically used throughout the entire buyer’s journey, ultimately influencing the purchase decision.
Potential customers can consume it independently, or sales reps can present it to prospective leads to highlight product features and benefits to help close the deal.
Looking at these content examples, it’s easy to see the similarities between sales enablement content and content marketing. However, there are some notable differences.
How is sales enablement content different from content marketing?
While there’s some obvious overlap between sales enablement content and content marketing, they do differ, especially when it comes to their use.
As mentioned previously, sales enablement content is focused on improving the sales rep/potential client interaction.
It empowers the sales team with the necessary tools to help customers move forward through the buyer’s journey.
Content marketing, on the other hand, is designed to attract potential leads by raising awareness of the product or service. Marketing teams use inbound marketing, in particular, to achieve this goal.
That’s opposed to outbound marketing, which typically involves ads, billboards, commercials, etc., to attract the attention of potential customers.
Inbound marketing provides value to its target audience, usually through high-value content, to achieve a similar goal.
Content marketing generally focuses on top-of-funnel content, whereas sales enablement follows the entire customer journey, sometimes even including customer onboarding.
Furthermore, content marketing is typically measured in terms of website traffic, unique visitors, or email subscribers. Conversely, sales enablement tracks metrics like deals closed, win rate, lead-conversion rate, quota attainment, or sales cycle length.
Let’s now take a more in-depth look at the different types of sales enablement content that you can use.
10 types of sales enablement content to implement
Different types of sales enablement content work best at different phases of the sales cycle. Therefore, businesses should aim to include a good mix in their strategy.
They should also separate internal from external sales content based on the specific usage.
These are some of the most common and efficient types of sales enablement content that every business should implement into its processes.
For internal use
The following five content types are for internal use. This means that sales reps will use it for themselves to improve their interactions with potential customers or to refresh their sales training.
#1: Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
FAQs are a great tool to quickly and effectively onboard new sales reps, providing them with snippets of information regarding the company and its products.
FAQs are also a great resource on hand when sales professionals need quick answers to any questions potential customers may have.
#2: Customer persona guide
Customer or buyer persona guides aid salespeople in better understanding the target audience and improving their sales messaging to match.
Put simply, buyer personas are detailed descriptions of the ideal customer based on various relevant criteria such as age, gender, income, education, geographical location, job description, experience, interests, pain points, challenges, etc.
This information helps empower sales reps to tailor their sales conversations and pitches to fit each individual’s needs and pain points.
#3: Online training courses
Online sales rep training courses are an excellent way to onboard new employees, providing them with the necessary skills and tools to follow your sales enablement processes.
These training courses can take many forms, depending on the complexity of the product or service.
For instance, you can have blended training courses, which combine in-class sessions with online learning modules.
There’s also multimodal learning, which combines various training content formats—live text, video, audio, and practice tests—for increased knowledge retention.
Likewise, adding gamification elements to your training courses can further drive learner engagement and knowledge retention.
#4: Battlecards
These are great for sales reps to have with them every time they interact with a potential new customer.
Battlecards provide talking points on a wide range of topics likely to arise during conversation.
These can include things such as common challenges and objections, statistics, FAQs, pricing information, and more.
They help the sales team always have quick answers to any questions potential customers may have.
#5: Sales playbook
The sales playbook is packed with general best practices for certain situations that sales professionals can find themselves in.
It considers various challenging scenarios and provides effective ways to address them.
It’s generally a good idea for sales leaders to come together with the marketing and sales enablement teams to identify and plan out these types of scenarios and how to handle them most effectively.
The examples above are some of the most efficient internal sales enablement content types you can implement. Let’s now take a closer look at several customer-facing content examples.
For external use (customer-facing enablement content)
It’s not enough to just have internal content for sales enablement. External, or customer-facing content is a great addition to a sales rep’s arsenal to back up their points.
It also helps potential customers better understand the product’s value.
#1: High-value blog content
Blog posts excel during the initial awareness stage of the customer journey.
However, they need to provide a high degree of value to the target audience in terms of addressing industry challenges and pain points.
Generic blogs just don’t cut it nowadays.
Google recently updated its helpful content system algorithm to rank better blog posts and other web pages that provide genuinely high value to the reader.
In terms of sales enablement, this means high-value blog content that highlights industry challenges or provides actionable insights to potential customers.
You shouldn’t create blog posts just for their own sake or simply to rank high in search results.
You need to ensure the blog post is as educational as possible while maintaining the reader’s engagement.
Generic blogs, on the other hand, tend to address one or more topics but provide very little substance or actionable insights.
#2: Industry-topic e-books and whitepapers
Industry-topic e-books are the more comprehensive versions of high-value blog posts. They tend to address similar topics but will go more in-depth, answering as many questions as the target audience might have.
For this reason, it’s a good idea to get the sales team involved in creating e-books. They’re usually in the best position to know potential customers’ most pressing issues.
Whitepapers are no-nonsense, fact and statistics-based versions of e-books.
They are generally reserved for the initial awareness and subsequent decision stages of the buyer’s journey, when customers need that final push to make a purchasing decision.
Since both e-books and whitepapers tend to be somewhat dry —with limited or no personal opinions whatsoever—it’s generally good practice to use visuals to keep readers engaged.
#3: Infographics
Speaking of engaging visuals, infographics are great for packing in lists, statistics, and other dry facts in a visually appealing package.
Sprinkling infographics across your other types of customer-facing content can help increase engagement, knowledge retention, and even brand awareness.
#4: Case studies
Case studies generally work best during the consideration stage of the customer journey. This is when future buyers have defined their needs and are considering the options.
This type of content highlights the product or service’s benefits in a real-life situation.
It shows how they can solve particular problems, allowing potential customers to envision themselves having their needs met as well.
Case studies have the added benefit of including social proof, tipping the balance in your favor when compared to the competition.
For this reason, case studies can also be effective during the decision stage, alongside e-books and whitepapers.
#5: On-demand learning content
Last but not least is on-demand learning content. This typically applies after a sale has been made or when a new customer subscribes to a product demo version.
Just because you managed to close a deal doesn’t mean your job is done.
You also need to consider the customer life cycle or—in buyer-journey terms—the loyalty phase.
At this point, they get to learn how to use the product or service effectively and derive as much value from it as possible.
With an LMS like Docebo, you can provide on-demand customer training, helping new clients learn how to use the product and minimize their time-to-value.
The mobile app gives customers access to the content on the go, offering a flexible learning experience.
Since not all learning happens in a formal environment, Docebo’s social learning features allow customers to ask questions directly on the platform, share knowledge, and form a community with other users.
Keep in mind that Docebo also provides sales training so that the sales team is more effective in getting customers to the purchase phase and beyond.
While not exhaustive, this list of sales enablement content can put you on the right track to a more effective sales process.
Let’s now take a look at six sales enablement content strategy best practices.
6 steps to create a sales enablement content strategy
It’s one thing to have all the right content you need, but it’s another to know how to use it effectively. You need a sales enablement content strategy for that.
Here are six actionable steps to get you there.
#1: Assess your current content and analyze its performance
The first step in your sales engagement strategy should be to analyze your existing content.
As we mentioned, there’s some overlap between content marketing and sales enablement content. Therefore, you may find content created by the marketing team you can also repurpose for your sales enablement initiative.
Just make sure to also analyze its performance so that you can be sure it’s effective enough for customer education or sales training.
You can do this by analyzing content marketing metrics on each piece of content, such as click-through and bounce rates, user engagement, or conversion rates.
#2: Identify your buyers’ personas
Next up, you should identify and develop buyer personas for the different types of customers in your target audience.
The best way to develop these personas is to analyze your existing customer base.
Determine who are your high-value clients and emulate your ideal customer profiles based on their characteristics.
You can gather further information from your sales and marketing teams, as well as your customer relationship management (CRM) or LMS analytics.
Generally, the more detailed these customer personas are, the better.
But try to keep the variables, be they age, industry, gender, pain points, interests, etc., as relevant to the product or service as possible.
#3: Match the content to each step of the customer’s journey
While there are no strict rules when it comes to what type of content should go where, it’s generally good practice to have some guidelines for your sales teams to follow.
When creating content, you can divide the customer journey into four main phases.
The awareness phase: Use social media posts, high-value blog posts, infographics, e-books, whitepapers, etc.
The consideration phase: Use case studies, infographics, product comparison posts, podcasts, etc.
The decision phase: Use e-books, whitepapers, testimonials and other social proof, case studies, product reviews, etc.
The loyalty phase: Use on-demand learning content, user guides, learning pills, how-to videos, knowledge bases, FAQs, etc.
This doesn’t mean that sales reps can’t use content outside of their designated buyer-journey phases if the situation calls for it. But by and large, this is where they tend to be most effective.
It’s best to map out your content based on your buyer personas to better anticipate and answer client questions at every stage of the sales cycle.
#4: Continually improve your content
No matter how good or effective your sales enablement content is, it still has a shelf-life.
As you roll out new product updates or features, you also need to adapt your content to match. The same thing goes for the industry landscape as a whole.
Conduct regular competitor research to see where you stand and what type of content you need to better highlight your product’s benefits in comparison to the competition’s.
#5: Talk to your sales team
You should also make sure the sales team knows how to effectively use the content you create.
It’s no use designing loads of great content if the team doesn’t know when or where to use it for maximum effect.
If you want to boost sales, you need to ensure that your sales team gets the necessary training to get the job done.
Keep in mind that your sales team is also a good source of customer information. They have the most knowledge about client needs and pain points, and may even have insights into how to best address them.
Make a habit of talking to your sales team regularly to see if you can use this information to improve your sales enablement content.
#6: Track and measure content performance
Lastly, you should also continuously track and measure the effectiveness and performance of content.
You’ll track different metrics depending on the type of content you’re analyzing.
For example, you can measure the effectiveness of blog posts by the number of people reading them, how long they stay on the page (bounce rates), or how many take action after reading them.
Similarly, you can measure internal use content based on sales team performance, such as closed deals, win rate, attained quotas, length of sales cycle, etc.
For customer or sales rep training performance, you can use Docebo Learn Data. It will track user performance and course completion rates, net promoter scores (NPS), new feature adoption, and other relevant KPIs.
This way, you’ll always be on top of the situation and can fix any issues before they become full-blown problems.
Serve the best sales enablement content with a high-quality LMS
With a high-quality LMS, you can deliver the right kind of sales enablement content to your customers and reps at the right time.
Leading LMSs come with powerful analytics to track sales enablement performance, as well as engagement features to improve knowledge retention and learner experience. An LMS also provides a user-friendly platform for customers to access content whenever and wherever they need.
Customer onboarding isn’t just a checkbox on your to-do list – it’s a make-or-break moment for customer retention. In fact, poor onboarding is the third most common reason for customer churn right after a bad product fit and lack of engagement. That’s why getting onboarding right from the start is crucial.
Think about it: the onboarding experience sets the tone for your entire relationship with a customer. First impressions matter, and a smooth, welcoming onboarding process can shape positive expectations from the get-go. On the flip side, one bad experience can send customers packing—a staggering 25% will walk away after just one poor interaction.
But here’s the tricky part: customers aren’t a one-size-fits-all group. In fact, more than 40% of organizations say that over half of their customers (51-75%) want a personalized onboarding experience. Yet, 74.1% of companies admit that the biggest hurdle to consistent customer onboarding is dealing with the wide range of customer needs.
And that’s not the only challenge. One major roadblock to effective onboarding? Siloed tools and scattered information, which can slow down the entire process. Thankfully, AI is stepping in to help streamline workflows and enhance the customer experience during the onboarding journey and throughout the customer lifecycle. By leveraging AI-powered tools, organizations can automate repetitive tasks, make processes faster, and keep things smooth from start to finish.
So, what exactly is customer onboarding? Why does it matter so much, and how can you make sure you’re doing it right? Let’s dive in.
What is customer onboarding?
Customer onboarding refers to the time it takes for a new customer who has signed up for a product or service to learn how to use it properly. More specifically, customer onboarding focuses on educating new customers.
The aim is to achieve that goal as early and as efficiently as possible, improving the customer experience and establishing a long-term relationship.
Why is the customer onboarding process important?
Customer onboarding strategies address the core customer needs, goals, and pain points. If effective, they help customers derive the most value from the product and integrate it into their daily processes.
By developing a customer-centric onboarding process, companies increase the likelihood of new clients positively engaging with their products which improves retention, lowers customer churn and increases the chances of product adoption.
During the client onboarding stage, customer success teams should demonstrate the value of the product or product features as early and as often as possible. This will help increase their conversion rate later on.
To put it simply, a successful onboarding program will start your customer’s journey off on the right foot. By helping them learn how to use the product/service effectively, they are in a better position to understand how it can address their needs and pain points.
So, what are the most important steps of a successful customer onboarding process?
6 steps for a successful customer onboarding process
There is no one-size-fits-all procedure when it comes to customer onboarding. Depending on the product or service and the customer base, the onboarding process will have different circumstances and accommodations to make.
However, there are six major steps that should exist in any good onboarding program regardless of the company, product or service, and client.
The customer onboarding process starts the moment you’ve made a sale. Your customer success team is now in charge of providing the right customer training and support to improve the user experience, also known as customer activation. Here’s a step-by-step walk-through of how to go about it.
Step #1: Welcome email
Once the sales team has achieved its purpose and got a new client to sign up for your product, it’s time for the onboarding part of the customer journey to begin. Kick off great customer relationships that lead to customer loyalty by sending customers a welcome email.
Being the first direct interaction with new customers, this needs to have a positive and uplifting message. Here are a few useful tips on how to properly handle customer onboarding welcome emails:
Give thanks: Thank and congratulate them on their purchasing decision and for choosing your brand over the competition. This way, they’ll know that you value their decision and will be taking care of their needs going forward.
Introduce the company: Take this opportunity to share a bit about your company, its mission, and values. You want your new users to know there’s an entire team behind the product, ready to look after them.
Highlight the product’s value: Provide a bit of information about what value new clients can expect from your new product or service. You can even add one or two testimonials from happy customers if you believe they’re relevant.
Personalize the welcome message: Even something as simple as adding the new client’s name to the email can go a long way in turning new users into loyal customers. Avoid making the email look too generic and impersonal.
Share useful resources: The welcome email can also act as a sort of onboarding checklist. Provide links to useful resources to get the customer started. These can include things like video tutorials, step-by-step product walk-throughs, use cases, guides, product tours, chatbots, actionable or informative blog posts, and other partner training material you deem relevant.
Get social: You can also link to any of your brand’s related social media channels. This allows customers to connect with your business at other touchpoints like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
Automate: Creating a hands off onboarding flow can save your team members a lot of time. It also ensures that every single new subscriber receives the welcome email and none of them slip through the cracks.
Step #2: Greeting message
The greeting message is different from the welcome email. It’s specifically aimed at SaaS (software as a service) customer onboarding as an in-app welcome message that pops up the first time new users log into the platform. The purpose of a greeting message is not only to make the new customer feel valued but also to encourage them to take the first steps in setting up their accounts.
One best practice here is to personalize the message, if possible. Add the user’s name but nothing too intricate. Another tip is not to overburden the new user with too many tasks at once. For example, ask them to do only one thing, like change the password, create an avatar, or turn on email notifications. It’s also a good idea to provide a short guide on how to do it.
Step #3: Product setup guide
The product setup guide is like a tutorial or setup wizard that takes the customer through a step-by-step setup process. It allows new users to familiarize themselves with the product.
Workflows generally work well for this purpose. They provide a clear and structured way of going about completing the task. They’re great when multiple steps need to be completed in a particular sequence. Additionally, you can also modify these workflows to better suit any specific customer needs or product changes over time.
One important tip here is to make the product setup guide optional. Allow the user the chance to skip the tutorial if they want to.
Step #4: First log-in
Even if your customer has watched a product tour or demo video, the initial log-in will still be their first hands-on interaction with the product itself. This is when they’ll get a real impression of how it works and experience all the functionalities. The value of your product should therefore be apparent from the start.
The best way to highlight this during the first log-in is by making it easy and seamless to operate. Several tips here include:
Make everything obvious: The moment new users log in, they should know what to do next. This includes both the welcome message and setup guide but you should take it a step further and “hold their hand” all the way through.
Give them quick wins along the way: Getting customers to experience the value of your product early requires them to engage with it quickly and regularly. Design the process in such a way that it lets them achieve quick wins. These so-called gamification elements don’t need to be too over the top. Even something as simple as completing the product walk-through, setting up an avatar, or inviting a new colleague should be enough.
Follow-up emails: Another useful tip here is to send them a follow-up email after a few days of inactivity. If too many days pass and the new user doesn’t engage with your product, the chances of them forgetting about it increase.
Step #5: Interactive customer training
One of the most important aspects of any successful customer onboarding strategy is training. It doesn’t only teach new users the value of your product and how to obtain it but also helps with customer retention and engagement over the long term.
According to the McKinsey Next in Personalization 2021 Report, at least 76% of customers have chosen, recommended, or repurchased from a brand that offered personalization. Making the training customizable through interactive elements helps the customer fit the product to their specific needs and allows them to take ownership of their learning experience.
Some people prefer to learn by reading, others watch videos, and some perform better through a more hands-on approach. This is where blended learning comes into play. It’s a mix of face-to-face teaching with asynchronous e-learning that’s capable of providing a more flexible customer onboarding experience. Interactive sessions and live webinars are great for providing a formal learning course. On-demand videos, microlearning techniques, and gamification features all help learners stay motivated and engaged. Gamification also allows customers to gain points, or achieve milestones that motivate them to continue in their customer onboarding journey.
With a customer onboarding platform like Docebo, you get all these benefits by offering a customer-centric approach to e-learning.
Step #6: Knowledge base
A knowledge base is ideal to help customers with in-the-moment solutions for small problems. It provides product knowledge and answers to frequently asked questions. It also helps users solve their problems quickly, efficiently, and autonomously.
Professional learning management systems like Docebo can help you create knowledge bases for your customers so they can quickly and effectively access the information they need whenever they need it. If possible, you can also integrate chatbots into the mix. They add a touch of personality and aid the user in finding answers to their questions without having to personally go into the knowledge base and look for themselves.
By including these elements in your user onboarding, you are sure to boost customer satisfaction and retention. Now, let’s take a look at some best practices to implement into your customer onboarding strategy.
7 practices to improve the customer onboarding process
To create a truly effective customer onboarding program, you need to have a plan of action based on tried-and-tested processes. Here is a guide to customer onboarding best practices.
Get to know your customers
Be it in sales, onboarding, or customer support, the first step to any successful endeavor is to know your customer base. Without a clear idea of what customers want or need, you won’t be making any real headway.
A good place to start is to design a buyer persona. This is the image of the ideal customer. You can factor in things like age, gender, job position, salary, and geographical location. You should also factor in psychographic information like interests, motivations, concerns, challenges, pain points, preferences, and more. Then, you can build your onboarding process to fit your customer demographic specifically.
Say, for example, that your ideal customer prefers email communication over phone calls and tends to learn better through microlearning and learning pills than formal teaching. You’ll design your onboarding program to reflect that.
You can gather this information from all touchpoints with your existing customer base. Some learning management systems (LMSs) like Docebo also provide analytics data that you can use to discover e-learning trends from existing customers.
Agree on who’ll own the onboarding process
Determine who will be in charge of the customer onboarding process. You’ll want both a dedicated customer success manager and a customer success team to implement the strategy and improve it over time. This support team can also handle any additional questions or issues the new customer may have. This team will be in charge of:
Managing all client interactions and relationships
Display your product’s value
You can’t expect your new clients to know right away the value of your product and how they attain it. Aside from the welcome email that highlights it once they make the purchase, you also need to reemphasize the product’s value over time and frame it based on their unique case.
Hold a kickoff call and present specific examples of how your product or service will address their specific needs and pain points. Personalized training and a comprehensive and easy-to-navigate knowledge base should help display the product’s value further.
Determine the goals of the program
As with any other program or strategy you initiate, you need to set clear goals and expectations in terms of what you want to achieve. You won’t be able to determine if your customer onboarding program is working properly if you can’t keep track of your progress or don’t have a specific goal to aim towards.
This is why it’s a good idea to follow a SMART format when planning your goals. This means that goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
So, for example, instead of setting a vague goal like “More of our customers need to upgrade from free to paid,” go for something SMART-er like, “The number of free users who upgrade to paid should increase by 15 percent by the end of the quarter.” This gives your customer success team a clear goal to strive toward and a realistic time frame in which to achieve it.
Maintain continuous communication
Communication is key to any long-term relationship. If you want loyal customers, you’ll need to keep in contact with them. Conduct regular check-ins to make sure they’re able to derive the most value from your product. In the beginning, email may be the most-used form of communication. Later on in the relationship, particularly once your product becomes a mainstay tool, you can move on to Slack and communicate with customers more directly.
The point is to always check the relationship’s pulse and always let them know that they can reach out to you with any issue or question they might have. Make it easy for them to do so and your customer retention rate will surely increase.
Keep track of KPIs
Keeping track of customer onboarding metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators) is essential in determining what works, what doesn’t, and what areas need improvement. The top 3 measured customer onboarding KPIs are: CSAT or NPS, churn rates, and product adoption or usage.
Other key customer onboarding metrics include things like customer retention, time-to-onboard, time to value, customer lifetime value, customer engagement, completion rates, and more.
Yet none of these metrics and KPIs can reveal anything too insightful by themselves. It’s only by taking them together that you get a holistic view and can uncover trends.
These, in turn, provide you with actionable data for better decision-making. Customer onboarding software like Docebo and other analytics tools can help you track these KPIs to continuously improve your onboarding processes.
Gather customer feedback
Customer feedback should be the go-to tool for every effective customer success team. Who better to ask about the effectiveness of your onboarding program than the very customers who’ve undergone it?
Not only will your customers know that you care about their opinion, but asking for their feedback will also provide you with insights into the program’s success. It will also allow you to tackle their problems better, improving their own experience in the process.
With a post-onboarding survey, you can also generate a net promoter score (NPS). Put simply, the NPS is a customer experience metric that determines the loyalty of your clients and can also gauge the success and efficacy of your onboarding program. It’s essentially a method of putting an actual numerical figure on customer feedback, which you can then use to improve your other onboarding metrics and KPIs.
Use a powerful AI LMS or AI learning platform to onboard your customers
According to Rocketlane’s State of Customer Onboarding 2024 and 2025, 40.5% of customer onboarding teams use 4-6 software tools like CRM, CSM, and project management tools to facilitate their onboarding programs, which explains why one of the biggest bottlenecks cited by customer onboarding teams is siloed tools and information.
So it stands to reason that when choosing a customer onboarding software, you would choose an AI learning platform capable of robust integrations to consolidate your tech stack and work seamlessly with other necessary tools.
The right AI learning platform can take your onboarding process from okay to stellar. Schedule a demo with Docebo today and get the most out of your customer onboarding strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are some quick answers to your questions.
Q1. When should customer onboarding begin?
The customer onboarding process begins with the sale. Once a new customer decides to try your product, you need to start helping them get the most value out of it as soon as possible.
Q2. How is customer onboarding implemented?
Although there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to customer onboarding implementation, the best way to do it is to standardize as much of the process as possible without sacrificing personalization. An onboarding LMS or learning platform is usually the best approach as it helps you achieve both things.
Q3. Who should own customer onboarding?
A small organization can typically get away with one or two people handling the onboarding process. Larger SaaS companies, on the other hand, may need a dedicated customer success team.
The team is in charge of applying the process and helping customers get the most value out of the product. They would also need a customer success manager, who handles the broader picture, tracking KPIs, and formulating the overall onboarding strategy.
Customer onboarding refers to all of the actions a company takes once a client decides to buy their product or service. It’s about teaching them how to get the most value out of that product or service and ensuring that new clients turn into longtime loyal customers.
Customer onboarding best practices can make the difference between creating a long-lasting client-brand relationship or a one-time encounter that never gets past the free-trial stage. In this article, you’ll learn how to create an onboarding process that benefits the client, brings them long-term value, and establishes a lasting relationship and revenue stream for your company.
Why effective customer onboarding is important
There are a few reasons why it’s important to have an effective customer onboarding strategy in place.
It reduces the churn rate
The possibility for churn is always present and although it’s inevitable to an extent, you can take active steps to minimize it. First impressions count for a lot.
Reducing client churn and increasing customer retention by just five percent can see your profits increase by 25 to 95 percent. Likewise, companies that focus on customer solutions during their first interactions with a new client can reduce their customer churn by 67 percent. An effective client onboarding program can help you minimize your churn and increase your customer retention rates.
It creates loyal customers
Loyal customers are a company’s bread and butter. According to the Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, roughly 80 percent of a company’s profits come from just 20 percent of its customers.
It’s also a known fact that loyal customers spend 67 percent more than new customers. What’s more, clients who have an emotional connection with the brand have a 306 percent higher lifetime value. An effective and successful customer onboarding process can prove your value and sustain a meaningful relationship with clients.
It creates brand ambassadors
Loyal customers also make for great brand ambassadors. A whopping 94 percent of American clients will recommend a business or service if they consider it “very good.” What this means is that satisfied clients will engage in word-of-mouth advertising on your behalf as long as they’re happy with the customer onboarding experience you provide.
That said, let’s take a look at how you can turn these customer onboarding benefits into reality.
10 key customer onboarding best practices to follow
If you’re wondering what makes for a great customer onboarding program, you don’t need to look any further.
These customer onboarding best practices will help you guide new users through their customer journey and achieve all of the benefits that customer onboarding has to offer.
1. Understand your customer’s needs
To get most of the benefits of a customer onboarding program, you need to get your clients to emotionally connect with your brand. To do this, you need to have a clear understanding of your customer’s needs and pain points. This way, you can create a client onboarding program that’s geared toward customer satisfaction and desired outcomes.
Take into consideration both the physical and psychological needs of a client. These can include things like:
Function: A product or service that handles a specific pain point of the customer
Price: It fits their budget
Compatibility: It integrates with other products the client uses
Feeling: A specific feeling or experience the client might have while using your product
Part of building an emotional connection with clients is being personable and accommodating of their needs. Showing up when they need your help and genuinely caring about their experience can help to build an emotional connection and fulfill their needs.
2. Personalize the onboarding experience
To create a truly effective customer onboarding process, you need to personalize the experience for each user. Consider ways you can tailor the onboarding experience to each client’s own needs. No matter the industry you’re in, the UX should be useful, valuable, accessible, and desirable. This includes things like creating personal profiles.
Start by sending them a personalized welcome email with their name. In it, you can also add exclusive content such as product tours, knowledgeable articles, walkthroughs, step-by-step demo videos, tutorials, FAQs, etc.
With a customer onboarding platform like Docebo, you can update and deliver both guided and self-paced training material for onboarding and upskilling customers. White labeling allows you to maximize your brand identity, while gamification, webinars, and other interactive workflow training materials can increase customer engagement. A personalized welcome email and customer training program can address client questions that they don’t even know they have yet.
3. Assign a dedicated team
Put together a specialized team that consists of salespeople, product delivery specialists, and support reps. You can even hire a customer onboarding specialist to coordinate the entire team, optimize the process, and ensure customer success.
This team doesn’t necessarily have to be from the outside. You can upskill or reskill existing team members in your organization to focus on customer onboarding. Ensure that all customer onboarding team members are aligned with the same goal: customer satisfaction and user engagement. Everyone involved needs to know the client’s needs, wants, and pain points to ensure an optimized and successful onboarding flow.
4. Set goals and expectations
Setting clear goals, milestones, and expectations will help your team members achieve what they’ve set out to do. Again, this will differ from one customer to the next. And the best way to approach it is to start by asking the client how they define success. Because customer success is what customer onboarding is all about.
The next step is to develop a plan of action that will make that goal a reality. This requires setting up success milestones throughout the entire customer lifecycle. It’s also good to check in with your client and determine what these will look like.
The most important part here is to ensure that these milestones are accurate, realistic, and time-bound. You also want to be able to measure them to determine whether or not you’re on track. Having clear goals and expectations helps to keep you and the customer on the same page throughout the journey.
5. Focus on communication
As you’ve probably already figured out, consistent communication throughout the customer onboarding process ensures a fruitful relationship that increases the customer’s lifetime value. But, remember, communication is as much about listening as it is about talking. By listening to customers, you get to learn their needs and pain points, as well as other useful information that helps you optimize the onboarding process. Good communication during customer onboarding means:
Providing a step-by-step introduction of your product or services
Showing up during critical initial stages of the engagement
Letting customers know you are always available
Using language that is clear and concise, especially when answering questions
Avoiding industry jargon and assuming your customer knows certain things
Skipping obvious information or unnecessary steps that waste the customer’s time
Keeping customers informed of any updates or changes
These messages will help customers see the value of your service on a more personal level and feel more engaged.
6. Make onboarding a continuous experience
Some businesses make the mistake of thinking that if a customer underwent onboarding once, they won’t need it again. This could not be further from the truth, especially if that client purchases another product or signs up for an upgrade. In either of these situations, they need to learn how to use the new add-on.
It’s helpful to have multiple onboarding teams and separate processes for each. One team can handle new customer onboarding, while the other helps existing customers learn how to use the upgrades.
With an onboarding learning management system (LMS) like Docebo, it’s easy to deliver the right training courses to your clients at the right time. Customers can access the content they need on demand, regardless of whether they’re learning the product for the first time, learning a new product update, or just need a refresher course. This also alleviates some of the workload and strain on your customer onboarding teams.
7. Automate when needed
An automated customer onboarding framework can save you a lot of time, money, and energy. It’s also a great way of streamlining the entire onboarding process and allowing your team members to focus on the actual customers.
The process still needs to be pretty hands-on and your onboarding teams should do their best to personalize the process as much as possible. Nevertheless, the parts that can be automated should be automated. Here are some ways to do this:
Set up email sequences that send out predefined instructions to onboarded clients. These emails can include things like surveys, follow-ups, drip instructions, and upsells.
Set up a chatbot that’s able to answer any easy customer questions around the clock. Just don’t forget to keep an eye on what they’re asking in the event there’s something the chatbot can’t answer and they need an actual person there to handle more nuanced problems.
Use Docebo Shape to create short bits of learning content for your clients. This platform is AI-powered and the creation time is trimmed down to just minutes.
8. Follow up after the onboarding
Just because the onboarding process is complete, doesn’t mean that your contact with the client needs to end. The key to increasing the lifetime value of your customers is to follow up at regular intervals after the onboarding is complete. This way, you leave the door open for upselling, cross-selling, or onboarding a new partner of theirs.
You should also follow up with your clients from time to time to see if they have any additional questions or if they want to learn more advanced techniques about your product or service. Strive to maximize the use of your product or service by continuously finding ways to bring your customers more value. This shows that you really care about them, increasing the chances of a long-term relationship.
9. Create standard operating procedures (SOPs)
SOPs help your team members create a seamless experience for each customer. Without them, you can’t guarantee that every new client you sign on will receive the same level of care and attention. Even before you start implementing your customer onboarding program, you should have SOPs in place.
To create SOPs consider what your goals are and what key performance indicators are established. Then, determine what customer onboarding metrics are relevant and ensure that they’re aligned with your goals. From there, you can develop SOPs that streamline processes to collect the necessary metrics and achieve your desired goals. And don’t forget to establish clear and easily accessible channels for billing, tech support, or training. All of these will improve the overall user experience and boost their trust and loyalty to your brand.
10. Keep on improving the process
No template will ensure a successful customer onboarding process that works for everyone. Every company is different and their goals are unique. For this reason, you need to constantly look for ways to tweak and improve your client onboarding program to meet new trends, goals, or circumstances. This includes analyzing competitors and seeing how they’re handling their customer onboarding process. If, for example, a SaaS (software as a service) company is offering a free trial for its service as part of its SaaS client onboarding program, your audience may expect something similar from you.
If your customer onboarding program is too rigid, it will be difficult to fulfill all customer needs and requirements. With a professional customer onboarding software solution like Docebo, you can gauge the overall effectiveness of your training program, highlighting what areas work and where you need to improve. After every onboarding sign-up process, track and assess the variables that influence the success or failure of your client onboarding process.
These actionable steps will help you achieve all of the benefits that an effective customer onboarding program can provide. Now, let’s take a quick look at the main elements of a great client onboarding process.
Now over to you
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to customer onboarding. Each business needs to carve its own way and innovate a program capable of fulfilling all of its clients’ wants and needs. Schedule a demo with Docebo today and see exactly what it can do for you and your customer onboarding needs.
Picking the right learning management system (LMS) for your organization is one of the most important things for your learning and development strategy. However, it’ll take time, consideration, and people-power to get the ball rolling.
Not only that, but the LMS market is chock full of different providers and there are so many different features to consider. Squaring all the various LMS functionalities with your specific business needs is no easy feat and can get frustrating.
To help you pick the right LMS, we’ve assembled this ultimate checklist of LMS requirements to be your guide to choosing the platform that will best fit your company. But first let’s go over what LMS requirements are and why they’re important.
What are Learning Management System requirements and why are they important?
LMS requirements are the specific features, functionalities, and technical specifications an organization needs in a learning platform to meet its training and development goals. Defining these requirements clearly is the most critical step in selecting a system that delivers real business impact, enhances the learner experience, and ensures a positive return on investment.
To help you navigate this process, we’ve created a comprehensive LMS requirements checklist. Use it to quickly compare how various LMSs fit your organization’s needs. Feel free to add your own items and adjust the categories.
LMS requirements checklist
Getting your head around all the different LMS features can be pretty daunting. It helps to have a reference to keep track of it all which is what this checklist template is for. Use it to quickly compare how various LMSs fit the basic requirements. You don’t have to stick with just the items on this checklist. Feel free to add your own and adjust the categories to fit your needs.
When you’re looking for the right LMS to power your e-learning initiative or training program, you’ll first want to look at what basic functionalities the learning software offers.
The functional requirements in this category, such as social learning and gamification, will help you create engaging and effective experiences for your learners.
1. Social learning
Social learning lets professionals in the same organization communicate, collaborate, share best practices, and learn from subject matter experts.
It is also a good way to encourage your learners to keep learning even after the online training session or onboarding is over. Talking about what you just learned with other people is interactive and engaging and helps you remember things longer.
To leverage all these benefits, you’ll need a learning platform that offers social learning features. These features work very similarly to social media where learners can post articles, comment, like, and share each other’s posts or as part of forums.
Social learning drives learner engagement while also letting instructors answer questions and share additional learning material.
2. Learning models
There are various learning methodologies used for training, including self-paced learning, instructor-led training, blended learning and microlearning. Self-paced learning involves e-learning content that can be accessed at any time. Essentially, the learner is in control of their training. Instructor-led training is facilitated by an instructor, while blended learning is an approach to learning design that combines traditional instructor-led training with online learning content and methods.
Essentially, this kind of learning means that learners will have training sessions with an instructor in a classroom (physical or virtual) and also have access to online learning materials through a learning platform like an LMS. For example, you could offer compliance training that requires physical workplace lectures and also has a virtual workbook for your learners to complete on their own.
The advantages of blended learning are as follows:
Reduces costs associated with in-person learning (venues, travel, etc.)
Increases engagement because learning experience designers can include multiple multimedia formats (e.g., webinars, infographics) and methods, such as social learning, mobile learning, and gamification
Offers more flexibility to learners as they can complete parts of the course in their own time
Finally, microlearning involves learning content that comes in bite-size (less than 10 min) duration.
The right LMS should be able to provide flexible learning, and allow learners to access all types of learning models.
3. Content marketplace
E-learning content is all the modules and virtual learning objects that make up your training program. When choosing your new LMS, it’s worth considering if it has a built-in e-learning content marketplace.
If it does, you might find content that is suitable for your training courses so you won’t have to spend time and money developing it yourself. Compared to building your own training course from scratch, buying one from an LMS vendor is much cheaper.
For example, Docebo lets you choose and buy e-learning content from its integrated marketplace. There are thousands of high-quality and mobile-friendly courses available, which means you’ll spend less time on content development and more time on actual training.
4. Gamification
Learner engagement is a perennial topic in learning experience design because, let’s be honest, there are more interesting things in life than corporate training programs.
But what’s one thing that everyone likes, especially millennials and Gen Zers? Video games, of course.
That’s where gamification comes in.
LMS software with this feature supports functionality inspired by video games, such as leaderboards, achievements, quizzes, and high scores. It’s a nice way to get some healthy competition going and inspire people to work harder.
Gamification can also mean full-blown educational games, just like the ones you used to play in school. All in all, gamification features not only add fun to your training programs but also stimulate and motivate learners to perform better.
5. SCORM, AICC, and xAPI
That sure is a jumble of letters, isn’t it?
What they refer to are e-learning standards. SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) and AICC (Aviation Industry Computer-based Training Committee) are two of the oldest. The xAPI (Experience Application Programming Interface) standard, which used to be known as Tin Can, is newer and can track more learning experiences and metrics than older standards.
Now, this topic can get very technical, so we’ll try to keep it simple. If you’re interested in the technical details, Docebo has an exhaustive guide on SCORM and the other standards.
You should care about these standards because picking an LMS vendor whose platform supports them means you can add content from any course or training provider.
So, if you have your LMS in one place and your training content in another, that’s fine. It will all work together. As long as the LMS and the learning content are compliant with the same standards, they will be compatible.
6. Authoring tools
An authoring tool is what anyone creating e-learning content uses. If you think about the finished e-learning content as a painting, the authoring tools are your paints, paintbrushes, and canvas.
This requirement is connected to the previous one—making sure your LMS is SCORM-compliant means you can use a SCORM-compliant authoring tool to create your content.
Modern learning platforms also offer AI authoring tools that make content creation, translation, and assessment generation a breeze.
7. Personalized learning
No two learners are alike—and your LMS should reflect that. Personalized learning means the platform adapts to each user’s needs, goals, and preferences. It can recommend content based on someone’s role, skill gaps, or what they’ve already completed—just like how Spotify suggests your next favorite song.
Whether a learner prefers videos, articles, or interactive quizzes, a good LMS serves up the right content, in the right format, at the right time thanks to personalized learning paths. The result? A learning experience that actually sticks.
Technical LMS requirements
This category concerns the technological side of things, such as whether the platform is cloud-based, how it is licensed, and what other programs and apps it can integrate with.
1. Hosting and deployment
SaaS is the business world’s shorthand for software as a service. You don’t buy a license to use an app outright. Instead, you pay a yearly or monthly subscription for a cloud-based service.
In recent years, most software companies have switched to this model. For learning management, a SaaS LMS has practically become the norm.
One key benefit to this model is that pricing tends to be more flexible because you’re either paying per user or by usage. Secondly, compared to deployment of a self-hosted LMSs,there is less to do in terms of maintenance and IT work. With a SaaS LMS, all that stuff is done by the LMS provider. You just log into the web portal and have access to all the functionality. Whereas if you were to self-host it, you’d need an IT team to take care of the updates, add new features, and make sure everything works.
Self-hosting your LMS does make sense if your organization needs extremely high levels of customization and control but for the vast majority of companies, SaaS is the better option because it’s cheaper and more flexible.
2. Security
Data security is a big one. When your learners enroll in your training course, you don’t want them worrying about their data somehow leaking to bad actors.
Speaking of bad actors in the cybersecurity realm, there’s nothing hackers like more than unsecured and vulnerable cloud-based platforms. That’s why you need an LMS solution that complies with the best security standards. After all, training materials can include things like trade secrets which can be devastating to a company or organization if they are leaked.
3. Integrations
Integrations are achieved through nifty little things called Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs for short.
Integrations let you do a lot of different things. You already learned about one kind of integration, which is your LMS working together with authoring tools.
Another important kind of integration is single sign-on or SSO. SSO is a technology that lets you sign in to more than one platform with the same username and password. Like how you can sign into Twitter with your Gmail account. Good LMSs also have this feature.
They can integrate with popular online identity providers, such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple, so learners can easily and securely sign into your LMS with their existing credentials.
Much better than having to remember yet another password.
4. Scalability
Let’s say you start with 200 learners. Great! But what happens when you grow to 2,000… or 200,000? A scalable LMS won’t break a sweat. It’s built to handle that kind of growth—whether it’s more users, more content, or even more languages and locations.
Scalability also means you don’t need to rebuild your system every time your organization expands. Instead, your LMS should let you add new audiences, roles, or training programs without skipping a beat.
A good LMS scales with you. A great one makes it feel effortless.
User Experience LMS Requirements
1. Usability
All the features an LMS might have are pretty useless if it isn’t user-friendly. Learners today expect a pleasant user interface and a streamlined and hassle-free user experience. Easy-to-use apps like Netflix, Instagram, and Twitter have set high standards and raised everyone’s expectations.
What do users expect and what should you be looking out for? Glad you asked:
Can learners find things (courses, modules, exercises) easily through a powerful search function?
Does the LMS support social, mobile, and microlearning?
Is it easy for admins and learners alike to complete tasks and navigate through the LMS’s interface?
Will learners have to learn how to use the LMS, or is it intuitive?
These are the kind of questions to ask when judging the usability of an LMS.
2. Accessibility
Accessibility means making your learning content and online training accessible to as many people as possible. It’s all about allowing everyone, regardless of ability or disability, to access the same training.
It’s the same as a wheelchair ramp at a building’s entrance. It’s wrong to exclude someone in a wheelchair from accessing your office. It’s also wrong to exclude someone from a training program because they’re visually or hearing impaired.
In an LMS, accessibility isn’t a single feature. It’s a series of features and design practices in user experience and interface, such as being able to navigate everything with just a mouse, being compatible with screen readers, and offering consistent color schemes that are easy on the eyes.
Learning is a precious thing that no one should be excluded from, so choose an LMS with robust accessibility features to make sure everyone can participate in your training programs.
These days, we’re all pretty much glued to our screens all day anyway. So, why shouldn’t we also use them for e-learning?
Find an LMS platform that’s accessible from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Your learners will thank you as mobile learning lets them access the training courses at any time and from anywhere. It’s also very useful for refreshing their memories quickly.
If a team member forgets something, they can just take out their phone and find the relevant info with ease rather than having to wait until they return to their computer.
Business Requirements for LMSs
This checklist may start to seem a little overly detailed at this point. But considering each of these LMS requirements in detail will help you make the best learning and development decisions for your team.
Here are a few last requirements to consider.
1. E-commerce
Learning content marketplaces aren’t just for buying content. They’re also for selling. If you have some good training content on your hands, why not offer it to the world?
Of course, some companies specialize in creating online learning material. For these companies, the e-commerce features of an LMS are especially important.
You’ll want an LMS that has a user-friendly e-commerce interface where customers can find relevant content easily. The way the platform handles purchasing is also important to make the whole process as painless as possible for the customer and you.
Finally, it’s excellent if the LMS e-commerce features also include integrations with popular storefront software, such as Shopify and content management system (CMS) platforms like WordPress and Joomla.
2. Customer support
Even with the best care in the world, problems will pop up. When this happens, it’s good to have someone to rely on. Especially when it’s technical stuff and your organization lacks in-house experts to address it.
That’s why you should always look into the kind of customer support that an LMS vendor offers.
Is there phone support or just chat messaging?
Do the support agents’ working hours overlap with yours?
Are there priority support options?
When something invariably happens to throw a wrench into your plans, you’ll be glad you chose an LMS with good customer support.
3. Accessibility
Accessibility means making your learning content and online training accessible to as many people as possible. It’s all about allowing everyone, regardless of ability or disability, to access the same training.
It’s the same as a wheelchair ramp at a building’s entrance. It’s wrong to exclude someone in a wheelchair from accessing your office. It’s also wrong to exclude someone from a training program because they’re visually or hearing impaired.
In an LMS, accessibility isn’t a single feature. It’s a series of features and design practices in user experience and interface, such as being able to navigate everything with just a mouse, being compatible with screen readers, and offering consistent color schemes that are easy on the eyes.
Learning is a precious thing that no one should be excluded from, so choose an LMS with robust accessibility features to make sure everyone can participate in your training programs.
4. Certifications
Retraining, upskilling, reskilling. These are not just corporate buzzwords, these are necessities in a business environment that’s changing ever more rapidly. And if you doubt that, just do a Google search for ChatGPT. Things are about to get hectic.
What does this have to do with LMSs?
When you have to retrain or upskill your team members, it’s useful to track and quantify the process like who has completed training and who hasn’t. This is also important for industries that have to train their employees in certain areas as part of their regulatory compliance.
An LMS with certification features makes it easier to centralize retraining and certification so employees will always be up-to-date with their skills.
5. Data migration
The data stored in your LMS is a veritable gold mine. It’s a wealth of know-how, best practices, and experiences. It would be very painful if, when you decided to migrate to a new LMS, you had to abandon it all and start over.
That’s what data migration means. If an LMS has this feature, you can import your content into it as well as export it. That way, if you end up being unsatisfied with your current LMS, you can still utilize all the materials and data you have generated so far and move to another learning platform that fits you better.
6. White labeling
Want your LMS to look and feel like an extension of your brand? That’s where whitelabeling and customization come in. You can add your logo, brand colors, and even your own domain name—so it feels like a seamless part of your organization.
Beyond the look, customization lets you tailor user roles, learning paths, and homepage layouts. Whether you’re training employees, customers, or partners, you can shape the experience to fit each audience—without needing a developer on speed dial.
7. Data analytics and reporting
It’s one thing to deliver training—it’s another to prove it’s working. That’s where data analytics and reporting come in. A good LMS gives you clear, customizable dashboards that show how learners are progressing, where they’re getting stuck, and what content is making a difference.
But it’s not just about tracking course completions or learning progress tracking. It’s about giving stakeholders the insights they need to connect learning with performance. Whether it’s boosting sales, improving customer service, or reducing onboarding time, reporting helps align learning objectives with real business goals.
When your LMS speaks the language of data, everyone—from the L&D team to the C-suite—can see the value.
Things to do before choosing an LMS
Before you start comparing the offerings of different LMS vendors, and well in advance of your LMS implementation plan, you need to know what the learning and development situation is in your organization.
Only then can you know exactly what you’re looking for and avoid being sold a platform that doesn’t actually fit your needs.
1. Assess your current training programs
To build the bridge between where you are and where you want to be, you first must look at how your training programs operate currently.
Where are the learning gaps?
What is the current mood among your learners?
How is knowledge being applied to the real world?
Are learning goals being achieved?
Don’t be afraid of addressing the topic and even sending out employee surveys to gather feedback. When you can answer these questions, you’ll be in a position to clearly articulate where you’re starting from to potential LMS vendors. From here, you can also start to outline what your learning and development goals are for future programs.
2. Determine what your current process lacks
If you want to get buy-in from the higher-ups, you’ll need to analyze and identify the current pain points in your organization when it comes to learning. Then, you can show them how investing in the right LMS will address those pain points.
Here are some questions to ask:
How much time do your admins spend on enrollments each week/month/year?
Is your talent retention or program completion rate suffering?
Do people enjoy learning in your current system?
How much would it cost to lose someone because they do not enjoy the current learning procedure?
Are there adequate technological and interactive features available?
Are the right analytics being measured?
3. Determine your budget
In a perfect world, your budget would be unlimited and cows would give you strawberry milkshakes. In the cold, hard world of business, you’re playing with limited resources so you need to make them count.
There are many LMS vendors out there and their products have different capabilities and features, so you’ll need to prioritize those whose offerings are more aligned with your budget.
When setting a budget, be sure to consider how much a lack of skills, poor employee retention, and an inadequate corporate training program may be costing you.
4. Determine your needs
What do your learners need? That’s the key question here and the way to answer it is through research and surveys. And quite possibly, some very frank conversations with your learning and development team. Answer questions like:
Who is our target audience?
What is most likely to keep people engaged in the platform?
What experience do we want our audience to have?
These are the questions that will help you discover the needs of your learners. Let everything else flow from there.
Find yourself an LMS that ticks all the boxes
Picking the right LMS can be a challenging task.
This list of requirements will hopefully make it easier. Don’t forget you can download our checklist too.
If you’re looking for an LMS that checks all the boxes, book a demo now with Docebo to see how the platform can be customized to fit your needs.
LMS requirements: Frequently asked questions
What features should an LMS have?
A modern LMS should include robust features for content and user management, detailed reporting and analytics, mobile accessibility, social learning tools, and seamless integrations with other business systems.
What does an LMS typically provide?
An LMS typically provides a centralized platform for administrators to create and deliver content, monitor learner participation, and assess performance, while offering learners an engaging and accessible interface.
What are the four major issues in LMS?
Common challenges with LMS platforms include low user adoption, difficulty integrating with other software, a lack of insightful analytics, and an inability to scale with organizational growth.
Whether you’re looking for a new learning management system (LMS) or have been around learning platforms for a long time, you’ve probably heard the acronym SCORM.
SCORM courses, SCORM compliance… What does it all mean?
Well, the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (that’s the full name, so you can see why they shortened it) is an e-learning standard aiming to make it easier for learning professionals to create and deliver learning content.
Of course, there’s a bit more to it than just this. You should know some things when picking SCORM-compliant LMSs, and this guide will go over it all.
So, let’s get ready to demystify SCORM once and for all, and help you pick the right learning management system in the process.
What is a SCORM-compliant LMS?
A SCORM-compliant LMS is a learning management system that supports and conforms to the SCORM standard. This is important because authoring tools used to make online courses fall under this standard too.
When you make an e-learning course with a SCORM-compliant authoring tool, you can easily import it into your LMS — as long as the LMS is also compliant.
This is especially useful for LMS migration since the SCORM file also contains information about learner progress, like which courses they completed and their assessment results.
In short, a SCORM-compliant LMS is a learning platform that adheres to the technical standards set out in the SCORM model. As such, it enables e-learning content to be easily imported, delivered, and tracked across different systems.
How to choose a SCORM-compliant LMS
We did mention in the intro that there’s a little more to this whole SCORM business than compatibility.
Several factors are at play when choosing a SCORM-compliant LMS to deploy your online learning efforts. Here’s a closer look.
See which versions of SCORM it supports
While learning experience designers and e-learning professionals typically talk about SCORM compatibility in the singular, there are several versions of this standard.
SCORM is one of the oldest e-learning industry standards, and it’s been upgraded and expanded over the years.
The first version came out in 2000 (SCORM 1.0), while an updated version came a year later – SCORM 1.2. This version is still the most widely used because most LMSs and authoring tools support it.
The second-most-popular version is SCORM 2004, which added support for things like adaptive learning pathways.
Finally, there is the Tin Can API (also known as Experience API or xAPI) which is meant to be the successor to the SCORM standard. Most notably, xAPI adds the ability to track learning experiences outside of the e-learning content in the LMS, such as in-person workshops.
Which version of the SCORM standard you should look for depends on your learning needs but, in general, newer versions are best for future-proofing your training initiatives.
However, if you have a lot of legacy e-learning content, you should stick to an older standard.
See if the LMS is certified by ADL. If not, which API elements are supported?
The ADL stands for Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, a program of the US federal government. This is the body that made the SCORM standard and the only one that can certify an LMS as fully SCORM-compliant.
To get the certification, LMS vendors must pass ADL’s testing process.
Choosing a certified LMS is the easiest way to deal with SCORM. That said, if you find a potential solution that isn’t certified, that’s not necessarily a dealbreaker. You’ll have to check with the potential LMS provider to see which features can still support SCORM.
See what level of RTE (runtime environment) the LMS supports
A runtime environment (RTE) is the environment in which a computer program runs. Sounds logical, right?
The RTE also governs the functionality of how the program communicates data between the computer running the program and the computer hosting the program.
With SCORM-compliant LMS platforms, you don’t necessarily have to worry about RTE communication at all.
However, if you don’t have RTE communication, your LMS will just be able to launch the Sharable Content Objects or SCOs (the individual assets that make up an online course). That means it won’t be able to gather valuable data about how the learner interacts with it.
To collect learning data, you’ll need an LMS that supports RTE communication. There are two levels to this. The first tier consists of industry-standard basic data models such as:
cmi.completion_status and cmi.success_status: indicate when a learner has completed the course and if they passed.
cmi.score.scaled: indicates the score a learner achieved on any assignment within an SCO
cmi.session_time: reports how much time a learner has spent in an SCO
cmi.location: allows learners to use a bookmarking feature for longer courses
cmi.exit: controls how learners exit an SCO and whether the LMS lets them resume an attempt or makes them start over
Second-tier data models add extra functionality:
interactions: can report the results of each question response or the path a learner takes through a learning simulation
objectives: allow for more granular reporting about the learners’ mastery of learning objectives, essential for large SCOs
cmi.progress_measure: adds the capability to add a percentage-complete measure that lets an LMS display a percentage progress bar (SCORM 2004 only)
Whether or not you go for a platform with second-tier RTE depends on how granular you want your LMS metrics to be.
See how well the LMS works with your authoring tools
The whole point of SCORM is to achieve interoperability between the authoring tools and the LMS.
That means you can create SCORM packages in an authoring tool of your choice and then upload them into whatever LMS platform you’re using to manage your online training programs.
Still, different LMSs handle this process differently. Some will offer the option of bulk upload, which is great if you already have many learning materials ready.
Other LMSs come with authoring tools built in. Even then, this needs to be SCORM-compatible because you might want to export these to another platform later.
See if you can operate the LMS without any plugins
Depending on how the vendor built the LMS, you might need to install plugins to get full functionality and compatibility with the SCORM standards.
Sometimes, especially in older LMSs, you’ll need to install Microsoft Silverlight or Adobe Flash. These are both older technologies with significant limitations, particularly around mobile devices.
Ideally, opt for a platform that uses modern tech like HTML5 and JavaScript, especially if you want to use mobile learning. This allows your e-learning software to run directly in the web browser on any internet-enabled device.
See if the LMS uses the Rustici Engine
The Rustici Engine is a software platform integrated into an LMS to manage the import and launch of SCORM, xAPI, cmi5, and other e-learning standard files.
It also comes with a player for SCORM-compliant content that works on various platforms, from desktop computers to smartphones and tablets.
The Rustici Engine (formerly known as the SCORM Engine) is considered by many to be the gold standard in e-learning training content management and delivery.
Now that you know what to look for in a SCORM-compliant LMS, let’s review some examples of LMS platforms that work with this set of standards.
5 of the best SCORM-compliant learning management systems
Having a learning management system in your tech stack is a necessity these days for any company. From onboarding to employee training, these platforms support your organization’s learning and development efforts.
There are many LMS features to consider when choosing a vendor, and SCORM compatibility is a big factor.
So, here are our top picks for LMS platforms that conform to the SCORM standard.
Platform #1: Docebo
Docebo is a cloud-based LMS that allows organizations to create, manage, deliver, and assess online training. It comes with a user-friendly mobile app for learners on the go.
With modern functionality like gamification and social learning, Docebo can deliver the learning experiences that today’s learners require. What’s more, its advanced analytics and reporting allow L&D teams to pull insightful data on training activities.
Of course, since it’s on this list, this LMS is compatible with SCORM. Specifically, SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 third edition standards; the two most widely used standards in the e-learning industry.
Who Is It For?
Any company that needs to deliver learning online, such as for sales or compliance training, can use Docebo. Moreover, since the platform is compatible with the two most common SCORM standards, you can import any existing learning courses.
Similarly, any SCORM-compliant courses you buy from third-party vendors will work in Docebo.
Top Features
Compatible with SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 third edition
Gamification and social learning features
AI-based features, including virtual tutors
Platform #2: Litmos
Litmos is cloud-based LMS software designed to help organizations deliver training to their employees, stakeholders, and partners.
Litmos allows users to customize their training materials with logos and colors, ensuring the learning environment matches the company’s overall branding.
Like most modern LMSs, it can deliver training to many users across devices such as desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets.
When it comes to SCORM, Litmos is compatible with SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 (but only the first and second editions).
Who Is It For?
Litmos focuses on being fast to deploy, user-friendly, and customizable. Therefore, companies that want to get their learning programs up and running quickly and customize the experience to fit their brand might want to look into this LMS.
Top Features
Compatible with SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 (first and second editions)
High level of customization
Built-in content authoring
Platform #3: LearnUpon
LearnUpon is another option for companies looking for a cloud-based LMS that’s SCORM-compatible.
Typical of cloud-based LMSs, LearnUpon supports multiple use cases, including partner and member training. In addition to this, you can expect features like gamification, social learning, and integrations with popular webinar platforms that enable blended learning.
Who Is It For?
If you’re looking for an LMS with all the modern features and SCORM compatibility, LearnUpon can be a good solution. It supports importing courses in the SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 formats, so most of your existing SCORM files will be usable in this LMS.
Top Features
Compatible with SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 (third and fourth editions)
Integrations with webinar platforms
Learning portals: separate learning environments for different audiences
Platform #4: iSpring Learn LMS
iSpring Learn is the cloud-based LMS offered by iSpring Solutions, the creators of iSpring Suite—an e-learning authoring platform.
Companies can use iSpring Learn to power various kinds of online training like onboarding and sales training. The LMS also has an in-built employee performance appraisal tool.
Who Is It For?
One feature that sets iSpring apart from most LMSs is that it offers unlimited cloud storage as part of its subscription pricing plan. That means instructional designers and other e-learning staff can upload as many files as they need.
Also, companies can white-label this LMS, both on the desktop and in mobile apps.
If you also choose to use iSpring Suite as your authoring tool, you can create content in PowerPoint, which the platform will automatically convert into e-learning training courses.
Top Features
Compatible with SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004
Unlimited cloud storage
Built-in employee performance appraisal
Platform #5: Skilljar
Skilljar is an LMS platform that focuses on customer and partner education.
Because of that, Skilljar focuses on providing users with native data and analytics capabilities to measure the effectiveness of their learning content.
Additionally, it provides full Salesforce integration and the option to export data in CSV format.
Who Is It For?
Unlike other LMSs on this list that aim to be an all-in-one solution for online training, Skilljar focuses on educating external stakeholders – your customers and your partners.
As such, this LMS may be the best fit for companies with products or services that require investment in customer success. Or companies that have channel partners that need training.
Top Features
Compatible with SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 (third and fourth editions)
Built-in data gathering and analytics
Integration with Salesforce
Now over to you
There are many different solutions for corporate training and e-learning. With so many LMSs and authoring tools on the market, it’s necessary to have standards to govern them.
SCORM is the most popular of these standards and lets various parts of the e-learning puzzle communicate with each other. When using SCORM-compliant tools to create and deliver your training, you never have to worry about whether or not a course built on one platform will work on another.
Docebo supports the SCORM standard, which means you can easily import your existing courses or courses you buy from third parties later. In addition, Docebo comes with advanced features such as gamification, AI tutors, social learning, and more to optimize employee training in your organization.
Any company serious about being competitive and providing a high level of service must invest in employee education.
But most companies need help establishing a learning culture and motivating their employees to learn.
A big reason for this is educational content that simply isn’t engaging. Listening to hours of monotonous lectures or going through one PowerPoint after another is nobody’s idea of a good time.
So, how do you engage learners and take motivation to the next level?
Enter gamification. It’s a set of LMS functionalities that applies game design elements to online learning.
Achievements, levels, badges, educational games… All of this can make learning entertaining (and sticky).
This guide breaks down everything you need to know to become a gamification pro.
What is gamification in e-learning?
Gamification utilizes game mechanics in online learning experiences to help capture and engage your audience. It transforms a learning task or objective into a more playful and interactive experience for your learners.
A great example was the ‘Pokemon Go’ fad (rest in peace), where folks ‘gamified’ their walks using an app to catch virtual Pokemon.
These examples show how a little added excitement can reinterpret how we experience something.
eLearning Industry describes it best: “Haven’t you always wanted to reach the top of a leaderboard? Aren’t you used to getting points and completing levels and challenges to get to the next stage of a video game?
All these components have been successfully incorporated into online training asgamification features. Elements like badges, certifications, fun competitions, gifts, and more give an extra spark to your courses”.
Brandon Hall Group suggests that gamification acts as a “positive disruption, a game changer that has the potential to level up the digital learning process.”
But what does it mean for your corporate learning and development projects? It means that when people are given virtual incentives, they’re motivated to learn and achieve good results in the learning process.
Gamification isn’t just a trend in e-learning, by the way. Now, gamified fitness, mindfulness, health, and language learning apps also exist.
According to Statista, nearly 90% of people aged 16-24 play video games, and interestingly, more than 60% of those aged 55-64 also do.
Since there are already so many gamers in your workforce, using gamification LMS features to help them learn makes sense.
Key gamification elements
At its core, gamification has four key elements:
A challenge or a goal that establishes what a learner needs to accomplish to win.
Obstacles or impediments that learners must overcome to achieve the goal.
Incentives or rewards that users receive as they overcome obstacles and complete objectives.
Game rules that define the player’s interaction with the game.
This concept of taking the essence of games (enjoyment, play, openness, creativity, and challenge) and applying them to professional objectives rather than solely entertainment makes the learning process more enjoyable.
Gamification in the workplace improves engagement and learning retention. If learners are engaged while learning and enjoy the experience, the material will stick in their heads longer.
In the market for an LMS whose features include gamification? Before drafting your LMS implementation plan, look at our top picks.
Disclaimer: The information below is accurate as of June 14th, 2023
You can refer to the table above to see the key features. For more detail and pricing info, head down below.
Software #1: Docebo
Docebo is a cloud-based learning management system designed to help organizations create, deliver, and manage online training and education programs.
Standout features include AI-powered content tagging for personalized learning, rich social learning and gamification features to boost engagement, and comprehensive analytics to track learners’ progress and measure the impact of training programs.
Who Is It For?
Docebo offers a wide range of features and is very scalable to the learning needs of an organization. That’s why it suits anyone from small start-ups to large multinational corporations. With a wide range of integrations, it’s a good option for companies looking for gamification LMS software that fits with their current tech stack.
The user-friendly interface (and mobile app) makes Docebo a good choice for any organization that needs a cloud-based SaaS LMS platform. And, of course, for those who wish to add gamification to their learning environment.
Key Features:
Badges, points, and awards
Learner progress tracking
Leaderboards and contests
Rewards marketplace
Docebo Pricing
Talk to a Docebo expert about pricing for your organization.
Software #2: iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn is an LMS that companies can use for a range of learning experiences, from onboarding to sales training and employee performance tracking.
One of the main draws of iSping Learn is its built-in learning content creation capabilities. The developer promises that even those who are not professional learning experience designers can still make courses, assessments, and other content quickly.
Who Is It For?
Like most SaaS LMSs on the market, iSpring can be used by many different organizations. It is particularly suited to those companies whose learning initiatives don’t have large teams behind them. That’s thanks to the already mentioned authoring capabilities.
Key Features
Points for webinar attendance
Built-in collection of badges
Review points and badges in the reports section
iSpring Learn Pricing
The annual business license costs $770 per author per year. This basic subscription level comes with e-learning authoring tools and 24/7 support.
You can also choose the Max subscription at $970 per author per year. This tier includes text-to-speech capabilities and a content library with templates and images.
Software #3: GoSkills
GoSkills is an online learning platform offering courses and training on various business and personal skills.
Users can access learning content on project management, leadership, data analysis, and more.
Access to the platform is free, but you must purchase courses.
Who Is It For?
GoSkills is well-suited for individual use, but organizations can also use this cloud-based LMS platform to create courses with the platform’s authoring tools and apply custom branding.
This LMS platform primarily targets small and medium businesses that wish to upskill their employees, although it’s also suitable for larger companies.
Key Features
Time-tracking goals
Daily streaks
Personalized rewards
GoSkills Pricing
For teams, GoSkills costs $14.50 per user per month if billed annually. Monthly billing will cost you $29 per user per month. The team plan covers 2 to 50 learners. There is an enterprise plan for bigger companies, for which you’ll have to contact the sales department.
Software #4: SAP Litmos
SAP Litmos is a cloud-based LMS that you can use to create and manage online training courses.
Litmos focuses on being quick to deploy and customizable. It also comes with built-in content-authoring functionality.
Who Is It For?
Like most cloud-based LMSs, Litmos can brand and customize your learning experiences to fit your needs.
Because of that, it’s a great solution for companies and organizations of all sizes can use it. Litmos offers robust support for 24/7 learning and accessibility, making it a good choice for companies prioritizing mobile learning.
Key Features
Points and badges
Assigning levels
Team and global leaderboards
SAP Litmos Pricing
For Litmos pricing info, you’ll have to request a quote from the company.
Software #5: Paradiso LMS
Paradiso LMS is another option for those considering a cloud-based LMS platform.
User-friendly, scalable, and modern, organizations of all sizes can use Paradiso LMS to create and manage their learning and development initiatives.
Like most modern LMSs, it comes with support for content authoring, mobile, and social learning.
Who Is It For?
Paradiso LMS supports a wide range of employee training scenarios. With built-in content authoring, assessments, and learner progress tracking, companies can customize the solution to fit their needs.
Paradiso LMS focuses a lot on AI-powered features such as the AI course generator and AI Media Studio. You can use these tools to generate courses and the accompanying media assets.
Key Features
Points and badges
Leaderboards and achievements
Users can share achievements
Paradiso LMS Pricing
For pricing information, you’ll need to get a quote from the company.
4 Main benefits of gamification in e-learning
We get it. It feels risky to play games with your learning strategy. The last thing you want to do is distract or confuse learners.
However, gamified learning has some great benefits. Here’s why it can pay off to incorporate game mechanics into your employee training activities.
Consider these benefits the main reasons you should include gamification in your list of LMS requirements.
Benefit #1: Learner experience
Think about your favorite apps like Nike Run Club, Uber, Starbucks, Duolingo, etc. Guess what – these are all gamified.
We all have that friend who brags about their 21-day streak or Starbucks stars.
The companies continuously play with user experience enhancements because the more engaging the apps get, the more people want to use them.
There is simply something exciting about watching stars, rewards, and badges pile up. Just ask the millions of gamers and Candy Crusher devotees.
Eventually, we become conditioned to look forward to these interactions alongside our purchases or experiences. It’s like getting likes on social media or reaching a new level in a multiplayer game.
This is precisely what you want your learners to experience when they use your learning management system because it will keep them coming back.
Benefit #2: Engagement
One third of employees don’t think their training materials are interesting or engaging.
That’s alarming, considering learner engagement is directly tied to the success of your learning programs and your organization’s overall growth.
If your learners are not interacting with your learning platform or are unproductive and underperforming, you never end up seeing any ROI on the LMS.
The easiest way to get buy-in and engagement from your learning audiences is to get them to a place where they enjoy what they’re doing in the system.
Gamification can motivate people and drive employee engagement. Engagement will go up as the number of points goes up and your learners unlock new levels and achievements.
Benefit #3: Retention
Ensuring your learners are retaining what they learned is a challenge.
Generally, employees forget up to 50% of what they just learned within an hour – you can thank the famous Forgetting Curve for that. With this in mind, we must consider how we present information to our audiences.
If you want your training programs to have an actual business impact, it takes more than just tracking completion rates in your learning platform. What the learners take away from the training experience is what matters.
That’s why knowledge retention is so necessary.
Some healthy competition with leaderboards, badges, quizzes, point systems, and contests can drive retention because, when we enjoy the experience, it becomes more memorable and vital to us.
Whether it’s onboarding or sales training, game-based features make learning fun and unforgettable.
Benefit #4: Company learning culture
Every company wants to foster and maintain a continuous learning culture. Gamification in corporate training sends a message to your employees that you care about their learning experiences and want them to enjoy the process.
If learners are satisfied with your LMS platform and their learning experiences, they are more likely to take learning seriously and engage in it freely.
You want your learners to take pride in their accomplishments. When that happens, your learners will continue to show up and learn.
Taking advantage of learning technology, such as gamification and social learning, is essential to building a lasting learning culture.
Now that you’re familiar with the benefits gamification can bring to your training courses, let’s see which features you should look for when choosing LMSs that support gamification.
Feature #1: Badges
A badge is like a medal your users will get every time they complete an objective of the learning experience. To be considered among the top performers, your learners must earn as many badges as possible for completing different activities.
You can have fun with it and give your learners bragging rights by creating unique badges like “Master of the Universe,” “Smart Cookie,” or “Total Genius.” Badges and points are pivotal to gamification in e-learning.
Don’t worry if this is starting to seem like a lot of extra work. Leading LMSs like Docebo allow you to automate this process. Admin can simply create and assign badges to different modules or courses. Then, learners will automatically receive their badge when they complete the milestone in question.
Feature #2: Points
Everyone likes to see numbers go up, from finance guys looking at their portfolios to gamers climbing the leaderboards. Points are a great way to calculate how individual employees are performing. You can assign a certain amount of points to a learning module, and learners will automatically receive those points (alongside their badge) when they complete the resource.
The point totals can establish a basis for a rewards program or leaderboards. This creates encouraging milestones for learners’ progress and builds some friendly competition.
Feature #3: Rewards
To incentivize your learners to collect points and badges, give them prizes after reaching a certain threshold. Stuff like Amazon gift cards, special company-branded swag, spa vouchers… you probably know what your employees would like better than we do.
If you really want to drive motivation, follow in the footsteps of companies like IBM and Walmart and create an official gamification program. Turning virtual badges into real-world perks is sure to jump-start user engagement.
Feature #4: Leaderboards
Leaderboards display the users with the highest number of points on the platform. It’s a great way to get healthy competition among your learners. Additionally, the number of points a learner has can be a tool for self-assessment.
You can even give out special badges to learners with high leaderboard positions.
Feature #5: Contests
Running contests is a great way to engage your employees with your learning program. One example of a contest is assigning goals they should achieve within a specific period.
Some common contest ideas are “Most Course Completions” or “Scored Highest Points in Course.”
You can also tie contests in with the rewards program we mentioned earlier.
Now over to you
It may be fun, but gamification is no joke. A stellar gamification strategy can boost learner engagement, enhance knowledge retention, and foster a learning culture in your organization. All this results in better business results.
If you want to engage and motivate your learners, switch to an LMS-supporting gamification.
A learning platform with in-built gamification elements like badges, points, and leaderboards will automate the process so you can reap the rewards without the elbow grease.
Docebo comes with many gamification features out of the box. To check them out, schedule a demo today!
Selecting the right learning management system (LMS) for your organization requires careful consideration and strategic planning.
Whether you’re shopping for a new LMS or are looking to replace a legacy system, the process can be long, tedious, and confusing.
An inevitable part of the LMS selection process is comparing LMS vendors.
With over 700 LMS solutions available, it’s essential to shop around until you find the right fit for your organization’s particular use cases and LMS requirements.
Submitting a Request for Proposal (RFP) to LMS vendors can help efficiently evaluate and compare LMS providers, which will ultimately refine and shorten the LMS selection roadmap.
Here’s everything you need to know about LMS RFPs.
Scroll down to access our comprehensive LMS RFP template and simplify your selection process!
What is an LMS RFP?
A learning management system (LMS) request for proposal (RFP) is a document that companies send to potential LMS vendors when they’re looking to launch a new e-learning project.
This document should include company information as well as details on projects you want to get off the ground and expectations about the solution you need. This includes info such as technical requirements and desired LMS features.
The LMS request for proposal tells potential vendors about your company and its needs. Based on the RFP, the LMS provider can determine if they can meet your requirements and reply with a realistic proposal.
Now that we have the basics down, let’s dive deeper into the purposes and benefits of the LMS request for proposal.
What is the purpose of the LMS RFP template?
The main purpose of an LMS RFP is to communicate your requirements to potential suppliers who can provide the right solution for your project, company, and of course – your learners.
Without an RFP, you’d be stabbing in the dark at random LMS providers who may not be able to help you.
Maybe their pricing plans are wrong for you, or the level of technical support is off.
With a request for proposal, you’re establishing clear expectations and a joint understanding of your needs with potential LMS vendors.
The RFP also becomes the baseline for the eventual contract and is a historical record if any disputes arise during contract negotiations.
Now, let’s take a look at the key reasons why you should always send an RFP.
1. It helps you define your LMS needs
Let’s be very clear – picking the best new LMS or migrating to a new LMS won’t be a cheap proposition. You’re about to drop thousands of dollars for an e-learning solution.
With an RFP, you outline exactly what you want to achieve with an LMS and put it in writing. So, it’s a great way to clarify goals for yourself and your team.
After you start the project, the RFP will also help evaluate its effectiveness: have you achieved your learning and development goals or not?
Trying out random solutions and seeing if they stick is not a good strategy. Remember those thousands of dollars …
2. It helps you better understand LMS requirements
As with any project in your company, starting a new e-learning project is about getting from point A to point B. There are many ways to achieve that, but not all are equal.
Working on your RFP, you’ll be able to drill down into what you need from an LMS.
Do you need the solution with the most features if you won’t use them?
That would be like paying for a Lamborghini when all you need is a Toyota.
Clarifying the LMS requirements lets you know which features are essential, which are nice-to-haves, and which you can safely ignore.
The result is a balance between your needs and your budget.
3. It helps you understand limitations
Let’s say your deadline for the full-scale launch of the e-learning solution is two months from now.
After a nice presentation by a potential LMS vendor, they tell you near the end of the meeting that their platform would take six months to deploy.
Now you’ve both wasted your time.
A request for proposal lets you understand your limitations better, with a focus on:
Deadlines
Budget
Number of users
Specific tech that you need (e.g., on-site installation, e-commerce capabilities, advanced security features, etc.)
In the next section, you’ll get some tips on how to ensure your RFP is successful.
Ensuring RFP success
According to Talented Learning’s John Leh, you should think of an RFP as “an invitation to participate in the purchasing process for any type of software, goods or services. It is a document buyers send to relevant suppliers, outlining the business need, buying parameters, and requirements.”
For the RFP process to be successful, you will have to thoroughly outline the learning, technical, security, implementation, and customization requirements for your LMS project.
This step of the process is extremely important but it can also become tedious.
Together, these two documents will significantly streamline the LMS selection process and help ensure you choose the right LMS for your needs.
Remember, choosing the best LMS for your organization is a big responsibility. This learning platform will fuel learning and development activities in your company.
It’s important to be very clear about your requirements and needs with potential vendors, and that’s what the RFP helps with.
Customers today demand more: 70% expect a sales person to have full context of their needs and deep product knowledge. It’s no surprise, then, that buyers now ask an average of 18 questions per sales call—up from 13 in 2022.
This is why sales coaching and sales enablement are critical.
Both arm sales reps with the knowledge, coaching, and real-world insights they need to provide meaningful, informed conversations.
The impact?
76% of sales reps say sales enablement helps them hit their quotas, and companies with a unified sales enablement platform are 80% more likely to boost their win rates.
The best sales coaching tools don’t just train reps—they embed learning into their daily workflow.
But with so many options on the market (Docebo, Salesforce, Mindtickle, Forecastio, and more), choosing the right one can be overwhelming.
That’s why we’ve created this guide: a side-by-side comparison of the top sales coaching tools, breaking down features, functionality, and what makes each platform stand out.
Find the right sales coaching tool for your team—explore the full comparison inside.
What is sales coaching software?
Also known as sales training platforms, sales coaching tools are software solutions that specialize in training and enabling both new hires and top sales performers.
Sales coaching tools help businesses boost their sales, supply new reps and veteran sales reps with both internal and external sales content, and streamline their overall sales initiatives.
These platforms provide a wealth of resources—from interactive training modules including playbooks to real-time performance insights—ensuring sales reps have the knowledge, strategies, and confidence to engage customers effectively and close more deals.
Benefits of using sales coaching software
Sales coaching software helps organizations develop high-performing sales teams by providing structured training, real-time feedback, and AI-driven insights that sharpen skills and accelerate deal closures.
Faster Skill Development: AI-powered training modules, role-playing exercises, and real-time coaching help reps ramp up quickly and improve sales readiness.
Consistent & Scalable Coaching: Standardized training ensures every rep, regardless of location, receives the same high-quality coaching and performance benchmarks.
Data-Driven Insights & Tracking: Real-time analytics allow managers to monitor progress, identify skill gaps, and refine coaching strategies for maximum impact.
Improved Sales Readiness: With the right enablement tools, reps gain the confidence to navigate customer conversations, handle objections, and close deals more effectively.
By investing in sales coaching software, organizations foster a culture of continuous learning and high performance, driving stronger sales outcomes and long-term success.
15 Top sales coaching software
Now that you know what sales coaching software is, why they’re important, and what their benefits are, let’s take a look at 15 of the top sales coaching software available right now and their key features.
Enterprises looking for an AI-driven learning platform capable of training multiple audiences while excelling at sales enablement from onboarding to coaching and more
Businesses looking for a revenue operations platform that leverages AI and automation to track and capture activity across all other business systems like CRMs
Best suited for: Enterprises looking for an AI-driven learning platform capable of training multiple audiences while excelling at sales enablement from onboarding to coaching and more
It enables sales reps to create and access internal and external enablement content, wikis, knowledge bases, and online courses while fostering peer-to-peer learning through community-driven features.
With a mobile-friendly approach, Docebo ensures reps can quickly access training materials on the go and share relevant insights with clients in real time.
Top Features
Social and collaborative learning
AI-powered e-learning content creation
Gamification and personalized learning
Mobile learning capabilities
Centralized sales content repository
Gong
Best suited for: Companies looking for a premium sales coaching and sales enablement software.
About Gong
Gong is an AI-driven revenue intelligence platform designed to help sales teams analyze customer interactions, uncover deal insights, and drive data-backed decision-making.
The platform leverages AI and machine learning to automatically capture and analyze sales calls, emails, and meetings, providing reps with real-time insights into buyer sentiment, deal health, and pipeline risks.
Top Features
Knowledge base
AI-powered recommendations
Call recording and transcription
AI-driven coaching and feedback
Integration with CRM, sales tools and more
Reporting and analytics
Mindtickle
Best suited for: Business looking to track sales rep performance and competencies
About Mindtickle
Mindtickle is a sales enablement and revenue operations software solution with content authoring and collaboration capabilities.
The platform has several online coaching tools to close knowledge gaps, including roleplaying capabilities. Additionally, Mindtickle offers heatmaps to track learners’ real-time progress and a sales readiness index to highlight sales reps’ competencies.
Top Features
Sales-specific role-playing and simulated scenarios
Heatmaps for sales rep performance tracking
Coaching tool
Revenue.io
Best suited for: Organizations looking to empower their sales rep and Rev Ops teams with an AI-driven sales coaching solution
About Revenue.io
Revenue.io is an AI-powered revenue acceleration platform designed to help sales and revenue operations teams drive higher efficiency, improve productivity, and close more deals.
The platform leverages AI for sales coaching, as well as for call transcription and analysis to enhance rep performance and improve customer engagement. It also integrates seamlessly with Salesforce, providing real-time insights into every interaction.
Top Features
AI-Powered call recording and transcription
Salesforce-native dialer with click-to-call, voicemail drop, call logging, and local presence dialing
Real-Time Sales Coaching & AI-Driven Insights
Workflow Automation & Guided Selling
Seamless Salesforce Integration
Chorus by ZoomInfo
Best suited for: Companies looking for an AI solution to capture customer engagement within sales conversations
About Chorus by ZoomInfo
Chorus by ZoomInfo is an AI-driven conversation intelligence platform designed to help sales teams unlock key insights from customer interactions, improve deal execution, and scale winning sales behaviors.
Its integration with ZoomInfo’s sales intelligence enhances deal visibility, enabling teams to personalize outreach and engage prospects more effectively.
Top Features
AI-powered conversation recording, transcription and analysis
AI-driven sales coaching
Seamless CRM and sales tools integrations (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoom, and more)
ZoomInfo sales intelligence integration
Mobile-optimized access
BigTinCan Readiness (formerly Brainshark)
Best suited for: Businesses looking for a centralized and focused way to coach customer-facing audiences includes sales teams
About BigTinCan Readiness
Bigtincan Readiness (formerly Brainshark) is a sales readiness and enablement platform that helps organizations train, coach, and prepare sales teams to perform at their best.
With on-demand training, video-based coaching, and AI-driven skills assessments, sales reps can practice pitches, receive personalized feedback, and refine their approach before engaging with customers.
The platform also offers content management and knowledge-sharing tools, ensuring reps have instant access to the latest sales materials and best practices.
Top Features
Interactive, on-demand learning
Video-based coaching and feedback
AI-driven skills assessments
Content-driven learning and knowledge management
CRM and sales enablement integrations
Performance analytics
Salesloft
Best suited for: Companies looking for an established sales enablement software to orchestrate all their revenue needs
About Salesloft
Salesoft is an AI-driven revenue-orchestration platform designed for revenue-generating and customer-facing audiences like revenue operations teams, sales leaders, account executives, sales development reps, customer success teams and marketing staff.
By combining AI-powered insights, automation, and multichannel engagement, Salesloft helps teams streamline workflows, optimize sales strategies, and drive meaningful customer interactions.
Top Features
AI-based recommendations and insights
Call recording and transcription
Automated workflows
Predictive analytics
Forecastio
Best suited for: B2B sales leaders and teams using HubSpot who want to improve their sales forecasting and get more insight into their sales performance
About Forecastio
Forecastio is an AI-powered sales performance management platform for B2B sales leaders using HubSpot.
By using AI and machine learning algorithms, Forecastio analyses historical data, pipeline trends and sales team performance to give you exact revenue predictions and performance gaps. So you can make data driven decisions.
Top Features
Real time sales analytics
Advanced forecasting
Sales performance insights
Saleshood
Best suited for: Organizations looking to align at scale go-to-market teams with on-demand, personalized, buyer-centric selling experiences
About Saleshood
Saleshood is a cloud-based sales productivity and enablement platform geared more towards remote teams and used for creating personalized workflows based on data and insights.
Aside from features like video storytelling, sales training content management, business review templates, one-on-one video conferencing, and more, Saleshood also includes training completion monitoring and reporting, performance tracking, scorecards, automated feedback, and an integrated sales enablement library.
Top Features
Learner training completion monitoring and reporting capabilities
Automated content workflows
Automated just-in-time learning
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Best suited for: Enterprises seeking a comprehensive, AI-powered sales platform to streamline their sales process, enhance productivity, and drive revenue growth
About Salesforce Sales Cloud
Salesforce is a content management system used to create, curate, manage, and share e-learning content in multiple languages to help sales leaders and administrators customize their coaching processes.
Easily customizable, this sales coaching platform allows admins to grant access based on specific salespeople and team members, user roles, groups, and more.
Administrators can also generate templates for various dynamic documents, provide data-driven forecasting on both open and closed sales opportunities, as well as test and implement different coaching sessions based on CRM deployment.
Top Features
Pipeline and forecast management
Account and opportunity management
Sandbox and test environments
InsightSquared (a MediaFly company)
Best suited for: Companies looking for scalable revenue enablement
About InsightSquared
InsightSquared, part of the MediaFly Intelligence360 suite, is primarily a sales forecasting and data analytics tool to visualize sales data based on relevant metrics and KPIs, set forecasts, goals, and assessments, uncover existing trends, and more.
With a high degree of dashboard personalization and customization to streamline operations, users can segment the customer base by regions, industries, and more. In terms of sales management, the platform also offers live pipeline management, account-based analytics, sales gamification, customer conversation intelligence, etc.
Top Features
Predictive analytics and data visualization
Live pipeline management and activity tracking
Real-time sales coaching program
HubSpot Sales Hub
Best suited for: Enterprises seeking a complete sales enablement solution that is integrated with customer data from the HubSpot CRM platform
About HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot Sales Hub is an easy-to-use, AI-powered sales CRM designed to help growing teams streamline their sales process, improve efficiency, and close deals faster.
Built on the HubSpot CRM platform, Sales Hub unifies customer data, engagement tools, and automation to create a single source of truth for sales teams, ensuring seamless collaboration and smarter selling.
The platform also integrates seamlessly with HubSpot’s expansive ecosystem of apps and solutions partners, allowing businesses to build a customized, end-to-end sales experience.
Top Features
Workflow automation
Centralized sales and customer data repository
Conversation recording, transcription, and analysis
Best suited for: Businesses looking for a revenue operations platform that leverages AI and automation to track and capture activity across all other business systems like CRMs
About Clari
Clari is a revenue operations platform that leverages artificial intelligence and automation to track and capture activity across all other business systems. For example, it tracks data from CRM, email, messaging, calendar, call recordings, customer interactions, conversations, etc.
The tool collects all of this information and aligns it with individual sales accounts and opportunities to streamline forecasting and sales visibility, improve win rates, and generate predictive insights.
Top Features
Data sourcing and segmentation
Live forecasting and predictive analytics
Sales coaching and team performance tracking
Salescamp
Best suited for: Companies looking for a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) with a sales focus
About Salescamp
Salescamp is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) that helps companies manage their sales processes by providing sales reps with various features, such as email outreach, pipeline management, lead generation, and reporting capabilities.
Aside from automating email sequences and data collection, Salescamp connects and synchronizes contact information, such as phone and email, and records any sales communication activity.
Salescamp’s daily sales overview ensures that sales teams conduct scheduled follow-ups, while its reporting functionalities highlight sales team performance.
Top Features
Task, activity, and pipeline management
Activity reminder notifications
Self-service knowledge base
Now that we’ve covered the 15 best tools in the market for sales coaching, let’s go how to choose the best sales coaching tools for your business needs.
How to choose the best sales coaching tool
Selecting the right sales coaching tool is crucial for improving rep performance, increasing deal success rates, and scaling sales effectiveness. To find the best solution for your organization, consider these key factors:
Customizable Training & Learning Paths
A great sales coaching tool should allow managers to personalize training programs, set skill benchmarks, and offer tailored coaching based on individual rep needs.
Seamless CRM & Sales Tool Integration
Ensure the tool integrates with your existing CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) and other sales enablement tools to keep coaching insights connected to your workflow.
Performance Tracking & Analytics
Look for platforms with detailed dashboards, progress tracking, and AI-powered recommendations to identify skill gaps and measure coaching effectiveness.
Scalability & Ease of Use
Choose a solution that is intuitive, easy to onboard, and scalable, so it can grow alongside your sales team without adding complexity.
Mobile Access & On-Demand Learning
Reps should be able to access training, call insights, and coaching feedback on the go, ensuring continuous learning regardless of location.
Social Learning & Peer Coaching
Consider tools that facilitate knowledge sharing, role-playing exercises, and peer-to-peer learning to create a collaborative coaching environment.
Bottom line: How to make sales coaching as smooth as possible – a case study
When you’re on the lookout for the best sales coaching tools on the market, you need to make sure that they’re able to satisfy all your needs and requirements.
Opting for a solid all-rounder that fits well into your existing tech stack is often the best choice. For example, with Docebo, organizations can provide engaging training and sales enablement materials to reps, helping them to perform better.
Take La-Z-Boy as an example. After implementing Docebo, La-Z-Boy transformed its sales enablement strategy, equipping its global network of selling associates with on-demand, brand-aligned training that directly improved their ability to engage customers and drive sales.
Take a tour of the Docebo platform, and schedule a demo today and see why Docebo is trusted by over 3,800 companies worldwide like La-Z-Boy with sales enablement and more.
Frequently asked questions
How can I ensure the successful implementation of sales coaching tools?
There are several steps companies can take to ensure a successful implementation, including choosing a vendor with a comprehensive onboarding program, an effective success team, and responsive customer support.
In addition, they also need to conduct regular direct feedback from their sales representatives to ensure they’re getting the most out of the platform as possible.
How can I measure the ROI of sales coaching tools?
The most effective way of measuring the ROI of your sales coaching tool is to compare your sales metrics and key performance indicators before and after you start using the tool.
For example, is the platform decreasing ramp time? Is it shortening sales cycles?
If the difference between them is above the costs of using the platform, you are experiencing a positive ROI.
Are there any security concerns of using sales coaching tools?
Data security should always be a top priority when using software solutions of any kind, not just sales coaching tools.
In this particular case, companies need to pay close attention to any potential security breaches, unauthorized user access, or company, user, or client data loss.
Companies need to make sure that their sales coaching tool vendors uphold the highest security standards, such as data encryption, mobile security, multifactor authentication, storage data backup, and more.
Do sales coaching tools require a substantial learning curve for sales managers and teams?
This depends in large part on the complexity of the user interface and the number of features and functionalities a sales tool has.
Nevertheless, professional sales coaching tools should have a comprehensive onboarding process to help clients lower their time-to-productivity as much as possible.
How often should sales coaching tools be updated to stay aligned with evolving sales practices?
Coaching tools vendors should update their platforms as often as sales practices change.
In addition, they should regularly update them to fix any outstanding bugs, lags, or other issues encountered by customers on a regular basis.
