Upskill your Sales and Marketing team

Many organizations are struggling with digital transformation. Often this is because they are focused on the necessary technologies and tools. However, digital transformation is much more than that. It is insufficient to have the newest software or implement new technologies as part of your strategy for digitization. To convert your business, you need to develop a digital attitude and have the necessary digital skills to quicken the transformation process.

As the face of your business (and source of income), the secret to digitization is the effectiveness of your sales and marketing teams. However, do they have the skills and knowledge to get your business back on track?

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To make sure that you are continually using the best tools and tactics and getting optimal results, you need to constantly improve the skills of your digital marketers. Too often, organizations take the “usual” approach, with everyone doing their normal job with little emphasis on learning. Even if the job is done, it will not help your team nurture or develop new abilities.

Just as there are numerous platforms for educational learning, there are upskilling approaches as well. First, let us see what it is.

What is Digital Transformation?

Let us start by discussing digital transformation. In short, digital transformation means using technologies to generate new business culture processes, and experiences for customers or adapt existing ones to meet market needs and dynamic businesses.

For your business, consider the most significant area to put emphasis on, and set accurate markers to help you reach your business goals. This could be an improved shopping experience for customers, better marketing and sales integration, or enhanced in-house digital expertise through training programs.

How can you start upskilling your team?

There are many ways to achieve the results you desire for upskilling your team:

1.      External experts

If no one in your team has the particular expertise needed in the skills, you want to train your team in (or you need time to retrain your team), another choice is to hire a qualified expert to teach your employees. In addition, a third-party expert at your workplace can put in the essential tools to help employees put their newly acquired skills into implementation.

You can also use the learning tools if necessary when the expert is not located in your vicinity. This is the case when your specialist is located in a different state or country.

2.      In-house experts

The first people to consider when attempting upskilling are your employees who excel in several specific skills. In some cases, the expertise you want to develop in your team maybe someone’s daily job.

Once you have made a list of the skills you want your employees to acquire consider employees who can teach others. This has many latent benefits for your team.

First, the process of professional development becomes easier as the teacher is willing to teach their peers. In addition, trainers can tailor their training to their trainees as knowledge allows them to better understand their personalities.

3.      Sponsor employees

When an expert conducts a course or workshop on a skill you want to teach your team members, it is a chance to upskill your team. This is often an economical option than getting experts into your business.

In this case, you can sponsor employees who need to acquire new skills and send them to attend the course or seminar.

Employees who take the course can then pass on the skills to the rest of the team members to gain the essential knowledge.

4.      Use mentoring

This is an effective qualification method, especially for new hires. Even if a new employee has rudimentary knowledge about their job, there will still be a gap in knowledge in terms of practice and its applicability to the job place. Alternatively, it could be that you hired someone who showed promise but did not have all the necessary skills for that particular position.

As a result, most new members of your team will need this type of training. Instead of making them move on to a new job, an experienced team member can be a mentor, leading them through the onboarding process in your company.

In such a case, the training continues while you work, and the costs are low in comparison to other ways to improve the skills of your team. Mentoring can also help you improve team ties with a new member.

5.      Micro-learning

Due to limited time or other restraints, it may not be possible to spend a lot of time training your employees. One way to promote lifelong learning is through micro-learning.

Micro-learning allows employees to learn new skills in their own time. This enables your employees to take a short training course in their spare time until the training is completed.

6.      Make it interactive

It is easier to some lessons through practice. However, without experience in the process of retraining, it is best to simulate the actual situation.

How will your team members apply their experience to their work? The learning process should include simulations such as games in which they can apply their new knowledge to solve problems or answer questions.

In some cases, training may be conducted in real-life situations where employees are taught on the job. If this is not possible, gamification of the process will make it more efficient.

The concept of gamification incorporates all human senses and helps people gain knowledge faster and more efficiently than just reading or browsing.

Conclusion

If you want to improve the skills of your team, you have many effective options. To get the most out of your efforts and investments in training, you need to evolve accordingly.

Depending on the needs of your team, you can of course combine one or more of these options. As mentioned earlier, you need to contemplate the features that influence how you train your employees.