Online sales training: Canal+ chose Didask

What are your projects?

As Training Manager for Canal+ International, I'm in charge of designing and sometimes presenting training programs for remote sales representatives in all the territories where we are present, i.e. Africa, French overseas territories and Asia, so, almost 40 countries. I report directly to the Group's Sales Department, and deal exclusively with remote training for our sales teams.

What challenge did you face?

Creating a sales training course is no easy task when your learners are thousands of kilometers away, with markets and technological usages quite different from those in mainland France. Going digital meant finding a quick design format to create a granular and effective digital learning path.

In Africa, a large proportion of our sales staff are mobile, not based in stores. We had training programs available, but they weren't really adapted to this particular type of salesperson. So I set out to create a course dedicated to them, better adapted to their needs and day-to-day life, because you don't sell the same way on the street as in a boutique.

We had never created anything digital for this demographic. We were all about face-to-face meetings, and a lot about top-down information rather than training. We presented our offers, our products, our services. We tried to highlight their advantages. We also informed them about our strengths, our programming in general, and so on. That was a lot of information to give them in a single day. What's more, practices weren't necessarily aligned between countries; each subsidiary did things a bit differently. Our aim was to harmonize the training system between the different subsidiaries, but also to make it more interactive, more dynamic and more fun for sales staff.

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How did the collaboration and deployment go?

I met a member of the DIDASK team at a trade show in January. She got back to me to show me what you do and your training design methodology. It was while chatting with her that I thought you might be able to help me write this digital training course I'd been thinking about for several months, to train remote salespeople. Christmas was approaching, and for us it's the biggest sales period of the year. That's when we decided it would be a good idea to kick things into high gear and design the pilot for this digital training course. It was a first for our teams!

Initially, the idea was to work together to define the macrostructure of the course and its arborescence, using your “error” oriented methodology. Once the structure had been clarified, what interested me was to create a first module, a first “granule”, which I could quickly deploy to my vendors.

Philip, the pedagogical engineer I worked with, gave me good advice, and explained how to build the module's practical cases. When we got down to the nitty-gritty of the 'job', it was quite easy for me to answer his questions, as I knew what a sales assistant did on a daily basis... And Philip's questions kept coming back: “What would really happen if the sales assistant didn't know this information? “What would happen if the sales assistant didn't make this point in his speech? “What would be the impact of this behavior on the potential customer? And it's true that I'd never before thought of building a training module in this way, thinking in this way. I found your team to be very responsive. I found the result very well adapted, very concrete.

The “trial-and-error” aspect means that you really do become aware of certain things; you go out and find information yourself, because you've realized that you should do this or say that. It's true that by providing top-down information in the way we used to, we didn't provoke this awareness at all before.

Since we were able to create a course of 6 granules (NDL: 6 Didask modules, or a bit less than an hour's worth of content), we were able to embark on a project in 12 countries, i.e. almost half of the African countries where Canal+ bouquets are marketed. In some countries, they were able to communicate the link more easily, and the vendors were able to create the modules themselves. But it's important to remember that these salespeople aren't necessarily equipped with computers or tablets. Some may have smartphones, but not all, and even for those who do, there may be problems of credit, internet accessibility or poor connection. Consequently, some of the sales staff worked on the Didask modules during face-to-face group sessions presented by a trainer.

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What is your assessment?

For me, the most important thing was that we were able to co-construct so that everything was adapted and really corresponded to the needs of the field, whether in terms of business or culture. What I really liked, and if there's one thing I'll take away from it, was the support I received in writing the course, using a methodology that seems pertinent to me: trial-and-error and questioning. What I really appreciated was the co-construction aspect, rather than just telling your company what I needed and waiting for delivery. I think it's really this co-construction that ensures that we're right on target.

What I was also looking for was a method for gaining skills and autonomy in writing these modules, so as to be able to do it tomorrow completely independently, and without systematically needing to call on a service provider. Once you've acquired the right approach and methodology to apply, you can then duplicate it more easily on your own.

Now that I understand the pedagogy behind the Didask approach, I'll be able to use it in other territories and on other subjects.

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What feedback have you had from your learners?

Initial feedback from learners was very positive and encouraging. They found the situations very realistic. They also really appreciated the illustrations, which were simple but very concrete!

"What impressed me most about the course was the customer hook. Because when you manage to win the customer's heart, it's possible to make the sale." - Canal+ trainee

"I was very satisfied because it relates to what we experience on a daily basis in the field" - Canal+ trainee

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