Video training for sales reps is growing as more and more companies are discovering the positive impact it can have on improving sales force productivity. Research has shown that “more than 80% of learning takes place visually and that a combination of video and audio demonstrations are effective ways to learn tasks.” Let’s examine three very specific ways pacesetting companies are using video to enhance their training of sales personnel.

1. Improve onboarding.

Okay, so you’ve heard this before. But you may be less familiar with exactly how video can enhance the onboarding process. Of course, this isn’t focused exclusively on sales reps. The benefits of formal onboarding spread across the entire employee roster. Here are three ways video can enhance onboarding.

Presenting Culture, Vision, and Mission

Video is incredibly versatile and is an ideal medium for conveying the subtleties of corporate personality. Since these topics are the unchanging foundation of a company, there’s no reason to keep introducing them live again and again. Why not do a stellar job of presenting them one time on video—and then leverage the video again and again?

Facility Tours

It’s simply not a good use of time and resources to repeatedly tap valued employees to lead tours for new folks when a video can do the job flawlessly. Video is a way to get a better bang for your buck. Besides, a virtual tour is absolutely consistent and predictable, which eliminates the potential misunderstandings or miscues that can grow from casual, off-the-cuff comments from tour leaders.

Overview of the Whole Organization

A video can bring the organizational chart to life in a special way. Informational videos and heartfelt welcoming comments from leaders across the company can go a long way toward making new employees feel well-connected. Videos don’t hurt to combat tribal knowledge for new employees, either.

2. Show how your product or service works and explain its benefits.

This is just another example of how video can standardize and unify presentations. Clearly, this is a huge advantage when offerings are technical in nature or unusually complex. Besides, once the presentation is captured on video, new employees can return to it as often as necessary to check, reinforce, or refresh their understanding. This is especially valuable for sales reps who will be tasked with explaining products and services to customers.

3. Bolster sales enablement.

Giving the sales team what they need to conduct convincing and productive interactions with customers is the name of the game. It should also be a no-brainer. But is it?

Consider this:

• 90% of sales materials are not used by sales reps
• 80% of training is not retained after 60 days
• Salespeople spend 71% of their time not selling

Video to the rescue! Video can help solve these and many other problems of equipping and prepping salespeople through improvements in:

• Sharing product news, updates, and demos
• Communicating corporate or sales strategy updates
• Peer-to-peer social learning and best practice sharing
• Customer and prospect communications

These are only a few examples of the low-risk but high-potential uses of video for sales training. With mounting evidence of its success in clearing the path to sales force productivity, there’s little doubt why sales trainers in smart companies are putting their money on video.