Why Performance Enablement Is the Future of Direct Selling

In terms of field sales training and performance, direct selling is in a quandary. Digitalization – now – is a must. The gig economy, an alternative to direct selling’s business model, is poised to reach $455 billion in 2023. Meanwhile, margins are low and economic uncertainty abounds, with inflation continuing to impact stock prices and interest rate hikes looming on the horizon. This will no doubt affect consumer behavior.

So direct selling firms have to cut costs. But they also have to digitalize to keep pace with large gig platforms and show the viability of direct selling for the 2020s. How to trim SG&A costs while digitalizing and raising revenue? One solution is to employ the right field sales training and performance technology. 

What Is the Role of Field Sales Training and Performance Tech?

Many direct selling companies might see digitalization as a losing investment. Basically, spend money on digitalizing without getting the investment back. They think of workforce gamification software or learning experience platforms. Executives and administrators might see field tech simply as a way of improving their brand and direct seller experience, but not so much a way of generating revenue through sales enablement software. There, however, they would be wrong.

At least if we’re talking about the right kind of field sales training and performance tech – what we have in the past called performance enablement. The right kind of performance enablement platform (PEP) can drive sales productivity and volume and learning at the same time, within a single platform, both consolidating multiple tools in one place while driving the most productive behaviors. 

The role of field sales training and performance technology is not just to improve brand and direct seller experience, as some executives might think, or to make administrators and distributors more efficient. No, it goes deeper than that: the role of such technology should be to create organizational value, improve real business outcomes, and cut costs.

Performance Enablement Tech as a Solution for Today’s Direct Selling Organization

If they want to compete against large gig platforms in 2023 and beyond, direct selling enterprises need to digitalize. But they should do so in a financially sustainable way. Rallyware’s Performance Enablement Platform connects learning and to-do activities to transform the distributor experience into something far more powerful and robust than ever before. This isn’t just workforce gamification or learning software. Far from it. PEP presents companies and their field of distributors with an entire experience, with multiple positive impacts. Here’s a rundown:

1. Centralize Tech: Rallyware centralizes the entire distributor journey in one hub, from field sales training to performance-boosting to-dos and rewards. Every tool gets consolidated in one digital app for the field. That way direct selling orgs cut down on costs to vendors, create efficiencies for administrators and the field, and reduce the amount of time needed to train and learn the technology.

2. Personalize UX: Rallyware personalizes the experience for the distributor as she continues to use the platform. Rallyware reflects her goals, visualizing them for her as well as her progress. The platform evolves and grows to suit the individual user the more she uses it, basing her present experience on her past performance data.

3. Realize KPIs: Rallyware keys the workforce experience to organizational KPIs, integrating with external data systems to make sure that the right actions are being triggered for the field, driving the right metrics for the desired business outcomes. Essentially, Rallyware understands what KPIs need to be met at what moment, based on data integrations, and calibrates the user’s journey to meet that.  

Following analysis and research, which can be seen in our PEP white paper, we learned that the following results obtain following PEP adoption:

*+21.8% productivity gains after completion of personalized activities

*58% of activities surfaced by smart notifications completed

*+131% productivity gains after enablement of smart notifications

That’s just a sampling of the results that Rallyware’s PEP generates – real, tangible business outcomes that lead to cut costs and boosted revenue, all while making corporate admins’ work lives easier.To motivate and engage your workforce, you’ll need the right technology – a platform using context and data to trigger the right activities at the right times for the right behaviors. Click here to see Rallyware in action or read more about our performance enablement suite.