| Customer acquisition and customer retention are | | | | a backup for sales people, resellers, and partners that |
| important issues for any company today. A simple | | | | might not have the same level of understanding of |
| definition of "customer acquisition" is the process of | | | | your products your field engineers. Your sales |
| acquiring or obtaining new customers, and/or | | | | executives, resellers, and partners will feel more |
| converting prospects to customers. "Customer | | | | confident about offering your products and services |
| retention" is the process of keeping, sustaining, and/or | | | | with a good library of training courses and helps |
| growing the relationship your customers have with | | | | available 24-7 on the web.4) Ramp up your new |
| your company and its products and services.These | | | | salespeople more quickly and keep them on the road. |
| activities become more involved for | | | | An e-learning system can be used to train your sales |
| business-to-business, value-added, manufacturing, and | | | | force on your company's products and services. New |
| technology companies that create and distribute | | | | sales people are able to ramp up more rapidly and |
| complex products and services that require training | | | | start to sell your products and services in less time. |
| and specific product knowledge in order to use the | | | | With this system, they do not have to lose time off the |
| product or service effectively. Using e-learning, i.e., a | | | | road to be updated on the latest features and |
| learning management system to deliver web-based | | | | functionality.5) Track your prospects as they move |
| training and support for complex products and | | | | through the sales process. Web-based LMSs can |
| services has several advantages.Customer Acquisition | | | | track and provide data about your prospects as they |
| Uses of Web-Based Learning Management Systems | | | | move through the stages of the sales process. With a |
| LMSs1) Educate your prospects on your products and | | | | custom reports feature, the LMS allows the sales or |
| services. One advantage of using a e-learning to | | | | marketing manager to go directly to the web to pull the |
| deliver product training and support is that the | | | | latest reports on all prospect activity.6) Harvest other |
| web-based LMS becomes an effective way in which | | | | types of information from your market to help your |
| to educate a prospect on your products and services. | | | | company close business more quickly. In addition to the |
| Sales cycles for complex products and services can | | | | data collected on your prospects, a web-based |
| take from three to eighteen months or more to make | | | | learning management system can be used to monitor |
| the sale. In business-to-business selling situations, | | | | your sales force or other users' activities. The sales or |
| several people at many different levels need to | | | | marketing manager can access web-based reports to |
| evaluate the product and must be educated on your | | | | see what products the sales force is actually working |
| company's wares before they can come to a | | | | to sell and deploy. This data can be used for research |
| decision.2) Customize your approach to each of the | | | | and development, to plan product initiatives, to obtain |
| different stakeholders involved in the sale process. The | | | | insight on repositioning, and other tactical and strategic |
| Chief Financial Officer (CFO) will have a different set | | | | initiatives.7) Promote your products and services to |
| of concerns about your products and services than | | | | prospects using the features in the web-based learning |
| Chief Information Officer (CIO). The user interface | | | | management system. Once a prospect's information |
| layout and content of the web-based learning | | | | has been loaded into the LMS, you can use the |
| management system can be customized to each of | | | | features and functionality of the system to promote |
| the specific stakeholders' needs. A web-based learning | | | | your products and services. For example, a built-in |
| management system can contain several courses, | | | | online survey tool allows you to send surveys to your |
| training modules, or repositories of information | | | | prospects with the data being recorded in the learning |
| specifically designed to meet the needs and address | | | | management system. E-mail messaging capabilities in a |
| the concerns of all the various stakeholders in the | | | | web-based LMS allow you to send e-mail marketing |
| decision making process.Most of the decision makers | | | | campaigns your prospects. Sales and marketing |
| involved in business-to-business purchases are busy, | | | | people can use the learning management system to |
| executive-level managers. Since the information is | | | | conduct "webinars" using its integrated web |
| web-based, they can access it and do a training | | | | conferencing technology. The web conference can |
| module at their convenience.3) Establish a knowledge | | | | then be archived and used in the future. Creative |
| base for salespeople, resellers, and partners. A | | | | marketers can develop promotions using the testing |
| web-based LMS used to deliver training and product | | | | feature with the information returning to the LMS |
| support is a great resource and knowledge base for | | | | database. |
| your sales team, resellers, and partners. It can provide | | | | |