In Episode Two of Train to Gain, co-hosts Erin Raitt and Katie Merrill tackle the critical topic of foundational product education. They explore effective strategies for educating sales teams in both direct and indirect sales models, highlighting the importance of creating versatile, digital training content such as videos, e-learning courses, and knowledge bases.

Erin and Katie share real-world insights into leveraging existing product training across multiple departments—from employee onboarding to customer support—emphasizing how clear content ownership can streamline internal efforts and maximize ROI.

Stay tuned for their "snack box" analogy that creatively illustrates the modularity and strategic reuse of digital training content. Plus, catch up on the latest adventures of the "Angry Birds," Katie’s daughter's softball all-star team!

Key Takeaway:

Invest in foundational product training content first, then strategically adapt it across teams to avoid redundancy and enhance effectiveness.

Don't forget to subscribe, follow, and tune in for more actionable insights, relatable anecdotes, and snack-sized strategies from the Train to Gain team!

Hi, everybody! Welcome back to Train to Gain—the podcast where we explore smart strategies around product adoption, increasing sales enablement, and maximizing ROI. Hence the name, Train to Gain. We appreciate you joining us again. Clearly, we aren't professional podcasters yet, so thanks for giving us a second chance. This is Episode Two. Before we dive in, I'm Erin Raitt, one of your co-hosts today, and I'm joined by...

Katie Merrill. Thanks for coming back, everyone! If this is your second time with us, we appreciate your patience. And if it's your first, welcome to the Train to Gain rodeo, where we're learning to podcast as we go.

Exactly—training ourselves to be podcasters. We should add that to our list. Today, we're excited to dig into something that comes up frequently: educating sellers in both direct and indirect sales models, particularly in the channel. How do you approach this smartly and strategically? We've worked with customers traditionally in direct sales looking to expand into indirect models. What's the best strategy for that transition?

Beyond just sales training, we’re considering the entire go-to-market strategy. Before we get too far, though, we want to clarify a term you'll hear often in this podcast: digital training content. Primarily, we're referring to video content—think explainer-style videos, how-to videos, and even GIFs. It also includes e-learning courses, knowledge bases, and partner resource management software. At its core, it's about digital resources like scenario-based sales training and certification materials.

One significant challenge—and opportunity—we see is that digital content is often created internally by various teams targeting different audiences. This results in redundant efforts. Our key takeaway today is the importance of foundational product education—creating digital content specifically about your products. This foundational content can serve employee onboarding, customer service, and sales enablement. Katie has a real-world use case to illustrate this.

Right. We often get asked, "Who is your main contact at client organizations?" Typically, it's someone in the product team. In one specific example, we built extensive customer-facing educational content—knowledge base materials, self-support resources, and more. Because the product team owned this content, it was straightforward to leverage it later to train their salespeople. For instance, while customer training went into detailed features, sales training could focus more on high-level value messaging and simpler explainer videos.

Absolutely. I had a call today with someone from a marketing team who candidly admitted he wasn't familiar enough with their product to create effective training. That's why it's essential to have product managers and engineers closely involved in creating this foundational content. Later, you can adapt this foundational content for various audiences, such as sales use cases or employee onboarding.

Exactly. If you don’t currently have foundational product training content, there's your big opportunity. Determine clearly who owns content creation and ensure communication is streamlined to avoid redundant work.

Our actionable insight for today is: start with foundational product training—videos, GIFs, e-learning—and then strategically leverage this content across your organization. Katie, before we wrap up, we need a quick check-in on the Angry Birds, your daughter’s softball all-star team. How did they do?

They had a great run, Erin! It was a fantastic tournament. Though we didn’t win it all, we had a ton of fun. It even inspired me to think about modular digital content strategies. For instance, snack boxes at ball games—mini tackle boxes filled with snacks—are modular, just like our digital content should be. More on that idea in future episodes!

Absolutely! Stay tuned for more snack strategies! You heard it here first—Train to Gain, the source for both revenue and snack advice. Thanks for joining us again. Please subscribe, follow, and like. We promise to keep improving. Take care, everyone!

Bye! Thanks, everybody.