Posted on July 10, 2007
RSS for Sales Training
BY JASON CORMIER
Got a prospect who called from San Francisco today to ask some questions regarding the use of podcasts and video for sales training. Although she was definitely in the beginnings of her research, much of the conversation was spent talking about RSS due to her assumption that people would get updated about newly released content via email.
The common question for many is still, "if people don't get email updates when there is new content, how are they updated?" The first answer to this comes in the form of another question: Who is the audience? If it's the general public, for example, you might need to consider how you will assist in guiding people on learning about and using an RSS reader. On our own Room 214 website, we have an RSS feeds page that features a link to a simple video tutorial on how to use Google Reader that we produced with very little effort.
If it's an internal corporate audience (like a sales force), you may want to mandate the use of a desktop application that is installed and launches an alert on the desktop (like a widget) when new content arrives. You may also consider a strategy that ensures content is being received through an ipod or mp3-enabled phone. You could even track who is accessing data contained within the RSS through unique, authenticated channels.
The point to all of this is recognizing that there is a true rollout process to consider in terms of planning, using and providing training on the tools that enable RSS as a content delivery mechanism. Today I was reminded that even some of the innovators interested in using RSS to support new business models need to be educated. And man, have we been educating lately (note: we love this stuff, and day rates are cheaper than hourly).
