I already believe that ‘less is more’ in many areas of life, but I’m really starting to believe that this applies to End User training these days too.

Ad hoc online learning is the norm

If you don’t know how to do something, the odds are that the first thing you do is google it. This might lead you to a recording on You Tube. Or maybe you’ll find an article on Twitter, which just gives you enough information to get going. We live in a world where information is so easy to come by, that the days of having to research things in a library or wait to buy a book from a bookshop are long gone (I may be showing my age here!)

We just can't remember that much

When you introduce a new system to users, you’re often so excited about sharing all the new features it has with them, you probably end up showing them just a little too much. You think of all the things they will need to know at some stage, and not just what they need for the first day or week. It’s really easy to overwhelm them. So by the end of the training, users end up thinking the system is actually more complicated than it really is, simply because it has so much more to it than we immediately need. Of course, we all do our best to offer process driven training, that only covers key business scenarios, but even then, we should focus on the 20% they’ll use 80% of the time.

6 tips for preparing CRM training for new users

My advice for preparing training sessions for brand new users of a system:

1. Only train users on what they must know immediately, not all the things you’d love them to know.
2. Provide short, practical sessions and repeat them often.
3. Train users first on a test system, but follow up immediately with workshops where they apply the learning with their own data in a Production system.
4. Don’t underestimate the power of encouragement, building their confidence with easier tasks first.
5. Make the training materials modular and repeatable.
6. Provide the training in several complementary formats (Instructor Led Training (ILT), webinars, self-study reference materials).

Once your users have mastered the basics, they’ll ask you for training on the topics they’d like to know more about, when they really need to know it.

In reality, there's always more training you could provide to your users. But your training will be more successful if you concentrate on providing enough training at just the right time.