Business: Sales Training
Location: New York, NY
The Company
D.E.I. Management Group, one of the top sales training firms in the country, has trained nearly half a million salespeople from some of the most prominent companies in the world including Federal Express, AT&T Information Systems, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
The Challenge
D.E.I. recently discovered a way to improve its customer offerings. According to Brandon Toropov, senior writer for D.E.I., the company wanted to offer pre- and post-training courses online, and found the perfect tool for this in ReadyGo Web Course Builder (WCB).
"I had tried HTML programming," says Toropov, "but it was really inflexible and difficult to use. We were considering outsourcing the project which would have been very expensive indeed."
The ReadyGo WCB Solution
Then Brad Norton, D.E.I.'s Executive Vice President, discovered ReadyGo WCB at a trade show. He realized that this powerful tool would enable Toropov, the content expert, to develop the web-based training programs quickly and easily, and at a fraction of the cost of outsourcing.
"There are many new e-learning solutions on the market. We analyzed most of them." says Norton, "We decided to go with the ReadyGo Web Course Builder since we own and control the actual e-learning course. The course is produced in standard HTML and Java Script allowing us to host the course on the server of our choice."
"ReadyGo WCB is structurally very well designed," says Toropov. "It combines programming and pedagogy into a single, easy to use package. For example, I enter the copy in English. WCB automatically converts it to HTML. "
The first program developed using ReadyGo WCB is based on D.E.I.'s popular Appointment Setting workshop. In May, the company launched an on-line refresher course built using ReadyGo and designed to supplement the company's face-to-face program.
Toropov says that he divided the information into nine chapters. It took him four or five days to complete the first draft, and another day or so to incorporate revisions and changes.
"ReadyGo WCB makes it easy to add tips, quizzes and links to other information," says Toropov. "Because the pedagogy is structured into the program, we know the resulting course will be sound. WCB is also designed intelligently; it keeps you from rattling on and losing people's interest. It's very different from HTML, where there are no guidelines at all."
D.E.I. plans to develop a number of web-based courses with ReadyGo WCB. "It serves the dual purpose of providing a solid new service to our customers while generating a new revenue stream for D.E.I., " says Norton.
