Citibank e-ETM: E-Learning Sales Program for Expanded Target Markets Blending online and onsite learning experiences
	The Citicorp Latin America Training & Development Center developed "e-ETM (E-Learning Sales Program for Expanded Target Markets)," a voluntary, self-paced sales training program for 140 sales people in 13 countries. The e-ETM program includes a collection of 15 web learning modules developed in Spanish plus supporting material for supervisors for coaching and follow-up.
	Key Components Blended learning Web learning modules Workshops Converting classroom materials to online Global resources that allow for local customization Support materials to help supervisors coach Performance tracking Personalization with printable record of scenario work Figure 1
	The Challenge The Citicorp Latin America Training & Development Center faced several challenges when they set out to design a training program for their global sales people, including: Low bandwidth requirements Global audience Two primary target audiences including novices and seasoned sales people Given that there was a very small budget and only 90 days to develop the program, it needed to be simple and cheap. However, the project sponsor insisted that the program include some Flash elements. The Solution The Citibank e-EMT is a self-paced, asynchronous, voluntary sales training program for 140 sales people in 13 countries who have attended the two-day classroom training, and who's supervisors were trained as sales coaches for such. The e-ETM program includes a collection of 15 modules (15-45 minutes each) developed in Spanish using HTML, JavaScript, JPEGs and GIFs only. It is accessed within their Intranet, and tied into their LMS. It has minimal tracking capabilities (start, finish, in-progress, completed) and level 1 Kirkpatrick evaluation, plus supporting material for e-learner's supervisors for OJT support and follow-up. The e-ETM program provides an alternative for those groups that cannot attend ILT for whatever reason including travel considerations, budget, time, etc. Figure 1 shows the entry screen for the e-ETM program. E-Learning Strategies Web Lessons Lessons were used to teach sales process knowledge and procedures. They were designed with Clark's Directed Instruction approach, or a classic content presentation that included objectives, procedure-content, examples-counter-examples, practice and feedback. Figure 2 Scenarios Case scenarios were used for the application of processes and procedures. They were designed with Clark's Guided Discovery approach that included a situation, problem, implications, possible solutions, selection of alternatives, and consequences. The case encourages the learner to hesitate in their decision making and offers other expert points of view. Figure 2 demonstrates the various perspectives offered to the learner to guide the decision-making process. For example, before engaging in a simulated conversation with a client in the lower screen, the learner can access the four "guides" in the upper screen for advice. Looking at LMS data to date, it appears that experienced sales people are using the cases more than the lessons. Workshops with instructor-led training (ILT) There is a two-day seminar basic sales training available for sales people that covers face-to-face sales calling skills for a 1-hour interview. However, the ILT is not integrated with the e-ETM program. After the basic training seminar, learners might choose to participate in e-ETM, but it is not mandatory. Likewise, many students who go through e-ETM will not have attended the basic training seminar. Printable account of the learner's case study At the end of each case, and once the learner has made a decision, the epilogue and consequences of their decision can be printed out, including all the links they visited, the decisions they made, the experts they 'talked' to. The learner can take this printout to his or her supervisor and discuss issues brought up during the case. Online coaching guide for supervisors to coach and localize content After completing a case in e-ETM, the learner can print out his or her individual approach to the case, including the particular decision paths that the learner took, plus ethical questions related to sales, such as conflict of interests, pricing policy, and even code of conduct. Learners are encouraged to take this printout to their supervisors for discussion. Understandably, many supervisors might not be as invested in the e-ETM cases as the learners are, or they simply might not have the time to keep up with all of their sales agents who are going through the training, or they might not have the necessary skills for mentoring and coaching their people. Therefore, there is a password-protected coaching area in the website for supervisors [see Figure 1]. The coaching resource area prepares managers to anticipate the sales persons' questions, and allows them to localize the course materials for their particular setting. This online coaching area contains a two-paragraph synopsis of each case, the 'officially-correct' answers to the cases, the ethical issues to consider (contributed by a regional SME,) and remarks about the correct answers that might be adapted to the geographic and cultural nuances of their local markets. For instance, the coaching guide might say, "By the way, we asked learners these three questions and here's what senior sales managers and SMEs had to say. You can disagree with these issues and the SME's conclusions. The purpose of this commentary is not for you or the learner to get the case "right," rather, it is to prompt rich conversations and discussion with learners." Some supervisors might print the coaching guide before meeting with a learner. Others might wait until being approached by a learner, and then print the coaching guide on site. This type of coaching support enhances the engagement between managers and their reports. Online tracking so supervisors can monitor sales person's progress The e-ETM program provides supervisors with access to surfing-path-tracking capabilities, and a printable case epilogue. This allows supervisors to see the decision path and conclusions made by each learner. If working with several learners at once, the supervisor might say, "I see all three of you chose approach A at first, then you changed your minds. Two of you then chose approach B, but one of you chose approach C. Can you tell my what you were thinking? What was your rationale for your decisions?" In this low-risk, virtual situation, learners can discuss their viewpoints on ethical issues without being measured or held accountable for their decisions. Repurposing classroom materials to online Given that they had a very small budget and 90 days to develop this, they repurposed the sales process from a 5 day instructor-led training to come up with the 7 lessons (and corresponding cases). They used about 60 to 80 existing corporate intranet sites to create the 15th module which is targeted to new employees and is a "guided tour" in which a virtual welcome cocktail (one screen with 60 layers of DHTML) offers the new hire the opportunity to ask 30 questions), experienced employees offer URLs or downloadable documents where they can find the answer, and then the new hire selects the multiple choice answer(s), trying to get 24 correct answers which is the passing grade. Techniques for making web-based modules more interactive Through fifteen two-hour web-based learning modules (twenty-four hours total), e-ETM designers made sure that the online experiences were engaging. Cases written to address the style of the target audience. Many web-based training modules are written in third person, and are tradition, cold, and impersonal. The cases in e-ETM were written with a more challenging, irreverent tone that would engage sales people, playing on their competitive nature. For example, questions included things such as, "So, you think you're pretty good, huh? Well, why don't you go ask S" or "I bet you're not going to be able to get through this next challenge." Through usability testing, designers found that this tone was appropriate, and it worked with this audience. Virtual "cocktail party" provided a knowledge check and guided path. Learners were oriented to the materials through a virtual "cocktail" party scenario where they could test their knowledge and find where to go in the materials for more information. The screen showed a room filled with 30 guests, each one representing one of thirty quiz items. Learners would click on a guest and that guest would ask one question. Learners picked an answer from multiple-choice possibilities, then got feedback and suggested links for where to go in the site for further information. Once the question was answered, that "guest" disappeared from the room. These same characters were used in the marketing posters as seen in Figure 3.   Figure 3
	Making It Work The Citibank design team increased the success of the e-ETM program by partnering with vendors, using needs assessment data to get user input, decentralized decision-making, and a robust marketing campaign to boost participation in e-learning- Citibank e-ETM: Making It Work By Targeting Stakeholders and Learners. Successful Results The e-ETM project has been quite successful. So far, over one-third of the target audience has participated in these voluntary modules. Each learner has attempted about seven of the fifteen modules with a completion ratio of 80%. In one country, where limited bandwidth keeps people from accessing e-ETM during business hours, some learners are coming in on weekends to complete the modules. According to Ivan, the project manager, "I think it was successful because it was short, simple, and they [the users] helped develop it." Yes, a free PDA was offered as an incentive, but Ivan found through analyzing the usage data, some learners who completed several modules did not qualify for the PDA, "they did it because they wanted to learn." Lessons Learned The e-ETM project manager, Ivan Cortes, is pleased with the project. "It packed a lot of punch. It was small, simple, cheap, and it has all the elements." He was also candid about what he learned from the experience. Promise less. "I think I committed to too much. I had to do a lot of work myself and at night. Next time, I'd leave out the tour or the self-assessment piece." Make sure to be available during the critical, initial rollout period. The project manager spent 75% of his effort on design and development, leaving only about 25% for implementation. When the project launched, he was gone on another project assignment and was unavailable to address some of the immediate problems that came up. Give more attention to follow-up. They could have done a better job of following-up on the implementation. It is important to make sure that supervisors are meeting with learners to discuss the cases, that everyone can get the materials, and that there are no technical problems. Perhaps as much attention should be given to implementation as to design and development. Give more attention to evaluation. The e-ETM program could be improved with additional knowledge checks. Furthermore, the evaluation section could be expanded beyond the three open-ended questions it has now: Did you enjoy it? Did you learn anything? Will you use it? For More Information For more information on the e-ETM project, contact Ivan Cortes at Ivan.cortes@citicorp.com. Ivan is an instructional designer from Florida State University, and currently Sales Training Director for Citibank in Latin America.