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Web-based sales-agent training can reduce costs for independent sales organizations, but it becomes more difficult to ensure each agent is participating in the online session and learning necessary information, agree observers. "The problem with Webinar versus a classroom is we can't monitor involvement," says Henry Helgeson, president and co-CEO of Merchant Warehouse Inc., a Boston-based ISO. In a class, the instructor can see if everyone is paying attention, and interaction among participants is possible. When using some online formats, it may be possible for an agent to log in and then walk away from the computer without participating in the session. Often, agents' skills over time will indicate whether they paid attention to the online training, notes Helgeson. "The ones that wander off [during the Webinar] probably won't succeed," he says. ISOs that want to monitor new agents' online training can use tools that list how many have accessed the site and whether they listened to the content, says Marc Beauchamp, CEO of Bankcard Boot Camp, a Houston-based provider of agent training. ISOs also can administer a test or quiz at the end of an online-training session to track an agent's progress, he says.
