In this episode of B2B Business Class, I sat down with Bernie DeSantis III, President & CEO, Insignia Training Partners, to discuss the important struggle for brand awareness in a multi-screen environment.
We also talked about how you can make onboarding and continuing education more engaging, and why a presentation is about much more than just your speaking ability.
Customer Experience: The Attention Struggle Is Real
Bernie’s on a mission to help businesses better represent themselves in a virtual environment. Like so many others, he was very involved in the virtual space during the pandemic, where everyone was working and moving online.
While some companies transitioned well, others didn’t and were stuck with mundane or lackluster “talking heads” events that were more like a one-way street.
“Today’s learners don’t want to be talked at — they want to have an engaging experience,” Bernie said.
He also mentioned that to succeed with virtual events, presenters need to proactively leverage built-in features to take advantage of opportunities that Zoom can provide.
For example, he believes that many business leaders use breakout rooms but don’t know the tool very well, resulting in wasted time. He also argued that polling questions are highly underutilized, and this tool is useful for testing the audience’s knowledge or “taking the temperature” on a specific topic.
Bernie also mentioned something presenters must be aware of — most people work from multiple screens. This means there are plenty of reasons for them to get distracted, therefore keeping them engaged and focused is paramount.
“What you need to do as the facilitator, as the presenter, is to bring people back to the platform,” he emphasized.
“You need to bring them back to the platform, have them click a button, [and] have them participate somehow. That draws their attention back to you, back to the platform, [and] back to the subject matter at hand.”
The Importance of Maintaining Engagement
As the world becomes increasingly digitized, many companies have moved their training online. While this enables people to learn at their own pace and discretion, the material tends to be less engaging, leading to distraction and procrastination.
While making compliance and technical-type training more engaging can be challenging, there are several opportunities in areas like sales, customer service, and communication to make the sessions more interesting and interactive.
Bernie stresses that to succeed, there needs to be a military-style process in place for participants:
You tell them how to do it
You show them how to do it
You ask them to do it
You ask them to practice
You review the steps with them
“You can’t teach a salesperson how to sell by having them sit in front of a computer and click buttons because guess what? They’re not selling to a computer. They’re selling to other human beings,” he said.
Presentations Go Beyond Just Your Presentation Ability
Bernie believes that learning can be used as a marketing activity. He’s seen it first-hand with a client who leverages learning and virtual production value to deepen relationships with his team and clients.
He also cautions against those who think being a subject matter expert is sufficient to conduct a presentation, training, or virtual masterclass.
The main challenge lies in the ability of the presenter or trainer to engage with participants. While they may be experts in their field, they may not necessarily have the skills to leverage Zoom or Teams as a platform to increase engagement.
For example, they often:
Don’t stop to “check the pulse” of the room
Don’t direct question or bring anyone off of mute to participate in the discussion
Don’t ask participants to drop a comment into the chat
Don’t strive to keep the audience’s attention
Bernie feels this is a missed opportunity that must be improved at all costs. Ignoring this could result in a high drop-off rate or participants losing interest.
“If you are not putting on a good training where people are engaged in taking value away from it, how many of them do you think are going to be open to being marketed to after that webinar?” he explained.
Switching From Being a Part of the Culture to Setting the Culture
Bernie’s entrepreneurial journey is truly incredible. He started as a mortgage banker at Quick Loans straight out of university and became very passionate about sales.
He worked his way through different companies and became a star employee at Insignia Training, where the owner asked him to take over the reins from her as she prepared to retire.
It was quite an adjustment for Bernie to step out of his previous role and run the entire organization, but it was a challenge he was excited to take on.
“When you have to step out of that individual contributor role, and now you're running the entire organization, it's not just [about] my values and how I show up every day,” he said. “I need to be able to communicate with the team and all of the contractors that I work with, what the expectations are, [and] how things will operate.”
Bernie admits it was difficult to step back and think about setting the tone for the entire team and it was a deliberate and conscious process.
“As an organization, what do I do? What do we want to stand for? How do we want to operate this business? What type of service [and value] do we want to deliver to our clients?” he reflected.
It was important to go through this process, as that’s ultimately what helped to grow the company further and take it to the next level, which became that larger enterprise-type company.
For more insights from Bernie DeSantis III, you can listen to this episode of B2B Business Class on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
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