Because salespeople are social individuals that relate well with people, creating characters that they associate with can be a powerful training tool. Salespeople connect well to other salespeople. Like most professions, they have more respect for learning from someone who has been in the trenches and understands their pain. Enter characters and avatars.

Characters help build a story. They convey a realistic "a day in the life" perspective. The story telling approach with decision points along the way offers scenarios that feel authentic to salespeople. Salespeople need to identify with the subject matter expert as well as the customer. By developing accurate characters you can help the salesperson identify with both.

Consider a compelling movie. A good storyline is paramount, but it's the characters you connect with that ensure how engrossed you become in the film. Actors that the audience perceives as genuine provide an opportunity for the viewer to connect with them and share the highs and lows of that character. In training modules, gripping characters will engage learners to achieve the learning objectives and retain the new knowledge more effectively.

Learners gravitate toward characters that reflect themselves. Allow gender, age, personality types, attire, and even names to reflect your audience. Having a cast of characters already photographed gives you the flexibility to use different characters depending on the circumstances and learning module. Reusing characters provides variety and continuity in your learning lessons.

For the Avon account, Via conducted a thorough needs assessment to identify the specific training needs of the large audience of independent Avon representatives. As part of this research phase, an instructional designer enrolled as an representative to uncover first-hand knowledge of the intended audience. The needs assessment also included

• interviews with stakeholders
• a visit to Avon's Customer Care Center
• job shadowing
• phone interviews.

The most important result of this assessment was a comprehensive understanding of who the audience is and what they need from their training program. With this information, Via created a custom cast of 20 online mentors and supporting characters who reflect the audience profiles. The needs assessment process also enabled developers to create the proper tone, inflection, dialogue, and pace.

Another way for characters to reflect your learners is to allow the learner to create their own character. At the beginning of a training module, the learner can customize their mentor before beginning the lesson. It is interactive, gets the learner involved and is fun. It also addresses an adult learner's need to have control of their learning.

Your cast of characters can even include real employees. Use top performing sales people as your cast in order to provide recognition for their stellar performance. This strategy is a win-win for everyone: Your top sales people get the recognition they crave and you save money in the budget, too.

Characters add to your content by creating context for the learner. Characters can also serve as a learning buddy for your online learner. For the new or inexperienced employee a learning buddy can provide support and guidance. The learning buddy can be a safe way to explore new knowledge. Conversely, the learner can choose to compete with the character. It's no secret that, by nature, salespeople are competitive. They like to demonstrate their knowledge and be challenged. Most salespeople enjoy competition, so characters can play an antagonist role in your training.

Characters can also model behavior for your learners. A new sales person can learn the expectations for behavior by watching and interacting with your character. Likewise, an underperforming sales person can gain insight on tips and techniques needed to be successful in their role.

Via has created more than 10 training courses for Avon with an average seat time between 15 and 20 minutes each. Each course includes one mentor and between two and five supporting characters. The entire course is narrated by the characters and optional closed-caption text is available for all learners. Feedback is provided for interactive segments of the course. The tone reflects an expectation that was uncovered in the needs assessment: the Avon training audience needs and expects friendly encouragement, mentorship, clear instructions, and step-by-step process explanations.

To prepare to incorporate the characters into the courses, two custom photo shoots took place. Professional models and voice-over talent were selected, and the characters were given names and storylines. Avon was involved every step of the way; they were present at the photo shoots and were available while the professional audio was recorded for the courses. Avon's direct involvement also allowed for customized wardrobes and Avon make-up, jewelry, and accessories.

If a photo shoot with professional models is not in your budget, animated characters can be used. A benefit of animated characters is that they can be updated easily. Search the web for the many providers of animated characters. One company offering this technology is CodeBaby(r), which has created interactive 3D characters that can be incorporated into websites, e-learning materials, and other online services.

Use characters to elaborate learning points through drama and humor. This helps the learner relate to the character and adds to the overall content of the module. Create characters that get your learners talking to each other. A sure sign of success is when you learners have connected to your cast of characters and are motivated to take more training because they want to "meet" the rest of the cast.

Permit your characters to go on "adventures" in your training modules. Each character is tied to a physical environment and learners click on hotspots to reveal information on certain characters and events. Allow learners to choose their characters, thus creating a personalized adventure. Characters make the training memorable. Think about it: Do you remember facts and figures better or a story comprised of interesting characters and events?

All of the courses for Avon include a learning buddy, also known as a mentor. The mentor's primary purposes are to describe the training content, walk the learner through processes in a step-by-step manner and to provide constructive feedback and encouragement throughout the course. The mentors and the supporting characters serve as models of leadership-archetypes that the representatives who want to build their Avon businesses can aspire toward.

In addition, Avon's courses were first created in English, but Via is in the process of translating all courses to Spanish as well. In doing this, English-speaking characters will be replaced with characters with Hispanic characteristics, and the Spanish-speaking characters have new names. The dialogue is being translated by a third-party vendor, but it is also being reviewed by internal Avon employees to check for audience appropriateness.

Because the typical business of salespeople is to solve problems for their customers, training should allow them to practice problem-solving skills. Create training that mirrors the problem-solving environment by integrating projects, fieldwork, case studies, simulations, and games. Allow the salesperson to handle questions, objections, and customer-facing problems with characters. Use the characters you build to represent the customer so that the scenario feels realistic to the salesperson.

Some successful strategies used in the Avon courses included

• helpful, friendly tone to inspire and encourage learners
• logical dialogue-based instruction supported by closed-captioned text, supplemental on-screen text and images
• support of PDF job aids described by the characters in the courses and available for download at any time
• constructive feedback for interactive portions of the courses.

Finally, Via built an end-of-course survey that includes five questions and a free-form comments field. These surveys yield important information about the effectiveness of the characters, the content and the courses in general. Although the course characters are fictitious, some learners' comments indicate that they think the characters are actual Avon Representatives.

Characters provide learners with another way to connect to the content. The use of characters can engage and inspire the learners, as well as challenge them. Characters ultimately create a frame of reference, make the training memorable and allow variety for your learners.

Enhance the salesperson's love of influencing people and events. Make the training an irresistible invitation to learn by providing rich media to reach multiple learning styles. The learning environment needs to be fun and interactive with a sizzling sensory appeal. Engage learners in the environment by using characters to show something and allowing the learner to do it rather than just being passive recipients who are told something. Remember, salespeople are doers and this strategy allows them to connect to their strengths. Characters can make your training realistic, engaging and even fun, which makes the training memorable and ultimately more effective.

Published: May 2006