5 Reasons to Use Podcasting for Sales Engagement

According to a survey of Chief Sales Officers by CSO Insights, “sales reps are often drowning in content. Yet it is often not the right content, nor is it easily accessible.” Getting reps to find, open and read content can be a struggle. Why? Well, let’s face it. When you’re an incentive-compensated sales person, every minute not spent working a deal can feel like a wasted minute.

Many innovative sales leaders such as Salesforce are turning to podcasting as a better way to reach and educate their sales reps. Here are some of the top reasons companies are using podcasting for sales engagement.

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Reach Non-Desk Workers

In many companies, much of the sales team doesn’t sit at a desk or work in front of a computer for more than an hour per day. Instead, reps are constantly on the road, away from their desks, which can create remote access issues. Email attachments don’t open easily or display well on a mobile phone, and corporate intranets can be hard to log in to at all. By providing a secure mobile podcast, you ensure these non-desk employees can function effectively away from their computers and their home networks, using only their phones. Podcasting using a secure app such as uStudio’s lets reps listen to critical sales updates offline, in the car, or anywhere they have a Bluetooth speaker or need to multi-task.

Make transit time more productive.

Using mobile audio for sales engagement and isn’t just about creating access to content in the field. It’s also a great way to create measurable productivity gains. In an interview with Entrepreneur magazine, uStudio CEO Jen Grogono shared some compelling math that demonstrates this. Here’s a brief excerpt:

“A salesperson at a large global technology company may spend eight hours per month in transit. Extrapolate that to a team of 5,000 reps and that’s 480,000 hours of downtime per year. If the average annual cost of those employees is $100,000, the business loses millions worth of productivity every month!”

In fact, the average sales rep costs their company $18,000/year and 26 hours/month in lost productivity. Podcasting uses mobile audio to reclaim that productivity by engaging sales reps anywhere – especially in the field or behind a steering wheel – so they can continue learning. This makes it an excellent choice for turning wasted transit time into productive learning opportunities.

Audio is a more effective medium than text to improve sales learning and retention.

In a recent podcast episode, business guru Tim Sanders told us: “When we read text, we can only decode 7% of the author’s intended meaning, but in an auditory setting, that comprehension increases to 38%. This means that when you switch from an email culture to an audio-based culture, understanding increases 500%.”

This jump in efficacy is especially critical for busy sales reps. According to an Accenture report, 80% of sales training is not retained after 60 days. If we know audio increases understanding by 500%, why not give your sales team an audio learning option?

Podcasting is incredibly popular.

But you knew this already because, like 112M Americans, you probably also listen to podcasts. Your sales reps are listening too! The stats around the growth of podcasting are impressive: 34% of listeners already listen to podcasts at work; nearly 25% of US adults listen to podcasts in their car; and podcast listeners are downloading 1Bn – yes BILLION – episodes per month. In fact, podcasting has become so popular that, in 2017, it surpassed social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn in popularity. Want to see even more stats?  Download our Podcasting Fact Pack.

Podcasting is so easy, it lowers the bar to production and frequent use.

According to HubSpot, high-performing sales organizations are twice as likely as low-performing ones to provide ongoing training. It’s not that the annual sales kickoff doesn’t have its place. But 5-minute daily or weekly audio updates can make a huge difference in keeping sales reps continually informed. And the great thing about podcasting is that the effort required to make those updates is minimal. All the equipment you need is right on your phone. Or, as one sales executive told us: “if you can talk, you can podcast. It’s that easy.”

Download our eBook, "5 Reasons to Use Podcasting for Sales Engagement" for even more great data on podcasting for sales.