An online sales training program is a vital part of an employee incentive strategy. This strategy should, first and foremost, be well planned. The goals of the incentive strategy as well as those of the company should have been taken into consideration and aptly aligned; the behaviors that lead to the desired results should have been determined; and the corresponding measurable elements should have been placed in a training program that has measurable goals as well as an effective feedback system.

As you mentioned earlier, one of the things to consider when choosing an online sales training program is if it has an effective feedback system. This system should provide immediacy, should make it easy to track performance and should help you set the next targets for each employee or participant in the training program.

Go for the training program that is geared towards education, improving skills and helping empower the workforce into achieving their training goals and the rewards.

Choose a training program that offers the most flexibility and the best and most choices in terms of modules for training. An online sales training program should be able to work with other e learning programs so you’d have more options. It should also let you customize according to what your company needs.

Consider only the online training programs that are easy to set up, load, and modify. It should be user friendly, easy to navigate and easy for everyone in the company to use. This means that you would not need an IT every few clicks.

And it’s better if the training, feedback and rewards are integrated in one platform. This provides not just immediacy but it also makes the entire process easier to track; not to mention making the process very public and transparent.

A training program should be part of a holistic approach. It should be squarely within an incentive strategy, one that has, as mentioned earlier, goals aligned with the company’s objectives. The incentive strategy, and with it, the training program, should also, ideally, be part of a company culture.

Company cultures that focus on education and innovation tend to be more effective than others in producing long term positive effects. A number of companies, in fact, have found great success in fostering a culture of education, establishing company "universities" or learning facilities in the process. Some companies even offer training programs that are not directly related to what the employees do in the company but could potentially enrich the lives of the employees in the process.

A company culture that values innovation, on the other hand, helps keep employees motivated, engaged and focused on creating breakthroughs. During Cornell University’s 9th Annual Human Capital Association Symposium: Driving Innovation During Times of Growth, the participants of the panel discussion, Marc Chini, General Electric VP of Human Resources, Corporate; Craig Hurty, Aetna Head of HR Shared Services; and David Clark, American Express VP of Human Resources & Sr. Relationship Leader, Enterprise Growth talked about supporting a culture of innovation. They also talked about "producing continuous improvement" as another method companies use to drive innovation. An online sales training program, guided by a sound incentive strategy and customized according to what the company needs, can help towards producing this kind of continuous learning and improvement towards more breakthroughs.