{"id":22291,"date":"2023-05-19T09:35:16","date_gmt":"2023-05-19T09:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.talentlms.com\/?post_type=customers&p=22291"},"modified":"2025-05-23T08:05:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T08:05:20","slug":"roland","status":"publish","type":"customers","link":"https:\/\/www.talentlms.com\/customers\/roland","title":{"rendered":"Roland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n How Roland upskills a global sales team<\/span>\n in a hybrid work environment<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/span>\n <\/h1>\n <\/div>\n
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\u201cWe would\u2019ve never delivered that much training.\u201d<\/mark><\/strong><\/p> CORIN BIRCHALL<\/a> | <\/strong> VP OF GLOBAL RETAIL OPERATIONS<\/cite>\t\t\t\t <\/blockquote>\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n\n\n

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What global training<\/strong> looks like<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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178<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

courses in TalentLMS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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9,588<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

courses completed<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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30,000<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

assignments done<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Location<\/span>London<\/div>
Industry<\/span>Technology<\/div>
Use case<\/span>Compliance Training, Employee Training<\/div>
Size of company<\/span>

1000+<\/p><\/div>

Size of training team<\/span>

11<\/p><\/div>

Number of happy learners<\/span>

500<\/p><\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n

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About Roland<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Roland is a Japanese company that manufactures electronic musical instruments and software, including iconic synths, digital pianos, drum kits, guitar effects, aerophones, and more. Their sales and marketing offices are spread all over the world, covering multiple regions, from Japan, China, South Asia, and Australia to Europe, and the Americas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


We spoke with Corin Birchall, VP of Global Retail Operations at Roland, who delivers sales training for the sales teams<\/strong> around the world<\/strong>. Not an easy feat when you have to travel to various regions to meet with different teams and train them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


And, as if delivering in-person training to salespeople in different locations wasn\u2019t challenging enough, the pandemic outbreak complicated his work even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sales training<\/strong> in the era of COVID-19<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Once the pandemic hit, all business operations moved online. But much of Roland\u2019s sales operations were delivered face to face, and the salespeople weren\u2019t necessarily familiar with selling via online tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201c[Salespeople] needed new skills to adapt to the new world of work. And we needed to deliver this skills training in a new way, too.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nCorin says<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Timing was a crucial element.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe didn\u2019t know if the lockdown would be one month, two months, or six months. So, we had to act very quickly.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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And as soon as it became clear that remote work wasn\u2019t going to be a temporary thing, the team at Roland started to think about ways to improve their sales training in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In-person training comes with limitations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Pre-COVID, all training happened in person. And while that worked well in terms of building relationships, it wasn\u2019t always ideal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Limited time and budget<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traveling all over the world and taking people off the road for training can be extremely expensive. And time-consuming. So, according to Corin, you can\u2019t deliver training on everything; you have to pick your topics carefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cA lot of the training you want to deliver either gets handed down to managers to do one-to-one in their teams, or relies on the individual.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Limited access to resources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince we delivered training live, in person, we didn\u2019t have an effective means of recording the sessions<\/strong>,\u201d Corin explains. \u201cAs a company, we launch many new products and initiatives within the year, any new hires would benefit from new product launch materials and training, but any sales seminars that had previously been run were less likely to be revisited. As our team scaled, it was more challenging to backfill knowledge without an online training platform.<\/strong>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Limited engagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salespeople would be on the road all day, some of the training would take place on the road, with much of it delivered in small seminar situations. For Corin, this meant he would typically deliver training in 1\u20132-day blocks. This format is not always best for digesting information and couldn\u2019t practically incorporate current gamification or other fun elements that increase engagement and test understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As our team scaled, it was more challenging to backfill knowledge without an online training platform.<\/p> CORIN BIRCHALL | <\/strong> VP OF GLOBAL RETAIL OPERATIONS<\/cite>\t\t\t\t <\/blockquote>\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n\n\n

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Picking the right platform<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When the global lockdowns changed the way Roland (and everyone) was operating, the project team was looking for a quick\u2013yet effective\u2013solution to keep training their sales teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe needed a platform that was ready for deployment, rather than building something from scratch. Within a week, we had TalentLMS up and running.<\/mark> We were able to build our portal and have courses in it literally within the first week.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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With salespeople having more downtime, since they were used to driving to different stores, Corin and the project team didn\u2019t have the luxury of time. They had to add content fast, so their people could start training as soon as possible. And they needed an intuitive, easy-to-use platform to pull this off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe developed about 10 courses in the first week, that helped our teams respond to the sudden changes in the market. That was another factor for choosing TalentLMS.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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But fast implementation wasn\u2019t the only issue they were trying to solve. As the Roland team was looking for a training platform to host their training, Corin was considering all the things they wanted to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest challenges was expanding training to our distribution partners and staff we had working in music shops all around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to branch our training off to different parts of the world\u2013and make sure it was consistent<\/strong>. So, we built a separate portal. Now our distribution partners and anyone working in a store, anywhere around the world<\/strong>, can log in and get product training or sales training.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s not only what people learn; it\u2019s also how they learn that matters. For Roland, training is integrated into their culture. \u201cWe sell exciting and fun products, and we want to be a fun company to deal with. And, while we have high expectations of the staff, we also try to approach training in a fun way<\/strong>,\u201d<\/em> Corin explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s where gamification features played a big part in choosing TalentLMS<\/strong> as their global sales training solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees need to find answers to their questions inside the training platform. Local markets could have their own unique challenges that are not relevant to another market. Managers might want to recommend specific courses after completing the performance reviews of their team members. Or, unexpected events, like a pandemic, could create new, urgent training needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe created the Roland Academy,\u201d Corin adds. \u201cDuring the first 12 months, we ran competitions every week. We keep leaderboards for those who have completed the most courses and celebrate them. We try to have fun rather than just push learning.<\/mark>\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Testing whether people understand what they\u2019re learning was equally important. But it wasn\u2019t just about finding a platform that supports tests. It had to have the right types of tests, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corin highlights the need for building inclusive courses and follow-up tests, given that some of the salespeople take training in their second language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cFor example, we had the flexibility to build multiple-choice assessment tests with TalentLMS to minimise language barriers that arise when training a global workforce.<\/strong>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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A new sales training approach<\/strong> (with TalentLMS)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Moving their training online was mandatory during the lockdowns. But, even though Roland\u2019s salespeople have now transitioned to a more hybrid way of working, they haven\u2019t switched back to the traditional, in-person training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corin explains that previously they had to say, for example, \u201ceverybody in Europe, stop what you\u2019re doing for one hour because we want to share some information with you.\u201d But, now, salespeople have immediate access to training anywhere, anytime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cTalentLMS has allowed our salespeople to consume training on their own terms, when it\u2019s convenient to them.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The numbers tell the same story.<\/mark><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWe currently have 178 courses in TalentLMS. 9,588 courses completed, 30,000 assignments done. And in terms of training time, two years, one month, and one day. We would\u2019ve never delivered that much training.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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While it may sound like an admin nightmare, keeping all training and all reports in one place, helps with compliance, Corin adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe now do all of our compliance training through TalentLMS around the world.<\/mark> And that gives HR a visible record to say who has completed each session and when.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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But it doesn\u2019t end with mandatory training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPreviously, training was available only to a select number of people; those who would attend the live, in-person sessions. But now, with TalentLMS, we\u2019ve made learning available to anyone who\u2019s curious<\/strong>. People are hungry for information in our organization. And we regularly see them going out of their core areas.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corin elaborates on this with an example. Let\u2019s say that an employee has just started working in one of the retail stores, but their ambition might be to go into marketing, sales, or product management. Now, they\u2019ve got access to relevant courses. They can learn and develop in their own time, and get ready for their next step up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe net effect is we are going to massively upskill our workforce across the company. TalentLMS has unlocked this potential that didn\u2019t really exist before.<\/mark>\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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For Corin, and Roland, that\u2019s a powerful move. They\u2019ve been able to expand training and give people the option to craft their own learning paths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cTalentLMS has elevated training<\/mark>, from being something we do to being a key part of everything we do.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n\n\n

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