Building a Repeatable Production Process for Sales Training

Why the partnership was at risk

A new client needed ten product training modules for 700 specialist sellers, faster than the team had delivered before.

A sales enablement team needed a series of product trainings to increase revenue on priority products. It was a new working relationship, and I had to earn their trust first. The business moved at market speed; custom learning ran on a longer clock. Until then, product experts had covered the material in live virtual sessions and posted the recordings — which worked for the people in the room, but left no completion data and no single current version to send a seller back to. The target: ten product training modules for 700 specialist sellers, delivered far faster than the team had managed before. Missing it would have ended the partnership before it started.

What was actually broken

The work was already good. What was missing was a way to say when it would land.

There was no repeatable process for managing training production. With no shared view of where a module stood, a project could sit waiting on an input nobody had flagged. Fixing one project would not fix the relationship, so I built one.

What I built and changed

Four changes: a detailed plan, parallel production, contracted capacity under my standards, and enforced review windows.

An 80-task project plan. I built a plan with 80 tasks per module: stakeholder review cycles with fixed timelines, user acceptance testing broken into discrete steps, design and development milestones, and launch prep. I made the plan visible to everyone involved, so anyone could see where each training stood and act on a roadblock immediately.

Four projects at once. The plan let me run four trainings in parallel, each at a different stage, and prioritize whichever had stalled. I also designed a content template for the product experts so they could contribute on their own schedule, without a standing meeting.

Contracted capacity with quality control. I brought in two contracted learning experience designers. I trained them on our editorial and brand standards and our expectations for the learner experience, then coached them through the work. Handing off graphic design, quality checks, and editing freed me for the instructional design decisions and stakeholder management that needed me directly.

Enforced review deadlines. Review turnaround had never been scheduled in advance. I set fixed three-day review windows into the plan, so reviewers knew the date before the file reached them, and I held to them consistently. Once production time dropped, reviewers kept to the windows.

What I delivered

Ten online modules for 700 specialist sellers.

I delivered ten online modules. Each covered client personas and their pain points, competitive positioning, and how the product fit the organization’s sales model. I stripped the technical jargon while keeping the explanations of complex financial products accurate, so the material worked for a sales audience. Each module included knowledge checks (short practice questions) tied to real client conversations.

Screens from the ten modules and the 80-task project plan are withheld under client confidentiality.

Results

Production time fell by nearly a third. NPS averaged 70 and completion reached 70%.

Production time dropped 30% within three months of implementing the process: from over 70 business days per training to under 50, while ten projects ran concurrently.

Average NPS of 70 across all ten trainings (a satisfaction score on a scale of -100 to 100), with a 70% completion rate on training nobody was required to take.

Other learning experience designers on my team adapted the 80-task plan for their own projects, and it became the default approach.

Takeaway

They asked for ten training modules. The production process I built to deliver them outlasted the project.

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“Working on creating training courses with Richard, I have learned he has a deep passion for learning. He is an absolute pleasure to work with when building training courses. He is a quick study and quickly grasps how complex payment technology works. He is an effective listener and asks all the right questions. His deep understanding of how people learn results in engaging and effective training.”

— Sales enablement stakeholder