Technology Sales Intelligence vendor DiscoverOrg formally launched a sales and marketing training program called TiLT.  The certification program is available at no charge to DiscoverOrg clients.  Three programs are planned for sales development, marketing, and account executives with a ten module sales development program now available.  The marketing program should be available by early Q4.

“DiscoverOrg’s mission is to provide actionable sales and marketing intelligence that enables our customers to open the door to growth like they’ve never experienced, and we are leading by example. Our experience as one of the fastest growing companies in the country over the past decade gives us a unique perspective, and the TiLT training program is grounded in real-life, practical examples of what works and doesn’t work in today’s incredibly tough sales environment,” said Henry Schuck, CEO of DiscoverOrg.

The training sessions are platform and sales methodology agnostic and allow the sales rep to engage in “microburst learning” with a combination of videos and curated content.  Each module includes a recorded challenge with students self-reporting their level of sales-skill confidence along the way.  Course metrics are then available to sales managers for tracking the progress of their staff.  Thus, a new sales development rep might take two sessions per week over the course of five weeks.

DiscoverOrg is looking to improve the success of its sales clients, many of whom have devalued the value of good salesmanship.  “Conversation is a lost art due to the advent of technology,” said DiscoverOrg’s Senior VP of Customer Success David Sill.

Sheri Schiffman, Director of Inside Sales for WatchGuard, commented on a recent new hire TiLT training session for their Inside Sales team, “We were looking for a way to decrease ramp-up time for new sales employees, and give them new techniques for converting leads to sales. The TiLT training was relevant and provided immediately applicable information and sales skills. Their commitment to our success is outstanding, and we are looking forward to running other new employees through the training in the future.”

The ten-part sales development program contains the following modules:

1. Improvisation
2. Engagement
3. Relevance
4. Trust
5. Conviction
6. Authenticity
7. Persistence
8. Persuasion
9. Creativity
10. Storytelling

When LinkedIn acquired Lynda last year, I expected they would quickly integrate Lynda training tools into Sales Navigator, but they have yet to do so.  The Sales Navigator training and tools section is provided by Cornerstone OnDemand, not Lynda.  When searching on Lynda, there are five Sales Navigator courses, but four were five to seven minutes overviews and one was a seventy-eight minute Sales Navigator Basics class.   Thus, it appears that DiscoverOrg has stolen a march on LinkedIn with respect to professional sales development.

Historically, the sales intelligence vendors have avoided formal training programs.  They usually provide a set of short training webinars, both recorded and live, but these have tended towards tool training.  DiscoverOrg is going beyond mere tool training to certification training in “the art and science of sales and marketing.”