Why you should never sit in a classroom again!
If your small or even medium-sized organization is like most, you don’t have a dedicated, full-time proposal writer, someone whose sole responsibility is writing and editing RFPs. Chance are, those important duties are bolted onto a proposal-adjacent role and everybody just tries to make do as best they can.
The question is: How can you improve your RFP writing – and win more contracts – while still staying on top of your primary, non-RFP responsibilities? More and more, the answer is through virtual training.
Whether it’s called e-learning, online learning or distance learning, developing business skills through video conferencing, virtual classrooms and other web-based tools is far from a new phenomenon. By one account, the popularity of virtual learning has skyrocketed more than nine-fold since 2002, growing from a $107 billion industry in 2014 to an expected $325+ billion industry by 2021. And with the COVID-19 pandemic changing the way we work and live, employers everywhere are realizing the benefits of getting work done electronically rather than in-person.
The Benefits to Virtual Learning
This type of instruction has several distinct advantages over traditional, in-person learning. Perhaps the biggest benefit is cost: Gone are the days where attendees need to fly to conferences for training, incurring travel, lodging and meal expenses while the home office scrambles to cover their lost productivity. Through virtual learning, attendees can access the same information from their own computers, without sustaining any costs beyond the program itself and an internet connection. (Travel, which can account for up to 60% of in-person training costs, is entirely eliminated by training virtually.)
Reach is a second key advantage to virtual learning. By participating in training remotely, multiple employees can access the latest research and insights from experts around the globe. This kind of knowledge-sharing is not feasible for small to mid-sized companies participating in face-to-face instruction, making online learning an affordable way for employees to broaden their capabilities. It’s no wonder more than three-quarters of American corporations turn to e-learning to increase their workforce’s development.
How Virtual Training Can Improve Your RFPs
Beyond improvements in cost and reach, virtual training offers advantages that directly affect those juggling RFP writing with their primary responsibilities:
Time savings. When you’re trying to write winning RFPs on top of your day-to-day responsibilities, you don’t have a lot of time to waste in your work day. Between travel time, breaks and opening/wrapping up classes, classroom instruction can take up to 60% more time than virtual instruction, leaving employees little room to complete their day jobs.
Flexibility. Virtual training gives employees more flexibility to access the instruction they need when and where they have the time to do so. Because government contracts have strict RFP cutoff dates, proposals are inherently time-sensitive: Companies bidding for government work must adjust their schedules around these deadlines. Having access to quality online training on-demand is a must – especially for those who find themselves struggling to remember how to fit edit at 2 a.m.
Subject mastery. With in-person training, your understanding of the material a month or even a week after the class will depend on the quality of your memory and notes. With virtual training, employees can pause training, reread information or test out of information they already know, and modules can be repeated as often as is necessary. It’s no wonder Forbes reported that virtual learning boosts retention rates by 25–60%, compared to 8–10% with traditional training.
But the biggest benefit to virtual training? It simply works: In a recent survey undergraduate and graduate students who took both face-to-face and online courses, 85% felt their distance learning experience was the same or better compared to a classroom-based course. If you’re interested in converting more proposals through sharper RFP writing – without sacrificing your employees’ productivity – consider the advantages of virtual training.
Case Study: IBM and “Basic Blue”
When IBM sought to teach new managers about the firm’s culture, strategy and management practices, it brought them together for five days of in-person group training – a strategy that proved ineffective due to information overload. With “Basic Blue,” the company incorporated virtual instruction into their training program – and they found managers learned five times as much material at one-third the cost of a classroom-only approach. “Even small firms with modest e-learning programs are finding that the same principles apply.”
“One of the reasons our customers find e-learning particularly effective for retention is that learners can revisit the courses as much as they want at any time for refresher purposes. Plus, students can choose the best time for them to take the online course, according to their timeline and commitments.”
Don Spear,
CEO, OpenSesame
WinBiz Consulting’s virtual training program can teach you everything you need to know to create winning government proposals – on your time, at a pace that works for you. Learn more about this program.