Suddenly Virtual

CHAPTER 8Driving Engagement in a Virtual Meeting: The Converged Perspective

For the vast majority of industries, the sudden shift to remote work was incredibly challenging, but perhaps even more so for those businesses that were gearing up for a product launch. Such was the challenge for one of Karin's clients that found itself in an unusual position.

A Story from Karin's Perspective

It was years in the making. Meticulous research, testing, and vetting had led to a product that was finally ready to be brought to market. The team brought in to lead the launch was a seasoned one with decades of experience in the industry, but the final planning stages of the go‐to‐market strategy were taking place at a time like no other. It was mid‐2020, and the playbook for what was expected to be largely a virtual launch had yet to be written.

Even the hiring process for the sales force was markedly different, with virtual video meetings replacing the “let me walk you through my résumé” discussion typically had in person. However, scaling up might have been the easy part. The real challenge? Training hundreds of people on everything they needed to know without the benefit of in‐person sessions in a highly regulated industry. The stakes were indeed high.

Any training professional faced a similar challenge with a complete conversion to virtual delivery – for Karin's client, how do you keep hundreds of new salespeople engaged so that they actually learn what they need to learn?

But this challenge ...