Oct 3, 2019
All too often we “commit” something to memory, only to completely forget that information or a portion of it hours later. We sometimes jokingly blame it on getting older, but these growing knowledge gaps surprisingly have less to do with our age and more to do with the way our brains actually work. There is, in fact, a term for it: the “Forgetting Curve.”
Coined in 1885 by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, the Forgetting Curve is a mathematical formula depicting the rate at which humans forget information if there’s no attempt to retain it. The formula shows that humans forget approximately 50% of new information within an hour; that number increases to 70% in 24 hours and 90% after 30 days.
Sales and other customer-facing representatives are likely familiar with the phenomenon. As a sales rep, information about products, services, and even industry trends boost credibility and adds value in the eyes of the customer or prospect. This in combination with the skills and behaviors to effectively convey that knowledge elevates the rep to “consultative professional” and can greatly influence customer experience, customer satisfaction, revenue, and brand value. But with the Forgetting Curve working against them, customer-facing reps have a more difficult time retaining information to be seen as a credible authority and attaining that “consultative professional” status. Even more recent research like the 2006 report Spacing Learning Events Over Time: What the Research Says by Will Thalheimer indicates that “spacing is particularly beneficial if long-term retention is the goal.” Mindtickle’s Spaced Reinforcements has emerged as a critical capability to overcome this dilemma.
Spaced Reinforcements is the industry’s only intelligent and adaptive tool that leverages microlearning coupled with spaced repetition, retrieval practice, coaching, and personalization as well as gamification and smart notifications to promote knowledge retention. Leveraging these mechanisms that are automatically delivered at intelligently spaced intervals, Spaced Reinforcements helps reps stay productive and builds their proficiency levels so that they can retain more information and speak with more confidence, credibility, and authority to prospects and customers. More importantly, sales leaders gain insights into the improvement of the sellers across their competencies.
Through Mindtickle’s intelligent and adaptive engine, personalized questions and scenarios are presented based on how individuals respond to the reinforcement process. For example, if a rep has demonstrated proficiency in a specific area, that area will not repeat as frequently given the individual’s mastery. Conversely, a rep who requires improvement in an area will see increased frequency in related questions and scenarios.
Mindtickle also makes Sales Enablement and Readiness programs more engaging and fun by awarding points for correct answers and attempts. Representatives earn badges for completed levels within established time periods. At the same time, business leaders gain actionable insights into their team’s proficiency and capabilities so they can identify areas that need more help and can be remediated with training, coaching or other skill-building. And, Spaced Reinforcements can be implemented as part of a Sales Readiness strategy to help sales reps learn complex concepts and stay up to date on ongoing regulatory compliance issues that their financial services and healthcare customers and prospects care most about.
In short, Mindtickle’s Spaced Reinforcements fosters a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing that reduces the knowledge decay depicted by the Forgetting Curve. As a result, reps bring greater value, share more meaningful insights, and address business challenges for their customers and prospects — all leading to more closed deals, revenue, better customer experiences, and greater brand value.
So, the next time you forget to remember something, remember to give yourself a break. Blame it on the Forgetting Curve. Then look into Mindtickle’s Spaced Reinforcements.
For more information, visit the Spaced Reinforcements Solutions Page.
