Valvoline

Background

Valvoline Inc. is a leading worldwide marketer and supplier of premium branded lubricants and automotive services, with sales in more than 140 countries. Established in 1866, the company’s heritage spans more than 150 years, during which it has developed powerful brand recognition across multiple product and service channels. Valvoline ranks as the No. 3 passenger car motor oil brand in the DIY market by volume and it has an extensive list of subsidiaries including Valvoline Instant Oil Change and Valvoline Express Care chains of car repair centers. Headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, USA, the business currently employs over 10,300 people worldwide.

Challenge

With roughly 250 sellers and support staff of Valvoline products across North America, the company had a requirement to provide its sales teams with a ‘Sales Support Learning Portal’ which could deliver role-specific training as well as house up-to-date learning content on marketing programs, the CRM, sales tools and product information. 

Valvoline had previous experience with a traditional Learning Management System (LMS) but required a more dynamic and robust solution that could not only support the strategy of a regimented sales curriculum but could offer a more engaging and interactive learning experience for a sales audience that had grown skeptical of the value standard online compliance-driven programs deliver.

Solution

To make learning both more engaging and easily accessible, Valvoline partnered with Learning Pool to develop a microlearning strategy delivered via the Learning Pool Platform. Valvoline also utilizes Learning Pool Learning Record Store to help track user activity and lay the groundwork for tracking the value of its learning program back to sales performance.

Learning Pool Platform was selected for numerous reasons, but in particular, its advanced search functionality and AI-driven recommendations have been utilized to provide users with learning at the point of need. Its remote accessibility aims to re-engage learners, particularly those who are on the road a lot, with bite-sized pieces of learning accessed via Smartphone or tablet to help them fit learning around a busy schedule.

Valvoline was also able to link the platform to their CRM (in this case Salesforce) so that learners had immediate access to Stream from their desktop and mobile Salesforce dashboard with single sign-on – keeping learning and performance support in the line of sight, at the time of need. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sales Leadership team also established a need to assess sellers on their understanding of the learning content. The L&D team, therefore, built an assessment where every question mapped back to a lesson in Learning Pool Platform. For sellers that rated below a certain score, an individual Skills Development Plan was created to help them advance their understanding. 

This same assessment may also be used for new starters, to be taken at six months and again at one year to help the L&D team measure the impact of its training.

Results

Having rolled Learning Pool Platform out to 250 employees in September 2019, Valvoline has witnessed a cultural shift among new starters who view the platform as a helpful tool for training and performance support. This has been indicated by an increase in the uptake of non-mandatory learning.

Looking to the future

Looking ahead, Valvoline’s L&D team is planning to use Learning Pool Automation to align the company’s marketing campaigns and promotions with the learning of its sales teams.