Yuchun Lee, Co-founder and CEO of Allego talks about the significance of interactive content for employee training, learning and development in modern day workforces

1. Tell us about your role at Allego.
As CEO of Allego, my intention has always been to build a community of people that is proud of the work we do and the product we represent. I’ve learned that by leading a team with a high level of transparency and providing them with the information they need, we’re able to make informed decisions as a company, thus positioning us as a top sales enablement platform. While 2020 certainly tested the ability of many business leaders, including myself, the time to observe and pivot allowed me to become the best leader I can be for my team.

2. Can you tell us about your journey into the sales enablement market?
For more than 17 years, I served as co-founder, chairman and CEO of Unica, a marketing automation platform serving sectors of the financial, healthcare, retail, technology and B2B markets. Marketing automation thrives on the concept of just-in-time marketing, leveraging the ability to deliver content to existing and potential customers with the click of a button. The concept of just-in-time marketing stayed with me as I served as VP of Enterprise Marketing Management at IBM and Executive Chairman at Clarabridge. Platforms like Unica, IBM and Clarabridge find success in their ability to provide information during moments of need. I, along with my fellow co-founders, wanted to bring the same concept and ability to sales teams. We believe sales professionals deserve the ability to achieve success by continually learning and accessing the most relevant content and helpful information when they need it most.
Allego offers customers the benefit of just-in-time learning, allowing them to experience faster onboarding and increased engagement to grow stronger sales teams and, in turn, profit.

3. How do you think technology is changing the workforce sector?

Technology is presenting itself in ways never seen before.

Meetings, kick-offs and events once held in-person are now held virtually. Selling has gone completely virtual, with demos, negotiations and team meetings happening via Zoom. While technology has certainly progressed in the past decade, the effects of the pandemic facilitated the progression of technological innovations even further in a matter of months. Collaboration tools, content management systems and video-based sales enablement platforms have allowed teams to continue to collaborate, onboard new hires, learn new skills, share best practices and access content when it’s needed most, from any location. As employees continue to work from home, and prove their work successful, technology will only continue to accommodate the virtual workplace, changing the way we view the traditional 9 to 5 workforce.

4. What is the impact of interactive content on employee training? How is digitization empowering the learning and development processes?
We have witnessed the impact mobile-video learning, content and collaboration has had within teams. Unlike traditional training, which took a one and done approach, interactive content allows teams to access relevant content and training material when they need it most. By sharing new content, messaging and product videos on a regular basis, teams are able to watch asynchronously and access the most relevant content at the moment of need. Of the same notion, interactive content supports peer-to-peer learning, a method that makes retaining and recalling information significantly easier for most, if not all, members of a team. Teams can record and share competitive insights, objection handling tips and other best practices they would normally share on the sales floorThe digitization of employee training, including mobile-video collaboration and interactive content, empowers the continuation of learning well beyond the initial onboarding phase.

5. How can “situation training” reshape professional development?
Traditionally, the onboarding process leaves new employees trying to soak up as much as they can over the first three months. With this information overload, employees oftentimes fail to retain key company procedures and practices that will be essential later on in their role. Situation training is a hands-on approach, allowing employees to learn in the moment, thus maximizing retention and better preparing them for similar situations in the future. For sales professionals, video plays an important role, allowing role plays to be recorded for replay at a later date and insights from peers to be accessed at the moment of need. For example, watching a YouTube video explaining how to change a flat tire is far less useful unless you’re actually dealing with a flat tire. The same concept applies to professional development, giving employees access to the most relevant information when it’s needed most.

6. Why do you think healthcare needs hi-tech training tools?
The healthcare industry experiences compliance modifications on a regular basis. Upon modification, those within the industry, including sales representatives, must undergo compliance training. Tools like mobile-video learning platforms allow companies to train and certify their reps on complex products and regulatory issues quickly and easily. In an industry where change happens daily, marketing and product teams can communicate changes to their global sales force and ensure teams are able to communicate consistently to their customers at a moment’s notice.
A great example of hi-tech training in healthcare can be found with the Ventilator Training Alliance (VTA), which was created by Allego, in partnership with ventilator manufacturers, including Dräger, GE Healthcare, Getinge, Hamilton Medical, Medtronic, Nihon Kohden, Philips, and others., . Allego powers the VTA app, a central knowledge hub that provides free mobile access to video tutorials, instruction manuals, and other ventilator training materials to help clinicians treat patients suffering from COVID-19 related respiratory distress. Since the app was launched in April 2020 as COVID cases were spiking around the globe, the app has been downloaded 70,000 times in 198 countries.

7. Can you tell us in detail about your Allego’s Platform?
Allego’s learning and enablement platform ensures that employees have the skills, timely knowledge, and supporting materials to accelerate team success. Instead of traditional onboarding and training marathons—which are rapidly outdated and quickly forgotten—enablement and training teams use Allego to deliver the fresh, bite-sized learning that employees need to close deals in today’s dynamic business environment. Content is personalized and mastered through reinforcement, on-the-job coaching, and peer collaboration. Nearly 500,000 professionals use Allego to onboard faster, deliver consistent messaging, quickly find critical sales content, rapidly adopt best practices, coach and practice more frequently, and collaborate more effectively.

8. How do you prepare for an AI-centric world?
AI is already a part of our day-to-day lives. Emails, internet searches and apps filling screen time rely on AI to produce recommendations and information we want to see and hear. Just as we adapt to app updates and policy changes, we too will adapt to an AI-centric world with little to no preparation.

9. What are the major developments you are planning
Following a year-long partnership that brought conversation intelligence technology to Allego’s platform, we acquired Refract, a UK-based leader in sales engagement and multilingual conversation analytics. As remote work and virtual selling began to dominate the sales sector, we knew incorporating Refract’s capabilities was a logical choice. Now, not only do sales reps benefit from the software addition, but managers and directors do as well. Refract brings deep capabilities in revenue intelligence—delivering AI-enhanced content and coaching recommendations from sales calls, demos and meetings—that will help Allego customers improve sales outcomes and grow revenue in the post-pandemic era.

10. Can you tell us about your team and how it supports you?
Allego’s team is composed of smart, hardworking individuals who have continued to gracefully navigate a global pandemic, all while making growth possible for our team and company. However, growth and success wouldn’t be possible without the transparency of our team, both in good times and bad. This has given our employees the ability to recognize mental fortitude, empathy and understanding as areas of strength, making them well-rounded employees, and more importantly, people. I strongly believe that transparency, from the executive team, to Sales and Marketing, to Product, Customer Success and every single employee at Allego, has made all the difference in the team we have built and will continue to become.

Recently, the strength of our team has earned Allego recognition as a top place to work from The Boston Globe, the Boston Business Journal and Inc. Magazine.

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