Our customer set out to redesign their sales agent onboarding program, which is the foundation of success for new hires. According to research, employees who had a structured onboarding program were 58% more likely to stay with the company after three years and 50% more productive. Each year, learning coaches are responsible for training 500 first-time agent candidates on 100 products in their portfolio during a 17-week program.
They recognized that educating agents on such a large body of information, while also equipping them with the tools and resources needed to run their new business, required a strategic and modern approach. Relationship building was a key part of updating their 20-year-old program.
The goal is for first-time agent candidates to walk away with a clear understanding of their brand and products so when they enter their communities and represent the company, they offer a relationship to customers — not just a transaction.
After analyzing two decades of historical data, they identified several key gaps:
- The learning program gave limited insight into training proficiency, a factor critical for ensuring new sales agents have a strong start on day one.
- Instead of measurable outcomes, the program relied heavily on anecdotal feedback and informal verbal check-ins from coaches, leaving leaders uncertain about its effectiveness or impact on long-term success.
- Feedback from agents revealed that many felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information presented during onboarding and unprepared for the difficult situations they encountered early in their roles.
- The program followed a one-size-fits-all model that failed to recognize or leverage the entrepreneurial skills agents often brought from prior experience. As a result, the learning was neither personalized to “meet them where they are” nor structured in a way that allowed agents the flexibility to balance training with the logistical demands of opening their offices.
Road to Qstream
After thoroughly investigating solutions to support this transformation, our customer chose Qstream: an AI-powered microlearning tool that delivers small bursts of information over time to train on complex topics while building knowledge retention and skills for each individual to excel in the program and beyond. The analytics generated on the back end provided them with visibility into proficiency improvements over time and exposed gaps needing remediation from coaches.
Since our customer prioritizes client needs, they envision using Qstream for lifelong learning beyond onboarding — continuing to refresh and build on key skills needed to deliver an excellent client experience. Our customer believes that offering this convenient and worthwhile learning experience up front, which produces extremely high engagement rates, will encourage sales agents to return for more training throughout their tenure.
Implementing Qstream
Three key teams were involved in implementing Qstream to support the onboarding redesign: the design and development vertical (including instructional designers), the delivery and coaching vertical and the learning facilitators who conduct instructor-led classes.
The first team manages vendor relationships to identify external solutions for business needs and handles horizontal workflows to ensure content developed by design is properly reviewed by content teams for compliance and language before rollout.
Gaining buy-in for the new solution was relatively easy. The team kept it simple and focused on getting their strategy and coaching partners on board by clearly conveying the vision, improving learner experience and the plan to move quickly with rollout.
The coaching partners — especially leaders supporting nearly 40 learning coaches — really leaned into the new platform. The team walked everyone through what to expect, building excitement around the new program and creating unified momentum. They attribute these actions, along with Qstream’s support and the vendor team’s work, to the immediate and consistent high engagement they have seen since using Qstream.
According to their team leader, the team was blown away by the smooth, simple and efficient Qstream onboarding process. They initially expected to roll out the platform in January 2025, but the two teams joined forces and launched in October 2024. This meant they were able to use Qstream with the very first wave of new sales agents going through the new onboarding program.
The learning manager highlighted that the partnership and support from the Qstream team were phenomenal and unlike anything they’d seen.
Utilizing Qstream
The platform, which has various pre-determined settings in terms of question delivery and training cadence, was customized for this rollout. They sent an assessment-style Qstream course to 2,500 sales agents, who had five attempts to achieve their best score. Based on their initial performance — whether they scored above or below target proficiency — they were enrolled in one of two follow-up micro-trainings.
Each cohort (about 35 to 50 people per month) goes through five different Qstream courses focused on:
- Marketing and branding
- Business planning
- General sales
- Financial acumen
- Product and services
Our customer’s team established the following goals for the onboarding redesign, where Qstream is a key player:
- Protect onboarding investment by reinforcing terminal topics
- Shorten time to competency
- Boost learning engagement
- Improve analytics on learning efficacy and coaching
The process begins with candidates completing a Qstream course, followed by two weeks of intensive learning as part of their mentor-agent experience. In the third week, they applied what they learned by working in an agent’s office, where their mentor observed them and they participated in an AI role-play simulation to assess the real-world application of their skills. This approach has proven valuable, showing not only knowledge retention from their Qstream course but also the ability to apply knowledge effectively, giving the team confidence in candidate readiness.
Coaches provided thoughtful mentorship and played a key role in communicating Qstream’s value to sales agents. They emphasized that the assessments were not about testing for the sake of testing, but rather about building confidence. This clear communication helped agents understand that by the time they unlocked the door to their office on day one, they would feel fully prepared to succeed.
Results with Qstream
- 100% engagement across their Qstream courses, a testament to the thoughtful rollout and valuable content created.
- Average of 20% proficiency improvement across Qstream courses, indicating the content is appropriately challenging and repetition effectively improves and sustains knowledge.
- Agents average 92% proficiency upon completion of their course.
With Qstream, coaches can now adapt in real time — something impossible when relying solely on oral evaluations. They check data multiple times a week and adjust their approach for individual learners, ensuring that by the end of the 17-week program, each person felt confident and ready.
Rather than guessing, we helped our customer identify true knowledge gaps. For example, they had heard sales agents struggled with marketing tools, but Qstream revealed this was not the case. This insight allows them to consider if the two weeks spent on that area could be better invested elsewhere. Conversely, they identified a gap in leadership and team development training and have since focused efforts there.
Agents report Qstream helped them identify learning gaps they didn’t know they had. When learners realized they didn’t know something they thought they had mastered, they became more open to learning. This shift set the stage for deeper engagement and meaningful knowledge retention.