HD Radio Sales Training Tool to Launch This Month

We’ve reported on confusion among the public and salespeople about HD Radio. Now Ibiquity has launched a retail sales training tool to combat that confusion.
The free program, “HD Radio University,” requires registration at www.hdradiouniversity.com and is due to begin at the end of this month.
Ibiquity Digital said it worked with Creative Channel Services’ cyberscholar.com to develop the training program. CCS will host the site and says its CE sales training reaches a potential 90,000 retail sales people in more than 7,000 stores. Mass-appeal CE retailers such as Best Buy, CompUSA, Staples and Circuit City use the training, according to CCS.
The program will offer retailers two levels of achievement: an “Associate’s Degree” and a “Bachelor’s Degree.” Each degree will require salespeople to participate in 20 minutes of training and pass tests at the end of each session. Later in 2006, a third 20-minute unit may be added to create a master’s degree level that incorporates the more technical aspects of the HD Radio digital broadcasting system.
Bernie Sapienza, vice president of retail business development, Ibiquity Digital, said, “Since it is important that we have a scalable program that can grow with us as quickly as the nation’s broadcasters are rolling out new HD Radio content, Cyberscholar is the obvious partner because it is the training tool approved by most of the major retail outlets.”
As sales staff turns over, he said, the program will get new hires up to speed on HD Radio.