"In March, we discovered we would be $20 million in the hole on this fiscal year's budget (ending September 30th)," Levy says today. "I could have laid off 600, but thought there had to be a better way to reduce costs without having to lay off people. I sent out an e-mail note explaining the situation, holding town meetings, asking for suggestions, (to) protect the low income workers. It was a multi-faceted adventure; e-mails. town meetings, chat rooms and blogs."

As organizations scrutinize their training budgets in this tough economy, it is more important than ever for sales training to align with corporate goals and deliver results. CA (www.ca.com) and Cisco (www.cisco.com), named winners in the annual Bersin & Associates Learning Leaders Program (www.bersin.com/leaders), are best cases of organizations that have boosted sales performance through excellence in learning programs-CA with a blended learning program to help sales managers better coach their teams, and Cisco with elearning designed to help salespeople prepare quickly for new product introductions.

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"The participation level was phenomenal and an indication that executives need event options that are flexible, comprehensive, participative and available from their desktops," reported Catherine Upton, publisher of Elearning! magazine.