PENNSAUKEN, N.J. – Williams Trading University — an online academy developed by Williams Trading Co. in order to help retailers become experts about a wide variety of adult pleasure products — has released its 2016 eLearning curriculum catalog. To date, more than 32,000 sales associates have been certified by the award-winning program.

The courses are free and available to the staff of any company that sells WTC products. All 73 individual lessons may be accessed 24/7. Each course offers product benefits and features along with instruction about each product’s potential relevance to customers, their needs and well-being.

“Our goal was to reach 10,000 certifications by September 2015, one year from the program’s launch,” said Scott D., director of sales and marketing for Williams Trading Co. “We easily surpassed that goal.”

Each WTU course runs approximately five to seven minutes, highlighting selling techniques to increase sales, enhance cross- and up-selling techniques, reinforce key selling benefits and help to train new employees.

“E-learning has definite benefits over traditional classroom training,” said WTU content developer Erin Viereck. “While the most obvious are the flexibility and the cost savings from not having to travel or spend excess time away from work, there are also others that might not be so obvious.

“Compared to manufacturers’ on-site product trainings, [online training is] less expensive to produce, self-paced and moves faster,” she continued. “This is partly because the individualized approach allows learners to skip material they already know and understand and move on to the issues they need training on.”

Upon completing a course, students take a quiz to evaluate their new-found knowledge. If they pass, they are rewarded with a downloadable certificate. In addition, students qualify for free premiums, samples and special offers provided by select participating vendors. The freebies allow students to try products for themselves, increasing their ability to provide appropriate recommendations to consumers.

“Not only do select vendors offer free premiums, but most also will create huge raffle baskets that WTU participants are automatically entered to win upon completing their course,” Viereck said. “This exclusive prize opportunity is advertised in the WTU Cyberstar e-newsletter sent to all participants.”

WTC President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Pyne Jr. said, “We want to thank our participating vendors who believe in retail education and worked diligently to offer courses that have proven to lift sales. WTU is an industry game changer, and I am proud to offer it to all of our customers free of charge.”