You can’t transform a raw recruit into a capable sales rep overnight. But every extra day spent idle on the learning curve is a day the company loses money. Check out these tips for sales and sales operations teams to accelerate the onboarding process to successfully get a new sales team member up to speed.
It takes 6–10 months to onboard new hiresin the average B2B sales force – and turnovers less than two years. That doesn’t leave muchtime to recover value. A faster ramp is good forthe bottom line. It’s also good for the morale of rookies who are eager to get off the sidelinesand into the game. Given average turnover and ramp times, a sales rep typically spends only 14–18 months selling at peak performance.
Take The Holistic View & Take It Step-By-Step
Training is one of many critical factors that need attention. Optimizing your onboarding process requires participation from sales, sales operations,HR, learning and development, marketing andother stakeholders throughout the company.
The best plans break the process down into a logical sequence of small, incremental, purposeful steps. Each step has clearly-defined goals and averifiable outcome. Reps and coaches should always know exactly what is expected of them,and what to do next.
Automate Best Practices
Make it easy to stay on track with the help of a centralized and automated learning environment. The system should feed the right materials at the right time, take careof the administrative details, and orient to your company’s sales methodologies to embed best practice compliance into the daily routine.
Provide Coaches and Managers A Better View
Enable coaches, trainers and managers with transparent, real-time metrics on taskcompletion and performance.With clear visibility intoevery rep’s progress,they’ll be able to determine when to step in andoffer guidance – and when to hang back andallow the rep to keep working independently.
Provide Social Networking Tools
Veteran sales reps have social connections throughout the company. When they have questions, they know whom to ask. Rookies have lots of questions, but don’t know where to turn for help. The ramping process must address this disadvantage, giving new hires the collaboration tools to help them identify, map and connect with people.