A business’s success may rely on how quickly sales team members are fully trained and ready to do their job. Even the most experienced salesperson will have some learning curve or acclimation period when he/she joins a new organization.
Many businesses hire new sales representatives with the thought in mind that it will take at least six months to get them up to speed. That was before a global pandemic hit. Due to remote work environments, HR departments have had to update or reinvent the traditional onboarding approach.
But, when it comes to onboarding a new sales professional, my clients want the process to be easy, efficient, and of course, engaging.
How do you speed up the onboarding process for salespeople?
Managers, who may not be comfortable selling in a virtual environment are now saddled with training sales representatives remotely.
With anticipated growth in sales organizations, onboarding and ramping new sales staff as quickly as possible becomes paramount to sales leaders.
Leaving traditional training programs behind, creative and innovative sales leaders look to other approaches to get the sales force ready sooner.
Streamlining – Sales leaders are scrutinizing their systems, techniques, and materials that have been used for training to see what they can pull together into one place or one strategy. Can the sales reps access all of their materials in one place? Do they have a designated “go-to” for finding the data they need? The quicker a sales rep can become familiar with where to find things and who to contact for information, the quicker they can be generating leads and sales.
Best Practices – Newer sales reps may bring fresh ideas and try to share techniques that worked at other companies with them to their new job. While a sales leader often appreciates the initiative, it’s also essential for the latest sales reps to understand existing best practices to get sales and keep customers happy. Sales leaders will need to run through all of the business’s acceptable and non-acceptable practices so that sales reps are armed with the best way to handle certain situations.
Communication – Communication is key to any business’s success and even more so when it comes to sales. Sales Reps who have to dig for information or ask around about what is going on will set the business and the sales rep back. A good sales leader will give the sales rep the tools he/she needs to be successful, and information is worth its weight in gold.
Develop Training Materials – Companies need to identify all of the things a salesperson needs to know and write it down—all of it. Once you have the list of items, categorize it based on when the rep needs to know it and if they already know it. By giving the sales rep the information they need in an organized and timely fashion, there is less confusion and less chance of a delay because they don’t know what they don’t know and seek answers from people who may not give the correct information.
Hire an Outside Business Coach – Sales professionals will share information about everything – their struggles, successes, and most importantly, feedback on the hiring process and Manager. This information is invaluable to the organization and can undoubtedly help with retention and employee engagement.
Whether you’re a business owner or financial professional, the tools you need to get started are within reach. Contact me, or schedule a call, and I’ll be happy to discuss your sales training needs with you.
