Your first goal is to get new reps up to speed. Here are a few tips:
Never assume that new sales reps know the basics of good selling. There are likely some gaps in their sales education. Since you may not be able to identify the sales skills they lack, make Selling 101 part of your training process.
Incorporate some of the best practices of your top special database producers into your training.
Teach new reps how to sell your solutions, and ensure they have a thorough understanding of the competition.
Train them on basic virtual selling techniques - working the phones, online conferencing and using email - and introduce them to webinars, podcasts and video recording.
Prepare them to work remotely and to use your customer relationship management system, Zoom and other platforms in your technology stack.
Set up what you consider to be the baseline skills and knowledge necessary for the job. But also provide your whole team with advanced training and ongoing mentoring.
Finally, whether you build teams or let them develop organically, encourage reps to collaborate and help one another.
Onboarding Metrics
To build an effective onboarding process, you need to know what works, what requires refining and who needs more help. You should set up standard review periods to measure progress using a standard set of metrics.
In addition to the analytics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that are a standard part of sales, you need onboarding metrics. You’ll want to track the time and cost required for new reps to get up to speed:
How long to master the sales process?
What’s the cost to onboard and train a new rep?
What’s the time from hire to the first sale?
What’s their performance and return on investment (ROI) after three months? Six months? A year?
The more you know, the better you can refine your training process, reduce the time spent onboarding, and boost the productivity of your new hires.
The Outsourcing Option
Creating a reliable onboarding process can take time. If you want to take advantage of sales opportunities more quickly, if you’re not sure of your best strategy going forward, or if you’re uncertain about your staffing needs long term, or if you are not sure who is going to manage this team, you have another option - outsourcing.
There are several advantages to working with a professional provider of sales and marketing services. You can:
Expand your workforce quickly
Test different sales and force multiplier strategies by increasing lead generation, response management, telesales and inside sales.
Identify what works for you, while having an experienced team leverage best practices.
When you outsource to a professional team, you can scale up quickly without the difficulties of developing an in-house onboarding program.
Scaling up your sales teams can help your business grow. For the best ROI, move forward with a thorough understanding of your goals and what it will take to make them a reality.
