Increase Sales Productivity With Effective New-Hire Onboarding
Onboard New Reps Fast To Avoid Missing Out On Revenue
Onboarding new reps quickly is key to achieving annual revenue and quota goals. To do this, sales executives should develop a best-in-class onboarding program by utilizing three core principles:
- Establish what the sales organization will do to help reps gain competencies.
- Outline what new hires can do on their own to learn.
- Measure new hires’ progress throughout the onboarding program.
Enable New Hires To Ramp Quickly To Full Sales Productivity
Every new seller should have an onboarding plan tailored specifically to their skills and knowledge. Sales executives and managers must design those plans with milestones to get reps ramped to full sales productivity within 90 days. While onboarding plans for each new hire will vary, the actions that sales organizations must take will largely remain the same. When onboarding new reps, sales leaders should ensure that their sales enablement team and sales managers are:
- Teaching and showing. First, sales executives and managers must implement competency-aligned learning to fill any gaps during onboarding. It is not enough to simply tell new hires what “good” looks like, so have them shadow high-performing sellers to see for themselves.
- Practicing skills with new hires. Once new hires understand the standards set by the high performers, they must hone their skills, and practice makes perfect. Go through role-play scenarios with new sellers, having them practice in a near-real-world environment before putting them in front of clients.
- Testing reps with certifications and observation. Certification for specific skills and knowledge ensures that new sellers can apply those, both in simulations and in front of customers. Once new sellers display a mastery of specific skills and/or knowledge in online tests and role-playing situations, observe them in front of clients to monitor their progress and determine which skills still need to be fine-tuned.
New Hires Must Put The Work In Themselves
New sellers can’t just rely on their organization to ramp them up to full sales productivity. They must put the work in to ensure that they ramp quickly to begin closing deals as quickly as possible. Once a new seller understands their onboarding plan, they should:
- Recognize and accept their competency gaps.
- Execute their personalized learning plan.
- Apply the knowledge and skills they’ve gained to demonstrate competence.
Measure New Hires’ Onboarding Progress With Insights
It is unfair to measure onboarding progress with closed deals or revenue. Therefore, sales executives should track onboarding progress with other metrics, such as:
- The amount of certifications completed in a given amount of time.
- The number of skills improved and added.
- The application of new and improved skills (use observation to measure this).
Ensuring that your organization has the right tools and processes in place is paramount when measuring onboarding effectiveness and progress. The right tools boost effectiveness and save time for new sellers, managers, and sales leaders.
Leverage Forrester’s Existing Research On Ramping Up New Hires To Onboard Reps Fast
Non-Forrester clients can access our blogs: The Three Habits of Highly Effective Sales Onboarders and Attention, Sales Leaders: Treat Potential Hires Like Potential Buyers To Quickly Fill Recs With Qualified Candidates.
Additionally, Forrester Decisions for B2B Sales Executives clients can access the report An Introduction To The Forrester Sales Talent Lifecycle to learn how to effectively onboard new sellers.
Lastly, both clients and non-clients can listen and subscribe to Forrester’s podcast, Ask A Sales Leader, to hear from top sales leaders on today’s B2B sales trends and challenges.