Across all firms, new hire salespeople make up 10% of the average headcount in a company. According to a salesperson on-boarding study by the Sales Management Association, only 55% of these salespeople are successful 24 months from hire. What’s going wrong?

Research shows that only slightly more than half of firms have a defined onboarding program for new hire salespeople, and only 6 in 10 salespeople are onboarded as part of a formal program. Just 38% of these firms consider their salesperson onboarding effective. It can be difficult as a sales leader to get new salespeople up to date on the industry knowledge and your unique sales messaging and strategies.

Not having a solid onboarding system in place takes a toll not only on the new hires, but the managers as well. It takes a new hire about 11 months to ramp up to full productivity, and in that time managers have a hard time seeing if this person is a right fit for the company and if they’ll be successful long-term. Companies have to pay 100% when they aren’t receiving full productivity and end up with longer employee churn cycles. It’s an expensive cycle that a solid onboarding process can fix.

Creating an On-boarding Process

The two most important components of an on-boarding process are structure and consistency. Programs with both attributes – structure and consistent application – correlate with on-boarding program effectiveness 40% greater than other firms’. According to the study, Firms whose on-boarding has neither characteristic are 38% less effective.

LMS

Online Learning Management Systems(LMS) can be used as an e-learning training experience for your new hires. LMS is helpful because you can store all of your training materials in one place, it reduces learning and development costs, and you can track progress and performance.

We used a LMS program called Kajabi to develop an online video course for our clients’ new hires and sales teams to teach them important sales techniques. The opportunities are endless for LMS, and it creates a consistent program that all of your sales team can go through at any time.

Sales Playbook

It’s important to provide consistent sales messaging to all of your sales team, whether they are old hires or new. A great way to do this is by creating a sales messaging playbook. This playbook would provide a series of conversations and supporting content, mapped to each stage of the buyer’s journey (sales process). If your company’s sales team consistently follows this messaging, they will be able to close deals quicker, increase your margins, and expand opportunities with existing clients.

One of the key areas that all new reps could greatly benefit from in your playbook should be an expansive and in depth buyer profile. All new reps should understand the world of their prospects as thoroughly as possible. They need to know what their prospects are trying to accomplish (goals), what is keeping them from realizing those goals (challenges) and finally, how the product or service they are selling uniquely helps their prospect overcome their challenge and achieve their goals.

It would also really benefit new hires to be able to have all of your sales messaging and content in one place when they’re just starting out. If they are challenged with a situation they aren’t prepared for, the playbook would be a great resource that they can reference.

Microlearning

Microlearning is a bite-size training technique that helps sales teams increase their expertise and sales performance. It helps with memory, is interesting and intriguing, and is structured and consistent. You can create a microlearning program that your sales team goes through and then enroll new hires as they come on to complete it as well. This ensures that everyone on your team is on the same page and has had the same level of training.

If you’ve created a sales messaging playbook, this is what you’d want to focus your microlearning program on. We love using a program called Qstream, which is a sales performance platform that quizzes your team on your sales training content. The great thing about a program like Qstream is that the team can answer questions and move at their own pace, and then the manager gets access to the results.

This is a great way to monitor how a new hire is performing and if they need some extra help understanding a concept. Imagine being able to pinpoint exactly where a new hire is struggling and quickly correcting and improving their performance. This can easily change the statistic of the 55% new hire success rate.

Structure and Consistency

Adding LMS, a Sales Playbook and a Microlearning program to your training process provides a structure that is consistent for everyone on your team. You can train new hires quickly and efficiently, all while tracking their progress to see if they are the right fit for your company. Firms with effective on-boarding have a new salesperson success rate of 65% after 24 months, compared with 49% for firms with ineffective on-boarding. How successful is your on-boarding process?

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We understand that it can be difficult to know where to start when developing content for your training process. That’s why we’ve created a Sales Conversation Roadmap “Cheat Sheet” that you can download here.

Please leave your feedback in the comments section.

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Most business owners have no extra time to devote to sales coaching. This is where MasterMessaging steps in and excels. We optimize your sales teams’ conversion rates, your lead volume, or both for less than the costs of a single administrative hire. The impact on your sales is significant and sustainable, continuing for years with no ongoing costs.

Our custom messaging solutions are strategically scripted, cadenced, and executed to increase conversion rates for maximum impact on your company’s revenue and profits. If needed we can also increase lead volume. Our system fits seamlessly with your existing sales process to ensure successful adoption & smooth rollout throughout your entire organization. Our solutions are high impact, low risk, minimally invasive, and integrate into your existing sales efforts.

Call: 678-561-6260, Email: dkurkjian@mastermessaging.com or instant message David Kurkjian on LinkedIn to start the conversation.